Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "superman-adventures"

Superman Adventures Vol. 1: Up, Up and Away! by Mark Millar

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is from the Superman Adventures series Comic Book series based on Superman: The Animated Series from the 1990s. It collections Issues 16, 19, 22-24.

The first story has Clark Kent finding himself powerless and someone else is flying around as Superman. What's going on? An okay story with a decent solution. Grade: B

In the second story, Someone's put a Billion Dollar price on the head of the President and it's up to Superman to protect the President from an assassin. Really great twist ending to this one. Grade: B+

The third and fourth stories are a two-party story from Issues 22 and 23. Electronic failures are happening around the world and Superman considers and eliminates likely suspects such as Lex Luthor and Livewire, finally concluding that someone had gotten into his Fortress of Solitude-Brainiac. He flies up there to confront him. The story takes some great turns and Superman gets key help from an unlikely source.

The story even had some a religious subtext as Dr. Hamilton flew up to the North Pole and mocked those who were praying by candles. Yet, when things took a horrible turn, Hamilton said, "Good Lord." Brainiac remarks, "A man of science using a religious phrase is most interesting." Indeed it is and so is this story. Grade: A+

Finally, the Parasite's back and he steals Superman's Powers and goes on a week long spree of terror. Superman still has days to go until he's back at full strength, but will he wait that long? Grade: B+

Overall thoughts:

The book's shines a great light on the unrelenting selfless heroism of Superman. These stories leave no doubt that the Superheart of Superman is far greater than his superpowers.

At the same time, I did have an issue with the way Parasite's powers worked in this story. His inability to Hold Superman's power for days on end seemed completely at odds with how the TV series had portrayed his powers and since this was based on the TV series, it should have been consistent.

However, this is a minor point, particularly with a book that includes "The War Games" story arch.



Superman Adventures Vol. 2: The Never-Ending Battle by Mark Millar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Superman's Never Ending Battle is chronicled in this second series of Tales taken from the pages of the all ages print, Superman Adventures Issues 25-29.

In "Almost World's Finest" Bruce Wayne is being held hostage by the Mad Hatter who demands that Batman appear to save Wayne or else Wayne will be killed. With Nightwing out of town and Robin strangely missing, Batgirl needs help and Superman comes to town. The story has features. On one hand, Superman is almost too nice in the story. Batgirl finds that the arrival of Superman frustrates her efforts at enhanced interrogation as the villains know Superman won't let her play rough. When Superman interrogates a criminal, he weirds Batgirl out by buying him coffee afterwards.

Come on! Superman may be a boy scout but he isn't a wimp. Golden Age Superman could get it done in terms of interrogation, as have many other versions. And what's with Batgirl having an attitude towards Superman that we'd normally associate with Batman. On the other hand, the story does raise questions. Gotham is clearly a different type of city. As Commissioner Gordon says, "People here are too scared to look up in the skies." It raises a question. Would Superman be a different hero in Gotham? Or would Gotham be a different city if Superman lived there? Ponderous, but still the story gets only a B from me.

Mr. Mxyzptlk makes an appearance in "Yesterday's Man of Tomorrow" when frustrated with his attempts to defeat the adult Man of Steel decides to travel back in time and dupe young Clark Kent. But will he be happy with the results? We see a little different side of that inter-dimensional imp in this story. Grade: B+

"How Much Can One Man Hate?": A story that focuses on Lex Luthor's quest to destroy Superman and what drives it. Lex Luther ultimately tries to replace Superman with Superior Man (someone at Marvel Comics must have read this issue) but who is Superior Man? The solution is pretty good. What really makes the story work is a look at what makes Lex Luthor Superman's enemy? Good stuff. Grade: A

"Jimmy Olsen v. Darkseid"-In this story, Kalibak from Apokolips to take Superman back, but in a classic mix up, Superman and Jimmy Olsen change bodies. Now it falls to Jimmy to find his way to Apokolips and rescue Superman before the torturers destroy Superman and Jimmy's body with him. This is a fun story reminiscent of traditional Silver Age style Jimmy Olsen adventures. Grade: A

"Bride of Bizarro"-Bizarro is back after hitching a ride with the Main Man (i.e. Lobo) and he's in search of a bride--Lois Lane. Lobo keeps Superman occupied while Bizarro courts Lois. A good story for the guest characters alone, though Superman is a bit slow on the uptake at a couple points. Grade: B+

Overall, these are not quite as good as the previous collections but with so many great Superman characters jammed into a 112 page digest, this books packs a powerful punch for fans of good Superman stories.



View all my reviews

Superman Adventures, Vol. 3: Last Son of Krypton by Mark Millar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This collects the all ages Superman Adventures Issues 30-34.

The book kicks off with a cracker jack two part story, "Family Reunion" that finds Clark Kent having seemingly lost a year and the world having moved on without Superman and his parents died. Out of nowhere his biological mom pops up and says that Krypton's Capitol City was saved and invites him to come home. However, things aren't what they seem in this tale of alternate dimensions where no one's quite what they seemed. Grade: A+

"Sullivan's Girlfriend Lois Lane" finds Superman doing battle with a hypnotic criminal who hypnotizes Lois without giving her a suggestion, so the janitor Sullivan gives him one of her own-that Lois Lane is his girlfriend. A somewhat Lois-centric feature that has mixed results. Shows Clark/Superman's character that he gently deals with Sullivan rather than intimidating him. Grade: B

"Clark Kent is Superman and I Can Prove It" finds someone having guessed Superman's secret identity and it's no one you'd expect, but a dead end former rival from Smallville. The way he extricates himself is a classic throwback to the silver age as well as how he deals with the discoverer. Grade: B+

By far, the weakest Superman Adventures story I've read in the digest so far was "Sanctuary" which features the supernatural superhero Dr. Fate. The story doesn't focus on Superman as a character which I hate and in addition to that, Dr. Fate doesn't acquit himself all that well either. The writers were thinking of something, but this was just weak. Grade: D

Even with the weak final story, "Family Reunion" makes this whole collection worthwhile.




Superman Adventures, Vol. 4: The Man of Steel by Mark Millar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the last of the Superman Adventures comics containing Issues 35-39 with five stories.

Lets take a look one by one: Don't Play with the Toyman's Toys: Someone has taken control of the Toyman's criminal toys while the evil midget is behind bars. A more "okay" story than good. The ending seemed a bit contrived. Grade: C+


This is a Job for Superman: No Supervillain in this one, just the Man of Steel out on a particularly busy patrol. Some great parts. somewhat disturbing part is the almost God-like expectations that some people have for him to solve every problem, and it seems to have rubbed off on him. Grade: B+

Clark Kent Public Enemy: Clark Kent is framed for a crime and locked up. It's up to Lois and Jimmy to clear him. This type of plot's been done before in Superman stories and much better than here. Grade: C

If I Ruled the World: Mxyzptlk shows up to hassle Superman and tries to warn off the parasite, but instead the parasite absorbs Mr. Mxyzptlk's powers getting some of the dangerous powers in the DC Universe. This is one of type of great stories that Superman Adventures did so well by mixing and matching two Superman foes. Mxyzptlk and Parasite both work because they are dangerous foes but are limited by very specific rules and to survive Superman has to play off those rules. Of course, whether anyone could do that to Mxyzptlk or whether Rudy's power's powerful enough to absorb it requires some extra suspension of disbelief. Overall, very good story. Grade: A-

Reunion: The one failure in Superman Adventures seems to be the overuse of Brainiac, as his shtick is the same every time. This time he's back with the help of a version of himself from Supergirl's home planet Argo. This version also borrowed appearance from Supergirl's mother. To put Brainiac on Argo requires some plotting gymnastics and Braniac himself is sounding a bit cheesy. Still, the story works on an emotional level as it's set at Mother's Day and finds Supergirl missing her mother and dealing with this Brainiac clone that looks like her. Grade: B

Overall, I'd give it a 3.5, but will round up.



View all my reviews