Sunday, November 28, 2010

Superman Annual #3 (1991)



On my old Martian Manhunter: The Rock of the JLA blog, I spent a lot of time griping about how often Superman beat up J'Onn J'Onzz, especially in "Imaginary Stories." When Siskoid recently covered one such story under the heading of Superman of 2001, featuring art I could steal from a comic I no longer own, I thought I'd revisit one of those old posts with limited rewriting...

Sure, Superman was obviously being manipulated in Red Glass, but he's still treated as a power without equal. That same year, we were "treated" to an Armageddon 2001 story, featuring a possible future for Superman from Dan Jurgens and Dusty Abell. Supes writers just love to kill off Lois Lane as an excuse to have Clark act completely out of character, and this was no exception. Superman sets himself up as the global enforcer of his own laws, which doesn't sit well with the people he's supposed to be protecting. He sinks a U.S. Nuclear Submarine, killing seven crewmen, and bringing on the JLI. In his megalomania, Superman decides that their "limited mind" won't allow them to see that he's right, After slapping Booster Gold and Fire around, MM jumps in. "You know I am your physical equal. Can you not see we will eventually defeat you?" Supes shoots back,"Strength has nothing to do with it, Manhunter! It's the conviction that what you're doing is right!"

No, it isn't. The point of the story seems to be that Superman is strongest one there is. He uses Martian Manhunter as a bum shield against Fire and Booster's blasts, then drops his unconscious form into a blazing building. Using his telescopic vision, he sees J'Onn clutching his chest in pain, but ignores him. The Manhunter is claimed by his greatest weakness, and Superman tries to make excuses to relieve himself of guilt. When Superman is finally beaten, it's through the use of Kryptonite... not another hero proving his righteousness, or just plain overpowering him.

"Execution 2001" was by Dan Jurgens, because of course it was, since he's always writing stories of the type I gripe about at length. He was aided and abetted by Dusty Abell with Terry Austin, John Beatty, Dick Giordano & Dennis Janke.

5 comments:

mathematicscore said...

Jurgens writing credit in the 90's = instant fail.

As I've said before, I was pleasantly surprised with his picking up the reigns on Booster Gold after co writing with Johns for a while.

LissBirds said...

Awww, but Jurgens draws so pretty, so I'll give him a pass. And look at how sad Booster is...!

Tom Hartley said...

All I remember from this thing is that Superman wears a Dracula cape, to show us that he's evil, and that he battles an armored Batman in a swipe from Dark Knight Returns. Just some of the memories I hope will be purged if I'm ever forced to undergo electroshock therapy.

LissBirds said...

Aw, see I've never read anything of Jurgens' beside the recent Booster Gold run and the original BG 80's series and those were both good. So whenever I see you guys rolling your eyes at 90's Jurgens I just have to take your word on it.

Diabolu Frank said...

'90s Jurgens wasn't all bad. He did that one story about the sociopathic life of Lex Luthor that was quite good. He had a well regarded run on Thor, and his Tomb Raider was fun. Most of the hate comes from his terrible incarnation of the Teen Titans and his Marty Stu from Hell take on Superman. It must also be remembered that Jurgens replaced Giffen and DeMatteis on JLI, and his disdain for their work (through his Soapbox of Steel and the ravages of Doomsday) was a precursor to Dan Didio's crusade to ruin everything that was good about the funny Justice League.