Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Back-Issue Spotlight: Superman Annual#3(1991)

Happy Hump Day


Humpin' before Turkey Thumpin' I see......

Trying to figure out what issue to pick to spotlight today, and as I was sifting though my collection I found this little forgotten gem:


Superman Annual#3(1991) "Execution 2001" By Dan Jurgans and Dusty Abell

It was all part of the Armageddon 2001 storyline that ran threw all the annuals that year, with Waverider trying to discover the secret identity of the villainous Monarch from his time era.

Old Spoiler Alert: It turned out to be Hawk, or Hawk and Dove, even thiugh really it was supposed to be Captain Atom. Apparently news got leaked, and the creators of the project switched in Hawk at the last minute. Lame, but that's why spoilers aren't always a good thing I suppose.

Anyhoo, reading this one again got me thinking I've seen this premise before recently:


Yep, Injustice.
Only in Injustice it's the Joker who kills Lois, and it's not essentially Superman vs. the world....yet.

So who does kill Lois this time?
Intergang does, and essentially themselves and all of Metropolis with them after accidently exploding a nuke bomb meant to blackmail the city. Opps, butterfingers right?;)

Did I mention Lois and Clark were married in this timeline as well? Yeah, sucks to be Lois lately....

From there Superman goes all "No Nukes" on the world, rounding up all the world's nuklear weapons and disposing them somewhere.

Things seem to be going ok considering the circumstances until Superman encounters an American sub packed with nuke missles. He stops it and downs the vessel, not knowing that he didn't save all the men onboard. Seven die without him knowing, setting off a collison course with the Justice League under ordes from the US president.



Of course as always happens in these kinds of stories, someone or someones always dies, and this time it's J'onn that bites it when Superman kinda sets him on fire, giving him a heart attack. Yeah lame, but that's what happened.

It's afer this that the president calls in the big guns.....you guessed it, Batman.
 Batman's been avoiding this the whole time, knowing Superman was ultimately doing the right thing ridding the world of all those nukes. But after the death of the sailors and J'onn, Batman's forced to go after Superman, and that's when Jurgans blantantly rips the hell off of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns fight between Batman and Superman. Right down to the suit.




You'd think Superman would've smartned up by now and not given Batman that damn Kryponite ring right?

That's how it ends, and Waverider once again(as he's found out in all the other Superman annuals but obviously has the worst case of amnesia ever) determines that Superman isn't and will never be Monrch. And thus the search continues.....








6 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

@Karl: What can I say Karl DC's had a hard on to keep pushing em together to battle it out ever since Miller made it cool. Well probably even before then, but Miller showed how'd it be done.

Sure Superman could realistically take out Batman like that, but I don't think he would, and it'd all be rather anti-climatic.

"But I've already fucked ya"
And that sir, is why you're quickly becoming one of my favorite regulars....something else I'm sure you've heard before;)

Omega Agent1 said...

Batman vs Superman, the man of tomorrow vs the Dark Knight detective = ____ whatever it equals we've seen it before. The post was good though.

Happy Thanksgiving fellas

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

@Tiger: How the hell you been man? Been awhile Tig. Did you see the latest Black Manta skit yet?

Anyhoo I hope you and yours have a very Happy Thanksgiving as well:)

Randomnerd said...

Mmmm...stuffing. :)
Everyone likes to do a "What if Superman was the bad guy" plotline because he's so good, so powerful, and so freaking nice that they can't help but want to try and rip it down.
And while I'm not opposed to exploring darker sides of heroes in general, I do wish they'd pick a new tack.
And of course Batman always wins...cause Batman.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

IADW said...

Superman vs Martian Manhunter - now there's a fight. Trial By Fire in the JLA came close but I think there's a true show down in the making... it might be a different playing feild in the new DCU. I'm not sure.

Maybe Lobo could take over his body for a day. Drink some brews with one in each of his eight arms and phase through some hotties. You know, real bastich stuff :)

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Of course Batman wins Ging. That's the real first rule of Fight Club;)

@Dan: I think if someone really intelligent like Waid, Morrison, or Busiek ever wrote this battle, it'd be a hell of fight. Truely. We kinda also saw it in the og Son of Superman, but it was over way too quickly to be considerd a proper fight. But it like this, if MM was able to take out Ultraman as easily as he did in Morrison/Quitely's Earth 2, just how bad do you think he'll fuck up Supes' world?

"Closing time. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here."

Well..... I kinda always knew this day would come, and it sure has. It's been a hell of a ride, but it's time to for it end. Ti...