SUPERMAN # 338 (DC Comics, Cover Date: August, 1979) was a very special issue!
Not only was it the 40th Anniversary of the SUPERMAN comic book title...
...But contained one of the best Superman stories of the 1970s! Perhaps THE best story of the "second half of the seventies"! (...The first half had many other great ones too!)
SUPERMAN # 338 also gave you FOUR HEROES in ONE ISSUE...
SUPER HEROES: Superman and Supergirl...
...And (at the time) SPORTS HEROES: O.J. Simpson and Pete Rose!
(CLICK TO ENLARGE - if you must!)
I leave you without further comment, save to say that SUPERMAN # 338 started out with FOUR HEROES on display within its covers... and, regrettably, ended up with only TWO!
2 comments:
And, unfortunately, Pete Rose and O.J. Simpson, especially the latter, are more infamous than famous now.
Superman #338 was sort of a key issue, in that it depicted the bottle city of Kandor finally being restored to normal size. The idea was already canon, though. Some stories set in the 30th Century had mentioned that, by then, the city would be enlarged, either on another planet or in another dimension.
IIUC, there was a later (post-Crisis) reboot that brought back the bottle city. But there may have been an even later story where it was enlarged (again).
With all the retcons and reboots, I don't know (or really care) what is supposed to be canon now.
TC:
“With all the retcons and reboots, I don't know (or really care) what is supposed to be canon now.”
And that is one reason that, while I still love the various DC characters (at least conceptually), I do not support – indeed, outright SHUN – today’s DC!
If “continuity is king” why is the “monarchy” so unstable? Who’s who and what’s what USED to be an evolutionary process, the unique and singular jolt of “Crisis on Infinite Earths” notwithstanding!
But now, with reckless abandon and at irregular intervals, they seem to simply declare that “Everything’s Over!” and arbitrarily start it all over again! Phooey!
When “Everything is an Event!”, then “Nothing is an Event!”! The movies can be only about blockbusters but, in monthly comics, it quickly wears thin – at least for me.
The other primary reason is the ugly, grotesqueries of story and (especially) art that seem more at home in ‘90s Marvel and Image comics than at DC, where – certainly in the ‘80s-very early 2000s – I felt they could do no wrong!
I can’t look at some of the stuff they put out today, like turning The Joker into the spitting (grinning?) image of Judge Death, and get the same good feelings I used to get from looking at comics past. Even silly is vastly preferable to grotesque.
That’s why you’ll see plenty of DC Comics at this humble Blog, as I continue my ongoing organizing-project and rediscover gems unseen in years – sometimes decades. But they will be GOOD DC Comics!
Post a Comment