The Ottawa Comic Book Guy

Well, as a recap, we have described the contents of the two Men of Steel series so far, and both stories contain a lot (for comic stories, anyway). Below is the best cover from both series, as far as I'm concerned: I begin by saying, that although both stories are about different parts of the Superman mythos, there is some commonality. The first series completely met its goal of introducing a new backstory to Superman, and eliminating all of the factors that DC was wishing to with regards to the new continuity of the DC Universe going forward. With a history spanning almost fifty years at the time (and with the character of Batman who was only a year "younger" having a major part of his story remain) Byrne did a heck of a job redefining the important parts going forward, especially establishing that the Kents live on to Clark's adulthood. (I have to say that as one of my not-so-favourite things about Pre-Crisis Superman, they had managed to de-age the Kents by al...

Good day, and I hope everything is well for you. I am happy, just cracked open my new edition of Overstreet Price Guide (this year is the 48th edition). I like looking at it before it gets all dog eared and used being in my knapsack for the next 360 days or so. I smirk as I look because a quick perusal of the book show that the Wasp turns 55 this year, with an accompanying story (been there, done that.) Today I shall continue with the review of the Man of Steel second series, 2018 edition. BOOK One The book begins on Krypton, where a figure by the name of Rogol Zaar is addressing a council made up of members of many alien races. He is delivering a speech which will potentially culminate in the end of Krypton. Cut to Metropolis, where Firefly and Killer Moth (two known Bat-villains) are discussing their move here and whether they are scared of...as Superman himself scoops them up. Superman then patrols Metropolis performing super-deeds, and ends up helping rescue people from a fi...

Good day. We are back after a short hiatus for this thing that Prince called life. Today I am going to do a review of the latest book that my son picked out, saying he loved the big yellow man. So without further ado, here is a review of December 1980's issue of DC Comics Presents #28, featuring Superman and Supergirl. (Doesn't Mongul have a face that even a mother can't love?) There are two stories in this issue, the main one and a feature called "Whatever Happened to" that was a regular feature of this book during this time. This months feature is Johnny Thunder, Lawman (not the doofus with the magic T-Bolt, the other one.) Story 1 - "Warworld" Writer: Len Wein, Artists: Jim Starlin and Romeo Tanghal, Letterer: Ben Oda, Colourist: Jerry Serpe, Edied by Julie Schwartz. The story begins with Superman and Supergirl flying through space where Supergirl is recounting to her cousin his story of how he met Mongul before, and that Mongul got away...

This time I can honestly say Little Caveman dug deep, he went three-quarters into a box before picking this one. He picked Superman Family Issue 180(Nov 1976). A little history behind the title. Superman Family is the continuation of one of DC's longest running titles dedicated to a side or spin-off character, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, which made it's debut with the September-October 1954 issue. At the time of first publication, the Superman television show was on TV and Jimmy Olsen as portrayed by Jack Larson was one of the most popular characters from the era. The success of the title convinced DC to release a series featuring Lois Lane (titled Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane ) in March/April 1958. After Supergirl made her debut in 1959, she eventually received her on magazine in 1972 after her run in Adventure Comics finished with issue 424. The three characters have been intertwined on many occasions, and even occasionally showed up in the same story (exa...

Hi, due to time constraints again this week I haven't been able to spend a lot of time here, so here is another article I have written years ago for your (hopeful) reading enjoyment. Superman: “Great guns! A girl, flying ! It –Uh—must be an illusion!” Supergirl: “Look again, Superman! It’s me – Supergirl! And I have all your powers!” Action Comics No. 252 Cover dated May 1959. With the words above, comic lovers were introduced to the graceful, petite blond girl that was Kara Zor-El, better known to the world at large as Superman’s younger cousin, Supergirl. She is arguably the most popular DC character to make her/his debut in the Silver Age without having a Golden Age predecessor. Hailing from Argo City , a settlement that had somehow miraculously escaped the destruction of Krypton (with an air bubble no less), she was the daughter of Zor-El (who was the younger brother of Jor-El) and Alura. As the chunk containing Argo City moved away from the holoca...

Research for the Wasp is taking longer than I though, as I am having a bit of trouble sorting through all the various incarnations of the Janet van Dyne character (Marvels various reboots over the last twenty years and various titles with different names are actually confusing me.) I will start with them very soon. The comic pictured above is the earliest book I remember reading. It probably wasn't, as I was only five at the time (and then, this b ook had een out for ten years.) This book was part of my uncle's collection of Silver Age DC. I knew about Superman, and I do remember being attracted to this book because of the cover of Superman (I didn't know it was Superboy at the time.) This issue, however opened my eye. Part of it was the Curt Swan art, part of it was the story (written by E. Nelson Bidwell), but two things stood out to me in this story. one was near the end, where the doctor removed his mask to show his nose was on his forehead, and the presence of a fl...