2 posts tagged “superman”

Recently Mile High Comics had a special sale where they offered ten dollars worth of free comics to anyone who entered a certain code on their order form.  Usually I read the sale emails and then delete them, but that did not happen this time.  After some careful selection I placed some Stuart Immonen era Adventures of Superman books and Bierbaum era Legion books into my online shopping cart.  Then with the cold weather ushering in the New Year, I had some great reading by the Christmas tree these past couple of night.

I was aware of the fact that the Pre-Crisis Superman had had a mermaid for a girlfriend, so I eager to see what said character would be like in a more modern era.  Karl Kesel and Stuart Immonen granted my wish in one of my chosen sale books from Mile High.  One could say that the love triangle of Lana, Lois and Superman had been merely shifted to include Lori, Lois and Superman, but this time around it was a little more serious.  This was when Lois had broken off the engagement to Clark/Superman and there was some doubt as to what was going to happen next in the book.  Would this new Post-Crisis Lori fill the hole in Clark’s heart or was it merely misdirection?

I truly love reading issues of Superman from the Bronze Age.  Yes, some of the stories from thirty plus years ago might be more fanciful if not far less believable than today’s more sophisticated stories, but I love the idea of a Superman seeing his wife Lois die only to travel to a parallel world where he proposes to the Lois of this other world.  Not surprisingly he finds out that the Superman of this other world has no intention of marrying Lois so the two of them exchange worlds so that both versions of Superman can be happy.  I doubt that I am alone in this appreciation, because by looking at the circulation report of that issue published in 1969, the book had over ten times the number of issues printed of the same title today.  Other factors have contributed to this decrease in readership, but the contrast still amazes me.  To go from a circulation of over half a million issues to slightly under fifty thousand a month is worth noting.