Unbagging DC Comics Presents Annual #4
DC Comics Presents, Vol. 1 Annual
#4
Release: Jul 18, 1985
Cover: 1985
Creators
| Writer | Elliot S. Maggin |
| Cover Artist | Eduardo Barreto |
| Penciller | Eduardo Barreto |
| Inker | Jerry Ordway, Al Vey |
| Colorist | Gene D’Angelo |
| Letterer | Gaspar Saladino |
| Editor | Julius Schwartz |
Hey, chick…no sweat, y’know? I mean like, these are real groovy threads, get me? Gotta get some of that outrageous action in the peanut gallery now! Dig you later!
As of this writing, it’s Miracle Monday.
To celebrate the day last year, I wrote about the story in which a pivotal character from the book that introduced the world to this miraculous day made her comics debut as Superwoman.
This year it seems only fitting to write about the follow-up story from two years later.
When we left off with the last story, Kristin Wells had returned to her own time, but it was a certainty that she would return to the 20th Century, as there was record of Superwoman’s many adventures.
Our story begins on another holiday – Independence Day – in the year 2865, as Superwoman is about to make an appearance as the Grand Marshal in the Metropolis parade.
Kristin is reluctant to receive the adulation, as she has not yet done any of the heroic deeds that have made the public so enamored with her.
Still, she does her duty and gives the public what it wants, but the next day as she’s strolling hand with her friend and colleague Dr. Barry Elkin, she discusses her frustration with the fact that all she does is put on a show for an adoring public and lets him know that she’s made up her mind: the time has come to return to the past and fulfill her destiny by becoming the great hero that the future knows Superwoman to be.
The next day she stops by the office of the Secretary of Continuum – the cabinet-level official who oversees time travel – to pick up her time-travel visa to allow her to travel to 1985. However, when she leaves with her visa in hand, neither she nor the Secretary notices that there is a problem with her requested travel vector.
Back in 1985, Superman is flying along and notices that actor Greg Reed – a dead ringer for the Man of Steel – is about to be crushed in a car accident. He manages to rescue his doppelganger, but not before Greg takes a serious bump on the noggin.
While that’s going on, Kristin arrives but is at a loss to explain where she is what she’s doing there.
We’ll learn later that on her way back to 1985 Kristin passed through some sort of time vortex which had the effect of temporarily separating her from her memories as a native of the 29th Century.
But in the meantime, Greg Reed, who makes a living pretending to be Superman for movies, TV, and at special events, was supposed to make an appearance as Superman at a local convention but is in no condition to do so. Thus, Superman offers to fill in, becoming the dude who’s pretending to be the dude who’s pretending to be the other dude.
The event at which he’ll be appearing? Luthorcon III!
The convention in honor of Lex Luthor brings to mind a post I made on Bluesky the other day.
Assuming that the costume she’s carrying around is an indication of the reason she’s in that part of town, Kristin decides to head to the con, a con that we learn is being observed by the person in whose honor the con is being held: Lex Luthor!
Once inside, Kristin is no closer to understanding what her purpose is and causes a Batgirl cosplayer to become just as confused as Kristin herself.
As she talks to a vendor selling burgers – he offers her a “Superwoman Surprise,” which features transparent ketchup you can’t see but know is there – there’s an announcement on the main stage introducing the guest of honor, Superman!
In the spirit of the event everyone – except Kristin, who cheers because she doesn’t know what’s going on – boos and berates the Big Blue Boy Scout
One of the event coordinators, dressed in Lex’s classic purple and green suit, goes on to explain that the grand finale of the con’s events will be the kryptoniting of Superman!
He holds up the chunk of green rock that will be used to do the deed, which prompts Kristin to ask the burger vendor about the legality of it all.
The vendor explains that it can’t possibly be real kryptonite, as an explosion years ago caused a chain reaction that rendered all of the kryptonite on earth inert.
While kryptonite is pieces of a doomed world, many of which made it to Earth, we get an aside in which we see a piece of still-another world – a place called Lexor – that also made it to Earth, bringing with it some kryptonite that had landed there, kryptonite which was, therefore, not affected by the explosion.
Lexor was an inhabited planet discovered by Luthor, a world where he was a hero, and Superman was viewed as a villain because he was the enemy of their hero. Lex had built a life – with a family – there but couldn’t get past his hatred of Superman or his innate villainy, and as a result he inadvertently destroyed Lexor in battle with Superman. The explosion caused a small island to find its way to Earth.
We get a look inside the friendly burger vendor’s cart and see a mysterious glowing green rock that looks just like the rocks dug up on that chunk of Lexor, and as the cart passes by GBS reporter Clark Kent, who’s covering the event – Superman had slipped away after his initial introduction on stage as Greg Reed as Superman – Clark feels an old familiar sting.
Kristin recognizes Clark and remembers that, like him, she too had a job at Galaxy Communications, but she still can’t fully recall who she is.
For our part, we get a quick recap of the events of the last Superwoman story, but that doesn’t help Kristin, who wanders outside talking to herself, walking past an alley in which we see the burger vendor removing the glowing green rock from his cart.
He whomps – or rather zotzes – Kristin on the noggin, revealing to us that he is not the friendly vendor he appears to be, and also revealing to us a shot of Kristin in a position more befitting Rogue on X-Men: The Animated Series than Superwoman.
Kristin is mad that she was such a bad judge of the vendor’s character and is surprised that she’s not unconscious. She stares at the strange amulet she’s wearing, unaware that it’s the futuristic tech that gives her the incredible abilities she demonstrates as Superwoman.
Abilities like getting zotzed on the head with a rock and not getting knocked out.
She decides she seek out Clark Kent in the hopes that he can provide her some answers, since he’s the one person she recognizes.
Clark, meanwhile, is interviewing con-goers when his super-senses alert him to a job for Al Gore Superman.
It seems that a whale has wandered into to the river and is about to collide with a tanker passing through.
Clark tells his cameraman that he’s gotten a report in his earpiece that Superman is outside and tells him to meet him there, then rushes off to airlift the whale back to safety.
He deliberately flies it over the con crowd so that the whale can empty its blowhole on the crowd of Luthor-lovers.
Kristin, however, remains dry, as if protected by a force field. (Because she’s protected by a force field.)
In the future, we learn the bit I mentioned earlier about Kristin going through a vortex, and her friend is not comforted by the news that Kristin will “eventually” get her memory back and be able to initiate the return to her own time, given that she can’t be returned until that happens, and no one has any idea how long that may take.
Kristin heads to The Daily Planet to find Clark but isn’t sure why she went there.
Back at the con, it’s time for the main event: the fake kryptoniting of Superman.
But…is it fake? After all, unbeknownst to everyone else, it’s the real Superman. Is it possible that the kryptonite is also real?
Seems like!
Across town, Kristin witnesses a robbery, which causes her heroic instincts to kick in. She quickly re-dons her costume and stops the robbers, and realizes that the reason no one else was doing what she did is because no one else seems to be able to do what she does.
What could it mean? Is she actually this Superwoman people keep talking about?
Elsewhere, the real Lex Luthor is watching his hated enemy being killed by his unwitting accomplices while overseeing some other villainy.
At the con, one of the Luthor cosplayers tells “Greg” to hurry up and die already, as Kristin, still in costume, arrives to watch the show.
On the stage, a dying Superman thinks he recognizes the woman dressed as Superwoman as the real Superwoman and reaches out to her silently, plaintively.
Her instincts are triggered once again, and she leaps onto the stage and disposes of the kryptonite through a portal.
The three “Luthors” – one dressed, as mentioned, in the classic outfit, one dressed in his armor, and one, a woman, dressed in a prisoner’s uniform – realize what just happened.
Despite escaping with his life, Superman’s troubles aren’t over, as the real Luthor broadcasts a message telling Superman if he doesn’t bring back that chunk of kryptonite and continue dying, all of Metropolis will be projected into another dimension.
To prove he’s serious, he removes part of a bridge. Fortunately, Superman and Superwoman are able to prevent tragedy, but Luthor’s threat still remains.
Kristin’s memory starts coming back a bit more, and she tells Superman to play along with Luthor’s demand and then get him to zap the city in exactly 43 seconds while she disappears.
Superman goes on TV, says he’s going to let himself die, but then when Superwoman comes back, she’s just carrying a harmless chunk of rock.
Lex follows through on his threat, and Superman and Superwoman do…something?
I’ve never been clear on what they did. I guess they moved Metropolis around so that the time storm Luthor unleashed misses its target?
There’s just a lot of shots of the two of them keeping people from falling and moving rocks and buildings.
But whatever the case, the end result is that Metropolis doesn’t go anywhere, but Luthor does.
After the excitement, Superman and Superwoman stop by the hospital to visit Greg. As they leave, Kristin mentions to Superman that someone named Jill Hastings is the actress who will be famous for playing Superwoman, an indication that more of her memories are returning.
We get an epilogue at some point in the future. Years have passed and Kristin’s friend Barry has grown a beard. On a wintry day, he’s talking about Kristin with some people as they admire a statue of Superman and Superwoman.
He lets us know that the Secretary who bungled her trip was forced to resign and that there have been new laws about time travel put in place. He notes that anything could have happened to Kristin, as so much is unknown about Superwoman’s history.
He says, “She could have died…could have gone to another world…could have tried to come home and been lost in the folds of time…”
Someone else says:
…or she could have finished her work–and come home!
The final page reveals that Kristin has indeed made her way home, and we’re promised stories about the adventures of Superwoman that time never did tell, as this was the character’s last significant appearance.
Despite the fact that I really didn’t understand what happened with Luthor’s whole extradimensional scheme, or how he managed to arrange it so that Superman would be at Luthorcon rather than Greg Reed – and I’m not sure how he swapped in the real kryptonite for the grand finale – I always liked this one more than the first Superwoman story.
I mean, I guess there was some connection between what Luthor was doing and the vortex that Kristin went through? Or something? And then the two heroes just physically moved all of Metropolis so that it wasn’t there when the time storm hit?
Honestly, I just have no clue, but it’s not really that important, as the main things that made the story interesting were the bits at the con, with the various cameos from other characters by way of cosplayers, both from DC and from other companies, such as The Shadow, and Flash Gordon and Ming.
And the idea of Luthorcon is fun and made moreso by forcing Superman to be an active participant in the events.
Beyond that, it’s just a gorgeous book to look at thanks to the combination of the criminally underrated Eduardo Barreto and the incomparable Jerry Ordway.
As was the case with #2, I was too lazy to dig out my actual copy of #4 for this Unbagging, so I relied on the digital version on DC Universe Infinite, and as was the case then, it seems like the digital recoloring was a little sloppy in some places.
Still, those complaints aside, the book is just a feast for the eyes with that perfect penciler/inker combo, and I can tell you that thirteen-year-old Jon appreciated the whole walking around in little more than a swimsuit future aesthetic of their take on Kristin, though looking back now that mullet certainly was a choice.
This story came out in the midst of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and I kind of wonder if Maggin knew that his was going to be Kristin’s last hurrah as the Bronze Age came to an end. Was that last panel an attempt to drive interest in seeing those further adventures that are only hinted at? If so, history has shown that, 40 years in, it hasn’t paid off.
I can’t really say it’s a shame that we didn’t get any more from Kristin than what we did, because she’s honestly not all that interesting. At least, not as Superwoman.
Somewhat paradoxically, the most interesting thing about her – being from the future – is what makes her less interesting. How much tension can there ever be in a story featuring someone who knows what’s going to happen and how things are going to turn out?
Of course, there were some attempts to get around that, such as her full memory returning slowly over time, and the records of Superwoman’s exploits being spotty.
Still, with the changes that resulted from Crisis, there wasn’t really a place for Superwoman after this. She would have felt just as outdated as the slang Kristin so often used.
But because it is Miracle Monday, and despite my confusion I have always enjoyed this story, I felt it was only fitting to take a look at the last documented adventure of the young woman who served as the catalyst for a miraculous day.
Shortly before four in the afternoon on the third Monday in the month of May, the people of Metropolis learned the meaning of joy. They had no explanation for this feeling, and there were gaps in their knowledge of what had gone on in their lives so far that day. It was as though they were all waking up, or at least opening their eyes, for the first time in an awfully long time. The first thing many of them saw was the red-and-blue figure of Superman drawing a line across their sky, and he became the symbol of their joy. It felt like a miracle, though none could say why.
Elliot s! Maggin – Superman: Miracle Monday
As we enter what DC is calling the “Summer of Superman,” maybe, if we keep looking up in the sky, we, too, will experience a miracle on this third Monday in May.
Born and raised in the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Jon Maki developed an enduring love for comics at an early age.
