{"id":2107,"date":"2024-12-20T13:45:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T18:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/?p=2107"},"modified":"2025-07-10T12:31:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T16:31:48","slug":"reread-whatever-happened-to-the-man-of-tomorrow-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/2024\/12\/20\/reread-whatever-happened-to-the-man-of-tomorrow-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Reread: Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow? 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’ll be honest with you: I forgot I wrote this one. It just popped into my head as a result of the recent, as of this writing, teaser for the upcoming Superman movie as I tried to think if I’ve ever written about any comics that featured Krypto. (He’s in this issue but doesn’t play a significant part until the next.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I originally wrote this before<\/em> I wrote about Man of Steel<\/a><\/em>, so I really should have done this as a Reread first. Oops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, here’s part 1. I’ll post part 2 of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow<\/em>, er, tomorrow<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

(Originally published May 18, 2013)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go here<\/a> for the Reread of part 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

(Warning:  This is going to be a long one.)
On the occasion of the company\u2019s 50th anniversary in 1985, DC Comics decided that it was time to start all over again.
The continuity of the shared universe \u2013 or rather, universes<\/em> \u2013 of the comic books the company had published in the past half-decade<\/s> century had become increasingly convoluted and confusing, so in an effort to streamline and simplify, while simultaneously cataloging everything that had come before, the company launched a maxi-series entitled Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/em>, as well as a companion piece that served as something of an encyclopedia entitled Who\u2019s Who in the DC Universe<\/em>.
We\u2019re not going to delve into either of those titles here, but we do need to devote a little bit of time to Crisis before proceeding.
As originally envisioned by Marv Wolfman<\/strong> and George Perez<\/strong>, Crisis<\/em> would have been titled The History of the DC Universe<\/em> \u2013 indeed, it was referred to as such in some of the house ads that preceded the first issue \u2013 and in the course of twelve issues it would have provided the complete in-universe histories of the various characters and concepts that DC had created or acquired over the past half-century.  The twelfth issue would have ended with the whole thing blowing up.
One month later, every comic would be relaunched as a first issue, and an entirely new history would begin.
That didn\u2019t quite happen \u2013 not until 2011, at least, when DC launched \u201cThe New 52\u201d \u2013 but Crisis<\/em> did lead to the formation of an entirely new DC Universe, one with a new history (that still retained some elements of the old).
For a period of a bit less than a year, the old comics continued on, wrapping up storylines, and allowing the creative teams time to chart their new course.
One could argue that it was much more of a confusing mess than the mess it was supposed to clean up.
In any case, at around that same time, fan-favorite writer and artist John Byrne<\/strong> had come to the end of his contract with Marvel Comics.  While he had worked for Marvel for years, there was one thing that Byrne wanted that Marvel couldn\u2019t offer:  Superman.
And so it was announced that in the summer of 1986 DC would publish its final issues of the two monthly comics featuring Superman, Action Comics<\/em> and Superman<\/em>, at which point they would publish a mini-series entitled The Man of Steel<\/em>, which would serve as the launching point for the post-Crisis<\/em> John Byrne interpretation of the Action Ace.
Which leads us to the subject of this Nostalgia review, a story that ran in the final issues of Superman<\/em> and Action<\/em> respectively.
The story would serve as a fond farewell to the Superman of old, tying up years of continuity and, some would argue, bringing an official end to what most comic book fans and professionals refer to as the Silver Age of Comics.
With that out of the way, let\u2019s take a look as the first part of the story in Superman <\/em>#423, which has a cover date of September, 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Classic Silver Age-style cover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Superman, \u201cWhatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?\u201d
Written by Alan Moore
Art by Curt Swan and George Perez
Cover by \u201cSwanderson\u201d (Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson)
Edited by Julius Schwartz<\/em>

This is an imaginary story (Which may never happen, but then again may) about a perfect man who came from the sky and did only good. It tells of his twilight, when the great battles were over and the great miracles long since performed; of how his enemies conspired against him and of that final war in the snowblind wastes beneath the Northern Lights; of the women he loved and of the choice he made between them; of how he broke his most sacred oath, and how finally all the things he had were taken from him save for one. It ends with a wink. It begins in a quiet Midwestern town, one summer afternoon in the quiet Midwestern future. Away in the big city, people still sometimes glance up hopefully from the sidewalks, glimpsing a distant speck in the sky… but no: it’s only a bird, only a plane. Superman died ten years ago. This is an Imaginary Story… Aren’t they all?<\/em>

Those are the words that we\u2019re greeted with upon opening the cover and looking at the first page of our story, along with an image of busy Metropolitans going about their day in a park, most of them not even looking at the large statue of Superman, which is marked with the words \u201cIn Memoriam.\u201d
We move on to find a man named Tim Crane, a reporter for The Daily Planet, who is visiting Lois Elliot (nee Lane) at her suburban home.  We learn a lot on this one page \u2013 the year is 1997, Lois has retired from her life as a reporter and has settled into life as a wife and mother, and the Planet is publishing a tenth anniversary special memorial on \u201cThe Last Days of Superman,\u201d for which young Mr. Crane is interviewing Lois.  We also find that he\u2019s rather intimidated to be interviewing someone who is herself something of a legendary figure.
Lois informs him that at what was later known to be the beginning of the end, things were mostly quiet.  Luthor was lying low, Brainiac had been destroyed \u2013 though his head had never been recovered \u2013 and most of Superman\u2019s other enemies had been largely out of the picture.  As a result, Superman spent most of his time doing research in space for the government.
The first sign of the dark days to come is waiting for Superman when he returns from one such mission to find Metropolis has been turned into a scene of devastation.  It seems that Bizarro, the imperfect duplicate of Superman, had come to town and gone on an uncharacteristically brutal rampage.  After getting the lowdown from Lois and Jimmy, Superman enters the department store in which Bizarro has been holed up.
In his idiosyncratic way, Bizarro informs Superman that he has decided that he is not quite the perfect imperfect duplicate of Superman that he could be, and so he has decided to embark on a self-improvement plan.  The plan included the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Superman came to Earth as a baby, after his home planet was accidentally destroyed, therefore, Bizarro decided to destroy his own planet \u2013 Bizarro World \u2013 on purpose<\/em> and come to Earth as an adult<\/em>.
Superman doesn\u2019t kill, therefore Bizarro decided to kill lots<\/em> of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, because Superman was alive, Bizarro decided that he needed to be dead, and so, with a piece of Blue Kryptonite \u2013 which is deadly to Bizarros \u2013 he ended his own life.  \u201cHello, Superman,\u201d he said, as he died, in the customary backwards way of Bizarro.  \u201cHello.\u201d
The next major event happened at the news headquarters of Galaxy Broadcasting, where national news anchors Clark Kent and Lana Lang were preparing for their six o\u2019clock broadcast.
Just before the broadcast can start, Clark gets two parcels delivered, one large and one small.  Curious, Clark opens the smaller package to find that it contains several Superman action figures.
As Lana examines one, deadly lasers shoot forth from its eyes, and all of the figures begin moving as if alive, each one equipped with similar lasers.  The figures all converge on Clark, presumably cutting him to ribbons, but when the smoke clears, Clark stands revealed to all assembled as Superman.
Once he\u2019s unmasked, voices come forth from two of the action figures, voices belonging to the Toyman and the Prankster, and they advise him to open the larger, lead-lined box.  Cautiously, he opens it, only to find that it\u2019s an obscene Jack-in-the-Box containing the corpse of his childhood friend from Smallville, Pete Ross.  It seems that Toyman and Prankster had decided to discover Superman\u2019s secret identity by kidnapping and brainwashing his friends.  They lucked out the first time, as Pete \u2013 unbeknownst to Superman \u2013 was the only one of his friends who actually knew his secret.
In response, Superman asks them a question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Love that bit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once apprehended, neither villain can explain why they had decided to undertake such a deadly plan.
At Pete\u2019s funeral, Superman admits to his friends that he can\u2019t help but think that this is only the beginning, and that his worst nightmare \u2013 his enemies striking at him through his friends \u2013 has come to pass.  When asked what there is to be concerned about, given that most of his enemies are out of the game, he says, \u201cWell, if the nuisances<\/strong> from my past are coming back as killers<\/strong>\u2026what happens when the killers<\/strong> come back?\u201d
In answer to that question, we turn to a frozen landscape where Lex Luthor has found the inert head of Brainiac.  Planning to study the alien technology to use it for his own purposes, Luthor assumes the \u201calas, poor Yorick\u201d pose, only to find that the head is not quite so inert as he thought.  Disassembling itself and then reassembling itself atop Luthor\u2019s head, Brainiac seizes control of Luthor\u2019s body.  Stating that he will no longer tolerate Superman\u2019s existence after this most recent indignity, he welcomes Lex to \u201cThe New Brainiac-Luthor Team.\u201d
Back in Metropolis, the Daily Planet building is assaulted by an army of Metallos.  While Superman is able to deal with the threat quickly \u2013 through the time-honored Silver Age practice of rubbing things<\/em>, as friction=science! \u2013 Superman decides that Metropolis is no longer a safe place for his loved ones, and so he brings them all to the Fortress of Solitude to keep them safe.
While Superman\u2019s friends are gathered in one place, yet another old friend makes an appearance, as Krypto returns from his romping in space.  \u201cWhy,\u201d Lois asks in her narration, \u201cunless he\u2019d sensed what the rest<\/strong> of us had?  Despite our welcoming hugs, his arrival struck an ominous note\u2026\u201d
Back in Metropolis, the Kryptonite Man rampages through the city in a fruitless search for Superman.  In Brainiac\u2019s newly-constructed ship \u2013 which, while suitable, is inferior to his old, now-destroyed ship \u2013 Brainiac-Luthor concludes that Superman must have retreated to the Fortress, and they decide that the Kryptonite Man would be a useful asset for their assault on the Fortress.
Things are just as chilly inside the Fortress as they are outside, as least for Perry White and his wife Alice, who are estranged, and are led to separate rooms by Superman.
Lois, meanwhile, is unable to sleep, and so she goes off to visit her frenemy, Lana.  United, in the end, by their mutual love for Superman, they spend the night talking, crying, and holding each other, and no doubt doing a whole host of other things in pieces of fan fiction the world over.
As for Superman, he spends some quality time with his dog, sharing his sense of foreboding, just before receiving some surprise guests.
\u2026
I\u2019m not going to lie; this next bit gets me right in the feels.  Every.  Damn.  Time.
His surprise company turns out to be members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the team of teenaged heroes from the future which Superman was a member of in his days as Superboy.
Among the members of the team visiting him is\u2026is\u2026*sniff*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
“You\u2026you grew up beautiful, Kara!” Sniff<\/em> Moore, you utter bastard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Brainiac 5, the non-evil, kinda-sorta descendant of Superman\u2019s enemy, takes Superman aside and is immediately taken to task by Superman, as the Legion \u2013 being from the future \u2013 knows that Supergirl is dead at this point in his life, having sacrificed herself to save her beloved cousin in the pages of Crisis<\/em>.
Brainiac 5 states that Supergirl \u2013 who, while being from the past relative to this point in Superman\u2019s life, was visiting the Legion in the future \u2013 had insisted on coming along, and that for his part, Superman has traveled far enough into the future to know what happens to members of the Legion, and he is just as callous, for want of a better term, about their<\/em> fates being a matter of record as they are about his<\/em>.  (Indeed; one of the Legionnaires present \u2013 Invisible Kid \u2013 died many years earlier from Superman\u2019s perspective.)
Brainiac 5 then presents Superman with the gift of a statue of the Man of Steel holding a Phantom Zone projector.  When Superman asks why they chose this moment to give him this gift, Brainy gives some lame excuse about this date being of particular historic significance.
\u201dTherefore,\u201d Brainy says, \u201cwe came here to meet with you again, and salute you\u2026and\u2026.\u201d
\u201dAnd pay your last respects?  Is that it?\u201d
Before Brainy can answer, Supergirl approaches, as a thought just occurred to her.  According to the rules of time travel \u2013 in the Silver Age, at least \u2013 time travelers cannot materialize in a point in time in which they already exist, existing only as an immaterial phantom, unable to interact with the world.  Given that she\u2019s physically there, this Supergirl concludes that the present-day Supergirl must be off in some other era.
\u201dUh, yes.  Yes, you\u2019re right\u2026\u201d Superman says.  \u201cRight now, Supergirl\u2026Supergirl is in the past.\u201d
With tears in their eyes, the Legionnaires step into their time bubble and return to the 30th Century.
In her narration, Lois states that she doesn\u2019t know what happened that night, but that clearly something had upset him, as in the morning he looked \u201cfunny.\u201d
\u201dHe looked as if he\u2019d been crying.\u201d
Next time:  The conclusion of this two-part imaginary story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Thoughts:<\/strong>
Every.  Damn.  Time.
I\u2019m not kidding.
That is one of the most heart wrenching sequences ever committed to the comic page, overshadowed only by Kara\u2019s actual death in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths<\/em> #7.
Aside from that, the sequence is emblematic of some of the issues that popped up in that weird in-between time after Crisis<\/em> but before the formal relaunch.
After all, all of history had changed as a result of the events of the Crisis, and eventually we learned that one of the alterations was that Supergirl had never existed in first place.
(Also, Superman had never been Superboy, and as a result had never been a member of the Legion.)
So there was this weird, squishy period in which it was unclear what still existed as canon and what didn\u2019t, and overall the relaunch was not handled well.  It took DC years to get things even somewhat sorted out, though they never really managed it completely.  Even the 2011 full-on relaunch has left some lingering questions about what still counts and what doesn\u2019t.
In any case, while some of his greatest successes in the field were still ahead of him, this still ranks as some of Alan Moore\u2019s finest work.  Ask any comic book fan, and this story \u2013 along with his also excellent “For the Man Who Has Everything\u201d \u2013 is bound to turn up as a contender for the title of greatest Superman story ever told.  Certainly it\u2019s in pretty much everyone\u2019s top ten.
It just hits every note so perfectly.  Even the, “Hello, Superman.  Hello.” from Bizarro as he dies is strangely poignant and moving.
While some would argue that Moore\u2019s real strength is in subverting, deconstructing, and reinventing the form, I think this serves as a perfect example of his mastery of more mainstream comic book storytelling.  While containing all of the depth and intricacy of a Moore story, it still adheres to the conventions of the time and can be read superficially as just a really good comic by readers of all ages and levels of sophistication.
Of course, given that it\u2019s tying up nearly fifty years\u2019 worth of stories, it would be daunting to someone unfamiliar with the Superman mythos, but, again, I think that it\u2019s written in such a way that this wouldn\u2019t be much of a barrier to entry.  Sure, you\u2019d have some questions, and you\u2019d miss some of the more significant subtleties \u2013 such as the nice touch of having a doomed Legionnaire come to visit Superman as a means of driving home the point raised by Brainiac 5 \u2013 but you\u2019d certainly be able to follow the narrative and the action.
Speaking of action, the \u201cBecause I do!\u201d moment is so goddamn awesome.  I love that bit pretty hard.
While this was an \u201cimaginary\u201d story \u2013 meaning that it wasn\u2019t part of continuity, though again, continuity at this point was pretty fluid \u2013 it also served to tie up some of the loose threads of storylines that were current at the time, such as the estrangement of the Whites, and the status of Superman\u2019s relationship with Lois and Lana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Art:<\/strong>
More than pretty much any artist, including co-creator Joe Schuster, there isn\u2019t really anyone who could be considered as quintessential a Superman artist as Curt Swan<\/strong>.  Most Super-fans have their favorites, but in terms of defining the look of the Man of Steel, no one can really compare to Swan, given that he drew Superman for decades.
If I\u2019m picturing Superman in my mind, I\u2019m picturing Swan\u2019s version.
That being said, while I have tremendous respect for his work\u2026I\u2019m not really a fan, and I never have been.
Even at the time, his style \u2013 while certainly distinctive, clean, and competent \u2013 seemed dated.  When we see the futuristic world of 1997 \u2013 setting aside the fact that, reading this now, 1997 is a quarter of a century in the past \u2013 it looked like a futuristic vision of the 1980s <\/em>that someone might have had in the 1950s<\/em>.
Further, the strength of the Perez inks only exacerbates the weakness of Swan\u2019s pencils.
Even so, I can\u2019t imagine anyone else providing the art for this story, so as much as I don\u2019t particularly enjoy his style, I\u2019m glad that he was the one who drew this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n

Born and raised in the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Jon Maki developed an enduring love for comics at an early age.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ll be honest with you: I forgot I wrote this one. It just popped into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69],"tags":[3,26,36],"class_list":["post-2107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reread","tag-dc","tag-nostalgia","tag-superman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peoZaI-xZ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2107"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3408,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2107\/revisions\/3408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opendoor-comics.com\/unbagged\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}