I think we need no introduction for this particular writer, but for those living in a cave, I’ll give one anyway. Before the 1980s, comics had been incredibly popular among fans and children, but they were never seen as something that an adult would read nor were, they seen as, well, literature. Of course, there were some great writers before the 1980s, such as Stan Lee, Gardner Fox, Bill Finger and many many more, but one writer made comics not only appealing to an average person and not a fan, but also made comics constructed in such a way that makes them worthy of being known as some of the finest works in the history of English literature due to the craft of plots and the excellence in portrayal of character. This writer I am of course talking about is Alan Moore, a British writer in comics (now in books and the occasional indie film), who began his career as the writer at the British comic companies such as 2000AD and Warrior (where he wrote V for Vendetta years before DC’s Vertigo imprint got their hands on it). After becoming popular to fans in this country, he was recognised by DC Comics editor Len Wein, who decided to bring in Moore to their comics and to show their thanks, they put him on one of their worst selling titles, The Saga of the Swamp Thing, which he changed from a low selling title to one of the company’s most famous, unique and influential titles ever since Moore took over in 1984. Of course, I’m sure everybody reading this would be aware of Moore’s work at DC Comics, whether it be Watchmen (1986/87) and Batman: The Killing Joke (1988), to me, his best stories are those which are experimental in such a way that doesn’t make the reader at any time confused or bored, but instead plays with the mind of the reader while creating an excellent story with realistic and human characters. This leads me to what I believe are Moore’s best works in comics ever, his Superman stories…
For this reviewing, I will be covering all of Moore’s Superman stories, which are:
For the Man Who Has Everything --- Superman (vol 1) Annual 11
The Jungle Line --- DC Comics Presents 85
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? --- Superman (vol 1) 423, Action Comics (vol 1) 583
While Superman (vol 1) Annual 11 was published in 1985, DC Comics Presents 85 was released in September 1985 and the two part story Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow (published in Superman (vol 1) 423 and Action Comics (vol 1 ) 583) were both published in September 1986, with a fortnight between the publications of part one and part two. Although it is obvious that Moore wrote all of these stories, there are numerous artists here, most notably Dave Gibbons, who was once a friend of Moore’s and he obviously worked with him as the artist on Watchmen. Along with Gibbons, Rick Veitch is also a noticeable figure, particularly due to Veitch not only being one of the artists to work with Moore on the Swamp Thing (vol 2) title, but also because Veitch also took over as writer on the title after Moore left with issue 64. Lastly, I have read these stories in the DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore trade
paperback, but all of his Superman tales have been published together in a trade paperback, simply titled after the main and famous two part story that Moore wrote for the Man of Steel.
For the Man Who Has Everything --- Written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons
THE PLOT
One day, Batman and Robin meet up with Wonder Woman outside of the Fortress of Solitude, the home of Superman. Although they all have gifts for Superman, when they enter his home, they find he has a strange black and purple plant stuck to his chest. While Batman theorizes that Superman is stuck in a world of his own, Superman actually is in a world of his own in which Krypton never was destroyed and he has a wife and children. They have thrown him a birthday party, and everyone turns up, except his father, Jor-El. The day after, Kal-El visits his father, who is still being, well, taken the p*ss out of his claims years ago that the planet would explode, which didn’t happen here. Jor-El also speaks of how he and his Science Council are supporting an extreme political group who aim to make Krypton make how it used to be. While Kal-El leaves his father, back in reality, Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman find that a violent and war-mongering villain known as Mongul is present and he has stuck the black plant on Superman, which is known as Black Mercy and it basically traps them in a dreamworld that feeds them their hearts desire and dreams of what their world would be like. After the talk ends, Mongul asks which of the heroes he shall kill, causing Wonder Woman to punch him and a fight ensues. Back in Superman’s world caused by the Black Mercy, Kal-El and his son, Van, find out from Aunt Allura that Kal-El’s cousin, Kara, is in hospital due to attacks from protestors that want criminals released from the Phantom Zone. After checking on his cousin and telling his wife to get out of the city due to the protests, Kal-El and Van go to meet them, but on their way, they witness protestors and political extremists that Jor-El supports on the streets. While Wonder Woman is fighting Mongul and Batman is trying to pull the Black Mercy out of Superman’s chest, Jor-El continues his protest and the extremists are attacking civilians around them, causing Kal-El and his son to leave. Kal-El takes his son to a deserted canyon, where he tells his son that he doesn’t think he is real. A wind begins to start, and everything goes white, just as Batman gets the Black Mercy off Supeman’s chest, freeing the hero from the forced dream. However, this backfires and Batman is then attacked by the plant, causing him to go into a dream state, where he imagines that his parents weren’t killed when he was younger. Although Robin tries to get the Black Mercy off of his partner, Superman awakens and asks Robin who did this to him. After he is told by the boy that Mongul is responsible, Superman charges towards Mongul and attacks him violently. Meanwhile, using a pair of giant reinforced gloves, Robin manage to get the Black Mercy off of Batman and he puts it in a bag to use for later. Back to Superman, who is punching the hell out of Mongul, the two fight violently, but Superman stops the fight when he realises that he could risk destroying the Fortress of Solitude due to his powers, which would destroy the place which he built to respect Krypton and his parents. However, this results in Mongul punching Superman preparing to kill him, but he is stopped when Robin appears with the Black Mercy and throws it on the villain’s chest, causing him to go into his own dream state. In the end, the heroes give Superman their gifts. Wonder Woman gives Superman a new bottle to keep the shrunken city of Kandor in and Batman and Robin give Superman a flower, which was unfortunately damaged in the fight with Mongul, who is receiving his forced dream from the Black Mercy about himself becoming a murderous dictator and ruler of planets.
MY THOUGHTS
For Alan Moore’s first Superman story, he certainly doesn’t disappoint. The main plot is incredibly solid, and the story is never ever dull, which to me is the most important thing. To me (similar to all of the other Superman stories by Moore), this story shows the inner mind of Superman, along with his failures and how he wants to be a real person as opposed to a superhero. The dreams given to the hero by the Black Mercy, which I think is an excellent and at the time, unique idea that hadn’t been seen before
in comics, are superb as it highlights the ideal world of Superman, which is obviously Krypton still being present. While Batman’s dream is obviously about if his parents were never killed, this and Superman’s idealistic world are obvious, but the way that Moore depicts these dreams, certainly in the case of the Man of Steel, is fascinating and those worlds that he makes are realistic. Despite the fact that his son is a new character that never appears in anything else after this, Moore manages to make him feel like a real character to Superman and us, making us feel emotion for when Superman’s dream ends, even if it does take him back to the real world. This is also backed up by Moore’s interesting, realistic and never seen before dialogue and each scene is carefully constructed, making the story feel great. After the great and tense fight with Mongul, who is taken out by Robin in the end, which I think is a nice touch as it gives more purpose for Robin being there, we get to see the evil dreams of Mongul, which gives a dark, but relieving and suspenseful ending to this story, along with the different things that different people can see under the control of the Black Mercy. All in all, while the plot is excellent, Moore’s masterful dialogue and characterisation is top notch, with every character being present for a purpose, whether they be real in terms of the story or false in terms of Superman’s dream. For instance, his father is a great character as he is ruined by his claims that Krypton would explode and due to that, the public treat him like a joke and he get to see the repercussions of that. Despite Mongul tending to a villain who is a bit dull as he is just muscle to me, Moore writes him evilly, but in such a way that makes him entertaining, even if something like the Black Mercy doesn’t really fit in with the normal schemes that Mongul is all about. As a whole though, the plot and characters are both excellent. The tale never feels too long and Moore’s sense of pacing is incredible.
However, the part which I don’t think makes too much sense is Superman’s dream. Now, I’m not talking about the content of the dream, which is great, but I’m talking about the purpose of the Black Mercy, which Mongul says is to feed the recipient their hearts desire. Yes, I understand that Superman’s dream certainly becomes negative towards the end as the plant is being pulled off of him by Batman, but before that, shouldn’t his whole world be happy due to the fact that nobody is trying to awaken him from his dream? I think that the writers of the Justice League Unlimited animated series took note of that as in their adaptation of the story (which is excellent as well), Superman’s dream only gets bad when Batman is pulling the Black Mercy off of his chest. That being said, the original version is still very good, and it remains one of Moore’s best.
Gibbons art here is excellen, with every panel having a great amount of detail, character and action. The dream sequences are told incredibly well and the fighting with Mongul is told dramatically and is full of action, very Steve Dikto like in numerous places. To me, it is certainly clear that Moore works brilliantly with Gibbons and I can see all the reasons for why the two worked together on the Watchmen series.
Story: 9.5/10
Art: 10/10
The Jungle Line --- Written by Alan Moore with art by Rick Veitch and Al Williamson
THE PLOT
Before an unshaven and hallucinating Clark Kent drives into a swamp area, he and his friend Lana Lang were at a science conference where a scientist showcases a meteorite that has an incredibly sturdy living fungus living in it. Using his powers, Clark believed that he knew where the fungus came from and after noticing his powers were not working and his loss of sanity, Clark became Superman and retrieved the meteor from the scientist and after inspecting it with his laser eye powers, Superman realised that the fungus is from Krypton and that he would die soon. After hiring a car, we are taken back to the hallucinating Superman, whose car has crashed into a swamp. Superman manages to escape from the burning car, but he faints, resulting in Swamp Thing finding him. While Superman is being haunted in a dream brought about from the fungus, Swamp Thing notices the meteor and fungus in the hero’s hand. After Swamp Thing is taken on a small mental trip by the alien rock and he realises that it is alien, he then notices that the man holding onto the meteor was Superman, who then wakes up and shoots a hole through Swamp Thing. Superman then goes on a mad rampage which causes gusts and fires. Swamp Thing then gets up and tries to calm him, but the two are taken into the fungus world, but Superman then crushes the meteor and fungus, causing him in his rage to attack Swamp Thing, who continues to try and help the hero. However, he manages to help Superman, who reminds Swamp Thing that chronic overexertion causes the fungus to succeed in killing Superman, resulting in Swamp Thing using his powers to cool down the hero and going into unconsciousness, meaning that Superman will live. Swamp Thing then disconnects the meteor from Superman and leaves him to recover. Later on, Superman wakes ups and cleans himself up and flies away with the meteor in his hands as Swamp Thing watches him fly away and he walks back into the swamp.
MY THOUGHTS
As somebody who has read and enjoyed Moore’s run on Swamp Thing, this is one of Moore’s best ever comics due to not only the plot, but the great character of Superman. This story presents the hero not only in a sad way to sympathise with his death, but in a way that also makes us aware that Superman isn’t invincible. In fact, we learn that he is actually quite fragile and there could of thousands of things that can kill him, most of which aren’t present in this world, galaxy or even universe. We see Superman melt down into insanity and we as readers are pretty convinced that he could die due to how the story is told through excellent writing and dialoguing by Moore. This is where Swamp Thing comes in, who is a fascinating character that Moore evolved from the already amazing character created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Swamp Thing is shown to be the stronger of the two, but not in a fashion that presents malice, but instead of one of kindness. Swamp Thing helps Superman, which I think is absolutely fitting to his kind character, even if Superman shoots a (continues after image)
hole through him. This gives the story a great and fitting end, which works superbly in terms of this tale as it shows that Superman can be helped thanks to the power of Swamp Thing. Apart from that, everything else about the story is pretty much great. The mental images that Superman receives at night are mysterious, but memorable and the way that his powers stop working and his inspection of the meteor is full of drama, telling us as readers that something is clearly wrong with Superman. There are no problems I can think of with this story. Sure, we would like to know more about the fungus and meteor, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it is some poisonous substance from Krypton.
While the art by Rick Veitch and Al Williamson is certainly fitting for Swamp Thing and the swamp, the parts with Superman can look a little messy. I’m not saying they are bad, god no. I think the art is very good and it meshes with the story excellently and the story telling by the two artists is not only professional, but also tense and dramatic, which works well in terms of the subject of the tale. I just think that it can look a little rough in some places for Superman, even if it succeeds in working with this great story by Alan Moore.
Story: 10/10
Art: 9/10
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow --- Written by Alan Moore with art by Curt Swan, George Perez and Kurt Schaffenberger
THE PLOT
One day, a reporter known as Tim Crane visits former journalist Lois Lane, now named Lois Elliot, who is being interviewed about the final days of Superman’s life.
Lois begins her story by speaking about how one day, Superman finds out from Lois and Jimmy Olsen that Bizarro made a massive attack on Metropolis, shocking the Man of Steel. He then finds Bizarro, who revealed that he destroyed his own home world, but he then falls and dies with Superman looking over him. Sometime later, a package is sent to the Daily Planet building for Clark Kent, which he opens and finds that multiple small Superman toys fly out, all of whom attack Superman, resulting in his clothes being destroyed, revealing Clark Kent being Superman. Although everyone in the building is shocked, Superman continued his work and by using the radio waves from inside the Superman toys, he located the Toyman and the Prankster as the ones being behind his unmasking. While a funeral goes on for Pete Ross, who the two joke villains used to get the information about Superman from, Lex Luthor walks across snowy lands to find Brainiac, which although he succeeds, he is injected by Brainiac and put under his control through being placed on Luthor’s head. As everyone knows Clark Kent is Superman, a group of humans converted by villain Metallo attack the Daily Planet building, which nearly gets Lois Lane killed, but like always, Superman is there to save her. Afterwards, Superman transports all of his close friends to the Fortress of Solitude, which includes Lois, Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White and his wife Alice. While Luthor-Brainiac has created a new ship and has sent down Kryptonite Man to find the hero, Superman and his friend Krypto the Super Dog are shocked when a portal appears in their home and numerous Legion of Super Hero members come out to meet Superman, one of whom is Supergirl, his cousin (who died in Superman’s time zone in Crisis on Infinite Earths). Legion member Brainiac-5 is aware of what Superman is going through and he is given a special trophy, before the Legion leaves Superman alone with Krypto. Superman cries.
During a break in the interview, Lois Elliot’s husband, Jordan, arrives home and after he gives a negative comment to Tim Crane about Superman, the interview continues, beginning with Superman destroying the giant key to the Fortress of Solitude. Afterwards, Luthor-Brainiac and Kryptonite Man arrive near the home of the hero and they are joined by the Legion of Super-Villains from the future, consisting of Cosmic King, Lightning Lord and Saturn Queen. Once the villains put a forcefield around the Fortress of Solitude to make sure no other heroes try to help Superman, Superman speaks to Perry White about how he thinks he is going to die and how he ruined the lives of the two people who love him, which are Lois Lane and Lana Lang. Meanwhile, Lana and Jimmy Olsen both find a case of old superhero costumes that once belonged to them and them both bathe in some magic lake water to retrieve the powers of Super-Lana and Elastic Lad, who both go out to fight the villains. Lana finds Brainiac, who is being overthrown by Lex Luthor, who is ordering for Lana to kill him to stop Brainiac. Lana breaks Luthor’s neck, but she and Jimmy are killed by the Legion of Super-Villains. However, their efforts failed as Brainiac is still alive and working, despite the host’s body being broken. Brainiac then launches a nuclear strike on the Fortress of Solitude, which nearly kills Perry White’s wife, but she is saved by her husband. Also, Kryptonite Kid finds Krypto the Super Dog, who attacks the villain and kills him, but the dog is also killed due to Kryptonite Kid being made of Kryptonite (obviously). At the same time, Superman and Lois are escaping from the nuclear strikes and they find the Legion of Super-Villains, who boast that they have killed Lana and Jimmy, causing Superman to violently attack the villains, but they manage to escape and using their teleportation, they get back to the 30th Century. Then, Brainiac can no longer live in Luthor’s broken body, resulting in Brainiac dying, Superman works out that one villain has been missing from all of this and that is Mr Mxyzptlk, who appears in front of Superman and Lois. The villain from the fifth dimension explains that he has been behind all of these attacks due to boredom and his hatred of Superman, which causes the villain to show his real true form, a monstrous black and purple being that tries to kill Superman. Although Superman believes that he cannot beat Mr Mxyzptlk as he is made of magic (a weakness to Superman), Lois finds the trophy that the Legion of Super-Heroes gave to him and he notices that it is holding a Phantom Zone projector, which he locates in the Fortress of Solitude and uses it on Mr Mxyzptlk, causing him to send himself back into the fifth dimension while being transported to the Phantom Zone, resulting in the villain behind ripped in half, killing him. Afterwards, Superman accepts that he has broken his moral code not to kill so he decides to walk into a chamber holding Gold Kryptonite, which erases his powers, resulting Lois never seeing Superman again. Later on, Lois is found by the superheroes who were trapped by Brainiac’s barrier, which takes us back to the interview, which Tim has now concluded, and he has left Lois and Jordan after being shown their baby, named Jonathan. While Lois speaks to Jonathan about his day at work, the baby plays with a chunk of coal, which he crushes into a diamond. After Jonathan speaks about how he is getting used to normal human life, he shuts the door to their home while staring at us, the reader (implying heavily (almost obviously) that Jordan is really Superman, know without powers, but his child has inherited his powers instead).
MY THOUGHTS
This is considered to be the “big daddy” if you will of Alan Moore’s Superman tales and just to say now, it is amazing. The main plot of the story is full of surprises, even if it is told as a flashback story by Lois Lane. The great thing which Moore writes about the story that Lois Lane speaks about is Superman’s last days, which doesn’t give us any of the details and due to that, we are shocked throughout at different events. For starters, most of the characters that feature in this story in a major way die, with the exception of Superman (sort of) Lois Lane, Perry White, his wife Alice and the Legion of Super-Villains. Starting from the beginning, the death of Bizarro isn’t anything major, but it certainly signals the beginning of something big, creating a big atmosphere for this tale. Afterwards, Clark Kent is revealed to be Superman by the Toyman and the Prankster, which does come out of nowhere and the way that Moore tells the story is excellent. His sense of storytelling and perspective is certainly something special and it adds so much to every scene. His unmasking is a great piece of writing as it is something that everyone thinks about, but we never actually see it happen and as this is an imaginary story (stated by Moore at the start of part one, even if they are all imaginary stories), we can actually see it happen along with the effects it can have. After this happens, we see numerous other villains appear, like Metallo and his controlled goons, Kryptonite Man and most importantly, Brainiac. He is incredibly important part of this story, mainly due to his controlling of Lex Luthor, which works well, but it takes an incredibly dark turn when Luthor manages to speak for himself and he asks Lana to kill him, which she does. This is a dark turn in the story, but it works incredibly well, and it feels so unique for it to happen (take note current writers on comics). The scenes that follow it with Brainiac still using Luthor’s body is incredibly sadistic and quite honestly, it does make you uncomfortable when reading the parts where Luthor is dead and possibly even before that. I believe that this was Moore’s intent and it certainly can put the reader on edge. Another important character of the story to me is Krypto the Super Dog, who despite not being able to talk, certainly means a lot to Superman and his death is really meaningful to us and him. One of the great parts about this story has to be Superman’s allies, all of whom are interesting, and they all have a purpose in the story. This is seen perfectly in part two where Lana Lang and Jimmy Olsen become superheroes, which is incredibly brave of them, but they are killed incredibly quickly and to me, this shows their loyalty to Superman. The same goes for Perry White, who is also a great character for Superman to speak about his problems to. However, when the main villain of the story is shown to Mr Mxyzptlk, it makes perfectly good sense to me as the revelation that he doesn’t really look like a cosmic purple dwarf in a hat is a shock, (continues after image)
even though it doesn’t feel too farfetched when thinking about it. Also, his death is a real shock and it is incredibly violent, despite us not seeing it. Just the masterful dialogue by Moore from the mouth of Superman about how the villain from the fifth-dimension dies is enough to send chills down the shines of any of the readers. The aftermath of this is also great as we see Superman break his moral code and we see him lose his powers and eventually marry Lois Lane and they have a son named Jonathan (obviously after Clark Kent’s father), who has adopted the powers from his father, even if he has already lost them. Apart from that, there are lots of great moments in the story, whether it be the appearance of the Legion of Super Heroes or Superman meeting his dead cousin Supergirl, but all in all, this is a fantastic story that really defines the end of an area for Superman.
Although this story is great, there are a couple of aspects of that do get forgotten about. For starters, the big one for me is that despite Clark once having superpowers, at the end he no longer has them, so why does his son have them? I mean, I guess it doesn’t need a detailed explanation of course, but as Superman was exposed to Gold Kryptonite which permanently removes his powers and as he and Lois obviously had the child a long time after he lost his powers (due to the time difference between the present and the flashbacks of ten years), you may think that the child wouldn’t have any powers. Apart from that, there are just some small other parts, such as the inconclusiveness of the Legion of Super-Villains, who just seem to disappear after fighting Superman and also the funeral for the person who gave the Toyman and the Prankster the information about Superman came out of nowhere as he doesn’t really appear in the story before in any major way. That all being said, this doesn’t take away my enjoyment for this story and I still consider it one of Moore’s best tales, just like all of his other Superman stories.
The classic art by Swan, Perez and Schaffenberger is great and it works incredibly well for this story as it fits it perfectly due to Moore’s incorporation of old Superman foes and traits. The storytelling by the artists is great and while I think it can look a bit dull in some areas, there is a great presentation of action and dramatic scenes, making this story excellent.
Story: 9/10
Art: 9/10
VERDICT
Overall, the Superman stories by Alan Moore are perfect and are some of the best comics that has ever been published. The Mongul and the Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow stories are both damn near excellent and the story featuring Swamp Thing is a flawless tale that conveys Superman’s humanity. These stories show that even before Moore’s most recognisable works like Watchmen and Batman: The Killing Joke, he has always had an undeniable great and immense control over characters and dialogue along with the masterful plots that he creates for them. Yes, Moore adds a sense of darkness and bitterness to comics, what they aren’t just about that. The most important thing about these comics are that they are fun, simply put.
Stories: 9.5/10
Art: 9/10
Highlighted Character: Superman (Clark Kent)
Next Review: Green Arrow: Homecoming (Green Arrow (vol 2) 51-62). Written by Mike Grell with art by Shawn McManus, Rick Hoberg, John Nyberg, Frank Springer and Pablo Marcos. Expected to be published by 04/08/2019.
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