Remembering Artist Mike Wieringo

Remembering artist Mike Wieringo on his birthday (June 24, 1963 - August 12, 2007) with his covers for Adventures of Superman #598 and Superman: The Man of Steel #120 (January, 2002)...featuring Clark Kent and Superman using a phone booth.

Celebrating Artist Phil Jimenez

Celebrating the birthday of artist Phil Jimenez (July 12, 1970) with a special treat from the Triangle Era of Superman titles, with four covers that Phil did for the December, 1999 issues of Superman...

...Superman #151, Adventures Of Superman #573, Superman: The Man Of Steel #95 and Action Comics #760!

 

Last Adventures Of Superman And Lois

A quick look back at the career and end of a Superman and Lois...as, during the course of the Infinite Crisis, both the original Superman and Lois Lane did not survive.

As DC transitioned to a new Superman, Superman #226 (April, 2006), Action Comics #836 (April, 2006) and Adventures Of Superman #649 (April, 2006) wander through the life of the original Superman, and his time with Lois, as a set up to what happened in Infinite Crisis #5 (April, 2006)...and beyond, where a new Superman and Lois would take over.

Superman #226 and Action Comics #836

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Adventures Of Superman #649 and Infinite Crisis #5

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Here, Superman's life from Action Comics #1 (June, 1938) to the time JSA member Kal-L, his wife Lois, the new Earth-Prime Superboy and Alexander Luthor left in Crisis On Infinite Earths #12 (March, 1986)...to come back for the Infinite Crisis.

Superman Goes To Hell - The Blaze Satanus War!

Back with another installment for the Super Blog Team-Up, and here, like all of the blogs involved, we are going to hell.  But, our twist is...we are taking Superman with us!

Delving a little past our usual time frame, going into the "triangle" era of Superman (as the Silver Age usually had Superman fighting menaces that looked supernatural, but weren't).  Here, Superman and the Daily Planet staff are in between a battle between the demonic forces of Blaze and her brother, Lord Satanus, fighting the Blaze/Satanus War!

Blaze and Lord Satanus

Blaze first appeared in Action Comics #655 (July, 1990), as a club owner that was secretly a demon from hell.  Her machinations in Metropolis helped lead to the the death of Jerry White (the son of Alice White and Perry White, editor of the Daily Planet).  Her brother, Lord Satanus, appears first in Adventures Of Superman #493 (August, 1992), with his own plans for Metropolis, but, as that issue also starts the war, more will be revealed as we go along...

Sibling Rivalry (31)

The war begins in Adventures Of Superman #493 (August, 1992) by Jerry Ordway, Tom Grummett and Doug Hazelwood, with Blaze manipulating fired Daily Planet editor Sam Foswell to Newstime, to become their managing editor (as she saved him from suicide by pretending to be an angel).  At Newstime, as Foswell walks the corridors to meet Collin Thornton, owner of Newstime, 

Back at the Daily Planet, the crew go on as normal, with Jimmy Olsen going to his side job as Turtle Boy, with Clark Kent and Lois Lane following (and the lot going to check on Sam and his heading to Newstime).  Good thing they headed there, as after meeting with Collin Thornton, demons seems to come out of the mirrors at Newstime, as does Lord Satanus.  Clark goes into action as Superman, confronted by Lord Satanus, who plans to kill Foswell, as Blaze enjoys her scheme.

Payment Due (32)

In Action Comics #680 (August, 1992) by Roger Stern, Butch Guice and Denis Rodier, Superman and Lord Satanus form a loose alliance as Foswell flees further into Newstime, Jimmy and Lois battle demons, Metropolis gets wind of problems at Newstime as Satanus puts a mystical force field around the building.  Blaze appears as an angel to manipulate Foswell, transforming him into a demon to attack Superman, Lois, Jimmy and Satanus.  

Outside, Supergirl arrives in Metropolis and starts to tear through the force field around the building, prompting Lord Satanus to transport the whole Newstime building and its inhabitants into another dimension.

Sanctuary (33)

With Superman: The Man Of Steel #15 (September, 1992) by Louise Simonson, Kerry Gammill, Keith Giffen, Dennis Janke and Trevor Scott, the war rages on.  With the building gone, Perry White heads to the location of Newstime, where his wife Alice was headed, but they are lured into the former church turned nightclub of Blaze by the spirit of Jerry White.  Superman and Lord Satanus continue to battle Blaze's demons as Lois and Jimmy round up the Newstime employees now in a building in another dimension.  

To counter Satanus' plan, Blaze sends her church/nightclub into that other dimension with the Whites.  In this other dimension, Superman has problems controlling his powers, making the battle tough for him to fight.  To help, Perry rings the bells of the church to distract the demons, which it does, as well as distracting Satanus, allowing Blaze to appear, and reveal her plan, to manipulate Superman to help her against her brother to prevent Satanus from killing the now demon Foswell.

Evil's Pawn (34)

This battle comes to an end in Superman #71 (September, 1992) by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding, as Blaze's plan was revealed.  Lois and Jimmy have gotten the Newstime employees safely to Blaze's church/nightclub, as Superman battle Lord Satanus.  As the church, Blaze tortures the Whites with the truth their son is dead and merges her demons into one to attack the church.  Superman and Lord Satanus decide to work together as Superman gets help from the demonic Foswell (who joins Satanus).  

Satanus goes to fight the combined demon as Superman rings the bell at the church to power Satanus.  Blaze attacks Superman to stop him, but Perry rises up to continue ringing the bell, powering Satanus to defeat the demon, returning the two buildings and their inhabitants to Earth, as Superman and Blaze spin off into limbo.  On Earth, Satanus takes the leave of the Daily Planet staff, taking Foswell with him.  The duo appear in the Newstime office, where Satanus returns Foswell to human form, reveling in his new ally, and revealing that Satanus is also....Collin Thornton!

Kismet: The Road Not Taken (35)

Not wanting to leave you (and Superman) in limbo, here's a little on Adventures Of Superman #494 (September, 1992) by Jerry Ordway, Tom Grummett and Doug Hazelwood, where Superman was found by Kismet!  Here, this interdimensionally powered being encounters Superman, showing him not to have regrets, even though Superman had been manipulated by demonic forces, his goodness would still win out.

More War

Blaze and Lord Satanus continued their war, including revelations in the Power Of Shazam! that they are the children of the old wizard Shazam (and manipulating Black Adam), and later, their battles against Neron in the Reign of Hell (which inspired DC to reprint the non-Adventures Of Superman issues of the Blaze/Satanus war in the DC Universe Special).

But. enough of that special hell and onto other kinds of hell as well!

The folks at the Super Blog Team-Up have been busy little demons, working on hellish articles of their own, all with a certain common thread.

So, if you are of strong courage, and willing to explore more of the levels of hell, with your faithful companions of the SBTU, here they are:

Between The Pages Blog - Hostess Comic Book Ads Were Hot Stuff

Magazines and Monsters: Bonus Episode! - Marvel Spotlight 12 & 13 (Damon Hellstrom)- with Charlton Hero! 

The Telltale Mind - Patsy Walker - To Hell and Back (and Back and Back...)

Source Material Comics Podcast - Batman/Punisher “Lake of Fire” - Evan Bevins and Jesse Starcher

Mark Radulich : Alternative Commentary on Hell Comes to Frogtown

Ed Moore: News Print Commando Rex Zombie Killler from Bad Dog Ink/Panda Dog Press 2013

In My Not So Humble Opinion - Savage Dragon Goes To Hell

Asterisk 51 Blog - Sunday school with… Hellboy?!?!?

Comics Comics Comics Blog - The Son of Satan and the preacher's kids - Will looks at Son of Satan and the Defenders. 

Superhero Satellite: Spider-Ham in the world of Licensing Hell!

Relatively Geeky Presents #43: Afterlife With Archie, issues 1 to 6.

DC On TV Superman Batman Wonder Woman

With a group of amazing heroes like they have at DC Comics, they seemed a natural fit for television audiences....


....here's a quick look at some of the earliest attempts to put Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman on your TV screens!

Adventures of Superman

Superman was the first, starting a television series "Adventures Of Superman" on September 19, 1952 and the half an hour episode of "Superman On Earth", which summarized the destruction of Krypton, Clark Kent growing up, and coming to Metropolis to work at the Daily Planet.  After that, for the first two seasons in black and white, Superman had much more of a noir feel, fighting gangsters (and switching from season 1's Phyllis Coates to Noel Neill for the rest of the show), with George Reeves filling out the role of Superman (and Clark Kent, with a wink and a smile) through all 6 seasons.  As the show was in color starting with season three, there were more fantastic menaces, and threats were more accidents caused by professors than anything else, until the show ended with its 104th episode on April 28th, 1958, with "All That Glitters" (and Lois and Jimmy getting in on the super-powered fun!).

In the comics at this time, Superman used a mental image viewer he found to check out history of Krypton (luckily, the viewer he found was his father, Jor-El's, viewer). 

In Superman #113 (May, 1957), with "The Superman Of The Past" by Bill Finger, Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye (and the last two also providing the cover of this full length tale), Superman found his father was an adventurer on Krypton, saving the planet from the queen of the Vergoans, Latora, and her plans to destroy Krypton (Latora wasn't totally evil, as she chose Krypton because it was already doomed....so, after defeating her and her robot army, Jor-El was able to return home to warn his people, though that didn't do any good, unfortunately!).

Batman

Batman was next on people's TV screens, with the series of "Batman", starting on January 12th, 1966 with the half-hour episode of "Hi Diddle Riddle" (followed by its conclusion the next day, "Smack In The Middle").  Batman and Robin pulled double duty their first two years, having two episodes a week, with the first usually involving a cliffhanger, to be resolved the next night (at the same Bat-time, same Bat-channel).  Adam West's Batman was a much lighter hero than Superman, and he had Burt Ward as Robin and Alan Napier as Alfred to confide in.  Batman also fought villains from the comics, including the Riddler, Penguin, Joker, Catwoman, Mr. Freeze and the Mad Hatter, as well as creating a few of it's own criminals like Egghead, King Tut, Shane, the Bookworm and more.  In it's third season, it was reduced down to one night a week, but added Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) to the mix, before the show ended its run with the episode of "Minerva, Mayhem And Millionaires" on March 14th, 1968, having 120 episodes (and one theatrically released movie in between seasons one and two).

Batman comics at the time had a "new look" that had started in Detective Comics #327 (May, 1964), with a much more exciting art style by Carmine Infantino, replacing the Bob Kane look from earlier years (and adding a yellow circle around Batman's chest bat-emblem). 

This proved important in the second story of Batman #183 (August, 1966) with "Batman's Baffling Turnabout" by Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff and Sid Greene (under a cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson), as a crook tried to take advantage of Robin to get into the Batcave by disguising himself as Batman, not knowing he was using the old costume design!   Holy costume malfunction, Batman!

Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman arrived on TV with her original look on November 7th, 1975, as "The New, Original Wonder Woman" (differing itself from an earlier attempt with a blonde Wonder Woman earlier), and moved from telemovie to a series, with Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman, who saved World War II pilot, Major Steve Trevor (played by Lyle Waggoner, who was almost Batman in the 1960s series), and returned him to Man's World from her Paradise Island, taking on the persona of Wonder Woman to fight crime, Nazi spies and aliens (while working with Major Trevor as Yeoman Diana Prince), with a very comic book looking series (at least for the first season).  The series moved to a different network for its second and third season, with the immortal Wonder Woman returning to Man's World to help Steve Trevor Jr. (still played by Waggoner), with Diana and this Steve working for the IADC (Inter-Agency Defense Command), but still fighting leftover Nazis, criminals, aliens, and even a few mad scientists (though never any of the many foes Wonder Woman faced in the comics) to the end of her 60 one-hour episodes, ending with the "Phantom Of The Roller Coaster, Part 2" on September 11th, 1979.

Wonder Woman had been renewed a few times in the comics even in the 1970s, and by the time of the 1980s, Wonder Woman had lost her powers, watched Steve Trevor die (twice), and had him returned to her twice (and regained her powers along the way).

With all this revamping of Wonder Woman, her foes needed a little help as well.  Kobra (a cult leader villain who briefly had his own title in the 1970s, and was more famous for having fought Batman, Aquaman and Superman before this), took Deborah Domaine, the niece of Priscilla Rich (the original Cheetah, who was dying), and transformed the girl into the new Cheetah, with a slightly new look and hoping she's be more than a match for Wonder Woman (but, it didn't work out that way) with "One Super-Villain: Made To Order" in Wonder Woman #274 (December, 1980) by Gerry Conway, Jose Delbo and Dave Hunt, under a cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.

Comic book TV shows evolved, just as the comic books did over time...and more television shows followed, based on your favorite DC characters (and more looks in on them are coming soon!).  

Remembering Noel Neill and Lois Lane

Taking a moment to remember Noel Neill (November 25, 1920 to July 3, 2016).


Noel was most famous for playing Lois Lane in the two Superman movie serials, Superman in 1948 and in Atom Man vs. Superman in 1950 with Kirk Alyn as Superman...

...then coming back to the role starting with the first episode of season 2 of the Adventures of Superman, "Five Minutes To Doom" on September 18, 1953 and playing Lois until the end of the series, with "All That Glitters" on April 28, 1958, with George Reeves as Superman.

Lois Lane premiered in Action Comics #1 in 1938 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, as a female reporter that Superman/Clark Kent was fascinated with.  Over the years, the character developed, getting two tryout issues of Showcase (#9  with a cover by Al Plastino and #10 in 1957), leading to a 137 issue Lois series that started as the Adventures of Superman show was ending (and, Lois' series didn't really end, as much as fold into Superman Family, which continued on with Lois's adventures, alternating with Supergirl and Jimmy Olsen).  Lois Lane even had two annuals, the second of which from the Summer of 1963 with a cover by Kurt Schaffenberger featured a story on Noel Neill!

But, that wasn't the entirety of Noel's time with Superman.  Noel returned in a small part playing Lois Lane's mother (with Kirk Alyn as Lois' dad) in Superman the Movie in 1978, and playing a part in a Superboy episode with Jack Larson (Adventures of Superman's Jimmy Olsen),  with Gerard Christopher as Superboy called "Paranoia" in 1991.  Noel even made it into Superman Returns in as the woman Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor swindled out of her fortune (and made you want Brandon Routh's Superman to beat Lex that much more!).

Better still, Noel was active with the Superman Celebration in Metropolis, IL, where they dedicated a statue to her version of Lois Lane in 2005.

As you can see, Noel smiled a lot.  She seemed a very happy person, as many people have been reporting since news of her passing.  She embraced being a part of the Superman Family, as the family of fans embraced her.

Lois was the woman who stood behind Superman to help make him super, and Noel was the first woman to bring Lois Lane to life, and she was super!