I remember being amused that there were sometimes back-up stories featuring "The Private Life of Clark Kent!" I guess Superman was so popular that not only his supporting cast but also his non-costumed secret identity got to have solo features. The stories were fun though, and the writers were usually able to sneak some super-heroics in there despite Clark remaining in civilian clothes.
I do like the old Kent but why did they decide to bring him back? Whats the value?
ReplyDeleteMy favorites were the tales of Clark Kent's days as a journalism student in college. The one I particularly remember? A female explorer from a parallel universe who had secretly had a crush on Clark...comes back to attend a class reunion!
ReplyDeleteUtterly off the wall and totally wonderful.
ReplyDeleteBut what is Clark's true destiny? A sequel (sequels?) are definitely called for...
Some of the backups were standalone filler which DC Comics paid for in case another artist could not be complete in time but I liked them.
ReplyDeleteAt a convention a long time ago I talked to an artist displaying a page of original art who was paid for work but never saw it in print and he said he was disappointed but that is how some beginning artists got break - even though not published it was something in their portfolio comic editors saw.
Is this why the Watcher was pitting the FF against the Spectre in STF #4241? To keep the Spectre from going after Evil Gangster Clark long enough to restore the rightful reality?
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's good to see our favorite superheroes dealing with matters in their daily lives. Seeing reporter Clark Kent, CSI Barry Allen, physicist Dr. Ray Palmer, and such rounds out the characters just as much as seeing photojournalist Peter Parker or high school student Kamala Khan. There was even an issue of The Vision and the Scarlet Witch where we actually got to see Stephen Strange practice medicine.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that Marvel never drew an instance where Dr. Donald Blake medically collaborated with Stephen Strange. Oh, well! Water under the bridge (and all that jazz).
ReplyDeleteJudging by Clark's "You'll never take me alive!" and the fact that he's carrying a gun; my theory is that Clark ISN'T Superman in this timeline; and Uatu is trying to show Clark that he's supposed to be the World's Greatest Hero.
ReplyDeleteThe left side of this cover is from a Superman two-parter (Mort Weisinger's last), an off the wall "Imaginary Story" in which Jor-El, driven mad by Lara's death, destroys Krypton and escapes to Earth with his young son Lex-El. Lex grows up to be Superman, and his arch-enemy is Clark Kent, son of the infamous gangsters Johnathan and Martha Kent.
ReplyDeleteNice to see Clark back again. Reading him by Wayne Boring was almost like watching the 50's show. Curt gave him so much more humbleness. But John Byrne made him huge, but still easily bullied(?). Now, if they could bring back Linda Lee Danvers, that would be something.
ReplyDelete@Tobor: You'll have to talk to her sister Carolyn about that.
ReplyDelete;-)
I remember one where the men and ladies at WGBS/The Daily Planet had a bowling night. Clark gave himself a hypnotic block to prevent him using his super strength in order for the game to be fair and to avoid relying on his usual “Clark the Klutz” schtick. Something happened — the alley may have caught fire or there was an earthquake or something — and Clark was trapped under debris. Unable to remove the hypnotic block, he hypnotized Lois into removing the debris. (Who knew super-hypnotism could give someone not only great strength, but prevent a super-hernia!)
ReplyDelete@Anon546: you should see the old "Night Gallery" episode where Burgess Meredith plays a prison inmate who gets hypnotized by a con artist cellmate into thinking he's an airplane pilot. Talk about mind over matter!
ReplyDelete@Anon1114: I don't like it that reruns of the one-season wonder "Sixth Sense" (w/Gary Collins) were butchered down to half an hour by video-editing just to fit in with NG's reruns.
ReplyDelete