Each Monday this year I'll be taking a look back at a random comic, prestige format issue, graphic novel or collection of reprints from amongst my 3,000 or so comics that date from 1962 to 2003 - I figured anything in the last ten years would be too recent to hark back to.
The comics are chosen completely at random and apart from a four week lead-in period, even I don't know what I'll be looking at in the weeks to come!
SUPERMAN & BATMAN: GENERATIONS 3 #8 - October 2003
Just sneaking into the list from late 2003 comes this issue of John Byrne's third foray into the real time adventures of Superman and Batman. Using their first appearances in 1938 and '39 as a starting point, Byrne had previously written two four issue prestige format series featuring the heroes' adventures - and those of their children - over the following years, allowing all of the characters involved to age in real time. When he came to writing the third story, it was placed into a twelve issue comic series, perhaps to save on costs.
The third story spanned centuries of real time and featured a plot by Darkseid to attack the Earth time and again but going backwards in time. There's a great conversation between Darkseid and Granny Goodness explaining how it all works:
Darkseid: Though my troops will be moving into the past, that past will not exist until they create it!
Granny: You mean . . . an attack on the Earth in their twenty-fourth century will not be remember by humans of their twenty-fifth century . . . because the attack in the twenty-fourth century will not have happened yet??As the series progresses forwards, however, by the time issue #8 comes round, we've already been seeing the attacks in reverse order!
It's a nice conceit and Byrne's art is always a delight. And if you're wondering who the young man is fighting on the cover . . . well, that turns out to be a young Pa Kent who's got a beef with an established DC Western character:
Yep, only in an Elseworlds tale would Pa Kent face off against Jonah Hex!
That was my favourite issue of that series. Although I was never keen on Byrne's plot thread that depicted Scott Free and Metron wandering in the USA for a century or so prior to Mr. Miracle vol 1. issue 1. What was the point of that?
ReplyDeleteHa! No idea, Dougie! I enjoyed Byrne's work on these series, though.
DeleteI love John Byrne's work. These are some comics I intend to read at some point.
ReplyDeleteAlways like Byrne's art and the Generations stories aren't bad - he has the freedom of an Elseworlds to enjoy himself and the characters and he doesn't disappoint.
DeleteI hunted these all down last year...quite fun! I think Generations I and II can be read in a couple of differnet orders. Might give that a try during the inevitable re-read!
ReplyDeleteI've wondered before whether Byrne wrote or at least plotted out the whole thing before writing it or if Gen I was a success and then he had to squeeze Gen II into the years in between and hope he didn't trip up over himself!
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