I really enjoyed this episode! Thank you! I recall reading “The Strange Rebirth of Jor-El and Lara!” at the time, and I was surprised that there was no mention of the Superboy story (“Superboys’ Darkest Secret!”) in Superboy #158 (cover dated July, 1969) which the Boy of Steel finds his Kryptonian parents floating in space in a rocket that had been turned to kryptonite. I think, though, that DC had decided to quietly “forget” this story. I was good to see Superman begin to suspect that something was “off” about the fact that the Phantom Zone criminals didn’t display their expected hatred to Jor-El, reminding readers that he’s not just a “dumb strongman”, but a thinking hero.
In the Superman Annual, I enjoyed seeing Luthor in his battle armor one more time. I was intrigued by the idea that Luthor’s “goodness” and “trustworthiness” activated the self-destruct in the battle armor, since Luthor had proven those qualities to me, at least, way back in Superman #164 (cover dated October, 1963), after his first visit to the (then-unnamed) planet which would later be called Lexor, he gave himself up to Superman and got (a re-powered) Superman to launch ice mountains back to the planet to created desperately-needed reservoirs of water. Of course, Sentinel-One (the energy spine) wouldn’t know that, since that happened after Superman and Luthor had left the planet, but we longtime readers would remember.
The Heroes Against Hunger was a good story dedicated to an important idea, that didn’t provide a quick, facile solution to a tangled and difficult problem, which kind of reminded me that, during World War 2, Superman, in the comics (except on the covers) didn’t usually fight the Axis powers, which would have been disrespectful to the service members who were fighting and dying in the real war. Also, again, we got to see some of the “good” side of Lex Luthor, which I always like to see.
I found the Heroes against Hunger to be okay. I always enjoy Jam type books and wasn’t really impressed by the Marvel now that just had the X-men as the protagonists. Even the DC version should have included many of the other DC heroes to juice it up. Both versions are sad because at the end , there’s no solution.
2 replies on “SiC 58 — Rebirth! (05:22:1986)”
I really enjoyed this episode! Thank you! I recall reading “The Strange Rebirth of Jor-El and Lara!” at the time, and I was surprised that there was no mention of the Superboy story (“Superboys’ Darkest Secret!”) in Superboy #158 (cover dated July, 1969) which the Boy of Steel finds his Kryptonian parents floating in space in a rocket that had been turned to kryptonite. I think, though, that DC had decided to quietly “forget” this story. I was good to see Superman begin to suspect that something was “off” about the fact that the Phantom Zone criminals didn’t display their expected hatred to Jor-El, reminding readers that he’s not just a “dumb strongman”, but a thinking hero.
In the Superman Annual, I enjoyed seeing Luthor in his battle armor one more time. I was intrigued by the idea that Luthor’s “goodness” and “trustworthiness” activated the self-destruct in the battle armor, since Luthor had proven those qualities to me, at least, way back in Superman #164 (cover dated October, 1963), after his first visit to the (then-unnamed) planet which would later be called Lexor, he gave himself up to Superman and got (a re-powered) Superman to launch ice mountains back to the planet to created desperately-needed reservoirs of water. Of course, Sentinel-One (the energy spine) wouldn’t know that, since that happened after Superman and Luthor had left the planet, but we longtime readers would remember.
The Heroes Against Hunger was a good story dedicated to an important idea, that didn’t provide a quick, facile solution to a tangled and difficult problem, which kind of reminded me that, during World War 2, Superman, in the comics (except on the covers) didn’t usually fight the Axis powers, which would have been disrespectful to the service members who were fighting and dying in the real war. Also, again, we got to see some of the “good” side of Lex Luthor, which I always like to see.
I found the Heroes against Hunger to be okay. I always enjoy Jam type books and wasn’t really impressed by the Marvel now that just had the X-men as the protagonists. Even the DC version should have included many of the other DC heroes to juice it up. Both versions are sad because at the end , there’s no solution.