From: tyg@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Thomas Galloway)
Subject: DC: SUPERMAN: '92 Editorial Plans
Reply-To: tyg@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Thomas Galloway)
Organization: Interleaf, Inc.
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 23:10:28 GMT

The following information was obtained from the DC Editorial Presentation
book for '92. It was produced for distributors and dealers, and this should
be kept in mind where I quote some of the hype/marketing direction for some
items. Books are spoiled in various levels of detail, usually just future
guest stars and general plot directions, so the meat is after a ^L

This post deals with the various Superman books, and has spoilers,
particularly for what DC will be hyping as a major event and is either going
to bomb spectacularly or be pretty interesting *if* they can pull it off. And
it's a pretty big if.

MAN OF STEEL ARCHIVES is scheduled for September and will reprint the Superman
stories from Action 7-25 (the material in the first 6 has already been printed
in the Superman Archives).

METROPOLIS SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT is scheduled for 1st quarter '93 by Cindy Goff
and Jackson Guice. It's a 4 issue mini- which focuses on the SCU and
introduces a new villain Noah who is opposed by Terra-Man. Lois Lane will be a
guest member of the SCU and Superman will appear. It's mentioned that "Maggie
Sawyer will be confronted with problems in her personal relationships"...maybe
they'll finally use the word lesbian with regard to her instead of hinting
around it.

SUPERMAN SPECIAL is a retelling of the Quarmmer "sand Superman" story from the
early 70s as done by Walt Simonson, scheduled for 4th quarter '93.

SUPERMAN titles will have several arcs dealing with things like a
Blaze-Satanus war, and will end with the death of Superman in a four-parter
which will have 4 panel pages in the first issue (Adv of Supes #497), 3 panel
pages in the second (Action #684), 2 panel pages in the third (Man of Steel
#19) and splash pages in the finale (Superman #75). Afterwards, we get to see
the body, the funeral, attempts to succeed Superman, etc. Hopefully they'll
refer to the classic imaginary stories of The Death Of Superman to see how
it's done. Black armbands with the S symbol will be worn by DC staffers at
personal appearances.

SUPERMAN will also have a promising sounding two-parter. Clark overhears one
of his neighbors being abused by her husband via super-hearing, but can't do
anything about it within the law. Waverider will be joining the Linear Men.

ACTION will have STAR Labs rebuilt outside Metropolis and have Kitty Faulkner
return after the last issue of Starman (given that Roger Stern is writing
Action, this follows). Stories in Action will focus on Lex Jr. and Supergirl.

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN will focus on people of Metropolis, as well as Pete
and Lana. There will be a "It's a Wonderful Life" type story where Kal sees
paths not taken, and a story guest-starring the Forever People. After Clark's
funeral, Pa Kent has a heart attack. #500 will be a special doublesized
issue (hmm...3 issues after the death of Kal...gee, I wonder what might 
happen there).

MAN OF STEEL doesn't have all that detailed summaries. Mainly Tim Drake will
meet Superman for the first time as they battle a vampire. There's also a
story about members of Brainiac's army and escapees from Cadmus living below
Metropolis. 

WORLD'S FINEST is a trade pb of the three issue series by Gibbons and Rude.
It ships in November.

"This must be the Red Sox' year. Statistics of the last 75 years prove that
the Sox always win the World Series one year after a Russian revolution."
  --Dan Shaughnessy
tyg  tyg@hq.ileaf.com

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