From: esti@quads.uchicago.edu (Paul A. Estin)
Subject: Re: superman
Reply-To: esti@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: U. Michigan Cognitive Psychology
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 08:07:54 GMT

Snark concurs strongly with Michael's recommendation of Alan Moore's
"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" Superman story, then gets
down to replying briefly to Alan's comments...

In article <722414144snx@redunser.demon.co.uk>
mtemplar@redunser.demon.co.uk writes:

>There is of course, the (in)famous case of Readers vs Robin, or more
>specifically Readers vs Jason Todd's Robin, since chronicled in "A Death In
>The Family". In summary, readers were presented with Robin being feared dead
>at the mid-point of the story, and were offered the chance to choose whether
>he lived or died, with DC producing a different continuation of the story
>depending on the outcome. (note: I'm trying to spoil potential enjoyment of
>this particular story).
>
>The result was a resounding "let him have it!"

Resounding?  Hardly.  I forget the exact percentages, but it was a
*very* close vote (about 1% or so difference).  And, given that
there's probably an 'extremism' bias leading more of the people who
wanted him dead to actually call in than those who didn't, I'm
somewhat surprised it was even that close.

>To be fair, Jason Todd hadn't gone down too well as the replacement for the 
>original Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson. But even so, the result came as a shock to
>DC.

Probably true, though their official line was otherwise.  (Hmmm.. it
does say something, though, about *some* mainstream-DC readers, circa
1990.  I'd hate to take the bloodthirsty die-Robin-die voters to see a
production of Peter Pan...  imagine what would happen when they get to
the point where everyone has to clap in order to make Tinkerbell live
again. :-)

>If Superman's 'death' is just a stunt, to allow DC to redesign and redeploy
>the Man of Steel, as it were, fair enough. (Tho I don't know how he 'dies',
>so my decision would be conditional on a thumping good story to mark this
>event.)

(A) It's not a good story, I have it on reliable authority of two
friends whose opinions I trust.  Mike has already provided some good
reasons why it's lousy (not a classic villain, not a clever means of
killing but just a punch-out, not a sacrifice worthy of such a legend,
not well-told in any case).  I'm not buying the trash myself.

(B) Your decision might also depend on how good the redesign of
Superman turns out.  Recent rumors are not encouraging, that the new
Supes will be more like the popular (relatively) new DC character
'Lobo' (who's kind of like Rambo in terms of violence and attitude).
See rec.arts.comics.misc for details.

>But if it ain't a stunt... well, it will be a sad day for comics, leaving the
>Dark Knight to carry the DC torch - not that that would be bad in itself, mind
>you, Bats is more than up to that task, but Supes has always been the
>undisputed number one, and for him to fall from grace after such long service
>would be a great shame...

I no longer read any mainstream DC comics, because one by one all the
titles I used to read have disappointed me.  (The Mature Readers title
_Sandman_, on the other hand, is still great!)

-----
There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe
everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.
  -- Alfred Korzybski

Paul Andrew Estin
estin@csmil.umich.edu  estin@um.cc.umich.edu  esti@amber.uchicago.edu
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