A very special Action Comics story

The Day Superboy Became Superman!

• Story: Geoff Brown
• Pencils: Ross Andru
• Inks: Mike Esposito

Here's the story from the second half of Action Comics #393, so if you missed the riveting recap...click here. You're here now though, so strap yourself in for one of the most over-the-top, overly dramatic Superman yarns around.

This tale definitely doesn't lose any time getting to the good stuff, as Superboy turns his back on the downtrodden in the slums of Metropolis as he has better stuff to do.

Wow, one semester at Metropolis University and he has already misplaced those mild-mannered, mid-western values that Ma and Pa Kent instilled upon him.

"Bleeding heart"?!

That's right, and it doesn't take Superboy long to show just how hardcore his new found beliefs really are.

Do you have neighborhood punks sneaking into your exclusive pool?

No problem...Superboy will just freeze them out.

Do you have neighborhood punks sneaking into your swank university cafeteria and eating all of your sandwiches and donuts?

No problem...Superboy will just take the food back from the hooligans starving younger siblings.

Do you have neighborhood punks stealing books from your library?

No problem...Superboy will take the books back, leaving the kids from the slums who are hungry for any sort of knowledge with nothing but discarded cigarette packs and empty liquor bottles to read.

Lucky for us, there's one person willing to stand up to the social injustice and Superboy himself.

Marla was a fellow student with Clark at the university, but she left after she witnessed how the fortunate treated the downtrodden. So worked up was she, that she started an impromptu academy in the slums to teach the kids what society refused to do.

Unfortunately for her, after Superboy returned all of the purloined books to their proper location, her borrowed storefront turned makeshift academy was slated for demolition. Nothing stands in the way of progress as the bulldozers are soon hard at work tearing down her school. In fact, they were in such a hurry that they neglected to make sure the building was empty first.

Uh oh...and I'm sure you can probably guess who was inside the collapsing building.

To help drive the point home just how unjust the world is toward the less fortunate, her injuries are fatal and no superpowers in the world can help her now. If only there was someone who could rise up and help these kids learn their true potential.

Yea Superman! He's going to rebuild the school and the area around the slum!

...or he's going to show them just how quickly he could rebuild it, if he wanted to. "Luckily" for them, Superboy would rather teach them a lesson in civic duty so that they can vote and petition their politicians for the changes they need.

Who's the deluded one now Superboy?

I guess it was me, as the new found political voice of the huddled masses was successful in getting the changes they needed, and in mere months the school is finished and the slums rebuilt.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

It's a sad state of affairs when I can read a comic book and believe a man can fly, but when it comes to politicians listening to (let alone acting in the best interest of) their poor constituents...that's just too much.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) DC Comics

Related links for your surfing pleasure...

• If you enjoyed this look at Superman's past, be sure to check out Superman 101 for more of the same

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #6

TITLE: Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #6

PUBLISHER: DC

COVER DATE: January 2000

COVER PRICE: $2.50

22 pages


WHAT I REMEMBER...

I already covered most of what I remember about the genesis of this title and Geoff Johns early career here, as well as my blistering expose into Young Justice over here.

So what does that leave us to talk about before we get to the meat and bones of the review?

Not much, but we should point out that this is the second part of a two-part story guest starring Young Justice. At this point in the story, Stargirl and Impulse have been transformed into aliens while attempting to stop their invasion.

The Subs Part Two

• Writer: Geoff Johns
• Penciller: Lee Moder
• Inker: Dan Davis
• Colors: Tom McCraw
• Serperations: Heroic Age
• Letterer: Bill Oakley
• Editor: Mike Carlin

We pick up the story in mid-battle as Stargirl, S.T.R.I.P.E., and Young Justice are trying to subdue the group of aliens who have transformed both Stargirl and Impulse into aliens themselves. It appears to be just a physical change, as Courtneys's sarcastic teenage attitude is still in effect.

Superboy, meanwhile, lets his hormones do the thinking as he saves a pretty young bystander. He uses his tactile telekinesis to disassemble the gun that the alien was using to transform everyone. Realizing that the tide of battle is turning against them, the aliens teleport away.

The heroes decide to split up, with Red Tornado, Superboy, and Stargirl heading off to look for the missing members of Young Justice. That leaves S.T.R.I.P.E., Robin, Impulse, and Stargirls friend Mary to reverse engineer the ray gun.

Robin and S.T.R.I.P.E. are able to put the ray gun back together, but it's Courtney's friend Mary who manages to figure out how to make the gun work in reverse.

They don't have too long to be ably impressed, as Impulse's transformation takes a turn for the worse.

What was just a cosmetic change has now progressed to the next level. In full evil alien form, Impulse uses his super speed to snatch the gun.

Back at the alien's spacecraft, Red Tornado and his crew attempt to track down Wonder Girl, Arrowette, and the Secret. It's soon readily apparent that they've been transformed as well. With the now fully transformed Stargirl at their side, they make short order of Red Tornado and Superboy. Now taken into custody and transformed, things look bleak indeed for our heroes.

On board the alien spaceship, we learn that the Earth was just a proving ground for the alien's ray gun. Needless to say, with several transformed superheroes as proof, the test was a runaway success.

The next step of their nefarious plan is now ready, a live interstellar auction for the Life-Gun technology. Before the auction can begin, however, we find out the fate of Robin and S.T.R.I.P.E. as they approach the spaceship, now fullly transformed into aliens themselves. It would appear that Impulse was successful.

Appearences can be decieveing however, as Impusle sneezes and blows off the blue make-up that they were using to disguise themselves.

It's a trick!

Using their reverse-engineered alien ray gun, Impulse soon transfroms everyone back to human with his superspeed and it then takes only seconds before the aliens are on the run.

Just as they have the main alien cornered, they are unceremoniously ejected from the spaceship as it blasts off into space, leaving the heroes and their failed commander behind.

When things have settled down, Young Justice offer Stargirl a spot on the team to which she politely declines. After all, she is a card carrying member of the JSA by this point.

The issue ends with a bit of an epilogue, as the Dragon King and Shiv destroy the fleeing spaceship. No one invades their town, and now they are ready to take on Stargirl and S.T.R.I.P.E. themselves!

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

You know, it's funny, but Geoff Johns has been such a dramatic driving force for so long that I completely forgot that he used to be funny. This book was actually a lot of fun, being both lighthearted and briskly paced.

That's something we haven't seen from Johns in a while. From Infinite Crisis and 52, to Green Lantern and Blackest Night, he has been such a strong storyteller with the massive universe spanning dramatic stories, that it's a nice twist to see him have a little fun with a title.

It's also been a long time since I've seen any of Lee Moder's work, but his pencils here are the perfect compliment for the tone of the story. It's energetic, quirky, and also a lot of fun.

People always say that comics aren't for kids anymore, but I would have no problem letting my kids read this title. And the best thing? It had enought going for it that I enjoyed it too!

All in all, it deserves a spot on my bookshelf right next to Leave It To Chance, for just such an occasion.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) DC Comics

Related links for your surfing pleasure...

• Geoff Johns' official website

Young Justice justice?

So the current book up for review is Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. #6, which features a two-part story guest-starring Young Justice. While reading through the issue and working on my review, it was hard not to see just how much the characters from Young Justice have been changed over the last ten years.

And I'm not just talking about their appearance, although their costumes did have had some drastic changes.

For the most part, it's hard to find fault about their aesthetic changes. Poor Superboy, such a slave to the fashion of the time. Do you think that if he had been created during the 80's he'd have been wearing a Thriller jacket and parachute pants instead?

No, the big change has been on an emotional level with what DC has actually put these characters through in the last ten years. And remember, these are supposed to be kids. Granted their young teens, but they are still kids.

Which leads me to my theory about why DC refuses to collect the Young Justice series in trade paperback.

If they did, they'd have such wildly different versions of the characters on the shelf next to each other that they'd have to tacitly acknowledge exactly what they put those nice young kids through.