#479 Some of the greatest Superman stories (or not)

Superman death in issue 149
FLASHBACK! There’s no doubt that Superman is one of the most significant characters in the history of American comics. He ended up setting the template for what would be the dominant genre in American comics after the Comics Code came into effect. Of course, the types of stories told in those comics, and their tone, has varied wildly over the years, which makes it difficult to try to determine which stories are the best of the lot, but naturally people make the attempt, including DC Comics itself.

This week Kumar and Tim look at the 1980s collection “The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told”, as well as Alan Moore’s “Whatever Happened To the Man of Tomorrow”, which is currently being published in a collection with two other Moore Superman stories. Are these actually the greatest Superman stories?

Featuring Batman’s superior party prep skills, swimming the interplanetary water spout, and the symbolism of the ads in the original printing of “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow”! *Choke* (Originally published December 28, 2015.)

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#787 Jack Kirby’s “OMAC”: The World That’s Going

The run of Jack Kirby’s OMAC: One Man Army Corps was bright but short, lasting only through eight bi-monthly issues. This time Tim and Emmet discuss issues 5 through eight, covering a shocking, brilliant two-parter, another two-parter that brings the series to a crashing halt, and more evidence that Kirby was great at wild ideas, but naming the characters might have been better left to someone else!

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#786 Jack Kirby’s “OMAC”: The World That’s Coming

One of Kirby’s late efforts at DC was OMAC: One-Man Army Corps, which focuses on “the world that’s coming”: what miracles, and horrors, technology would bring. Of course, some of it seems ridiculous, but other parts seem prescient. Tim and Emmet discuss the book’s crazy Kirby concepts — or are they crazy?

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#783 Jack Kirby’s “Kamandi” #35-37: Off the deep end

Kamandi 35

Jack Kirby reaches the end of his writing run on Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth. After top-shelf stories about a Soviet spacecraft and an “eviction battle” in a resort hotel with crocs in the pool, Kirby’s swan song leaves something to be desired, with an … uncomfortable plot point, and myriad threads dangling. Tim and Emmet discuss the good, the bad, and the downright ugly.

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#777 Jack Kirby’s “Kamandi” #29-31: “Up, up, and away!”

Kamandi #29

As we continue through Jack Kirby‘s 1970s issues of Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, Tim and Emmet keep slowing down! In this episode, nearly 30 minutes go into discussing Kamandi’s encounter with Superman’s (inexplicably undamaged) costume, and so only three issues, 29 through 31, are examined, but what issues they are! Kirby also references Gulliver’s Travels here, and… wait, didn’t we see this on a Queen album cover? Well, it’s not quite that simple….

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#774 Jack Kirby’s “Kamandi” #24-28: Havin’ a look-see for some fight-fight

While Kamandi‘s exorcism story in issue 24 leaves something to be desired, never mind that: the subsequent four issues, as discussed in this episode, deliver the kinds of interesting concepts we’ve come to expect, as Kamandi and Ben visit the Dominion of Devils, fight Sacker’s Co. and their environment-destroying activities, and find out what the intelligent animals of Europe have been up to. Oh, and there are flying sharks!

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#773 Jack Kirby’s “Kamandi” #19-23: On to Monster Lake!

Kamandi pt 3

In this segment of Jack Kirby’s Kamandi series, we visit a version of 1920s Chicago that seems to be drawing on, or prefiguring, various other pop culture stories, and then move on to Monster Lake, home of intelligent, talking — and sometimes romantically inclined! — dolphins and killer whales. Kirby’s war experience again figures in a story, perhaps a fantasy about what he’d have liked to say to a warmongering general. Tim and Emmet try to get their sea legs for some very wet stories.


Jack Kirby, from Kamandi issue 1

Don Ahe

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#770 Jack Kirby’s “Kamandi” #11-18: Kliklak forever

Kamandi This week we continue our look at Jack Kirby’s run on Kamandi, another of the DC properties he created. Tim and Emmet find that issues 11 through 18 include a giant insect, a violent horse race, another standout issue in the mode of issue 7’s King Kong story, a clue as to how the animals became intelligent, and more.

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#767 Jack Kirby’s “Kamandi” #1-10: It’s a knockout!

Kamandi

If you can’t get the rights to Planet of the Apes, do the next best thing: get Jack Kirby to come up with a concept that’s Apes-adjacent! That was DC Comics’ strategy in the early ’70s. What resulted was Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, a series with multiple intelligent animals lording over caveman-level humans, and plenty of sci-fi elements and references to the Apollo program and other features of real life in that era. Join Tim and Emmet exploring the significance of the multiple intelligent mammals, the Kamandi drinking game, and more.

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#766 “Time Breakers”

In most time travel stories, there’s an imperative to fix any paradoxes created by the time travel. But in Rachel Pollack and Chris Weston’s Time Breakers, paradoxes are embraced rather than explained away or repaired. This week, Kumar and Emmet discuss this five-issue 1997 miniseries, the most popular series of DC’s canceled imprint Helix.

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