The Subs look back at the Superman Time and Time Again arc. Starting with Adventures of Superman 476, Action Comics 663, Superman 54, and Adventures of Superman 477, they follow Superman as he is unstuck in time, meeting the Legion a few times (but WHICH Legion?).
Hi guys
There are so many reasons to love Time and Time Again. Some of the best writing and artwork of the period (at a time when the ‘Image’ look was forming as the new hot thing).
The Superman books were never better. Dan Jurgens never seems to get the acclaim he deserves for really crafting the modern Superman (before Jeph Loeb and Geoff Johns sent his character right back to the 1970s!)
Here we show an extremely mature Superman taking Lois into his confidence and properly wanting to talk about their relationship. And then there’s the great scene of Lois not wanting to wait at the window when there’s a news story to be found.
Then we get Dan’s baby Booster Gold being shown as a competent, if maybe outmatched, hero. My only regret is that the scene of him going for help (to Rip?) didn’t get followed up.
I’m not sure this story broke DC’s ‘rules’ on time travel that badly. Time Masters established that every method of time travel can only be used once, but since it was shown here that only massive amounts of energy that only Superman could survive could do the job… it’s not that much of a stretch. We can just put it down to Rip Hunter not knowing everything he thinks he does. The point was always that time travel was now extremely difficult.
The Legion appearances were excellent and much needed. The 5 Years Later Legion wasn’t always making it clear that most of the Old Legion history was still intact. And showing that this old & grizzled Legion still had a brightly coloured youth was a good idea.
If I had to nail down an exact placing for the sun eater episode, I’d put it precisely between Superboy 202 and 203. Wildfire didn’t get his new name until 202 and the non-reaction to Superman’s mention of Invisible Kid means it should go before one Invisible Kid’s death in 203.
It was always a joy to see the Justice Society… sorry… Battalion again in these dark days when the team was in limbo (literally!). It was also good to see that it was an era-appropriate line-up. So many JSA flashbacks (post Roy Thomas) would get those details wrong and show Flash and Green Lantern or Wildcat, or put Sandman in the gas mask rather than the purple and gold. There was one horrible tale that had Black Canary with them during the war. And here they even got Hawkman’s mask right!
And how many times do you get dialogue like “Excuse me…Is one of you a clown?”
Looking forward to the rest of the story and revisiting it from the Archie’s perspective in 2023 or so!
Cheers