COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Superman 423 Modern
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Grade:
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9.8
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Certification #:
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4002867002
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Owner:
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The Captain
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
September, 1986
"Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?"
Alan Moore - Writer
Curt Swan - Penciler
Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson - Cover Artists
George Pérez - Inker
Gene D'Angelo - Colorist
Todd Klein - Letterer
Dick Giordano - Executive Editor
Julius Schwartz & E. Nelson Bridwell - Editors
Synopsis:
One day in 1987, Superman returned from space to find Metropolis had suffered major damage, which Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen said came from Bizarro. Superman enters a wrecked department store and confronts Bizarro, demanding an explanation for all the death and destruction. Bizarro explains his reasons to Superman: he had recently realized that all these years, he has not been a "perfect imperfect duplicate", and so he took the necessary steps to fix that. Realizing that Superman came from an alien world that was destroyed by a natural accident, Bizarro destroyed Bizarro World then attempted to destroy his own birth world starting with Metropolis. Then, realizing that Superman never kills anyone (even bad people), Bizarro went on a killing spree through the city, murdering several innocent men, women, and children. Finally, Bizarro states that since Superman must live, then he himself must die. He holds up a chunk of Blue Kryptonite and presses it against his chest, fatally exposing himself to its poisonous radiation. Bizarro bids a final cryptic farewell to his longtime rival, then quietly passes away from Kryptonite poisoning, leaving Superman, shocked, confused, and saddened over what has just happened.
Following this bizarre incident, Clark Kent gets ready to join his co-anchor Lana Lang in the WGBS news room when he receives two packages. The first smaller package is a group of Superman action figures that come to life, firing deadly heat-vision beams. The production crew watch as Clark Kent is attacked by the action figures' heat vision, figuring that he would never survive, when they saw that they exposed his Superman identity to them. The action figures now also speak in the voices of the Toyman and the Prankster, the two villains behind this attack. They have Superman open up the second package, which contains the dead body of Pete Ross, whom the two criminals have extracted information about Superman from. Superman finds out where the two criminals are hiding and bring them to justice, but as his civilian identity is now compromised, he fears that as the villains who were nuisances to him were becoming killers, he can only wonder what will become of those who are killers.
Notes:
-George Perez GCG Label.
-The story is continued in Action Comics #583.
-Superman in "Superman" a brief overview of the Superman comic book by E. Nelson Bridwell on the inside front and back covers.
-This is the final issue of the series under its original print run. The numbering sequence continues as Adventures of Superman (Volume 1). In 2006, the series reverted back to its original title beginning with issue #650.
-This issue is reprinted in DCU: The Stories of Alan Moore, Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, DC Universe by Alan Moore and Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? Deluxe Edition.
-Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? was originally published as an imaginary story, a story outside of regular continuity. In Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium, it was retconned as having happened on another Earth, (Earth-423). It takes place in the year 1997. The two-part saga is intended to represent the "final" Superman story, but does not actually take place within canonical Earth-One history.
Trivia:
-Regardless of DC's editorial intentions, this "final" Superman story was presented by DC as being an "Imaginary Story", a Silver Age convention, revived especially for this occasion, that served to tell "What If?" stories that would have been considered series-killers if they were to happen in the "real" continuity of the comic.
-The cover is a homage to the covers of the first eight Superman Annuals.
-The Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Compendium would retcon all Imaginary Stories as happening on various other Earths and therefore out of continuity for Earth-One.
-The story opens with a brief legend that ends thus: "This is an Imaginary Story... Aren't they all?"
Quotes:
"He never told me exactly what happened that night before the siege began, but as soon as I saw him the next morning, I knew something had upset him. He looked funny. He looked as if he'd been crying." —Lois Lane Elliot
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