I’m not sure how I missed these issues of Action Comics the first time around. I like the writer (Geoff Johns), I like the artist (Gary Frank), and liked the main character, (Superman). Maybe it’s because we were starting a company? Maybe I was busy with something mundane, like cutting the grass or cleaning the garage? Beats me.
But when my wife and were at a cool bookshop that carried old books too – I snagged a few Big Little Books, another Whitman Young Adult book in their Freedom Series (I loved the first one I got and wrote about it With Further Ado #336 here.), and cheap but unread hardcover of Superman the Legion of Super-Heroes, reprinting a string of Action Comics Issues.
In this story, Superman is called to the future to help his childhood pals n’ gals, The Legion of Super-Heroes. Only it’s been a while since he visited their pristine, utopian future, and it’s not so utopian-ish anymore.
The set-up is that a fascist group of nationalists, have taken over the government and are determined to get rid of all the aliens! They are rounding them into detention camps and having a masked military round them up. There’s quite a bit of disinformation being pumped out in the future media too – they’ve convinced everyone that Superman (to them he’s a historical figure kind of like George Washington or Elvis) was actually an Earthman and not an alien. They’ve convinced everyone that Krypton was some sort of hoax!
As I type this, the current administration is sending masked National Guardsman to Los Angeles to round up people deemed undesirable and to quell protests. The Secretary of Health and Human Services just fired his CDC Vaccine Panel experts, and presumably there will be a “new truth” explained to us from that government dept.
Could Johns, Franks and original editor Matt Idelson have been more prescient?
It does tie into this theory I’m developing. I think comic fans are more resilient to the challenges of current news than non-comics readers. You see, comics people have seen it before. They’ve seen Robin Hood and Zorro fight against a corrupt regime, and keep a sense of optimism and mischievous humor along the way. We know about overwhelming odds from every Dr. Doom or Galactus story. We’ve all read a bunch stories like this Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes adventure and we just know that we will persevere. Eventually.
Thank you comics and pop culture for making me inherently hopeful.
Oh, and let me give a shout out to John’s and Frank’s latest comic – Geiger. It’s part of Ghost Machine and I’m loving every issue.
One more thing; This weekend was my 40th College Reunion. I can’t believe I’ve been out of school that long either. I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping in touch college friends. One old buddy I’ve drifted away from was Paul Haskel. He’s had a fantastic career as a lawyer in NYC, and I worked in NYC for years, so there’s really no excuse.
We caught up with one another at Reunion. It was wonderful. One thing we always had in common was a love for the Legion of Super Heroes. Now, you know by now that love all comics. Paul, on the other hand, was laser -focused on the Legion. I remember, when we’d go to a comic store during or right after college, he’d always find some obscure comic with a Polar Boy cameo or something. That was like hitting the jackpot for him.
It was great to see him at Reunion, but I think that we were the only two alumni talking about Polar Boy. Somethings never change.
PS: It doesn’t escape me that Superman meeting up with the friends of his youth is just like a college reunion on so many levels.
