Superman #356 [1981] (Random Comics Theatre)

Random Comics Theatre

Superman #356 [1981]

This is right from the start of the era that I became a serious comic book fan, trying to buy every new issue of each series I was enjoying, instead of the scattershot approach of earlier times (and around the time I could go solo or with my older brother to the various local newsstands instead of going every few weeks with a parent). My run of SUPERMAN from that time begins five months earlier, with #351, and lasts about four years.

The title was in a fairly well-worn groove by that point. Cary Bates had come in as a Superman writer back in 1967 and written the character steadily ever since in various titles, returning to the main title a few issues earlier after a run on ACTION COMICS. That sounds like a long time until you realize that Curt Swan had been drawing the character in various books continuously since 1950, and it was probably a rarity in the 30+ years since then that more than a month went by without a Swan-drawn Superman story. Even the inker, Frank Chiaramonte, had been Swan's main inker for over three years.

So I'm saying, these guys knew what they were doing when it comes to Superman comics, maybe as much as anyone but his creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel...

This issue features the return of Vartox, an alien super-hero who had returned every few years since his 1974 debut, also by Bates and Swan, and not coincidentally the same year Sean Connery starred in the movie ZARDOZ. Look it up, if you dare. This time Vartox comes to Earth and secretly enlists Superman's help to figure out what's really happening on a planet which has tricked him into being their champion. Their plan involves Superman pretending to be an enemy of Vartox and fighting him, which fills the action quota for the issue, and leads to the conclusion next issue.

Pretty decent stuff. While in retrospect not my favourite era of Superman by any of the creators, it was exactly what I wanted to read when I was ten. Not sure how I'd feel about it if it didn't have the heavy odour of nostalgia wafting from every page.

The back-up is a "World Of Krypton" short, which has very little to do with Krypton, and I suspect might be a repurposed generic science fiction short from one of those anthology titles. Especially since it's written by Paul S. Newman, one of the most prolific comic book writers of all time, but one who did very little work for the super-hero lines. On the other hand, his earlier "Krypton" story from a few issues earlier was more related to established continuity, so who knows. It's pencilled by Jose Delbo, a solid journeyman artist in the middle of a long run as WONDER WOMAN artist, and inked by Kim DeMulder, a then-recent Kubert School graduate. A real meeting of generations. It's solid, but unspectacular.

Cover is by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano, so, y'know, very Neal Adamsy.

And since I was looking it up, it seems my reading list from the time was pretty mainstream. From DC, in addition to SUPERMAN, I was getting ACTION COMICS, NEW TEEN TITANS, LEGION, BATMAN, DETECTIVE COMICS, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, DC COMICS PRESENTS, WORLD'S FINEST, JUSTICE LEAGUE, GREEN LANTERN, FLASH, SUPERMAN FAMILY, ADVENTURE COMICS, and SUPERBOY. From Marvel my reading was FANTASTIC FOUR, MARVEL 2-IN-1, AVENGERS, X-MEN and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN.