Comments on: A Year of Cool Comic Book Moments - Day 17

By: Semsu

Semsu — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:16:06 +0000

Great moment, but if have to choose between "Burn" moments, I still choose the one from Preacher (hope that appears in this great list). I choose Alan Moore over Garth Ennis any time, but in this particular case, I have to say that the Preacher "Burn" moment tops this one, specially due to the buildup.

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:11:11 +0000

The most noteable improvement JLU made over this issue is the gifts Bats and WW gave to Supes. It never seemed right that Batman gave Superman a flower.

"Whom would it be polite to kill first," deserves it's own awsome moment write-up.

By: G

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:24:10 +0000

Some of them, at least. I still love this feature, though!

By: G

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:21:43 +0000

I also believe in giving credit where credit is due because various issues and articles of Wizard is where I first heard about these cool moments.

By: G

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:16:58 +0000

Supergirl repeats the classic "Burn" scene (done to Lex Luthor) in an issue of Superman/Batman.

By: G

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:06:07 +0000

I agree with you guys that the way the "Burn" line was said on JLU didn't capture the way it is in the book. I always felt Superman said it calmly, like the Mad Monkey states, but still full of rage or anger. Like he's saying it through clenched teeth.

By: Torsten Adair

Torsten Adair — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:00:56 +0000

Kal-El's wife is the soap opera actress he met when he time traveled back to Krypton. Is there a hint of Lois/Lana? Could be...

By: Bill K

Bill K — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 04:17:12 +0000

Must be a candidate for best panel featuring heat vision of all time, no?

The part of Batman's fantasy in this story where his dad takes the gun away from the mugger "with no trouble at all" brings tears to my eyes every time I read or even think about it. Like now. Sniff.

By: Paul1963

Paul1963 — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:58:28 +0000

As soon as I saw "Moore moment" and "Superman annual," my first thought was "Burn." And, yeah, the reading of the line in the JLU episode was completely wrong.

By: David

David — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:23:18 +0000

YAY! I knew you'd include it.

By: David

David — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:14:44 +0000

YAY! I know you'd include it.

By: Rohan Williams

Rohan Williams — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:52:09 +0000

Definitely my favourite Moore DCU story. Morrison's recent 'Last Rites' two-parter reminded me of it a lot. Actually, most of Morrison's recent stuff is heavily influenced by Moore, isn't it?

By: Caradoc

Caradoc — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:05:30 +0000

great issue full of great moments "burn" is great I'll paraphrase a couple others as I don't have the book with me "almost intelligent" is the best Jason Todd moment "mm. why don't we do that more often" "I don't know. Too obvious perhaps?" totally sums up the Why Not of Superman and Wonder Woman

By: Jacob T. Levy

Jacob T. Levy — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:28:36 +0000

To be honest, the imperfection of Kal-El's fantasy always jars me in this story, because I just don't think we're given an in-story explanation of it or even theory for it. Doesn't just seem like him fighting off the Mercy, because things start off pretty badly . Seems a little like the Mercy just sets up a counterfactual "what if?" based on the victim's wishes, but then the story plays out according to what really would have happened-- but that's weird and doesn't fit with anyone's explanation of the flower. But: hell yeah. "Burn," "clean thoughts,""polite," Mongul's fantasy, "you're not real"-- it's filled with fantastic moments, once we accept that for some reason Krypton is screwed up. Moore, here and in WEHTTMOT, was the first writer I ever read to really show that heat vision was a scary power. Until then it had always been either the obverse of super-breath (just a way to turn the temperature up) or a pair of space-opera-looking laser beams bouncing around off force fields or space ships.

By: MarkMc

MarkMc — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:12:05 +0000

I thought Batman's fantasy in the DCAU version of the story showed little Brucie started to get scared of his father as the beatdown of Joe Chill just goes on and on. A bit more complex part of Batman's soul, I thought, a fear of giving in to the violence he fights against.

By: The Mad Monkey

The Mad Monkey — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:25:24 +0000

Yes, this is easily one of the best Superman stories ever done.
It was even translated well into the JL cartoon.
Except...
The "burn" in the cartoon just wasn't as emotionally powerful as it was in the comic.
As you can see in the page above, Superman is just over-flowing with rage and wants nothing more than to hurt Mongul...but, still, he keeps his voice calm and collected. And, you can still feel the anger in that single word.
In the cartoon, the word is yelled and it really kind of takes away from the mood of the whole scene.

By: Jeff Ryan

Jeff Ryan — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:17:54 +0000

I was always tickled by Mongol's fantasy when he has the flower attach to him: simply killing everyone. Read the story without the red-tint to let you know what's fantasy, and it's a story about Mongol successfully killing everyone.

By: Kamino Neko

Kamino Neko — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:12:29 +0000

Editing the story so it fit into a half-hour episode improved it.

I disagree - cutting Robin didn't help (or hurt), the TV format hurt the effect of Mongul's fantasy, and Kal's Kryptonian fantasy...the TV version was just...too shiny. One good thing to come up in the adaptation, though, was the addition of elements of his real life to his Krypton fantasy - his wife being a pretty obvious amalgam of Lois and Lana and his being a farmer, specifically. I've always hated when the comics downplay the effect the Kents and the other aspects of his life on Earth have affected him. Even if he left Krypton late enough to remember it...even if he developed his powers in childhood...he was still raised as a Kansas farmboy, who fell in love with multiple human women, befriended many humans... Krypton is his homeworld, but Earth is his home, and it's silly to think his experiences here wouldn't shape who he is, and what he considers a 'good' life.

By: FuriousGeorge

FuriousGeorge — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:15:33 +0000

Very cool story. Reading it, you can't help but think that this is what would have really happened if Krypton never exploded and Kal-El grew up there. It's a little depressing to see the results.

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:25:09 +0000

I'd always taken the lack of perfection in Superman's fantasy to be an effect of his subconscious fighting the effects of the plant. There are for me three top moments in this story - all of which have been mentioned alread - "Clean thoughts chum", "I'm afraid you're not real" and "Burn". For the Man Who has Everything still tops this story for me though.