Comments on: Nostalgia November Day 03 — Superman Annual #3

By: Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources

Nostalgia November Archive | Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:04:43 +0000

[...] November Day 01 — The Punisher 2099 #1 Nostalgia November Day 02 — Batman: Shadow of the Bat #63 Nostalgia November Day 03 — Superman annual #3 Nostalgia November Day 04 — Batman annual #15 Nostalgia November Days 05 — Transformers #57 [...]

By: Rob R.

Rob R. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:25:27 +0000

Ricardo: Beetle became the Stupendous Silverfish in that annual. Yes, the Stupendous Silverfish.

Not one of Ted’s proudest moments.

By: azjohnson5

azjohnson5 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:37:10 +0000

I stand corrected.

By: Craig M.

Craig M. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:37:30 +0000

Actually, the Action Comics annual for Armageddon 2001 is the one where Superman becomes president. I know this because I have that one. The Adventures of Superman annual is the one with Maxima.

By: azjohnson5

azjohnson5 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:30:17 +0000

Really shold have used the Action Comics annual for Armageddon 2001 instead. I loved that one. Young Bryan Hitch as the artist, Lois killed by Superfetus, Suerman’s self-imposed exile into space, banging Maxima, loved that annual.

By: Ricardo

Ricardo — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 01:16:08 +0000

One of my favorite stories of all time was on the Justice League America annual, where Captain Glory dies and the future of Blue Beetle as Silver Moth (?) is shown. Extremely touching scenes for me.

By: The Mutt

The Mutt — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:05:09 +0000

Armageddon 2001 was one of my favorite Annual themes.

As to the greying temples, I was rocking the Reed Richards by the time I was forty.

By: Dan Bailey

Dan Bailey — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:22:30 +0000

Same here, Michael D. The Annuals &, even more (since I didn’t start reading comics with anything approaching regularity till mid-’67), the 80-Page Giants that followed them, are pretty much my favorite comics of all time.

By: Michael D.

Michael D. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:43:14 +0000

I might be showing my age, but when I think of Superman Annual #3, I think of the Silver Age gem that has various stories featuring Superman’s numerous transformations. My favorite was the one where Superman “reveals” his true face to Lois-an Alfred E. Neumanesque face. I guess that was DC’s response to MAD’s infamous “Superduperman” parody.

By: Chad Nevett

Chad Nevett — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:25:42 +0000

What’s funny is that the story has since been retconned so that Captain Atom did become the Monarch.

By: Wraith

Wraith — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:57:37 +0000

Ha, here we go, good old Wiki:

Apparently Dan Jurgens has noted that “there was a 900 service that somebody setup that supposedly gave you inside secrets of the comic book industry. And somewhere along the line, that 900 service started saying that Monarch was going to be Captain Atom.”

Man. I remember Marvel had its own “insider” line for a while, which I called up. That always cracks me up, too, it was like the web was straining to be born just ahead of the necessary technological infrastructure.

By: Wraith

Wraith — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:38:53 +0000

Ah, “Armageddon 2001.” Man, what a great title.

Not a bad story concept, either, in fact I’d say as these things go it was pretty promising. You had a relatively simple, but compelling, main narrative, which nonetheless provided lots of license for each crossover issue to do its own story; moreover, these were all “Elsewords” stories so, as you point out, they could really cut loose.

Remember when Marvel and DC did big events that ran through all the annuals like this? (Remember when they HAD annuals on any kind of regular, systematic pattern? No…? Darn kids.)

It’s also really kind of amusing to consider the fact that the villain’s identity was changed because of a leak… and this was 1991, well before the World Wide Web. How DID the information get around, actually. I sure don’t recall (I was 13 and while I actually did buy a few parts of this story, I was mostly reading Marvel and moreover not at all plugged in to comics news at that point.)