“Superman and Ultraman”

Shawn Hill:

Thom Young:

Plot: Megistus reveals himself to the Challengers, while Ultraman comes up with the worst way possible to ask for Superman’s . . . help?

Shawn Hill: Now this is more like it! Leave it to Waid to pull out all the stops when the focus is squarely back on the Kryptonian side of things. The Silver Age fun quotient that characterizes this title continues with Ultraman playing a clever (if sadistic) practical joke on Clark’s workplace, and Waid conjures up a vision of Clark’s world gone askew to rival similar scenes from Morrison’s All-Star version.

Throw in a.) a bizarrely polite inter-dimensional imp who actually makes use of vowels in his name, b.) enough exposition to quickly refocus some long-simmering plot threads, and c.) a seamless replacement of George Perez’s stunning detail with Jerry Ordway’s solid anatomy and sense of drama, and you have the makings of a classic Superman story.

Played beat by careful beat, this is territory Waid knows well enough to execute in his sleep, but this issue feels far from phoned in. Instead it’s vital, beautiful and amusing.

Thom Young: As you can tell from my bullet rating, I agree with you for the most part--though I think this feels more Bronze Age (1970s) than Silver Age. As I mentioned in our joint review of the previous issue, I still think the Megistus arc is playing out far longer than it needs to--much longer than it would have been allowed in the 1970s with the exception of Denny O’Neil’s original “Ras al Ghul Saga” (and those weren’t always in consecutive issues). However, even though I think the arc is dragging on, this was a very enjoyable issue.

Shawn Hill:The appearance, attitude and actions of the Challengers give me a sixties feeling, not a seventies one. Even though other aspects mix and match different eras up to the present day. When Waid relaunched the Legion of Disgruntled Teenagers, he talked about a “soft reboot” if I recall correctly, meaning this was a new version with unspecified differences and similarities to previous eras.

I think he’s continued that concept with every character in this series, so that he can mix and match whatever he thinks is needed from their entire character history, not just their most current versions. It’s a hodge-podge, but so far a fairly clear one, one with simple plots leaving room for both serious and humorous character work.

Thom Young: Yeah, you’re right. As I pointed out in our previous review, Waid was definitely drawing from the late 1950s with the stories in the last issue. I’m really enjoying this hodge-podge, but there isn’t the type of intellectual depth in the story that would allow me to rate it five bullets according to my personal rubric.

Yet, there was still a lot of fun to be had in reading through this issue--not the least of which is Ordway’s work as an illustrator. He’s the Curt Swan of his generation (with “his generation” being more concerned with presenting textured drawings than was Swan’s generation).

Of course, anyone who saw the cover of the issue knew that the Clark Kent slugging Steve Lombard at the beginning of the story had to be Ultraman, but it was still a fun bit to read. I was confused, though, which Ultraman this was. I expected it to be the All-New Ultraman from the All-New Earth-3 that was introduced in 52--but instead it seems to be the Ultraman from the antimatter Earth 2 that was introduced in Grant Morrison’s graphic novel JLA: Earth 2.

Shawn Hill: That is an important question, especially considering how concerned this series has been with a.) the Silver Age, b.) iconic versions in the classic mold, and c.) some aspects of current continuity. Illogically, I often revert in my mind to my first introduction to a character when they are revisited, and my first introduction was in Secret Society of Super-Villains, where the Crime Syndicate was on Earth-3 and Ultraman was powered by kryptonite.

When the Legion of Super-Heroes appeared in Brave and the Bold, they were the current version that was being written by Waid at the time and that are still being explored by Jim Shooter. The last appearance of the Crime Syndicate I’m aware of (outside of what was hinted in 52) was in a Busiek JLA arc with art by Ron Garney. Where they were the kinky, hardcore Grant Morrison version.

Thom Young: Yeah, the other possibility would have been for it to be the original Ultraman from the Silver Age Earth-3--the one you remember from Secret Society of Super-Villains. Of course, that Ultraman supposedly died in Crisis on Infinite Earths, but he may have survived and took refuge in the Bottle City of Kandor in the Fortress of Solitude of New Earth’s Superman (if I remember a confusing Supergirl story correctly).

Oh, and that would be the Bottle City of Kandor that is not from Krypton rather than the Bottle City of Kandor that is from Krypton.

Whew! I don’t know about you, but I think I’m ready for an All-New Crisis to clear up this continuity mess. Perhaps Megistus will see to it.

Shawn Hill: Next issue does seem to be a big battle tying a lot of threads together. I’m not sure whether it’s meant to be the last. There’s also a bit of confusion over which version of Metamorpho Megistus possessed in this issue. He was called Rex Mason, but he looked like the cloned Metamorpho introduced in Judd Winick’s Outsiders a few years back.

Thom Young: Yeah, but he also looks like the Metamorpho in the first issue of the current Outsiders, and I thought that was Rex Mason--but I’m really not up to date on Metamorpho continuity.

Anyway, the reason I was trying to figure out which Ultraman was appearing in this issue is because at least one of those three Ultramen (All-New Earth-3, antimatter Earth-2, and Original Earth-3) gained their powers from kryptonite, as you indicated, rather than from the yellow sun. That concept factors into this issue when Megistus turns the sun green by throwing Green Lantern’s Battery of Power into it.

However, rather than try to figure out whether Waid made an error by having this Ultraman get his powers from the yellow sun, I just went with the story. I particularly liked the part where the erudite Mr. Mixyezpitelik began to revert to the impish insanity of Mr. Mxyzptlk because he had spent too much time in the positive matter universe.

Shawn Hill:I think what I loved most about this aspect, aside from Mr. M. being an agent of Order, was that spelling which included all the vowels--mostly because that’s the exact phonetic pronunciation I always used in my head.

Thom Young: I recall reading somewhere in something “official” from DC, that his name is supposed to be pronounced that way. In any event, despite my enjoyment of this issue (and the previous), I’m looking forward to the Megistus story ending with the next issue.

Shawn Hill: Will you be very disappointed if Megistus doesn’t tie into Final Crisis in some way? Death of the New Gods does seem to be carefully setting up Grant Morrison’s endgame for the Fourth World, but it’s still not clear whether the point of this series has been just to revisit many of these iconic old-school properties or if Destiny’s book plays into a larger unfolding tapestry.

Thom Young: No, I won’t be disappointed. I was just being facetious when I said that Megistus might bring about a crisis to straighten out the confusing continuity over how many Ultramen and Bottle Cities of Kandor there are running around on The All-New Earth-1. Well, Bottle Cities don’t “run around,” but you know what I mean.

As I mentioned when we reviewed the previous issue, though, I will be disappointed if Megistus doesn’t turn out to be a new major villain in the DC universe--something akin to Darkseid and the Time Trapper combined.

Shawn Hill: From the cover it looks like we’ll at least see most of our major featured players once again. I like your description of Ordway as a textured draughtsman. He’s certainly as capable of the absurdity of Mr. Mixyezpitelik as he is the subtle social interactions of Clark’s office life. And the humor of Ultraman being scared of his orderly foe and unable to ask for help from his doppelganger is well-played.

Thom Young: Yeah, I’ve always liked Ordway’s work, and it was a nice continuation of the “Old School” approach that Waid, Perez, and Wiacek have taken with this series. This was a very enjoyable issue. There wasn’t much depth to it, and it may or may not have some continuity problems. However, it was a pleasant story that evoked the 1970s but didn’t feel like a period piece.

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