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But that man's face? Something so eerily familiar. That nose, that chin, that hair. He recognises that man. That man who activated the machine. His executioner. Something beckons him to show him the horrors he unleashed. Unknowingly punished Kal-El to the sins of his father.

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It doesn't matter when you entered. Decades, centuries after his imprisonment. The Phantom Zone doesn't understand time. All it knows is that this man has been subject to ever mutation and twisted his every cell. Punished for his twisted crimes, after a millennia, he's forgotten everything.

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But if you're truly unlucky, you'll see a figure over the hill. One that's very real, and approaching. It looks humanoid, but it's limbs are too long. It's knees bend at the wrong angle. It's features, don't make sense. Adorned in bandages and a tattered red cloack: The Phantom King.

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The dimension is cast with a looming sense of paranoia. The winds sound like screams, in every fog and reflective lake you'd swear you'd have seen eyes. Silhouettes fading in and out of view. It's like a terrible nightmare, except its not your dream.

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The Zone itself is a place that could drive even the strongest of wills mad. It's a realm cast in monochrome, caught in an eternal storm. Its physics incomprehensible as landmasses drift apart and through each other, mass has no concept. Motion has no rules.

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The Phantom Zone Projector is the Kryptonian Atom Bomb. A device that taps into a power man should never have had access to. Harnessing an eldritch power for utilitarian purposes, its what happens when you undermine an authority. They'll do anything to show who's in charge.

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Think it'd be cool to read through his entire history chronologically because he's the only one of the main 6 I've basically read zero comics for

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Wes Craig, Dike Ruan, DWJ and Marco Checchetto

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Swan Songs is one of my favourite comics of all time, Arcade Kings is a really simple but fun story and Deadly Class is just a phenomenal book.

I was considering starting Uncanny X-Men, but I never got around to it. X-Men still feels impenetrable to me no matter how many times I try to get into it

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This story's got a cool classic myth structure where Diana has to fetch an ancient item in order to save Themyscira (from aliens but that's aside the point) and faces the typical trials and tribulations. It's fun.

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Spider-Nerd @spidernerd.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

I'm not a fan of Silver Age Wonder Woman because the front half of it is just Wonder Tot, Wonder Girl stuff which I'm not a fan of, and then the latter half is the super-spy stuff which I'm REALLY not a fan of but there is a handful of gems in there

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Show your comic taste with 4 different comics

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Spider-Nerd @spidernerd.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Was not at all expecting this but got one of those JL cards in my package today

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Now I hesitate to deem this a full analysis of the story. I barely discussed Immortal Man and The Blackhawks, nor the other villains of the story. I wanted this to serve as a thematical analysis and as a way to highlight why this reinvention works so well.

But as the prophecy would foretell, the blood spilt of an immortal would awaken the ancient deity. Just as one war would come to a close, another would begin. The conflict never stops, the "never ending-battle." For mankind, the rage of war will never truly die.

You'd think this would be the celebration no? The big bad has been defeated, his armies to be left in dissary with no leader? But on one front, each member of the team has betrayed themselves. Forgot what made them, them. The heroes are left just as lost.

However not everything can be conquered by determination alone, as when we catch up to Immortal Man, he's facing down Vandal Savage. Two similar beings, embodiments of developing worlds, one motivated by destruction, the other protection. Eventually 'Morty strikes down Savage.

That creeping fear of destruction, that worry that five years of conflict was worth nothing. But then, at the darkest hour, Abin re-emerges and strikes down the creature. Its that undying human spirit to keep fighting, personified ironically by the alien of the group. He is will.

It sets the tone for the story as being one of desperation, after everything else has seemingly failed, they're on their last legs, and their motivation is running out. Complimented by the literal fear bug chasing them, it creates this oncoming sense of tension.

Abin is in a slightly different camp to Al and Fate, as we don't spend much time with him in the story so his presence is more of one felt rather than told. We open the time skip with the warning of Surr's death. The greatest hope they had, has been snuffed out.

Lost relevance personified as lost identity. But nothing seems to work, their plan goes awry and they're in the jaws of the beast. But that's when a familiar chant reenters the picture, and Abin Surr rises to the challenge.

His biggest fear is that, Kent Nelson may not even exist. That the classic adventurer that flourished nothing short of five years ago is now nothing but a metaphorical husk for the helmet to possess. That idea of the pulp hero has faded out.

Doc Fate has undergone a similar loss of morale in the years gone by. As the incarnation of fear Parallax continues to pursue our duo, Fate comes up with the idea to confront their fears, and here we get some insight into his character.

Al joined up in the war effort and it costed him his face and his values. The average Joe forced to sacrifice what he stood for when facing an unparalleled threat. Its almost heartbreaking to see how the optimistic youth has jaded into the man he is now.

But then, Al manages to go toe-to-toe with Blockbuster. But in the ensuing fight Al kills him. The one thing he swore never to do. It shakes him to his core and he comes away feeling lost and distraught. This five year conflict, five years of constant pressure, and he snapped.

Jump five years ahead, and the first thing we see of Al is him being severely wounded, disfigured and going into shock. This was, and is the reality of many soldiers of war but they may never get the chance to have a Doc Fate to nurse them back to health.

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Al Pratt in this story is a great example of "the average man". He's no older than eighteen at the start of the book, wide eyed, priding himself on his morals and ready to "join-up" with other heroes, this specific language used to parallel with enlisting for the military.

Doc takes Al to his operating table, the hero mutilated. Fate tells tales of Nix Uotan, a god of the former world who waged an eternal battle and was imprisoned. That's before Blockbuster bursts in, as the Atom gets up to go for a second round against the mammoth villain.

Cut to 5 years later (just one short of the 6 years WW2 ran for might I add) and things have not turned out well. Cities in ruin, disasters breaking out across the world, and when we catch-up with the S.O.S, we find Al Pratt blasted through a door and Abin Surr supposedly dead.

The other heroes are also privy to Pulp style reinventions, setting a stage of a retro style world of heroes coming together for the first time to face a looming threat of war. In sounds like the makings of a classic superteam story. But things don't exactly go to plan.

This becomes most apparent with "Doc Fate", who's name is clearly in homage to Doc Savage. The dual pistols, the rocketeer jacket and his status as swashbuckling adventurer clearly aligns him more with characters like The Phantom or Savage himself.

Now what's especially interesting about it's chosen characters, is that much like the JSA's contemporary position as the heroes from before icons like Superman and Batman, they are placed more stylistically among the pulp heroes of before Superman's inception.

The book really isn't subtle with it's analogues. The book's opening is set just after "The Great War" and on the precipice of another. Between that, it's 1930s aestethics and its use of generally War-Time characters, it's really not hard to pick-up.

The story sees the heroes of Earth 20: the titular Society of Super-Heroes facing off against an invasion from villains of the "Counter-Earth" Earth 40. However, just beyond the surface of multiversal adventures and pulp stylings is an examination of the effects of mainly, WW2.

S.O.S was a one-shot released as a part of The Multiversity, written by Grant Morrison and pencilled by Chris Sprouse. The issue explores Earth 20 of the 52 Earths on the Multiverse Map in a world clearly brimming with 1920s and 30s elements.

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Society of Super-Heroes. How War Ruins Good People. A Thread.

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I like that a lot, it reinforces Clark's sense of longing and loneliness as well as Barry's comic book nerd-ness. I also think it'd be interesting if Clark ended up being closer to Jay out of any of them, since they both share concerns about their legacy and guilt over those they couldn't save.

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