2 Supermen, 3 Luthors and an Ultraman

I always loved how the pre-1986 DC Universe handled their Golden Age and Silver Age characters. When superheroes resurged in popularity beginning in the late 1950s, DC brought back many of their Golden Age heroes, but with altered origins, costumes and alter egos. In fact, the Golden Age versions of these heroes are specifically called out as being comic book characters, so are fictional within the Silver Age DC reality.

But of course we would want to see the different versions of these characters interact. So we were eventually given the DC Multi-verse. The Silver Age heroes live on Earth 1. The Golden Age heroes live on Earth 2, one dimension over.  Through either super-science or a use of specific superpowers, the heroes would often visit each others' realities. There was a Justice League (Earth 1) and Justice Society (Earth 2) annual team-up.

In a few cases, the two Earths had versions of the exact same characters, though the Earth 2 versions would be a few decades older. Superman, for instance, began his career in the late 1930s on Earth 2, but a younger version of Clark came around a few decades later on Earth 1. There's a Lex Luthor on each Earth as well, though the Golden Age one isn't bald--because Lex in his early Golden Age appearances wasn't bald.

Writer Marv Wolfman and artist Rich Buckler has a lot of fun with all this in the first DC Comic Presents Annual (1982). This was a team-up book, in which Superman teamed up with a different person each issue. This time out, he teams up with himself.

The story starts off on Earth 1, with Superman having to take down his version of Lex Luthor, who is up to his usual shenanigans.

Superman, though, had to cut short a date with Lois to deal with Lex. He apologizes later, but also explains that the world needs him. He simply doesn't have proper time to handle relationships.

That leads up directly into one of the themes of this issue, which Wolfman handles nicely with well-written, intelligent dialogue. When the action jumps over to Earth 2, we see the older Superman there dealing with a threat from his Lex. He also takes down the bad guy, but, we are also reminded that this Man of Steel has married his Lois. So, by golly, you can save the world and still have time for a relationship!

As an action-adventure superhero story, this is a strong issue, which expertly juggles multiple versions of three major characters across three different realities while mixing in lots of exciting action. But the juxtaposing of a hero who has resigned himself to never having time for a wife with a hero who is happily married gives the tale a solid emotional backbone.

Anyway, you have to wonder why the authorities on either Earth bother putting their Lexes in jail. Soon, both have escaped and switched places. Earth 1 Lex goes after Earth 2 Supes and visa versa.

Both fail, with Earth 2 Lois getting a Crowning Moment of Awesome when she saves her husband. This leads to the one part of the story I'm not comfortable with. The two Supermen decide the only way to stop the Luthors from escaping again and causing more havoc is to put them both in a formless Limbo dimension. This bit of extra-judicial action doesn't fit Superman's M.O.

To be fair, I do get that they are aggravated with the perpetual escapes and sincerely concerned with innocent bystanders being endangered. And besides, the Luthors figure out how to escape from Limbo in no time flat regardless.

All this allows for a brief pause in the action as the two Supermen have a discussion about relationships, with the older hero making some great points in favor of allowing time for marriage.

The Luthors, in the meantime, have escaped to Earth 3, where Superman is a bad guy called Ultraman and the local Luthor is a good guy. So we soon have two evil mad scientists and one evil Kryptonian fighting one good scientist and two good Kryptonians.

The action sequences that follows is enormous fun, with the good guys using their powers and scientific devices in clever ways to defeat the villains and stop an off-the-rails Earth 2 Lex from destroying several Earths.

There's a nice but if characterization for Earth 1 Lex here in his shock over Lex 2's plan to destroy their respective home worlds. He doesn't want to go that far, in part because of his sister and in part because he's not quite evil enough to go along with genocide. But when presented with a chance to kill Superman, he puts his concerns on the backburner. Killing Superman will always be his driving force.

With the bad guys defeated, Supes 2 returns to his wife. Supes 1, though, loses a chance to talk to his Lois when she leaves for Europe on a assignment. Poor Earth 1 Superman can't catch a break.

This really is a great tale. It's well-constructed and we never lose track of the different characters or on which Earth any one of them is occupying at any one time, while the exploration of whether a Superman has time or the right to have a life outside of being a hero is fascinating.

Next week, it's back to World War One to fly with the Phantom Eagle.