DC Comics
Creators: Bob Rozakis, Denys Cowan, Dick Giordano, Anthony Tollin and Shelly Leferman, Rich Buckler, Joe Giella, Milt Snapinn and Jerry Serpe
Release dates: April and September 1981
Last time, we spoke about a backup story in Superman No. 353 titled "The Secret Origin of Bruce (Superman) Wayne." I compared it to the 1990s Elseworlds one-shot Superman: Speeding Bullets.
It turns out there was a series of rotating backups in the Superman title in 1981-82, all written by Bob Rozakis, that looked at different eras and takes on the familiar Man of Steel mythos.
"Superman: The In-Between Years" looked at the time immediately after a young Clark Kent graduated from Smallville High School but before his move to Metropolis to attend college.
"The Fabulous World of Krypton" segment looked at life on Superman's native world before its destruction.
"The Adventures of Superman 2020" followed the adventures of the Superman we know, now aging and graying; his adult son, Superman Jr.; and his teenaged grandson, just starting in the hero business as Superman III or the Superman of 2020.
Later in 1982, "The Private Life of Clark Kent" series from several years prior was revived.
I'm sure each of these backup series have fans. But for my money, the best of them was the world imagined in "The Secret Origin of Bruce (Superman) Wayne." Two subsequent Superman issues returned to that world. The first, the backup story in Superman No. 358, asked readers to "Just imagine … 'A Day in the Life of Bruce (Superman) Wayne.'"
A brief, four-panel recap of the first tale from Superman No. 353 refreshes readers' memories of how baby Kal-el's rocket from Krypton lands on the outskirts of an early, smaller Gotham City. The infant is found by patrolman Jim Gordon and taken to the Waynes, who decide to adopt the child. The boy grows and begins exhibiting strange powers and abilities, which the Waynes disclose to Gordon. The three adults keep the secret and mentor the boy until his 21st birthday, when young Bruce saves his father from an assassination attempt by mobster Lew Moxon. Thus begins the career of Superman.
The "Day in the Life" story takes place an unspecified amount of time later, deals with Superman thwarting a group of terrorists trying to blow up a plane that his adoptive parents happen to be on, and discloses more information about the dual life led by Bruce Wayne after Superman's debut. For instance, when not wearing his Superman uniform, Bruce disguises himself in much the same way Clark Kent does in the traditional DC Universe, by wearing glasses and combing his spit curl back.
Jim Gordon is now police commissioner of Gotham and has a signal device — much like Jimmy Olsen's signal watch in regular continuity — that he uses to alert Superman to trouble. When Bruce receives such a signal, he simply focuses his super-hearing and super-vision on police headquarters so Gordon can talk directly to him. There's no real explanation of how Gordon knows Bruce is ready, but I imagine this wasn't meant for that kind of scrutiny.
The most interesting change for me, was seeing Bruce Wayne's day job, working in a book store named the Book Cellar with his girlfriend, Barbara Gordon. Despite being Jim Gordon's daughter, Barbara obviously knows nothing about her beau's secret identity. It is also pretty clear that she has little use for Superman.
I admit this choice on Rozakis' part regarding a day job for Bruce Wayne seems an odd one to me. As the adopted son of millionaire parents, I wouldn't think Bruce would need to work at all. But let's say that his parents and their friend Jim Gordon have instilled a sense of civic responsibility in young Bruce, which is obvious from these stories. How else do you explain Bruce's ultimate decision to adopt the guise of Superman to help people unless that is the case? But then why work in a book store? I'm guessing the decision was made simply to work Bruce's closeness to Barbara into the stories, but wouldn't their growing up together accomplish that? Really, I'm not complaining or trying to belittle the work; I love these stories. This just struck me as an odd choice within the stories.
Getting back to the narrative at hand, when the commissioner alerts Bruce to the terrorist danger, the Kryptonian creates a rather elaborate ruse to leave the Book Cellar and go into action as Superman. After thwarting the terrorists, Bruce returns to the Book Cellar only to have Barbara challenge his reasons for leaving.
"No hold on, Barbara … you may think that's a reason to suspect I'm Superman … ," Bruce begins. But Barbara cuts him off with a different accusation.
"What on earth are you talking about?" she asks. "You're meeting another woman behind my back … ."
Way to almost blow your own secret identity, Clark — er, Bruce! This was a nice callback to regular continuity where Lois Lane is always trying to prove that Superman and Clark Kent are the same person. But in this case, we are given no real reason other than regular continuity to explain why Bruce makes that leap in logic. But again, this is a minor quibble.
Next, in Superman No. 363, the backup tale is a story called "A Night in the Life of Bruce (Superman) Wayne." Oddly enough, both covers from these two issues show Superman flying over the skyline with a Bat-signal-like "S" light shining in the sky, but such a device is never used in any of these stories.
The splash page for this tale includes another four-panel recap, then a large single panel showing the wedding of Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon. A turn of the page reveals that one year has passed since that wedding, and the now Mrs. Bruce Wayne is watching a videotape of the ceremony and reflecting back on her wedding day. Her musings lead her to recall how Bruce finally revealed his secret to her at the start of their honeymoon.
Bruce telling Barbara that he is Superman does not go as he expected. Barbara tells her new husband that she expects him to retire from his costumed exploits now that he is married. Bruce is shocked until Barbara explains her reasons, that while he might save a life here and there thwarting crime on the streets, he could better serve humanity by using his super-intellect to create a cure for deadly diseases. Hearing her rationale, Bruce agrees and announces Superman's retirement to the world.
Back in the present, Barbara is regretting her decision for a number of reasons. While Bruce has succeeded in curing a number of common human ailments, he spends nearly all of his time in his basement lab working, to name just one reason. Things get worse when Barbara's private thoughts are interrupted by a phone call from Police Chief O'Hara. Commissioner Gordon has been shot and killed.
Barbara cries out in shock and pain, and Bruce rushes to her side. When she fills him in on what has happened, Bruce quickly dons his Superman outift and explains that he will fly back in time and prevent the tragedy. Superman's attempt to change events fails when he emerges in the past as only a ghostly image — a fact that is explained using great comic-book science — but he does manage to learn the identity of Gordon's killer — Lew Moxon.
Back in the present once again, Superman tells his wife the news and promises to at least catch Moxon and bring him to justice. Barbara stops him, telling him that she realizes now that Superman was a symbol Gotham needs to keep criminals at bay. She says that she has decided to be that symbol now, and she will catch her father's killer — as Batwoman. Thus, out of tragedy, a new World's Finest team is born. These three little tales were a great, fun diversion, a glimpse into how things might have been, and I wouldn't have minded reading a few more of them. Alas, as far as I know, these were the only three such Bruce (Superman) Wayne stories from this era. While the other backup features continued on from this point, it seems like the return of "The Private Life of Clark Kent" replaced this one. At least until Speeding Bullets came along.
