Focusing on the backups

Superman Nos. 358 and 363
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.

Everything old is new again Vol. 2

Superman No. 353
DC Comics
Creators: Bob Rozakis, Curt Swan, Frank Chiaramonte, Milt Snapinn, Gene D'Angelo and Julius Schwartz
Cover Date: November 1980

I'm still making my way through that large purchase of old Superman comics from the 1970s and early 1980s as I have time. But I came across one story the other day that proved to be very serendipitous timing.

Let's back up. About three weeks before, I was talking comics with a co-worker who shares an interest in the hobby. I honestly don't remember how the topic came up, but I was asking him if he'd read an Elseworlds one-shot from 1993 titled Superman: Speeding Bullets by J.M. Dematteis and Eduardo Barreto. The vast majority of the Elseworlds titles from the 1990s were Batman-centric comics with a few Superman and Justice League titles thrown in here and there. This one had Superman right in the title, but seemed to depict Batman right there on the cover.

The story posits that the rocket from Krypton lands not in Kansas, but on the outskirts of a much smaller Gotham City. And instead of Jonathan and Martha Kent finding the rocket's sole occupant, young couple Thomas and Martha Wayne happen upon the child. Being wealthy and childless, they decide to keep the child and raise him in the seclusion Wayne Manor provides. Martha teaches the young boy about compassion and the need for those who are able to help those who are less fortunate. Thomas teaches the boy to care about the law and doing what is right. And they are a happy family until one night when the boy, named Bruce Wayne by his adoptive parents, is 9 years old. The family is leaving the theater when they are mugged by a small-time hood named Joe Chill.

The parents are killed, and the anger, hurt and pain that Bruce feels explode out of him in the form of hot death from his eyes, something that traumatizes the child even more. Guilt and shame consume the boy to the point that he forgets the details of what happened, and he lives in seclusion until he reaches the age of 21. More powers and abilities have developed in the meantime, but it is at this point that the Wayne's butler, and Bruce's surrogate father, Alfred, tries to help the young man by revealing what is known about his origins. The shock of seeing the rocket brings back the traumatic memories of the night Thomas and Martha Wayne were killed, and Bruce swears to take out his anger and loathing on the lawless as a creature of the night named Batman.

Bruce pursues that mission in the daytime by buying the Gotham Gazette and serving as its crusading publisher and in the night by brutally punishing all who would prey on others as the Baman. Only by making a new friend does Bruce come to realize that his brutal nighttime methods make him little better than the criminals he opposes, and he chooses to follow a different path.

Of course, I didn't recall all of those details in the conversation with my co-worker. It had been several years since I last read Speeding Bullets. But about a week after that conversation, I came across the book while going through part of my collection looking for something else. I re-read the issue, then took it to work to let my co-worker borrow it since he seemed interested and hadn't previously read the story. Then, just a few days later, I sat down to read Superman No. 353, the next in my stack.

Those familiar with the nearly 40-year-old comic might recognize that the page pictured at the top of this post is not from the main story. Rather it is an eight-page backup story from the issue titled "The Secret Origin of Bruce (Superman) Wayne," and I was happy to read a very similar — but also very different — story to Superman: Speeding Bullets.

In the 1980 tale, as in the 1993 one, the rocket from Krypton again (or previously) crashes on the then-outskirts of a smaller Gotham City. In this instance, however, the young baby Kal-El breaks out of the rocket on his own and begins to crawl toward town when he is spotted by a young Gotham City patrolman named James W. Gordon. Gordon makes a report to his desk sergeant, asking if anyone has reported a missing baby. Finding no such reports, he decides to take the child to his friend, Dr. Thomas Wayne, to ensure the child is uninjured. Dr. Wayne and his wife, Martha, decide to keep the baby until his real parents can be located rather than having the infant sent to an orphanage, and Gordon agrees. When no one comes forward, the Waynes adopt the child and name him Bruce.

True to Superman's earlier origins, this child from Krypton already has most of his future powers even as an infant rather than developing them over time and exposure to earth's yellow sun. The Waynes notice evidence of Bruce's unusual abilities right away — his impervious skin, his ability to fly and his X-ray vision — but keep quiet about them until the fateful encounter with Joe Chill.

In this instance, the quick-thinking young Bruce uses his super speed to reach out and grab the bullets before they can strike either of his adoptive parents. Chill, spooked by the turn of events, tries to shoot the boy directly and is instead hit by a ricochet off the boy's invulnerable chest. Patrolman Gordon, alerted by the sound of the gunshots, arrives on the scene in time to hear Chill's dying words, a confession that he was hired to kill the Waynes by mobster Lew Moxon.

Moxon is jailed. Gordon is promoted to sergeant for his part in the case. And the Waynes finally decide to confide in someone — their friend, Gordon — about young Bruce's abilities. The three adults continue to be a guiding influence in shaping the man young Bruce will grow into. Then, on Bruce's 21st birthday, at a party thrown for him by his parents, the recently paroled Lew Moxon shows up to take his revenge. Bruce quickly disguises himself and thwarts the mob boss, thus beginning his career as Superman, aided by his parents and their friend, now Commissioner Gordon.

I know a lot of stories and ideas get recycled in comics, and the longer a reader is involved in the hobby, the more instances you will find. But it was particularly fun and timely to discover this version of Superman being Bruce Wayne so soon after talking about and re-discovering a later story that starts in the same place but takes a much different route to get to a similar ending. The simple germ of an idea can go in many different directions depending on the creators and the time in which it is developed.