Daze of Future Past
We continue our 60th anniversary journey through past eras of the Man of Steel, even the one set in the far future is actually another blast from the past. The four independent stories didn't have any apparent connection last month, but now a mysterious girl links them all together.
Superman #136
Superman 2999
Though set in the distant future of 2999, this story is actually a modernization of a story originating in 1965's Superman #181, The Superman of 2965. This Superman and his arch-nemesis appeared again in 1966 in Action Comics #338.
In both pre- and post-Crisis versions, this is an alternate future with no apparent ties to the rest of the DC Universe, even though it's set in the same century as the Legion of Superheroes. The future descendants of Clark Kent and Lois Lane are in similar roles as competing journalists, with the future Superman hiding a secret identity just like in the Silver Age (their ancestors must have never been married). Lex Luthor has a future descendant also named Lena Luthor, but the story's villain is Muto, a yellow-skinned mutant with a big head and telekinetic powers. In one panel we see the white-haired girl who we'll be seeing in every book this month.
Adventures of Superman #559
The Silver Age
Continuing the Silver Age adventures, Superman battles the classic pre-Crisis version of Braniac. Foiled in his plan to shrink Metropolis, Braniac changes the course the course of a comet and sends it on a path to collide with the city. Superman destroys the comet before it crashes, but then the next day nearly everybody in Metropolis has Superman's powers. Perry White, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and even Maggie Sayer don costumes and become superheroes. However, when Metallo attacks them they discover they're all vulnerable to Kryptonite too. Metallo is defeated by Dan Turpin, one of the few people in Metropolis who doesn't have superpowers. The entire scenario is revealed to have been staged by Mr. Mxyzptlk. After the imp is sent back to the 5th dimension and Dan Turpin is declared Superman For a Day by the mayor, the mysterious white-haired child runs in yellowing how everything is wrong, and then disappears when the clock tower chimes twice at 2:22.
Action Comics #746
Still holding Lana Lang hostage with a bomb pinned close to her heart by a corsage, the Prankster makes Superman perform menial chores on the cruise ship before making the Man of Steel perform a ceremony to unite Lana Lang and the Prankster in a fake marriage. In a hard-to-follow plot, Lois Lane follows some department store thieves and stows aboard their get-away helicopter, which is supposed to rendezvous with the Prankster's cruise ship and fire a missile at Superman when Superman finishes the ceremony. Lois Lane foils his nonsensical plan, but like in this period from the 70's, Superman is still more interested in Lana Lang. Unfortunately for him, Lana is unhappy that Clark wasn't on board with her, and she gets him fired from WGBS. Lois sees Clark cleaning out his belongings and asks him to come back to the Daily Planet. Once again, the white-haired girl runs by yelling that everything is wrong and is gone when the clock two even though it's 2:22.
Superman: The Man of Steel #81
In a story that reads like a cross between the WWII Max Fleischer cartoons and the the Golden Age comics, the Man of Steel saves the white-haired girl from an oncoming train. She just tells him again that things are wrong and asks him to focus. Superman thinks she looks familiar but he doesn't have time to stop. Clark Kent is sent to the European front to get the real inside scoop on the Nazi occupation of Poland and Lois Lane sneaks along. Clark goes undercover and makes friends with the Jews in the ghetto, while at night Superman fights the Nazis to bring supplies and provisions to the ghetto. Lois breaks into the Nazi headquarters to try to expose an American spy, and then stumbles on the Nazis' horrific plan to exterminate the Jews. Lois is discovered and put in a boxcar to the death camps, as Superman also discovers the genocide plans. Once again at 2:22 the white-haired child returns to tell Superman that everything is wrong.
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