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Of Embassies and Origins - Justice League International Part 2 (Eaglemoss Collection v77)

  Review: Since we are doing a series of reviews focusing on Booster Gold over his nearly 40-year history, we include this one as a collection of some of his earliest appearances, dating to late 1987. That places the original publish date of these tales while his original solo series was still going strong.  This book is a beautiful, glossy hard-cover with smooth and heavy-stock paper inside, although the sometimes-low print reproduction quality leads to blurred and hard to read word balloons on occasion. It is also a rare book here in North America, as Eaglemoss Collections targeted UK fans with this series. At this point in the history of the 1987-rebooted Justice League, they have gained official United Nations recognition and sanction. To ensure their reach truly is global, they rebrand as Justice League International (as does the title of the series!) and they open new headquarters buildings around the world: New York, Paris and Moscow are included here. As this is a product of 19
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The Simulation Solution: Superman / Batman: Saga of the Super Sons

 

Cover image for Saga of the Super Sons


Review:

This trade paperback reprints a fascinating piece of history, collecting the entire Superman Junior / Batman Junior appearances in World's Finest from the 1970s, all written by Bob Haney until the final, shocking twist in #263, which was penned by Denny O'Neil.

If you are not familiar with the Super Sons, they are the late-teen young adult sons of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, imaginatively named Clark Jr and Bruce Jr. Neither son appreciates their overbearing superhero father, and their words of lament or even general chatter are full of the hip slang of the period. Bruce Jr. in particular, with his constant exclamations like "Dig that, Clark baby!" or "You want a sock in the nose?" In their language, they certainly wear groovy threads, just look at the orange and brown stripes on the pants of Bruce Jr. in the cover image!

Also of the period are both the social attitudes and overall scope of the stories. Their exchanges with the town full of only women or with Lex Luthor's daughter show a less than full embrace of the emerging principles of women's liberation and equality. Their interactions with Indigenous characters is well behind the state of 2020s society which, while needing much more growth yet, has clearly evolved in 50 years.

The stories are as trippy as the slang. From a spiritual retreat with their dads, to a trip to the planet Lexor to recapture Lex Luthor, who was busted from prison by his alien daughter, to a ghost town of women, and another populated only by Wild West killers, to a battle of theories between competitive and manipulative scientist experts in human nature. The spread of stories is wide, and the imaginative scenarios are astounding.

And who, exactly, are their mothers? That is never revealed! It's a clear, intentional secret from the start, one that Denny O'Neil turns on its head in the grand reveal: spoiler alert! they never existed, it was all a simulation in Superman's computer. Perhaps well ahead of its time, given later social sensations like the Matrix movies or contemporary theories of our own existence. Was this Bob Haney's original concept? From the start, he teased the reader about the identities of the mothers. If so, he was playing a long game and must have been frustrated to hand over the final revelation to another author. If not, then the simulation solution is a brilliant twist by Denny O'Neil to smoothly write their stories out of canonical continuity.


Description:

Have you ever considered what it would be like if Superman and Batman each had a son?

Would they be super-powered successors—or dynamic disappointments?

Wonder no more, because the Super Sons are here!

A hoax? A dream? An imaginary tale? No!

Now, revealed in all of its action and drama, the classic chronicle of the two greatest heroes the world has never known:

SUPERMAN JR. AND BATMAN JR.—THE SUPER SONS!

Finally recollected after years out of print!

Collects: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #215, #216, #221, #222, #224, #228, #230, #231, #233, #238, #242, #263 and ELSEWORLDS 80-PAGE GIANT #1

Authors: Bob Haney, Denny O'Neil
Artists: Dick Dillin
Published By: 
Published When: Jan. 31 2017
Parental Rating: PG
ISBN: 978-1401269685
Pages: 248 pages



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