However, the character (now a female) has made an appearance post-CRISIS, in Geoff Johns'/Joe Kelly's "Ending Battle" from a few years ago. And in fact, judging by the cover, she's going to be part of the current storyarc that Johns is writing with Busiek.
Another reason I love Geoff Johns and Busiek. I mean, if we had Johns whipping out an obscure - not even a SILVER ager, but a GOLDEN ager - out of nowhere and updating them for a new audience...dang. Seriously: dang. Geoff Johns nearly blew my mind when he had break into the JSA Thanksgiving Special the awesome but underused magical foe, the Wizard of Ys from GREEN LANTERN #47 (1966), who was a character so terrific I wonder why no one ever thought to use him again: red skin, jester hat, evil goatee, and with one of those mindblowing Schwartz science fiction ideas: the Wizard was from a universe that was left "solid state" after its big bang.
Busiek once used in THUNDERBOLTS a character that had only previously appeared in a Hostess Twinkie Ad (tragically, it wasn't those crocodiles in ballet dancer outifts that only eat gold but are sated by Batman giving them twinkies).
Thus proof that it's not really Superman.
You know where I suspect the tradition of the captive or defeated hero on a cover first began as a real trend? Sure, there were probably single incidences of this kind of cover all the way back to 1930s, but I mean the single point that made this uncommon situation into a regular one.
I'm talking about John Romita's cover for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #39.
It would stand to reason it would be with a hard-luck guy like Spider-Man, who lost as often as he won, who was hardly invincible, that started this sort of cover trend.
What an image to set the mind on fire there, arousing curiosity, there was Spider-Man utterly helpless in the clutches of the Green Goblin, unmasked, his costume visible under his street clothes. The cover alone suggests hundreds of possible stories.
Also, it's good to see that, judging by that cover, they've finally brought Live Wire from the cartoon into the comic book proper. Brownie points for my girl, Gail Simone on that. Though while Wire's electro-powers would be a match for Superman in the animated show, she needs a little more than that for comic book Superman. Like for instance, perhaps some kind of radio wave transformation or projection ability, or maybe some "Static Shock" esque electrical telekinesis.
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