"The Dream" by Jeph Loeb and EdMcguinness

[Daughter of Krypton]

Adding this origin has been on my to-do list for 20 years.

Feels good to finally get it done.  Read it here:



by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness, from Superman/Batman #1, 2003

(While working on the above, I also stumbled across this origin, already uploaded to the site:

lurking closed off in a dusty corner so I  opened it up. I don't think it's ever been linked to before, probably because I never got around to finishing it.  By Karl Kesel and Mike Parobeck, 1993, from the short-lived "Superman & Batman" magazine) (Edit: I had originally but incorrectly stated that this story was from the (non-existent) "Superman Adventures" magazine. As far as I know, there was no such thing - that's just how I remembered it.)

These are both now linked to from the Origins page.

[Gangbuster]

I haven't read the Superman Adventures magazine, will have to check it out. 1993 is the year they finally went all-in on John Byrne's origin (see the test-tube rocket) after Wolfman and others ignored it, and I suspect it was because Man of Steel #1 was reprinted and on the stands during the Death of Superman saga.

Alex Ross did sneak the traditional baby-ship into Kingdom Come, but other than that I think Loeb was the first to successfully break the lock on Superman's back catalog. His Return to Krypton was overturned, but he brought back Kara and Krypto, Red K while writing Smallville, and I remember Superman/Batman even referenced the Caveman from Krypton in it.

[Daughter of Krypton]

I had originally intended to include the Karl Kesel and Mike Parobeck magazine origin on the site because in it:

1 - although Krypton had the Byrne look and feel visually; Jor-El and Lara were shown as physically vibrant and alive; and as actually capable of feeling and displaying real emotions like love, sorrow, loss and hope - all qualities that Byrne had removed from them and from Krypton in general.

2 - Kesel and Parobeck soft-pedaled the "not born-on-Krypton", test-tube aspect.  Although it is not outright denied; it is also not explicitly stated - kind of just danced around.  I felt like they were trying to get away with whatever they could, but were forced to do so within clearly defined restrictions.  They were pushing at the boundaries.

I absolutely agree, Jeph Loeb deserves a lot of credit - he did incredibly fantastic work.

I've been a bit out of the loop for the last 15 years or so; but in returning to comics, I keep coming across references to Silver and Bronze age continuities in the books.  I'm wondering if this is a recent development for DC or if it has been going on for a while:

There was a Jimmy Olsen story ("The Gorilla Ex-Wife of Jimmy Olsen") in this summer's DC's Kal-El-fornia Love that states right in a narration box that it is a sequel to "Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #98, 1966!"  That was fun to see.

The new Supergirl series has a lot of references to the original Cary Bates early 1970s title, and reads almost like it could be a direct sequel to it. Right in the first issue, Supergirl uses her "yellow ring of Nor-Kann" to retain her powers while in Kandor; she got this ring and first used it in an early 1972 issue of Supergirl by Cary Bates.

The portrayal of the Kryptonian Language in the main Superman books is no longer that now-famous angular, almost crystalline looking character-set that has been used in every DC comic and TV show of the last 25 years;  but has reverted to the E. Nelson Bridwell 1970s squiggles of "Kryptonese" and is now actually called "Kryptonese" again. (I hope to have examples online)

I don't know whether all this is the result of some sort of intentional and official policy of a new, clearly defined DC continuity; or if it's more that the people now running things at DC just don't have any interest in bothering with continuity restrictions anymore, or are possibly even completely unaware that there was once a time when it was a concern for anyone.  So the creators are now free to write and draw whatever it is that they enjoy, completely ignorant that this is a wondrous, new-found and incredible freedom.

Could be both?

[Gangbuster]

I think the real-world change that happened might have been Paul Levitz becoming DC president. After that the Krypto and Legion TV series are greenlighted, the retroboot Legion returns, etc.

Besides Loeb on Superman/Batman, Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek (who was a member of this forum) took over writing duties, and between the three of them and All-Star Superman there was a "Bronze Age revival" in the 2000s. I remember reading a reference to Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, they brought back the real Zod, and toward the end of Superman vol. 1 Superman was kind of down about things, so he went and had a talk with a coded Elliot Maggin.

In the "rebirth" era I think they have a taken a best-of (or "Superman Through the Ages," if you will) approach to Superman's backstory. The first Mxyzptlk story happened, so did the first Krypto story, Jim Shooter's run on Adventure Comics, Matt Fraction's Jimmy Olsen series showed all of the 60s Jimmy transformations occurring. Basically every Brainiac story has happened, he just has different avatars through the years. The 1990s Death and Wedding. But the new Supergirl series is really the first that is explicitly bringing back Bronze Age events.

There has generally been an "everything is true" approach to DC history in the last few years. On the other hand, Waid is doing a New History of the DC Universe right now, so the pendulum could swing in the other direction.

[Daughter of Krypton]

Thank you, Gangbuster, very informative, and brings me up to date!

I think what you say makes sense; and I'm surprised at some of the stuff that I was completely unaware of.

I've been reading the new History of the DCU. Most of it is extremely familiar, but occasionally something pops up that leaves me scratching my head and I'll wonder: Did I miss that the first time around, or is this a continuity change that was slipped in?

For instance, the summary of the Teen Titans matches my memory of the '70s books 100%, and the summary of the New Teen Titans matches my memory of the Wolfman/Perez run 100%; but then it seems like they threw in this thing where Vic Stone originally had to become a cyborg because of an attack by Darkseid? That just seemed out of left field and totally changes a lot of the character's motivations.  Unless this was revealed in some 1980s one-shot and I missed it?  The whole thing just makes me not trust my memory.