Or, Superman of the Weisinger Era, if you prefer.

When I was a young'un, still in short pants and never been kissed, I had a friend who was the only other comic book collector I knew of in our whole town. He had comics I wanted and I had comics he wanted. Occasionally we would do a swap, but not often, and the joy of getting a comic you wanted was offset by the pain of losing an old favourite.

Anyhow, one of the comics he always refused to swap was the story of Superman Red and Superman Blue from Superman No. 162. He would let me read it but I never had the opportunity to make it my own.

That was the last time I saw that story till I recently came across it on this website. I read it with great pleasure.

This story could be very easy to dismiss for all the obvious reasons, but it could actually be, if not the epitome of the Silver Age Superman, certainly the ultimate Superman story of the era, and the natural conclusion to every developing concept of the Superman mythos.

Leo Dorfman has carefully and thoughtfully dried every tear avid Superman readers ever shed over every rotten situation suffered by the Man of Steel by giving Superman everything he ever wanted.

Kal-El, always trapped in the Clark Kent-Superman dynamic, is now physically two independent people. What an ingenious resolution. He recreates and repopulates Krypton. He erases crime and evil, healing both Luthor's psychological and physical wounds (the latter being his baldness). The Phantom Zone prisoners are finally set free, their indefinite sentences reaching a natural conclusion. His confusion about love, marriage, Lois and Lana is resolved. How clever that he can marry both. Even his being torn between his Kryptonian heritage and his life on Earth is brought to a satisfying close: he doesn't have to choose anymore! He can live on both worlds.

Dorfman shamelessly and sincerely created a very clever story that lets us peek into Superman's daydreams.

Indeed.  I would say that the "Red and Blue" tale forms a bookend of sorts with "Death Of Superman" on the opposite end.  The former wraps up the legend in the happiest way possible, the latter in the saddest way. Between them they represent the Alpha and Omega of the "Imaginary Story" genre, and any others are just pale shadows.



Yes, and note that while one Superman prefers life on Earth and the other a life on Krypton, neither considers for a moment living out his life as Clark Kent.  An interesting aspect of the Silver Age versus the Modern Age, eh?  

Here's a challenge to the current creative types at DC: How about an Elseworlds...just one, mind you...that explores, as this story did, the best things that could happen instead of the worst? Does anyone still remember how to write a happy ending? Or for that matter, how to look at the world with anything like optimism?

An intriguing thought, but unfortunately I cannot comment as I've never read or even seen Death of Superman.

I'm loath to ask for a synopsis. I would rather read the story afresh. Hopefully it may turn up here in the online comics section!

Actually, nightwing, I couldn't imagine any sadder wrap-up to the legend than my very favourite "Imaginary" story, Love is Blind, partly because the story leaves so many things maddeningly unresolved.