The 90s were a hard time for Superman. For one thing…he died….then after that, things really started going down hill.
After The Death of Superman, World without a Superman, and Reign of the Supermen – the world finally had the “real” Superman back from the dead. It was a long journey, and an interesting comic book trilogy. It was massively successful, and prove to be a HUGE hit for DC.
So they tried to repeat that success. You know how that normally works, right?
Well, as the 90s clicked on, they tried “The Death of Clark Kent”, which was met with a resounding “meh”, and finally at a creator’s retreat, the team behind Superman decided that they wanted to change Superman’s powers…permanently. They were officially out of ideas of what to do with Supes, and wanted to change his powers, but keep his costume the same, so that people would know they were serious….well…that didn’t go over so well…instead….we got Electric Blue Superman.
This version of Superman came to be when Supes’ powers started “evolving” and his body eventually became unstable. A containment suit was necessary to keep him in a solid state, instead of just being energy. The result was a new costume, blue “skin” and energy based powers. Clark found that he could turn these powers “off”, and that he would be completely human when that happened.
As you can imagine…this wasn’t winning any new fans. Of course, the publicity stunt got a lot of attention, but at this point there was a new Super-stunt every summer, so it just wasn’t that big of a deal. As the storyline struggled to gain the desired level of reader interest, DC decided to pull out a page from the Marvel Handbook (particularly referencing the “Spider-Man Clone Saga”) by continuing to run a story that should have died, directly into the ground.
The result of that, was the special “Superman Red/Superman Blue” which took the Electric Superman storyline one step further down the toilet by adding a “clone” of Superman. In the special the villain Cyborg trapped Supes in an “energy containment structure” and drained all of his energy into “thousands of different directions” causing him to lose corporeal form and disappear. When the energy reappeared moments after the Cyborg left the room, there was a red stream in addition to the blue stream that had previously been there. The two beams of energy shot off in different directions, both forming Supermen, and both of them, of course, believe they were the original Superman.
The craziest part of this storyline, however, is the ending. It wasn’t in this special, but several issues later, when the Red/Blue thing was officially beginning to make people sick, they simply dropped the storyline.
The two energy forms collide and BOOM – normal Superman is back! In a thought balloon later, Clark guesses that he was “rewarded” for saving the world by getting his old powers and life back. By who? Not real sure…but really, does it matter?
This Superman story sort of defines the 90s in a lot of ways. Much of the 90s was about gimmicks. Be it gimmick covers, gimmick deaths, or gimmick costume changes, and Superman Red/Superman Blue had ALL THREE. The 3-D cover, Superman “dying” and being “reborn” as two different beings, the new red costume to compliment the newly acquired blue costume…it’s all here in it’s craptastic glory. Ah…what an Era…
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Yeah, I remember that. Pretty weak stuff. But to be fair, it must be hard coming up with good ideas for a series that will apparently never end.
I agree that the stunt was strained but lets not crucify it as a wholly terrible idea. Sure, the 90s were about gimmicks, true, but if we look at the modern age of comic books (an era which is apparently the newest favorite thing to hate these days–though i don’t see why) the Superman Blue did encompass many of its better traits.
I like how your post points to this precisely (and why I’m taking the time to respond to a blog, knowing that no one’ll probably respond to what i’m gonna say here). But was Superman Blue really that bad an idea? I mean, the “split” did have a unique twist that I enjoyed: it gave us a Supes who was all about REASON, and another Supes that was all about PASSION. Very reminiscent of the two modes of philosophical thought in Western Civilization. And placing a celebrating figure like Superman in philosophical symbolism is never a bad idea (unless it’s as poorly delivered as Superman Returns … which was just terrible. No matter how many Jesus-references you evoke). Of course, I completely agree with your dissent against the story itself; it was terribly delivered. But I’d like to hold that the move was bold and does have a way of redeeming itself had it been written/delivered properly.
Superman Blue ranks up there as one of the worst moments in comic-history, right along the lines of DK: Strikes Again (and this from a Frank Miller fanatic). But I think that the story could’ve been one of the most memorable, and best, if the editors had come up with it a few years prior to Y2K: i’m talking during the Reign of the Supermen crossover. Had Kal-El returned with this visage, the story MAY have been redeemed. I suppose we mustn’t ponder on ‘what could’ve beens’ but still…who knows? As for the design and powers themselves, they just reminded me of a toned-down version of Captain Atom, so that needed alteration as well.
What still keeps me hooked is… with Superman Blue, DC did what they dared not to in ages: they attempted to revise the REAL Superman. And through revision, they changed him completely. I like to think that that the Modern Age of Comic Books have 3 stages (of course, in retrospect): They are 1. The Retelling (DKR, Year One, Man of Steel etc.) 2. The Fall (Superman’s death, Batman’s spine shattering, Hal Jordan turning Parallax) and 3. The Rebirth (The NEW age-heroes like Jean-Paul, the 4 Supermen, Wally West and Kyle Rayner etc). Unfortunately, the latter two weren’t exactly great ideas, but they are nonetheless important ones.
With the Reign of the Supermen, we got the Rebirth quite well, thus making Superman Blue redundant, and yet we see an attempt being made. A failure, yes, but an attempt – an experimentation on a legendary character – nevertheless. And THAT’S why I’ll still have a place for Superman Blue in the continuity that I choose to follow.
u know for someone who just dissed the whole super man of the 90′s, u sure did read the all huh. u know u seem like u dont care, but u read them all. u know what nerd i dont care, and never have read them. some dude said something about electric superman, got me curious, and this is 2010, a decade after this shit came out. ur a nerd, admit it. u dont have any original ideas of ur own, otherwise ud be the rich guy at DC, not the tool living in his parents basement. delete this comment of u want. i think its funny that u try and dis someone elses ideas, but still continue to read it. when u cant think of any of ur own. tool