“Yesterday’s” Comic> Adventures Of Superman Annual #3

In case you thought “Superdickery” was reserved for the Silver Age.

The Adventures Of Superman Annual #3

DC Comics (1991)

Because Superman keeps changing his timeline with each of Waverider’s visits (and because there were so many comics starring him), the search for Monarch takes him back to the Man Of Steel one final time. This time Clark and Lois get married without a hitch and she even gets pregnant thanks to some experimental fertility treatment. However, the baby kicks so hard Lois dies. Blaming himself and believing the world has rejected him, Superman heads off into deep space when he comes across Maxima during another war. She may make peace with the Krenon (think the Future’s End-style cyborgs, but with space aliens instead of superheroes and no hive mind) but she will have to marry De’Cline, a warlord that she detests for really obvious reasons if you saw the guy. Plus she still has a thing for Kal-El. Her servant, Sazu, convinces her to fake turning over a new leaf and trying a more compassionate approach, and surprises herself that Kal-El’s prodding may actually be opening her heart.

However, memories of Lois and his ties to Earth still keep at him. Sazu thinks she’s helping by tricking De’Cline into destroying Earth, believing it will turn him into the type of warrior Maxima deserves as well as erase the “ghosts” of his late wife and adopted planet so he will stay on Almerac. Instead, Superman is heading back to Earth to decide his future, since as Maxima warms up he is beginning to warm to her. Maxima learns what her servant did and races to help Superman save Earth and stop De’Cline. With his destruction, the Krenon are sure to declare full-on war on both of them so to protect Earth he leaves with Maxima to defeat the Krenon forces, which means he would be gone during Monarch’s reign. And yet, as Waverider returns to current times, Superman begins to talk to Lois about having children, possibly blocking this timeline yet again.

What they got right: The story does a good job making a Kal-El/Maxima relationship actually seem credible, while still not confirming they will actually wed. (As we’ve seen, Clark prefers lengthy courtships. 😀 ) There are also some nice in-jokes when it comes to the name of De’Cline’s various weapons systems.

What they got wrong: Correct me if I’m wrong, but at this time I thought Superman’s strength came from the yellow sun along with his other powers post-Crisis. If that’s the case, the baby wouldn’t be strong enough to kill Lois with a kick due to the lack of sunlight I’m assuming she had in her womb. Plus other alternate universe stories had Lois carrying a baby El in her tummy without any problem. Sometimes the writer even allowed her to give birth and survived to help raise the child. Good luck seeing that nowadays. In light of “Man Of Steel/Woman Of Kleenex” now being treated as canon instead of a joke, this part of the story bugs me even more. Also, still calling him “The Monarch” instead of “Monarch” like everyone else, only now Waverider gets a “the” stuffed into his name, too.

Recommendation: Still, an interesting alternate future for Superman that’s worth a read.