And to think Clark used to be so good at making friends.
Superman Adventures #1
DC Comics (November, 1996)
“Men Of Steel” WRITER: Paul Dini PENCILER: Rick Burchett INKER: Terry Austin COLORIST: Marie Severin LETTERER: Lois Buhalia EDITOR: Mike McAvennie “SUPERMAN” CREATORS: Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
One week after the events of “Last Son Of Krypton”, the Daily Planet staff is trying to decide what to make of this “Superman” character. Meanwhile, Lex sets a plan in motion to discredit Superman, including getting General Newcastle on his side. Lex sends a robot dressed as Superman to attack the Kaznian Embassy because they didn’t pay for a battlesuit they never received. However, while the robot gets the early drop on Superman, the designers weren’t as knowledgeable about the upper limits of Superman’s powers as they thought.
What they got right: While I do advocate Superman and other heroes (at least in the DC universe if done right) becoming beloved by the majority of the people I still think they have to earn it since by this point the DCAU only features Batman, Robin, Batgirl, and Superman. Others will follow but this is the first hero of this universe not wearing a mask and having superpowers instead of martial arts training and cool gadgets. Even Lois being not entirely convinced despite being saved by Superman at least twice by this point does make sense.
What they got wrong: General Hardcastle doesn’t look like he did in the show. This could be an early character model from the show bible (no, I don’t have that one, even virtually like the Batman: The Animated Series show bible, to review), so I won’t judge too harshly.
Recommendation: A good introduction to the TV series but an otherwise generic Superman story, which only gets a break because it’s introducing the tie-in to the cartoon. Worth grabbing if you see it, but not hunting down unless you’re a completist.
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