Today, we look at Superman, soon after he returned to life, poking some fun at the then-new comic book character, Spawn.
In Meta-Messages, I explore the context behind (using reader danjack's term) "meta-messages." A meta-message is where a comic book creator comments on/references the work of another comic book/comic book creator (or sometimes even themselves) in their comic. Each time around, I'll give you the context behind one such "meta-message."
In 1992, Superman famously died in the pages of Superman #75. After a period featuring the funeral of the Man of Steel ("Funeral for a Friend"), the Superman titles then ended completely for a few months before they were brought back with Adventures of Superman #500, which led into the introduction of four new superheroes who either claimed to be a resurrected Superman or at least noted some connection between themselves and the fallen hero (Cyborg Superman and Eradicator claimed to be resurrected versions of Superman, Superboy claimed to be his clone and Steel just said that he was inspired by Superman to become a superhero).
Eventually, the Cyborg Superman was revealed to be a supervillain working alongside Mongul. They destroyed Coast City, and the other three Supermen had to try to stop the villainous Cyborg. During all of this, the REAL Superman showed up, having been brought back to life (although not yet powered up to his old superpowered levels). They all worked together (along with Green Lantern, who was none too pleased that his old home city had just been destroyed) to defeat the bad guys and Superman returned to his costume and his powers in Superman #82. Two issues later, though, the Man of Steel had a funny bit about the then still fairly new superhero, Spawn, from Image Comics.
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WHAT WAS THE RELATIONSHIP LIKE BETWEEN DC AND IMAGE COMICS?
DC had an interesting connection to Image Comics when it formed in the sense that it really didn't HAVE a connection to Image Comics. When Image was formed, its seven founding members were all currently working for Marvel Comics and it was Marvel's specific policies that ultimately led to the creators all deciding to form Image (note that almost all of the creators involved would have probably eventually done independent creator-owned work of their own no matter what, this was just a more focused sort of thing deciding to go form a new company together to do so all at once). However, just because they were all Marvel artists doesn't mean that they didn't have an issue with DC, as well. Todd McFarlane had broken into mainstream comics working for DC and it was at DC that his cape game really started going...
And he recalled years later how, after the founders had told Marvel that they were leaving, they also then went to DC to let them know that they were forming a new company, as well, and McFarlane noted that he wanted DC to know that their polices weren't all that much better than Marvel, remembering that he asked them, "'When you drafted these new privilages to make us happy, did you consult with any creators?' And when I got the pregnant pause, that's all I needed to know. Thank you very little for telling me how my life is going to be without asking any of us. Without asking any of the thousands of us."
Still, McFarlane then did two Batman/Spawn crossovers in 1994, one for DC...
and then one for Image with him and Frank Miller...
So he was obviously on better terms with DC than Marvel circa 1992-94.
HOW CLOSE DID SUPERMAN COME TO GETTING AN ACTUAL NEW COSTUME AFTER HE CAME BACK TO LIFE?
As noted, Superman came back to life in the "Reign of the Supermen" storyline event and since it took some time for Superman to heal fully and during that time, his hair kept growing and so when he emerged from the regeneration matrix towards the end of the "Reign of the Supermen" event, his hair was now long....
At the time, Jurgens reflected that "We had discussed the general idea of a costume change even back when we brought him back from the dead, of course. That was part of the inspiration for the all black costume."
Instead, Superman "just" kept the long hair...
And that was the way that Superman reflected his major change in his life (a couple of years later, Superman finally DID get a brand-new costume, but that's a whole other story).
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HOW DID SUPERMAN POKE SOME FUN AT SPAWN?
Okay, so Spawn #1 debuted in 1992, and his costume worked in McFarlane's trademark flowing capes as well as some chains....
In Superman #84 (by Dan Jurgens, Joe Rubinstein, Glenn Whitmore and John Costanza), Superman opens up by using some chains of his own to help pull a big ship that had been ground ashore...
This little plot was designed to set up a longer range plot in which Superman dealt with the fact that when he received his powers back, he might have had a bit TOO much of an energy boost and now his powers were acitng more than a bit "wonky," including being able to pull out the ship without any strain at all (which was impressive for the era. This is long past the time of Superman moving whole planets)...
Superman then notes that it is so dark that with all of the chains that he is wrapped up in, someone might think that Superman has "spawned" a brand-new costume look...
It's obviously a very low level piece of teasing and nothing malicious intended, but again, there would be no reason for DC or Jurgens to really be having any notable problems with McFarlane and/or Spawn, so it makes sense that it was really more of a cute nod to a then still new superhero who was sweeping through the comic book world at a time and is still going strong over 25 years later!
If anyone has a suggestion for a future Meta-Messages, drop me a line at [email protected]
