"trike" wrote in message
ups.com...

All of that is pretty cool. Is this information parcelled out over
multiple issues and/or years of Superman in dribs and drabs as they
thought of it, or is it in fairly concise storyline? I'd be interested
in reading that graphic novel.


Dribs and drabs over a period of years in various places. Krypton as a
sterile society and a sterile planet was in the 'Man of Steel' limited
series, as was Bizarro as a failed cloning attempt. Krypton's civil war and
the doomsday device and Jor-El's discovery thereof were in 'World of
Krypton' limited series. The Eradicator and every thing associated with it
were a number of issues in the regular series, as was Superboy and his
cloning technique.

(note- when John Byrne rebooted Superman a number of projects and ideas were
conceived at that time. The 'Man of Steel' limited series (as opposed to
the ongoing comic) was the origin and basics, and then later three other
limited series fleshed out the details- World of Krypton (good), World of
Smallville (crap), and World of Metropolis (ok))




I don't follow the storylines of comics very closely (despite starting
to read comics again after a two decade hiatus), so I'm curious if the
extended Superman family still exists.


Not really. Some elements exist and there have been clumsy attempts to make
them work, but they didn't. It started with a normal dog that was named
Krypto, but wasn't actually Superman's pet (just a dog, named by a Superman
fan). He eventually ended up as Superboy's pet, then was written out.
Later Superman acquired (from an alternate dimension) a super powered Krypto
who eventually ended up as Superboy's pet (yes, again) (and Superboy was
being fostered by the Kents, which could have been an excellent way to have
Superboy stories (Superman didn't put on a costume until he was an adult in
post-Crisis continuity) except they had already established his character as
too much of a punk to suddenly be transformed into a goody-two shoes).

There have been multiple attempts at Supergirl (yes, multiple different
characters all named Supergirl and associated with Superman), all of which
have been pathetic. (sadly they *have* a much more interesting (and much
better character) super powered nice girl they hardly do anything with- Mary
Marvel)

Cat, monkey, horse and whatever have not be reintroduced as far as I know.




The supermonkey, superhorse,
supersecond-cousin-once-removed-on-his-mother's-side stuff always
struck me as silly.


Definitely, but it was *fun*. A lot of that stuff was fun because it was
silly. It can be worked into modern continuity and modern sensibility with
little effort, but the writers haven't. We already know the chief cloner in
the DC universe (Dabney Donovan) is a loon. Why not use Superman DNA
techniques to make a super horse? He's made weirder things. A handful of
animals, and handful of people, and we have the original family without
violating the Superman is unique and the sole survivor of Krypton rule. You
could even have 'kryptonian' villains.

They could have kept the one kind of Kryptonite *and* introduced red
kryptonite by merely having red Kryptonite be a creation of Mxyzptlk, but
they missed that boat too. (which is a damn shame because they literally
came thisclose to doing it by having Mxyzptlk create a 'red kryptonite' that
didn't do anything at all in one story)

I think Superman could be retconned in ways that don't change existing
post-Crisis continuity much, but which does recreate much of the silver age
mythos. Modern comics need more fun and sillyness anyway.


You might see a trade paperback called 'Superman Birthright' out there which
purports to be his origin. Ignore it entirely. They tried to align the
comics and the Smallville TV series by giving Superman a more Smallville
like backstory, but they changed too many things that had been incredibly
firmly established in the process (like making Superman and Lex Luthor
contemporaries *and* classmates when it has been crystal clear for 20 years
that Lex is an entire generation older and they didn't meet until Superman
came to Metropolis). Lex was elected *President* and they aren't saying
Clark is nearly 40 for christssake.

I have only read comics sporadically for several years now. I was deep into
it for about ten years (starting right after Crisis) but they all went to
hell about the same time. (I used to *love Spider-Man until all the clone
bull**** and every story being 'how can we make Peter even more miserable
now?')