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Super Fan XL – 40 Years Of Post-Crisis Superman

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Legends #2 – Released 9/4/86

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Legends #2 – Released 9/4/86

Legends #2
Released September 4, 1986

John Ostrander – Story
Len Wein – Writer
John Byrne – Penciller
Karl Kesel – Inker
Tom Ziuko – Colorist
Steve Haynie – Letterer
Mike Gold – Editor

Just to explain why this is posting now… My intent is to cover every core Superman book on the anniversary of its release. With crossovers and such, if one of those releases the same day as a Superman title, it will get covered later. Usually this will be the next Monday, but in cases where there isn’t a Superman book coming out the following week, I’m going to just maintain the Friday posting schedule, even if it means honoring these associated books a week late.

But this week, Friday is the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Felt like the wrong time to be dropping a post, so here we are on Thursday. Everyone good? Then let’s dig into LEGENDS #2.

We pick up just after the death of Macro-Man after being struck by Captain Marvel’s lightning, as Dr. G. Gordon Godfrey is grandstanding that this somehow means that superheroes will bring about society’s downfall.

Now… mind you he’s saying this in front of the smoldering corpse of a giant that just minutes ago was menacing the area and would probably still be destroying everything if Captain Marvel hadn’t put him down. I buy that Marvel might have a moral crisis over having taken a life, but the people who live there? Nah, a realistic crowd probably just relieved someone stopped it before their house got razed.

Also, Godfrey doesn’t really connect this tragedy with the existence of superheroes at all and he doesn’t even raise the moral objection that Captain Marvel shouldn’t have the right to take a life. He’s just popping in at an assembled crowd and shouting, “Superheroes suck! Amiright?”

Fortunately for Godfrey this particular crowd is composed of people who have the critical thinking, impulse control, and mob mentality of your typical Springfield town hall gathering, so they all jump on board this particular monorail, presumably just before musically expressing support for said monorail.

If you happened to miss the first issue, don’t worry because the creators are here with a page-long recap of Captain Marvel vs. Macro-Man. And if you miss this recap, don’t worry because Issue 3 will recap it again! (I swear they must have been paying the writing team by how many times they could recap that confrontation in six issues because it happens more than it should.)

Back on Apokolips, Darkseid greets the returning Doctor Bedlam, who played the role of Macro-Man. This is also where we learn the Phantom Stranger is there as an observer, debating Darkseid’s crusade and calling it “fascist paranoia.”

This is weirdly played like the Phantom Stranger has been there the whole time, but he’s not in Issue 1. This is a period of DC where the Phantom Stranger shows up fairly frequently and then within a few years, goes to being barely used. I’m gonna assume a tie-in explains his arrival and purpose here, but in this issue, he’s basically there to tell Darkseid, “You’ll never get away with this.”

In other subplots, the JLA battles Brimstone, Rick Flagg recruits Deadshot to join Bronze Tiger and him in the Suicide Squa– eerrrrr… “Task Force X,” and Batman and Robin are separated during an anti-hero riot, with Batman having to leave his partner behind. Also, Blue Beetle makes his LEGENDS debut, avoiding being arrested by the cops, and we learn our Green Lantern for this event will be (SIGH!) the arrogant Guy Gardner, who also faces an angry anti-hero mob. (There’s a lot of that going around.)

Superman only pops up at the end, meeting with then-President Reagan at the White House. One of the most empty-headed criticisms of Byrne’s Superman is that he was a Ronald Reagan-supporting tool. I dispute this, and not just because Superman’s my favorite hero and Ronald Reagan is literally the worst President of the 20th Century who did more than any other person to absolutely fuck over my generation and it’s future. Everything terrible in America right now traces straight back to something Reagan did in office.

I’m gonna give this its own paragraph: Fuck Ronald Reagan.

Anyway, because septuagenarians with dementia are easily duped, Ronnie decides he need to jump on this whole “hate superheroes” bandwagon. And this is where I will point out – Superman disagrees with everything Reagan says and does in this sequence. He’s the voice of reason and fairness, while Reagan is the schmuck doing the terrible thing because it’s polling well.

Thus, Reagan issues an Executive Order telling all superheroes to cease and desist. Brilliant move, Dutch. Enjoy trying to stop an anti-matter wall yourself the next time reality threatens to unravel.

The other thing that’s weird about LEGENDS scenes being used as proof that Byrne’s Superman was a Ronald Reagan supporter is that Byrne didn’t even write this scene! But that’s how the internet works, he drew a scene with Superman and Reagan that someone else wrote and it gets tethered to him for all time.

And that’s where we come to the end of this issue.

As with the first issue, this issue ends with a two-page essay on the making of LEGENDS:

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3 responses to “Legends #2 – Released 9/4/86”

  1. Ben Herman: In My Not So Humble Opinion Avatar
    Ben Herman: In My Not So Humble Opinion

    Regarding the crowd being so easily swayed by Godfrey into becoming an anti-superhero mob… I think Godfrey, in addition to being a highly charismatic speaker, does also possess some sort of low-level ability to control minds. Also, as the past decade in our own real world has proven, unfortunately there are a lot of Americans who are poorly educated & lacking in critical thinking skills who will all too quickly follow figures like Godfrey who blame all of society’s problems on minority groups.

    Additionally, thanks for pointing out that Superman in the mainstream DCU was not a mindless tool of Ronald Reagan. Honestly, I wish Elseworlds had existed in the mid-1980s so DC could have slapped its logo on The Dark Knight Returns. Maybe that would have prevented so many fanboys from regarding it as the definitive take on both Batman and Superman.

    Reply
    1. bitterscriptreader Avatar
      bitterscriptreader

      Yeah, they eventually get around to explaining exactly what’s going on with Godfrey’s powers, but it comes much later than I remembered. (It also seems really inconsistent once it’s revealed, but that’s a later review.)

      At this point in the story, we’re not supposed to know about it, so I’m tailoring my initial reactions to that mindset.

      And the “Byrne’s Superman was a Ronald Reagan lover” is one of those pieces of internet idiocy that I’m shocked has gone unchallenged for so long. Goes to show you how far a dumb talking point can be spread by YouTube.

      Reply
  2. Dave Thomer Avatar
    Dave Thomer

    Funny thing . . . Marv Wolfman used a very similar plot to this in the 1984 issue of ACTION COMICS I just read, issue 556. Except there it’s Vandal Savage trying to turn the people of Metropolis against Superman.

    In both cases, the major problem I have with the “people turn against the hero” plot is that, as you say, the turn in public opinion happens so suddenly. With the exception of the Captain Marvel fight, most of the things that happen in this issue feel like pretty run-of-the-mill superhero activities. It just feels off for so many people all of a sudden to go, “Well, guess we’re so mad at the heroes now that we’re gonna try to beat them up.” In a Spider-Man or X-Men story, that antagonism feels baked into the setting. But a lot less so with the major DC heroes.

    I guess Batman hasn’t had time to plan for a perfume bottle, either.

    One thing that’s in the dialogue but I don’t think the story has really justified it yet is that Darkseid isn’t just trying to turn humanity against the heroes. He’s trying to turn them against the entire idea of heroism. I wonder exactly what he means by that. Does he mean the notion that someone could be both powerful and good? What would a humanity that didn’t believe in heroes believe in instead? Certainly not equality. Does he just want people to assume that strong people are bad people?

    As for Byrne’s Superman and Reagan – I don’t remember hearing that about Byrne. Miller and DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, yes. But not Byrne. Maybe it’s a good idea that I don’t watch many YouTube videos about comics . . .

    Reply

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Hello,

I’m Adam Mallinger

I’m a lifelong Superman fan who got to live his dream in 2020 when I was hired on the CW show SUPERMAN & LOIS as Writers’ Assistant. In my second season there, I was promoted to Staff Writer and I remained on staff through seasons 2 and 3. During my time there I wrote one episode in each of the four seasons and co-wrote the SUPERMAN & LOIS comic.

I also used to blog and tweet under the name The Bitter Script Reader. I also wrote the book MICHAEL F-ING BAY: THE UNHERALDED GENIUS IN MICHAEL BAY’S FILMS under that name.

I started this blog as a tribute to my favorite era of Superman, the Post-Crisis incarnation also often referred to as “The Triangle Era.” Each issue of Post-Crisis Superman will be covered on the 40th anniversary of its original release.

Email me at ZuulTheReader@gmail.com

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