Clark Kent is Dead Dead Dead! POW POW POW!

Well, I guess we'll stop talking about Jason Todd.  The next issue after today's post was the "A Death in the Family" storyline, which was the death of Jason Todd.  So, to review: Jason gets rebooted in Crisis on Infinite Earths as a tough hooligan, he then reverts to a "gee whillikers" sidekick straight out of the 1940's, then a swing in the completely opposite direction where he's basically the Punisher in short green pants, then killed off.  What a mess.  Anyway, he's dead.  Until Superboy Prime literally punches him back into existence, something I refuse to dignify with space in this blog.

Back to Superman, starting with issue #210:

That had to be cathartic for Superman.  It certainly was for me.

The next issue had a very ballsy story about crooked art schools:

Is there something wrong with me that I don't think the art is all that bad?  I mean, it's a story of an ape with super powers so maybe that's coloring my view.

Anyway, more to the point:

Considering how many times I've seen "draw a turtle or a pirate" inside comic covers over the years, that was a pretty bold plotline.  I don't know if those companies advertised in comics after this story (or, more likely, had already stopped), but even if the companies that advertised in comics were legit (and I have no reason to think they weren't), I can't imagine any art schools would have been excited with DC.

Here's some Fun with Out of Context Dialogue (tm!) from Superman #220, courtesy of contributor Robert Gillis:

Dear Penthouse Forum, I never thought this would happen to me...

Moving on to....

Well, trying to perform for three women at once is a lot to ask of any man.

Hey, I was talking about performing heroic acts, I don't know where your filthy little mind went.

This is the club he couldn't get into:

First?  "We've decided to admit our first male member" is hilarious.  That's classic Fun with Out of Context Dialogue (tm!) right there.

Second, this group is awful.  They have a stupid name, their individual names are even worse (I've forgotten them already) and their powers are just recycled Superman powers.  Yeah, there's a reason for that, but I lost interest from the beginning.

Until I saw that Superman's initiation test was this:

Yeah!  A little payback for all that Unnecessary Animal Abuse (tm!) we've seen from Superman over the years!  Awesome!

See you tomorrow!