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A different Superman 64. An unusual (and spoiler-packed) review.


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Superman 64. It's a name gamers know, and mock. But what if I told you, the name brings a different kind of memory to some? One not of a horrific game, but of an emotional experience. "How can this be possible?", one may wonder. Well, that's what this thread is for. A review of Superman 64 as I remember it. A visit to a Superman 64 the average person may have never known. Forget the game you knew, because this most certainly isn't it. Join me as we revisit the 1990s, and see something the world forgot. A comic that was overshadowed by a game of a similar name. And now, the spoiler tag, because damn right I'm showing plot that could ruin the whole experience for someone, so be warned in advance.

Spoiler

Years ago, cover-dated February 1992, a comic was released that would be eclipsed in the public eye. Issue 64 of the second series of Superman. Or, if you prefer Superman 64. As I said earlier, this isn't the game you were thinking of. The issue in question was a "Christmas" issue. "Why release a comic based on Christmas in February?", you may wonder. The simple answer is... comics are typically cover dated a couple months later than they actually release. Something to do with News Agencies leaving them on the shelf longer or something. Damned if I know.
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Anyway, this issue, entitled "Metropolis Mailbag" (a reference to the 1960s era letter page name for the comic) sees Superman visit the Metropolis post office on Christmas. Apparently, he has a room full of letters there with Christmas requests. These requests vary in quality from the absolutely greedy...
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to the utterly tragic.
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Anyway, after helping out with that particular one, Superman returns to find a request beyond even his power.
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Superman is now faced with a challenge far greater, at least to him, than any villain he has ever battled. Where, in any given fight he had a chance of coming out on top, this was a losing proposition from go. Not in the least because by the time he got the letter and arrived...
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It was too late. Which leads us to a reminder writers, and consequently readers forget. Super or not... he's still a man.
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However, in some irony... the deceased man achieved something Superman couldn't. His heart was used for a transplant to save a woman who also wrote a request, that earlier in the issue Superman had assumed he'd be unable to help with. Proving, as the man said, sometimes "a man can do what a Superman can't".
There's also a bit more that kind of was unnecessary to the plot involving entertaining some kids by covertly flying in a Santa (actually Batman in disguise, I kid you not).
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I guess it was there to help balance out the more tragic events earlier in the issue. Who knows. I personally found it a bit jarring a change of tone.
His work done, he returns home to discover one last letter as Clark Kent, inviting him to the wedding of Lana Lang and Pete Ross (his childhood friends from Smallville for those unaware)... ending the story on that surprising note setting up another tale. But that tale is not what I'm reviewing.

Regardless, so far this has been more of a summary than an actual review. This is so I can show, rather than tell (albeit with less than a quarter of the pages so as not to break fair use) some of the more impactful moments (and the slightly jarring Santa sequence). Why? I would not have done them justice in a written explanation. I even had to pare it down, because quite honestly there were more pages that made you feel the emotional weight crushing a man who could lift hundreds of tonnes. The pain as he knows there will be requests he can't possibly help with. The annoyance at having to dig through requests to do dodgy business or to break the laws of physics by converting coal into diamond to find things that will actually better lives. The calm before the storm as he comes across a drawing of himself, and thinks it's going to be a nice change of pace, only to be hit with a devastating attack not even Doomsday could inflict as he realizes he has to tell a boy he can't save his father. The nervousness greater than even his deadliest foes could inflict anticipating giving the news, and the shattering realization that even if he could have done something... the hands of time did were not in his favor. The man was dead before he got there, and the guilt would weigh on him... even though there was naught he could do. This is Superman as few have written him. Many tales of Superman are dull because he's shown as capable of anything. But this is the man of steel hit in his weak-point.... and I do not mean by use of some imaginary radioactive isotope formed from the debris of his home planet, nor do I mean magic. I mean the weak point every human has. The emotions. Sure, the last 6 pages of story are a jarring change of pace from what came up to then. But the rest is something special. A comic where a character often viewed as dull for being overpowered has his vulnerable side bared to the world. It may not be the greatest tale ever written, but it's definitely more deserving of the public eye than the video game that has ensured it's obscurity. Hopefully, I have achieved that in this slightly ranty (but hopefully somewhat coherent) review.
 

 

Edited by The Roger The Paladin
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We need a sequel to Superman 64 based on this story. Instead of flying through rings to save your friends, you fly through rings to tell a kid you can't save his dad. Same controls, same gameplay, same everything. Just change the story to something even more depressing than the game itself.

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1 hour ago, Jingle Jangle said:

Nice semi story time. I love superheroes getting involved with the holidays. I remember the Justice League episode where the team goes off to celebrate Christmas in their own way. 

Ah yes. The one with the Ultra Humanite? Funny enough DC did a couple specials over the years called "Christmas with the Super-heroes". The first one was an over-sized collection of various christmas tales (a Teen Titans story inspired by Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", a Justice League story involving the Key and Jon Stewart's first time out with the League, the first Batman story ever drawn by Frank Miller, which happened to be a Christmas story, a Superman tale from DC Comics Presents where Toyman took over Santa's factory, and a couple other stories which I don't remember much of... but I'm sure one of them was Batman and the other was Legion of Super-Heroes) and the second issue (which came out a few years later) was entirely original content... but for the same amount of pages. On the other side of the fence, I recall Marvel Treasury edition 8, which reprinted various Christmas related stories... and gave them an original framing sequence to explain characters flashing back to them. There was another one with 13 which also had a Holiday themed framing sequence... though it's stories were a bit less so. Notably these included the issue the Vision joined the Avengers (and consequently his earliest origin tale), and the tale where Hulk first met (and being Hulk, fought) the Silver Surfer. Fun memories.

30 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

We need a sequel to Superman 64 based on this story. Instead of flying through rings to save your friends, you fly through rings to tell a kid you can't save his dad. Same controls, same gameplay, same everything. Just change the story to something even more depressing than the game itself.

Well.. at least the story would be good. At least the rings would be a distraction from the morbidity of the task at hand. That said... I still think if I ever get the urge to revisit a Superman game, there's a little beat 'em up on the Super Nintendo called "The Death and Return of Superman". Some irony that he spends most of his best game "dead"... but there you go. Life is full of plot twists.

18 minutes ago, Falcom Knight said:

I watched ProtonJon's LP of this... till the end... means this game was not the worst.

Wait... game? Maybe I shouldn't have done the spoiler tab. Just to be clear this is definitely a review of a comic. Though that's probably my fault for referencing the more infamous game in the build-up.

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1 minute ago, Falcom Knight said:

Oh lol, I didn't know a Comic with the exact same name exists.

Now that I'm thinking about, the 64 doesn't refer to the N64, but to that comic.

 

Well, the number of the comic. See, most comics have a number as well as a date to help distinguish them between issues. There's exceptions, and believe me for a collector the ones that don't number issues are a nightmare to list (especially the British ones, because they tend to have been weekly when that was the case). Technically there's an even older Superman 64 (the one from May 1950), but... I'm afraid I'm not old enough or rich enough to own a copy. So for now, this will have to do.

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1 minute ago, Falcom Knight said:

I'm not familar with superhero comics, so I didn't know.

The happier that I learned something from this thread today.

One misthought just has been erased out of my head.

Well, it's less a mistake than the fact that you fell afoul of the equivalent of one word having two meanings... except in this case it was made a bit more likely to happen by your lack of experience with the context of people using issue numbers to identify separate comics. Believe me, it happens... a lot. Once when I was a child and first became involved in sorting the things, I mistakenly thought the number on the cover of an issue (92) meant it was printed in the year 1992. Because it was the first thing to pop into my head when faced with the number. I mean, ironically I was right about the year. But the point is I had the purpose of the number wrong. It's kind of a thing that doesn't happen outside of comics. Magazines will use the month and year. Or if they're weekly the date. But comics like to be easily identifiable so they can reference previous stories and people can go back and check them for prior events if they really feel the need to go beyond a reference to whatever happened (it was a way of cutting down exposition while maintaining continuity). Not that it's done as much these days, it kind of dropped off in the mid 1990s. But the numbering system stuck. Mostly because it helps people keep collections in order.

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Wow. That one is beautiful. It really hits you in the feels. I like emotional stories.

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12 hours ago, XRay said:

Wow. That one is beautiful. It really hits you in the feels. I like emotional stories.

Pretty much the reason I wanted to do this post. Showing the world "Superman 64" is not a dirty word by default.

12 hours ago, Integrity said:

solid bait

 

respect, op

 

Well, it was one way of subverting people's expectations... and showing people a story that actually spoke to me.

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