LEGENDS #1 & #2

”ONCE UPON A TIME…!” | “BREACH OF FAITH!”
Plotter: John Ostrander | Scripter: Len Wein | Penciler: John Byrne | Inker: Karl Kesel
Letterer: Steve Haynie | Colorist: Tom Ziuko | Editor: Mike Gold

The Plot: (Issue 1) On the planet Apokolips, the warlord Darkseid makes plans to destroy Earth’s superheroes. On Earth, a monster called Brimstone appears in New York and battles Firestorm, the Nuclear Man. Meanwhile, the Flash knocks out a criminal named Deadshot, then heads to Titans’ Tower to visit with Changeling. Elsewhere, Captain Marvel fights a rampaging Macro Man and inadvertently kills him, while in Washington D.C., Colonel Rick Flag is assigned the leadership of a team called Task Force X. Back in New York, Brimstone catches the attention of the time-traveling Cosmic Boy, who is quickly joined in fighting him by the Justice League of America.

(Issue 2) As the police clean up Macro Man’s remains, anti-superhero crusader G. Gordon Godfrey appears on the scene and begins to sway the populace into an anti-hero sentiment. On Apokolips, Darkseid reveals that Macro Man was actually his henchman Doctor Bedlam, who never died in the first place. Darkseid chats with the visiting Phantom Stranger about the nature of legends. On Earth, the Justice League fights Brimstone but is defeated. Elsewhere, Deadshot is recruited for Task Force X, while in Gotham City, Batman and Robin thwart an armed robbery, but Robin is set upon by a gang of enraged civilians.

In Chicago, the Blue Beetle is accosted as well, while Green Lantern Guy Gardner saves an airliner from crashing, only to be greeted by discontent from people on the ground. At Titans’ Tower, the Flash and Changeling speak with Cosmic Boy, while the villainous Professor Ivo plans revenge elsewhere. In Washington D.C., President Reagan informs Superman that until the anti-hero sentiment passes, he will order all superheroes “grounded”. Meanwhile, in Gotham, the police find Robin’s battered carcass after dispersing the people who had attacked him.

THE MAN OF STEEL #1 – 6

”FROM OUT OF THE GREEN DAWN” | “THE STORY OF THE CENTURY!”
“ONE NIGHT IN GOTHAM CITY”
“ENEMY MINE…” | “THE MIRROR, CRACK’D” | “THE HAUNTING”
Writer/Penciler: John Byrne | Inker: Dick Giordano
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Tom Ziuko | Editor: Andrew Helfer

The Plot: As the planet Krypton self-destructs, a scientist named Jor-El sends his embryonic son, Kal-El, to Earth in a rocket. Eighteen years later, Kal-El is Clark Kent, all-star quarterback for Smallville High School’s football team endowed with secret superhuman abilities. When his parents, Jonathan and Martha, reveal to Clark that they found him in the rocket, crashed in their corn field, Clark decides to use his powers for the good of mankind. He spends seven years secretly stopping natural disasters and saving people when he can, but when an experimental space plane nearly crashes in the city of Metropolis, Clark is forced into action in public. Soon after, at the suggestion of his parents, he adopts the costumed identity of Superman in order to act in the public eye.

Subsequently, Superman meets Lois Lane while Clark gets a job at the Daily Planet newspaper. Eight months later, he responds to reports of a dangerous vigilante in Gotham City and has his first encounter with the Batman as the pair teams up to take down an eccentric villainess named Magpie. Batman and Superman part not as friends, but with a grudging respect for one another.

Ten months pass and Superman meets Lex Luthor when he thwarts a hijacking of the billionaire’s yacht during a massive party. But when Luthor is implicated in the terror attack, the mayor of Metropolis deputizes Superman and Luthor is arrested. Two years pass and, following numerous unsuccessful attempts on Superman’s life, Luthor creates a bizarre clone of him which proves the Man of Steel’s toughest challenge yet — but in the end, Superman prevails.

Later, while visiting his parents in Smallville, Clark receives a holographic visit from Jor-El, who reveals to Clark that he is not, as he had long believed, a human launched into space as an infant, but an alien being. By way of this revelation, Jor-El instills in Clark's brain the full history and culture of Krypton.

BATMAN BY MIKE W. BARR & ALAN DAVIS: DETECTIVE COMICS # 569, 570, 571

"CATCH AS CATSCAN" | "THE LAST LAUGH" | "FEAR FOR SALE"

Writer: Mike W. Barr | Penciler: Alan Davis | Inker: Paul Neary

Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Letterer: John Workman | Editor: Denny O'Neil

Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis have a slightly peculiar run on DETECTIVE COMICS. Their issues begin after CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, in the rebooted world of "Batman: Year One" and other such stories. They are telling tales featuring the Batman teamed with post-Crisis Jason Todd, the angry brat who would eventually perish by the Joker's hand.

And yet, no one seemed to tell them this. These stories might as well be set in the pre-Crisis universe. Indeed, they draw upon pre-Crisis continuity, such as the fact that Catwoman is reformed and aware of Batman's secret identity. Robin here has not become the unlikable character who would eventually be killed off -- he is very much like the classic Dick Grayson Robin, in fact.