My Adventures with Superman Comics
After writing almost 700 words to try and help someone out on Reddit—and only getting 3 likes—I wanted to continue my coverage of My Adventures with Superman. But we’ve already talked about this week’s episode you say? But there is a new comic book I say!
Back in 2016 Disney released the animated Christmas special “Duck the Halls” as part of a then ongoing series of Mickey Mouse shorts. These shorts are delightful and I highly recommend them. In the Christmas special Donald and Daisy are preparing to go south for the winter while Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy prepare for Christmas. Donald who, as a duck, has never celebrated Christmas, decides he wants to stay. Hijinks ensue. Ducks can’t handle cold winters! The main chunk of the special is the gang going through Mickey’s list of must-do Christmas activities to make it the best Christmas ever. How is that related to Superman? Well in this issue Lois and Jimmy are planning to do the same thing fo Clark!
It’s Clark’s first Christmas in Metropolis, but before that he’s got to deal with a new threat that almost knocked down the Daily Planet. Clark can be forgiven for thinking this is Ivo/Parasite again considering the character’s design. Even if Parasite is still frozen in the middle of the city as seen on page three. I didn’t even think of frozen Parasite when Ivo was back in Task Force X custody at the start of season two. I wonder if that will get addressed in this series.
I loved the misunderstanding Superman has with this new unnamed character. So far this Superman has solved his problems with punching bad guys in robot suits (or bad robots). This robot suit looks like a villain, but actually needs his help. I like the idea of Clark learning to talk before punching. Great opportunity for character growth.
I also like the MAWS-universe version of Bloodsport. He’s got a very DCEU inspired design and you can’t go wrong with Idris Elba. It looks like he’s working for a rival faction of Checkmate. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out with the Checkmate that was mentioned on the show. I also wonder if things that happen in the book will reflect in the show since they do have Josie Campbell writing. I know it would be tough to reference a character seen only in the comic. They don’t have editors notes on cartoons and they can’t expect every viewer to have read the book.
I liked the art on the book by Pablo M. Collar (colors by Nick Filardi). I’ve seen their art previously in some DC anthology books, but this is the first time I’ve seen them on a full issue. The art evokes the characters designs from the cartoon while also being in their style. A tough needle to thread I’d imagine.
My shop knows me so they held all the variant covers for me. I especially like the Riley Rossmo variant with Mxyzptlk; I’m a Mxy mark. The main cover by Carli Squitieri is right out of the show (although not set during Christmas like the issue). Gavin Guidry’s variant has been one of my iPhone wallpapers since it was first announced. It’s an iconic Superman & Lois image. I believe the “Character Design” variant is credited to Warner Brothers animation which is a little weird. A person drew the cover, you should credit them. Even if it was a team of people! Credit them!
Overall an excellent first issue and addition to the universe!