#Starro the Conqueror

[longwuzhere]

Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers

My episode 2 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My episode 3 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My episode 4 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My episode 5 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Episode 6 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Episode 7 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here and here

My Episode 8 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Episode 9 easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Episode 10 easter eggs and refences in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

(SPOILERS if you haven't seen the show yet):

Lois Lane has a cut out clip of Vicki Vale. Vicki Vale is a journalist in Gotham City. Her first appearance was in Batman #49 (1948) as seen in the panel here (W: Bill Finger, A: Lew Sayre and Bob Kane, I: Charles Paris, L: Ira Schnapp).

Looks like Jimmy is a fan of Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask. Good video game taste.

Jimmy mentions a psychic starfish and the one starfish in the DC universe who is psychic is Starro the Conqueror, who's first appearance is in Brave and the Bold 28 (1960) (the cover art here is done by Mike Sekowsky, Murphy Anderson, and Ira Schnapp) and has the power to mind control people.

Lois, after barging into Perry White's office about a story, mentions Mt. Simonson. This is a neat name drop to Superman: The Man of Steel writer Louise Simonson, one of the nicest comic book writers you'll ever meet. She helped co-create John Henry Irons a.k.a Steel with artist of the Superman: The Man of Steel comic, Jon Bogdanove (really hope we get to see Irons in this show too).

Jon Bogdanove also gets a name drop here as does...

Dan Jurgen, comic book writer and artist on the Superman comic in the 90s (also one of my favorite Superman artists).

Now who are these kids that call themselves the Newskid Legion? Well, they are a VERY deep DC cut and reference to the Newsboy Legion back in the 1940s. The group was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, LEGENDARY comic book creators.

The page here is from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #16 (1986) with the art by Jack Kirby and Karl Kesel. Most of the Newskid Legion is named after the Newsboy Legion members

Gabby and Big Words here share names with their Newsboy Legion counterparts as does Flip Johnson...

who shares names with Walter "Flip" Johnson here on the cover of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olson #137 (1971) which was done by Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, and Gaspar Saladino.

Patty, the cartoonist of the Newskid Legion homages this panel from Adventures of Superman #500 (1993) (W: Karl Kesel, P: Tom Grummet, I: Doug Hazelwood, C: Glenn Whitmore, L: Albert DeGuzman), the first appearance of Superboy, Conner Kent/ Kon-El.

But who is the one below that drawing? We'll his name is in Big Word's word puzzle, in the show. It's Jim Harper, the Guardian.

Jim Harper becomes the Newsboy Legion's legal guardian despite their causing trouble for him. The page here is from Star Spangled Comics #7, the Newsboy Legion and the Guardian's first appearance, by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Whitney Ellsworth. You might've seen the Guardian on the recent Young Justice cartoon.

When Lois, Clark, and Jimmy go investigate about the smuggled robots in Metropolis, Jimmy makes a reference to super intelligent gorillas in France. This is a subtle hint at Monsieur Mallah, the Doom Patrol villain who will be in the show along with his partner, the Brain. Both made their first appearance in Doom Patrol #86 (1964) .

The cover art here is done by Arnold Drake, Bob Brown, and Ira Schnapp.

Later in the episode we see Clark receive his powers and he is surrounded with electricity, giving off Superman Blue vibes when in the comics, Superman gained electricity powers and became Electric Blue Superman who's first appearance was in Superman #123 (1997) (cover art by Dan Jurgens, Joe Rubenstein, Patrick Martin, and Todd Klein.

Link to Episode 2 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 3 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 4 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 5 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 6 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 7 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here and here

Link to Episode 8 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 9 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

Link to Episode 10 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[riddlerhymes]

do you get what im on about here. do u understand

[chernobog13]

Starro the Conqueror!

[ronecam]

Is he still relevant bc I'm literally such a simp

[doctorslippery]

Wolverine approves.

[dailydccomics]

their Starro era Justice League Europe #25-26

[elvastered-blog]

Oh kill me... Another unpopular staff Ma favorite 5 pic: "I can barely hear you with dick in your mouth" "How a dick in mouth prevents you from hearing, are you fucked?

[browsethestacks]

Starro The Conqueror

[superman86to99]

Action Comics #703 (September 1994)

The final Zero Hour crossover! Superman visits an alternate timeline where he did what babies would normally do if put on a rocket and sent to another planet! You know, die.

We start with Metropolis being attacked by a version of Starro the Conqueror who's visiting from a timeline where he defeated the Justice League of America during their first appearance. Superman takes the giant starfish monster down within a couple of pages, making the JLA look like chumps since it took them a whole issue to do the same thing (or not do it, in this case).

After that, Clark Kent stops by the Daily Planet's temporary offices (since their actual offices got blown up by missiles) to check in on the gang, and everything seems pretty normal... until Perry White disappears in front of everyone. Clark realizes old people are getting Marty McFly'd because the time crisis is erasing the decades they were born in. And who else does he know who's pretty old...?

(I'm not sure if Pa should feel insulted or flattered.)

Superman flies faster than he's ever flown to Smallville (is this the start of that trope?), but once he gets there, reality shifts around him again, and instead of Ma and Pa Kent, he meets... Ma and Pa Kent, but young. He's now in a world where time moves slower and it's still the '40s, which, on the upside, means he's got more time to save his Ma and Pa. The Young Kents think this circus strongman must be a goon sent by someone they refer to as "the doc" and decide to chain him up. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a problem for Superman -- if the metal box where Past Pa keeps his chains didn't happen to also contain some kryptonite. How did it get there? Past Ma helpfully explains while her son from another reality agonizes.

In this timeline, the Kents were on a weekend trip to Kansas when the Kryptonian rocket landed in their farm, so by the time they got to it, poor baby Kal-El had passed away. Oh, and some heartless bastard had stolen the rocket and left the baby lying there. But hey, at least the Kents got some neat glowing rock out of it!

That heartless bastard was Dr. Emmett Vale, the alien-hating scientist who would go on to create Metallo in Superman's timeline. The Kents leave Superman chained up next to the kryptonite as they go visit Vale with a shotgun to make him pay for sending garishly-dressed thugs their way, plus the baby murder and stuff. Superman is too weak to move away from the kryptonite, but not too weak to melt the wheels of Pa Kent's truck with his eyes, causing the metal box with the kryptonite to slam shut (thank Rao most metal boxes in this timeline are also lined with lead, for some reason).

Meanwhile, the Kents have already been captured by Vale's goons. Vale, who is terribly concerned about an alien invasion, says he used the technology from the Kryptonian rocket to build a machine to cross to a neighboring dimension and steal some of the "awesome weapons" there, which he plans to use against those hated aliens. In fact, he hates the aliens so much that he has no regrets about leaving a tiny one to die. Unfortunately for him, a bigger alien overhears that.

Vale activates his dimension-crossing machine, which causes the Old Kents to start materializing in the portal as they sync with this timeline, meaning they're once again a few seconds away from getting Marty McFly'd. While Superman worries about that, Vale activates some '40s-style robots and sends them after him, but Superman isn't terribly intimidated. (He did just fight a much scarier killer robot a couple of months ago.)

Superman destroys two of the robots, but the resulting electric shock (plus some lingering kryptonite poisoning) leaves him stunned. Past Pa actually saves Superman from the last robot using his trusty shotgun, while Past Ma saves herself from Vale using her nails.

With the Young Kents safe, Superman uses the portal to try to bring the Old ones into this reality to buy them more time. When he's about to do that, he finds himself transported into the timestream by Linear Lady Liri Lee, who tells him it's time to go back to the Zero Hour series and fight "the true cause of this chronal chaos." Superman curses her for dooming his parents, but then she shows him that the Young Kents' timeline is disappearing anyway. Superman agrees to rejoin the crossover just to kick its mystery villain's butt (of course, if you've read ZH #1, you know it already happened the other way).

Meanwhile, in Metropolis, Lois Lane reports on the latest breaking news story: the end of time. She watches from a rooftop as a wave of entropy swallows Metropolis, and only interrupts her narration at the very end, to say...

And then: four pages of nothing (which was a running theme in several DC comics this month). TO BE CONCLUDED IN ZERO HOUR!

Plotline-Watch:

At the start, Clark tells Lois he took some time to check in on Metropolis since he and the other heroes had "stopped the chronal deterioration in the future" in Zero Hour #2, meaning this must take place between that issue and #1. The only problem is that Liri Lee and Matthew Ryder had been left in stasis by Extant in ZH #4 and were only freed by Superman and others in #1... but I guess that's not a massive continuity screwup given that she's a time traveling character and all. Hell, it could even be 2025 Post-Zero Hour, Post-Infinite Crisis, Post-New 52, Post-whatever Liri visiting this old timeline.

Jimmy Olsen wearing shirts for '90s bands was a staple of this era, but they've never been quite as... revealing as the NIN one he decided to wear to the office in this issue. Is he trying to impress Lucy Lane now that she's an alt-rocker girl (or grrrl)? Did a time fluke make him switch clothes with a much shorter Jimmy from another timeline? Or did he realize the world is ending and said "screw it, I'll dress like I always wanted to dress"? I think it might have been the shock of seeing Jimmy wearing that what made Perry White drop out of reality, not the entropy wave.

Previous appearances had depicted Dr. Vale as a kooky scientist, while this one shows him as more of a rich mob-boss type character. It's possible he lost his fortune, henchmen, and weight as he grew older and more paranoid about aliens, or this is just one of the differences between the timelines (another one being that Superman's rocket landed in the '40s, which means this Kal-El would have been in his fifties by 1994).

This issue would be greatly improved by one small change: instead of a shotgun, Young Pa should have been carrying around his shovel (you know, the shovel from The Man of Steel #6 and Adventures #500) and that's what he uses to save Superman from the robot at the end. You messed up, Michelinie.

Shout Outs-Watch:

Shameless Jimmy Olsen shirt-style shout outs to our SUPporters, Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Dave Shevlin, and Dave Blosser! Join them (and get extra articles) via Patreon or our newsletter’s “pay what you want” mode! Both of those also have free tiers, if you just wanna get posts like this one in your inbox.

And now, more about this issue's most important topics (including, yes, Jimmy's fashion choices) from the great Don Sparrow:

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We start with the cover, and it’s a perfect representation of the Zero Hour storyline—bright white entropy erasing away reality.  There’s something about the way Superman’s arm is stretched out slightly to the side that makes it look like he’s just waving “ahhhh, nuts to you” to the outstretched arms of Lois Lane.  One small, but interesting detail is that even the trade dress “Superman in Action Comics” is brightening as it’s erased by the white wave. 

Inside the issue we get great, pitched action as the story opens, with helicopter military gunner firing on Starro the Conqueror.

A few pages later, Clark and Lois are tastefully dressed, but I wish I could say the same for Jimmy.  I get that they want him to seem modern, which is why they stick him with a then-current Nine Inch Nails shirt, but why it’s a sleeveless belly shirt is a mystery to me.  Jimmy’s look also showcases a common problem in superhero storytelling—everyone is a mesomorph!  I’m sure Jimmy is in fit condition, but here he’s shown with a bodybuilder physique to rival even Superman’s.

The image of a determined Superman soaring to check on his parents (who, being older than Perry White, already should have disappeared) is a good one, though it begs the question of what his plan is—he couldn’t seem to do anything to stop Perry disappearing, how will his parents be any different?

[Max: Had it been established that the Kents are older than Perry? Superman says otherwise in this issue. The hair does make Perry look younger; I bet it would be the other way around if Pa wore a toupée.]

Moving along, the shot of a thoughtful Superman in shadow is a great drawing. 

As we’re introduced to Emmett Vale, he looks like Al Capone by way of Winston Churchill.  By the time the robots show up, the wheels are really off this story. [Max: I like the '40s-style look of the robots, but I also can't help thinking Bogdanove would have had a lot more fun with these guys than Guice did.]

Vanishing Point always has a distinctive look, which I’m guessing was hard to pull off in this era of four-colour colouring.  Finally, Lois’ expression of blank terror is appropriate as the wave of destruction erases reality.  Having the final few pages totally blank is pretty nervy, and definitely has a disquieting effect, though in this specific issue, it also feels like we were shortchanged a little on story. [Max: I checked and we still got 22 pages of story... but no lettercol, which I always enjoy reading in these backissues. So yeah, shortchanged.]

SPEEDING BULLETS:

A cute shoutout to the artist ho drew the very first appearance of Starro (and the Justice League), Mike Sekowsky, as one of the soldiers bears that surname.

Wait, what is Lois eating?  It kinda looks like an ice cream treat, but the white stars on blue looks like paper?  What is that thing? [Max: Yeah, that always bugged me. Why is she biting the paper?! Is this her "it's the end of the world, gonna do what I want" moment?]

We are definitely in the Lois and Clark era, as comic book Perry is saddled with TV Perry’s catch phrase “Great Shades of Elvis” as he disappears into nothingness. [Max: Maybe this is actually Lois and Clark timeline Perry, and no one noticed.]

It’s telling to me that in a crisis of this magnitude, Superman seems to choose his parents over Lois.  Unless he thought they were in more immediate danger than the younger Lois.  Still, her getting wiped from reality all alone is pretty sad to see.

Missed an issue? Looking for an old storyline? Check out our new chronological issue index!

[silveragelovechild]

I just came across a reference to a Japanese movie from the 1950s - “Warning from Space”. It was released in January, 1956. It featured starfish-like aliens that want to help Earth.

The aliens look remarkably like Starro the Conqueror from DC Comics. It first appeared in The Brave and the Bold#28 (March 1960) which also introduced the Justice League of America.

I wonder if either Gardner Fox or Mike Sekowsky saw Warning from Space and swiped its design?

[dc-tournaments]

Why do they deserve to win?

Starro (unreality TW)

Scooby Doo

[longwuzhere]

Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers: For the first episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the second episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the third episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the fourth episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the sixth episode's Easter eggs it's here

For the seventh episode's Easter eggs it's here and here

For the eighth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

For the ninth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

For the tenth episode's Easter eggs post it's here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

SPOILERS if you haven't seen this week's episode obviously

We start off the episode with this shot of Superman with the drawn on glasses. A good homage to what Lois did in the 1980 Superman II movie...

where she not only drew the glasses but also a full suit and hat on a picture of Superman.

Next we see Jimmy waking up and seeing someone debunking his conspiracy theories on Sub-Diego.

Sub Diego was an actual place in the DC universe before the New 52 reboot. In Aquaman #15 and #16 (2003) , shown here (W: Will Pfeifer, P: Patrick Gleason, I: Christian Alamy, C: Nathan Eyring, L: Jared K. Fletcher for issue 15, Nick Napolitano for issue 16). The underwater city is actually San Diego, but is buried underwater thanks to a tidal wave and makes its first appearance in Aquaman #15 (2003). There was a lot of casualties from this.

When we get to our title its "You Will Believe A Man Can Lie" a reference to the tagline for the 1978 Superman movie.

As seen here on the poster, it says "You'll believe a man can fly".

Next we see our villain, well one of the villains, for the episode, Heatwave.

In the comics Heatwave makes his first appearance in Flash 140 (1963) (cover art by Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, and Ira Schnapp). Heatwave aka Mick Rory is a Flash rogue usually acting as a rival to Captain Cold aka Leonard Snart. In MAwS, their Heatwave shares the same last name and powers, but MAwS Heatwave is gender flipped. You might have seen Heatwave in the CW DC comics shows where he is played by Dominic Purcell in The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow.

Lois, later in the episode, name drops Heatwave's name. Gotta be honest when Heatwave showed up I was like is that Rampage? Cuz the MAwS design looks vaguely like Rampage.

If she does show up in MAwS, I'll talk more about her in another post, but for now, Rampage aka Karen Lou "Kitty" Faulkner, makes her first appearance in Superman #7 (1987) (full page here: W&P: John Byrne, I: Karl Kesel, C: Tom Ziuko, L: John Costanza).

Steve drags Jimmy to film his debunking Flamebird videos and references Starro who I talked about here.

Lois, later runs around with the Daily Planet police scanner trying to catch Superman and the dispatcher reports that a robbery is in progress at McGuinness Luxe Garage.

This is a nice reference to Ed McGuinness who was the artist for Superman, Action Comics, and Superman/Batman in the early 2000s. If you've seen Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, then you'll know the movie takes inspiration from his character designs in the first arc of the Superman/Batman comic series. The Superman/Batman #1 (2003) cover here is done by Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, and Dave Stewart. I like Ed McGuinness's pencils, very stylized.

Heatwave name drops Livewire and the Gazzo mod family. Both of whom I've talked about here and here respectively

Heatwave has been running away from Deathstroke here who has been taking our her crew. Notice that Slade Wilson doesn't have the half black half orange helmet yet that almost every Deathstroke depiction always has.

He, Amanda Waller, and the General who I totally think is General Sam Lane, Lois's dad, are fans of DBZ cuz of the scouters they're wearing.

Later in the scene we see the General again he's totally General Sam Lane. I'll talk more about him when we get a double confirmation through a name drop/reveal in a later post calling Amanda Waller, Mandy. What a fucking bold thing to say to Waller! Like damn! power move right there!

Superman and Deathstroke are fighting under a highway and we see the traffic is heading to Bludhaven!

Very good reference to my favorite character in all of pop culture, Dick Grayson aka Nightwing. Nightwing makes Bludhaven his city to protect. The city makes its first appearance in Nightwing #1 (1996) (the panel here - W: Chuck Dixon, P: Scott McDaniel, I: Karl Story, C: Roberta Tewes, L: John Costanza). Fun Bludhaven fact, its crime rate is WORST than Gotham! Also HIGHLY recommend reading the new Nightwing run cuz its fucking amazing! Won a few Eisner Awards (think the Oscars but for comic books) recently and I am not just saying that because I am a Dick Grayson fan.

Near the end of the episode, we see Lois willing to jump off a building to prove that Clark is Superman. A lot of discourse was happening online over this, but I do want to say this is pretty on brand for her to do.

In Superman II, Lois does something similar and Clark saves her. its just in MAwS, Clark flies to save her thus ruining the secret identity, while in Superman II, Clark does save her but he is still able to get away with it thanks to him playing it more subtly.

Don't know why people we're in such a fucking fit over something that Lois has done before.

In the after credits scene, Jimmy, who planned a sasquatch finding adventure with Lois and Clark, but they were dealing with their shit and Jimmy was by himself, decides to do the finding on his own and meets a giant gorilla. In the first episode Jimmy mentions an intelligent gorilla in France and my guess is this is Monsieur Mallah. You can read more about him here. If you made it this far down, I appreciate you taking the time to check this post out and if you want to see my other MAwS Easter Eggs posts - Episode 1 is here

Episode 2 is here

Episode 3 is here

Episode 4 is here

Episode 6 is here

Episode 7 is here and here

Episode 8 is here

Episode 9 is here

Episode 10 is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[milkydraws8]

something lives in these woods

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

Starro

Jarro

Garro

[nitpickrider]

That's AMAZING. They gave Starro a bunch of little Sinestro Rings to go around his little tentacles. That's adorable.

[dailydccomics]

1998 frat boy coded Justice League Europe #28