Did you know Stan Lee once created his own version of the DC Universe? Yeah, no joke. Stan "I birthed Marvel Comics" Lee wrote his own versions of Wonder Woman, Batman, The Flash, and-The Big Blue Boyscout himself-Superman! So why don't we take a look at this Z-Lister? Today we're talking about Stan Lee's Superman!
So, here's a little background. We all know Stan Lee, he's the guy who-along with artist Jack Kirby-created a majority of Marvel Comic's most popular characters back in the 1960's. Around the 80's and 90's Stan was more involved with Marvel's film and animation, and in the early 2000's he started lending a hand outside Marvel by offering help to international comic book publishers. In 2001, Stan Lee teamed up with DC Comics to do a short series called "Just Imagine" which featured several stories starring well-known DC Comics heroes under the creative influence of Stan Lee. It was an interesting experiment, to take a man so commonly associated with another company's style and formula and to apply it to more traditional comic book characters. This was also 2001, shortly after DC Comics and Marvel Comics had their big crossover "Marvel vs DC" which-in the 90's-scored both companies a lot of money. It was also before either company had really focused on cinematic franchises for the sake of longevity or primary profit. It was the Goldilocks time for DC and Marvel.
In the third issue of "Just Imagine" Stan Lee and John Buscema created their Superman. In Stan's version, Superman was originally a police officer named Salden on planet Krypton. Rather than being a newborn, Salden was a grown man with a lover and a duty to uphold the law. Trouble was, Salden was the weakest fighter on the Kryptonian police force. Salden had attempted to arrest a dangerous Kryptonian criminal, but had trapped himself and the criminal in a rocket as a result. The rocket had been launched into space and landed on Earth, dropping the criminal somewhere on the planet along the way. When Salden landed he discovered the gravity on Earth was weaker than that of Krypton. This meant Salden's body was stronger and faster on Earth than on Krypton. Realizing Earth's space travel technology wasn't nearly advanced enough to bring him back home, Salden decided to use his newfound power and a "Flying Harness" from his planet to rid the Earth of crime, poverty, war, and any other global problem. Not because it was a responsible thing to do, but because by ridding the Earth of these problems he could make it possible for Earth's scientists to focus on space travel. As "The Superman", Salden finds and defeats the Kryptonian criminal and continues his quest to advance Earth's travel capabilities so he could get home.
A "Flying Harness"? I understand Stan Lee doesn't know how Superman flies, but come on, man! Stan's version of Superman has a couple of features I actually really like, especially as someone who's seen a lot-seriously, a lot-of versions of Superman. This Superman starts as an adult, he's the weakest cop on his world, but the strongest man on ours, this Superman also has the background of being a police officer so it's justifiable as to why he doesn't misuse the power he gets on Earth. What I don't like is the characterization of this Superman. We don't enough personal background to say "he misses his girl", in fact the biggest fact we know about Superman in relation to his home is that he was ridiculed for being weak. If you're stronger on Earth and Earthlings are intrigued by you, why leave? Why give up the thing you wanted? I suppose that's the lesson of this Superman's quest. That getting power comes with cost, but he doesn't accept Earth as his home by the end. He just begrudgingly decides to settle for Earth until they can send him back. I guess when you take away the "Why" as to who Superman is, he isn't as interesting. Anyone can make an evil Superman or a snobby Superman, but for the opportunity he got I don't think Stan Lee really explored what he could have done with the greatest superhero in history. Also, why does he have oven mitts!?
Thanks for reading!
What's your favorite version of Superman? Comment below!
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