InsaneJournal

The following pages are from my favorite issue of Superman Adventures, namely #36, chronicling a very busy, but what must be typical, night for Kal-El. I'm not very fond of Mark Millar's writing overall, but when it comes to Supes, he's one of the few people who can get him right... especially the DCAU version.

This story encapsulates what I loved about Superman as a child, and now as an adult. That he does these things because he can, and that he can save us all - Jesus Christ and Santa Claus all in one. And it never made him boring for me. It was exciting and thrilling to see him do the super-feats, to wonder how he was going to get out of fixes more than when or if he was. Superman, written right, should always be an inspiration and a reminder of what a hero should be.

The issue starts with a shot of Clark changing into Superman in an alley, but elsewhere in the city, a boy is talking out loud, wondering if Superman can hear him...



"...Superman's got more important things to do with his time than look for little lost dogs."

Well, that's true for now, as Superman flies over the city, listening in on conversations with his super-hearing (not at all creepy, honest!) until he hears a cry for help. Turns out a bunch of crooks armed with freeze guns are robbing the bank. He makes short work of them but not before one of them causes an accident with an ambulance taking a woman in labor to the hospital.



When Superman gets the woman safely to her destination, a doctor calls Superman over. There's a transplant patient waiting on the operating table, but the donor heart has been delayed in Chicago because the plane it's on has been hijacked. So off he goes again...



"No one's going to die. I promise." ...and off to his next rescue of the kids in a flooding mineshaft.



Unfortunately, as fast as Kal is, he can't keep all his promises. He has to stop a gang fight and arrives at another scene to find the police cleaning up a jumper. He berates himself for not getting there sooner, but there's another wrinkle. Turns out, according to the suicide note, the jumper committed suicide because he murdered someone and pinned the blame on his brother - who is scheduled for execution in one minute.





Faster than a speeding bullet nothing.

Still, the night's not done, as there's a space station in trouble from a freak meteor storm, one of which is a size of a building. Not that it in any way deters Superman...



And as dawn comes and the morning news recaps Superman's feats of the previous night, we return to the boy at the start of the story, who wakes up to find a surprise in his bed.



But surely, it's a coincidence. Surely Superman had more important things to do than to find a lost dog. Surely he didn't have the time.

But the boy knows it's not. And so do we. Because he's Superman.