#20

... young@hotmail.com. In the meantime, you may consider the following 16 tunes to be the best tracks of August 2003: -=- THE BEST OF THE BEST -=- "World #204" - Graff - light rock ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/parties/2001/addictanniversary01/mmul/world204.zip -=- THE REST OF THE BEST -=- "Acid Maintenance" - Keith303 - dance ftp://ftp.scene.org/pub/music/artists/keith303/k303main.zip "Checksum Error" - Breakthru - pop http://www.users.ch/portela/breakthru/xm/brk_chk.zip "Discovery" - Temezo & T-Tracker - dance http://www.modarchive.com/cgi-bin/downloa ...

... quired -- the _Action Comics Archives_, Volumes 1 and 2. These are great! Reprints of the first issues of _Action Comics_ -- Volume 1 from #1 through #20 and Volume 2 from #21 through #36 -- showcasing the Man of Steel in all his pre-wartime glory. This was before Superman faced such outrageous villains as Brainiac and Metallo and Lex Luthor (although Superman did face the Ultra-Humanite in these early days, who was a mad scientist along the same lines as the pre-Crisis Luthor), but instead really fought for "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" by helping the little guy against insurance scams and labor laws and that sort of thing. The reason ...

... ve to go out with a bang! Unfortunately, Denny O'Neil and Dick Dillin could only produce a misfire. "Vengeance of the Tomb Thing" in _World's Finest_ #202 (May 1971) starts with Superman flying through a thunderstorm and being blasted by a lightning bolt (excuse me, "a tongue of blue-white fire"). The downed Superman is found by a group of Arab desert bandits who, coincidentally, are pursuing an archaeological expedition being reported on by Lois Lane. They are searching for the tomb of Malis, an ancient ruler of murky and mystical memory. When Superman turns out to have lost his memory, Bedouin Brakh convinces him that he is a member of his gan ...

... remembers Pa Kent yelling at him not to fly in the window because people might see him. He remembers the "Rip Van Winkle of Smallville" (_Adventure_ #208). He remembers an emergency when he was taking the train to Metropolis for the first time when a cave-in blocked the tunnel, but he was able to change to Superman in the darkness. He remembers battling "It" (_Action_ #162) and his greatest nemesis, Lois Lane, to protect his secret identity. He remembers plugging a hole in a dam while dressed as Clark because he just didn't have time to change. He flies back to erase Clark's shoe prints (pressed into the dam while carrying the heavy boulder) bu ...

... The Phantom Zone Supergirl's 25th Anniversary In honor of Supergirl's 40th anniversary, Scott Devarney looks back at Action Comics #555 and Supergirl #20, two issues published for Supergirl's 25th anniversary. Superman Stories Legends -- The Miniseries Sean Hogan looks at the crossover that followed up Crisis, in which Darkseid tried to turn the people of Earth against its heroes, and how this event affected Superman. EDITORIAL STAFF: --------------- Jeffery D. Sykes, Publisher and Co-Editor-in-Chief Shane Travis, Co-Editor-in-Chief and Executive Editor of Comic Reviews Neil Ottenstein, Executive Editor of STAS Reviews DISCLAIMERS: ----------- S ...

... Star Conqueror, JLA #22-23 [ 5] "Hexed!", Superboy #55 [ 2] "OMAC: One Million and Counting!", Superboy #1M [ 2] "Hide 'N' Seek", Superman Adventures #20 _Superboy_ (courtesy of Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett) returned with a bang, beating last year's landslide winner, _JLA_. It's also worth noting that the three _Supergirl_ entries garnered 26 votes between them -- perhaps Peter David could have won for best story if his vote hadn't been split. Then again, when Peter David writes a bad story, people sure notice. It's saying something when his _Supergirl_ story for the DC One Million month was more disliked than this year's stink winner, _Superboy ...

... ic, but not your conclusion. Nothing was really *bad* this year, but the most yawn-worthy, "Who cares?" cover had to be that of _Superman Adventures_ #20. Superman gets hit with an energy beam -- whoop-de-diddly-do. An image so generic as to be meaningless, nothing about this cover made me want to do anything except pass it over for something more interesting. SF5: Best Writing in a Superman Family Title ============================================ JS: This was *quite* a tough call for me. During the first few months of the year, _Steel_ was easily my favorite book, almost exclusively because of Priest's writing. PAD provided yet another strong ...

... as revealed to all in _Action Comics_ #141, a fact that Nelson Bridwell overlooked when he wrote the Mr. and Mrs. Superman story in _Superman Family_ #202, in which he created a completely different story about the discovery of Kryptonite on Earth-2, one set long after Clark and Lois were married. Once rocks from Krypton started falling out of the sky, it wouldn't be long before other objects appeared. In _Superman _ #65 (July-August 1950) Superman met "Three Supermen From Krypton". The Al Plastino cover featured Superman and Lois in the upper left corner, gaping in astonishment at three strangely dressed men performing super-feats. All wear tig ...

... ] "Love Is All That Anti-Matters", Superboy and the Ravers #17-19 [ ] "When She Was Good...", Supergirl #1M [ ] "Hide 'N' Seek", Superman Adventures #20 (MasterTrax) [ ] "Power Corrupts ... Absolutely", Superman Adventures #24 (Parasite) [ ] "Yesterday's Man of Tomorrow", Superman Adventures #26 (Mxyzptlk) [ ] All Young Justice, #1-3,1M SF3: Best Cover from a Superman Family Title [ ] JLA #19 (Skeleton hand rolls dice with JLA on faces) [ ] JLA #24 (JLA stands against the rain at sunset) [ ] Steel #48 (Steel wields hammer, Crash's forces fly overhead) [ ] Superboy #50 (Shirtless long-haired Superboy firing gun) [ ] Superboy #54 (Superboy and Gu ...

... in a psychiatric ward. Neither Superman nor the doctors seem to believe him when he warns that Vril Dox is real -- and he will be back. In _Superman_ #20, Fine loses control of his body after learning of Janet's death, and Brainiac is able to escape during the funeral service. In _Adventures of Superman_ #445 (written by Ordway), we learn that Fine's body is rejecting Dox's alien life-force, and that Brainiac is trying to find an organic serum to cure himself. Brainiac murders vagrants for their spinal fluid and, later, for their brains (anybody else having images of old horror movies?). When he captures Cat and Jimmy, he decides to lure Superma ...