Mild Mannered Reviews - Classic Post-Crisis Superman Comics

Superman: War of the Worlds

Superman: War of the Worlds

Cover date: October 1998

"War of the Worlds"

Writer: Roy Thomas
Penciller: Michael Lark
Inker: Michael Lark

Reviewed by: Tom-EL



[Note: In this story, the main character is always addressed as Clark, never as Superman. Presumably in this continuity, this was the first and only occasion that Clark appeared in the suit and used his powers in public. For that reason this plot summary also refers to him as Clark.]

The story opens with a short re-telling of the origin of Superman, how he came to Earth in a rocket, was found and adopted by the Kents, and later went to Metropolis and was hired as a reporter for the Metropolis Daily Star. The narration puts some of its focus on the fact that he himself is an alien. Before they passed away, Ma and Pa Kent warned Clark not to reveal his abilities to the public, lest people be fearful of him. However, they also told Clark that they believed someday he would be called upon to use those powers to assist humanity. During the narrative, it is mentioned that Mars had approached its nearest point to Earth, and that astonomers were noticing balls of flame, one each night for ten nights appearing on the surface of Mars. The story then begins with Star Managing Editor George Taylor sending Clark Kent and Lois Lane to cover the report of a meteor coming down outside Metropolis, in a place called Woking, about two hours away.

Lois and Clark reach the point where the meteor came down and as soon as they get there, they discover it doesn't look anything like a meteor. What can be seen above ground bears more resemblance to some kind of huge metal cylinder, measuring at least thirty yards across the top. A crowd has been building to see this attraction and Lois recognizes one of the people there as Professor Ogilvy, the famous astronomer. He has men there digging around the object because earlier, he noticed a section of it appeared to be unscrewing. Also there is one of Ogilvy's colleagues, Dr. Lex Luthor. Professor Ogilvy continues to explain his ideas about the cylinder to Lois when someone cries out "Look - it's unscrewing again!" and a moment later the mystery of what/who is inside is revealed.

When the cylinder opens, the first thing they see appears to be tentacles, then they see what the tentacles are connected to. One of the creatures comes to the opening of the ship, and then falls to the ground. Another Martian comes near the opening, not quite as close as the first. The creature pulls back from the door, then an object resembling a periscope comes out. Ogilvy and some of his men approach the ship, holding a white flag and calling out that they come in peace. Clark isn't sure about the wisdom of that move, but Lois says to him "Even you must know what a white flag means..." Clark responds "But do the Martians?" A second later they get an answer when the periscope gun fires heat beams, killing Ogilvy and others, and setting fire to the surrounding area. Clark shields Lois from the heat blast, and a moment later she sees another surprising sight. Clark's clothes were totally burned off of him, revealing a red and blue costume with a red cape. Lois asks "You are Kent... aren't you?" Clark confirms that it's him.

About that time the Army arrives, intending to fight the Martian war machine. The captain in charge of the unit plans on returning fire with his artillery as an answer to the heat beams, until the cylinder opens up all the way and the Martian tripod machine emerges, joined by four more Martian tripods. Rifle units begin firing at the machines, to no avail, with one soldier commenting "It's like throwing jelly beans at a tank!" Clark warns the captain to get his men out of there before the heat beams start again. As he says that, one tripod turns to face them. Clark leaps up, but as he is in mid-air, the tripod fires the beam, hitting Clark who falls back to the ground. The Martian war machines begin once again firing their heat beams across the area, killing soldiers and destroying army vehicles and artillery field guns. Clark tells the soldiers to fall back to protect Metropolis, then turns to face the Martians. He picks up a cannon and fires it at point blank range at the Martian machine. When the shell has no effect, he hurls the cannon at the tripod, which falls over from the force of the gun hitting it. The soldiers begin cheering, but the momentary victory is short-lived as the other four machines move on unhindered in the direction of Metropolis.

At the Woking train station, Lois meets up with Lex and they return to Lex's laboratory in his car. In Metropolis, a squadron of newly built P-38 attack planes flies in to meet the Martian machines. The planes' attack has no effect as the tripods shoot them down. The military forces are being pushed back until Clark joins the fight in Metropolis. He fights the tripods to the best of his ability, but is slowed down by a new alien weapon, black smoke rockets. When a rocket detonates, it produces a black inky smoke that hangs low to the ground. The black smoke means death to anyone who inhales it. The tripods capture Lois, blasts Clark with two beams in a crossfire, and he falls to the ground. At the same time, Luthor gets too close to a fire caused from a heat beam, and his hair catches fire. A mechanical arm extends out from one of the tripods, latches on to Clark's body and pulls him into the machine. The four Martian tripods continue moving through Metropolis, killing and destroying everything in their path. The "Battle of Metropolis" seems to be lost, even as more cylinders start to fall across the Earth.

Clark wakes up and finds himself held prisoner inside one of the Martian tripods. He learns he's been held for three weeks now. Dr. Luthor and Lois are also present in the tripod. All of Earth's major cities have been conquered and many humans have been reduced to slaves or cattle. Lois is also being held captive (though not in restraints), and the now-bald Luthor is working with the Martians. In return for his safety, he has offered his service to help them understand more about Clark, his powers and origin, since he is obviously also an alien. Luthor informs Clark that by this time, the Martians have conquered the world, and most of the world's major leaders are dead, including President Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. Luthor reveals that Earth's bacteria have been making many Martians sick, and that they are studying Clark, who he deduces is in fact an alien like them. By this time, most of the world's population have been herded into concentration camps for use as slave labor, and ultimately, for food. At Luthor's request, Lois has been kept alive, pretty much to keep Clark in check. The Martians on this tripod seem to be physically doing better than Martians on the other machines, and Lex's theory is that Clark's alien biology and close proximity is somehow canceling the deadly effects of Earth's bacteria and keeping the Martians around him from getting sick. Luthor is now determined to find a cure for this "Earth Flu" affecting the Martians.

After several hours of research, Luthor discovers what he has been seeking. It was difficult, but he was able to get a sample of Clark's blood. From that, he determined that from Clark's antibodies, he could replicate them and come up with a cure. That was all the Martians needed to hear. With that information they no longer needed Luthor to help them study Clark, so they turned on Luthor and prepared to devour him. Lois and Luthor kill one of the Martians and free Clark, then he starts fighting the Martians. The three make it outside and find themselves inside a Martian concentration camp compound. Clark continues to fight Martians while he tears a hole in the fence, allowing people to escape to freedom. Clark draws close to Lois, who draws back from Clark, telling him that she can't bear to have an alien touch her after what the Martians have done. She explains that perhaps later she will feel differently, but for now she asks his understanding. Clark replies, his head lowered "Yes Lois... I understand."

More tripods arrive, and Clark goes after them. He picks up an abandoned car and throws it at one of the tripods, knocking it over. Another tripod fires a black smoke rocket, Clark catches it and throws it back at the ship, disabling it. He goes after a third tripod and discovers that this one has the capability to disengage from its legs and fly. It then gives him a hard blast of heat beam, knocking Clark down. Clark leaps up after it again, and gets hit with the beam a second time, going down once more. Luthor, observing what happened, noticed that both times Clark passed under the ship, its hovering became momentarily erratic. As the flying Martian machine aims its heat beam periscope at Clark for one final finishing blast, Clark summons up all of his remaining strength and picks up a fallen tripod, throwing it not at, but under the flying machine. The flyer falls to the ground, confirming Luthor's theory that the machine's anti-gravity capability can be disrupted. Clark weakly rises up one more time, to Luthor and Lois' amazement, then falls back down again. As Luthor and Lois get near to Clark lying on the ground, he speaks to them. He recognized war fever was taking hold of him and held off attacking the grounded Martian machine. At that moment, he came to understand that, like them, he came from space and his homeworld may be dying or dead, just as theirs was. If the Martians hadn't come, it might have been him that people were running from. Lois realizes he is right, understanding that they were afraid of him, even as he was saving them. A moment later, Clark Kent is dead.

Acting on Clark's insight, Luthor found a technological means to disrupt the Martian's anti-gravity capability and destroy the remaining Martians. Earth begins to rebuild its civilizations. Nations start the process of rebuilding by electing new people to leadership positions. John "Cactus Jack" Garner becomes President of the United States, and Luthor, now married to Lois, becomes Vice-President. Life on Earth begins to return to normal, with one exception. A stone statue of Clark Kent in costume stands atop a monument in Metropolis located in front of the new League of Nations complex. The monument reads:

CLARK KENT

(d. 1938)

"He was born on one world--

grew to manhood on another--

and saved his adopted planet

from the wrath of a third,

during the WAR OF THE WORLDS"

5Story - 5: The inside cover indicates the date of this story as 1999, but the first printing came out in October of 1998. This story is intended to honor two 60th anniversaries from 1938. The first is the 60th anniversary of Superman's creation by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The other is the 60th anniversary of Orson Welles October 30th, 1938 "Mercury Theatre on the air" radio broadcast of H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds.

Personally I thought this was a very well-written blend of both story genre's. It was appropriate for this story to be done with the golden-age Superman to make it a true homage to the original Man of Steel's first appearance. In this incarnation, writer Roy Thomas has taken Superman back to his 1938 roots. The silver-age or modern-age Superman would have made short work of defeating these Martians. This is the Superman that was said didn't fly, but rather could "leap an eighth of a mile", and "leap over tall buildings in a single bound". This is the Superman whose skin couldn't be penetrated by anything less than a bursting shell. The characterization of Lex Luthor as in league with the Martians really showed the true capacity of evil inherent in the Luthor character. The combination of the golden-age Superman and the close adaptation of the Wells' version made this a true classic sci-fi story, and in one sense, you could say that the Martians were this story's version of Doomsday, given the story's final outcome. Roy Thomas has had a long and accomplished career as a writer and editor for both Marvel and later DC Comics. His work with DC includes a run as writer of Justice Society of America and All-Star Squadron.

This story seemed to me to have some Superman and WOTW homages. The inclusion of Professor Ogilvy from the original HG Wells story, and Daily Star Managing Editor George Taylor from the golden-age Superman stories. Also in Wells' story, Woking was the name of a town outside London where the first cylinder landed. The scenes with the Martians firing on a white flag/peace delegation, then attacking the military occurs in most of the WOTW versions. The black smoke weapon was mentioned in the original story, the 1938 radio broadcast, and on the 40th anniversary, the 1978 musical. When one of the soldiers in this version says "It's like throwing jelly beans at a tank!", it reminded me of a line from the 1953 George Pal movie. An atomic bomb detonation fails to stop the Martian machines and the commanding general exclaims in frustration "Guns, tanks, bombs...they're like TOYS against them!" The scene late in the story of Clark holding up a car over his head is clearly a tip of the hat to the cover of Action Comics #1.

Superman #62 As a side note, this isn't the first comic book that paired Superman with a "War of the Worlds"-type story line. In Superman #62 (Jan/Feb, 1950), the cover shows Superman with another person who strongly resembles Orson Welles, in a story titled "Black Magic on Mars".

It is consistent with the fact that, at that time, Welles was in Italy as one of the actors in a movie being filmed called "Black Magic". The story involves the Welles character and Superman working together to hold off a Martian invasion, with no one believing what Welles had to say about it later, since he fooled everyone previously in 1938. That story in issue #62 is reprinted in the book Superman: From the 30's to the 70's.

4Art - 4: According to About.com, Michael Lark has built a reputation over the years, developing a unique style that has been likened to 'Film Noir'. If this was any modern-day Superman story, I probably would have given the art a lower rating. Lark is not one of my favorite artists, but his style worked for me in this particular case because it seems to lend itself better to the original golden-age Superman. The style had what I thought was a very good Joe Shuster/Fleischer-ish look to it. I could read this story and visualize it as it might have appeared if it had come out in a 1938 comic book, or a 1941 Paramount cartoon. I also liked how he drew the Martian tripod machines. They were similar in some ways to the Martian machines of Wells' original story artwork, but updated to fit into this 1938 re-telling, and consistent with the description from the Mercury Theaters' radio adaptation.

5Cover Art - 5: War of the Worlds has always been one of my favorite science-fiction stories, particularly the way it was done in the 1953 movie with Gene Barry as Dr. Clayton Forrester. Barry went on in the 60's to star in one of my favorite TV cop shows, Burke's Law. So to see a WOTW story with Superman in it on a comic book cover, fighting Martians in Metropolis was a lot of fun for me. I thought this cover summed up the story action pretty well, and the original golden-age font-style of the "Superman" name on the cover made the overall "golden-age" tone complete. Interestingly, in the 1953 movie, as the Martian war machines move through Los Angeles, they blow up the Los Angeles building that served in the original George Reeves Adventures of Superman series as the exterior of the Daily Planet building.


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