Reign of the Supermen #518: Faux Golden Age Superman

Source: Superman: The Man of Steel #80-82 (1998)
Type: Alternate Earth(ish)

In the reality trap set by Dominus, each Superman book took on the style of a past era, only one of which, Superman 2999, has been covered in these pages. Let's remedy that. Superman: The Man of Steel had Jon Bogdanove drawing Superman in the Joe Shuster style, with lots of homages to old panels and covers:

But was this really the Golden Age Superman reborn? Yes, the stories took place in the 30s-40s era, with Clark Kent working at the Daily Star for editor George Taylor. He went up against common thugs, Fifth Columnists and Nazis at home and abroad, with a more limited selection of powers. But haven't we covered the Golden Age (or alternately, the Earth-2) Superman already? There ARE differences. These weren't retro stories that fit into past continuity. The costume, for one thing, is based on Superman's first cover, but the look quickly changed. But here's the real clincher: The first story's villain is a Golden Age version of the Atomic Skull!

See, there never was a Golden Age Atomic Skull. Albert Micheals (an inversion of my real name, by the way, which has always kind of spooked me) first appeared in 1978 and was never an Aryan agent provocateur. So what we're really seeing is the modern-day DC Universe re-interpreted in the Golden Age style. You know, with retro off-canon stuff like Batman '66 doing well, I'd love to see comics done like this, in faux-Golden Age (or Silver Age, etc.) style. Not the Retro Comics DC put out a couple years ago - those actually fit in bygone era - but retro interpretations of later characters and tropes. How would the Golden Age handle Doomsday, for example, and the Reign of the Supermen? Mix and match stories and eras, stuff like that. I wonder.

Next week: We head for the Faux Silver Age!