Abandoned and forgotten plots

[Kuwagaton]

Some stories, however things shake out in the product line, drop off from long planted seeds or even outright promises. I think about this sort of thing occasionally because I love "Abandoned and Forsaked" on the main CBR page, but really I was struck by cracking open Action #568 (been meaning to do that since Valentine's) and coming across the "Perry has Alzheimer's" thing I didn't remember.



...! Pretty fascinating how they capped off an issue with a line like that. This makes me also want to recall and explore that weird relationship with Lois from around the same time.

Between Crisis, Birthright, Flashpoint, Rebirth, and the general editorial scraps, which interesting plots abruptly disappeared before you got your fill of them?

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Batman/Superman Annual #2 ends with Clark, powerless after a solar flare, getting shot due to Xa-Du's manipulations and left bleeding out, with a to be continued saying Truth would follow up on that...and then it's never mentioned again.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

Busiek was setting up something with Bruno Mannheim in his Superman run, but it was never followed up.

[Kuwagaton]

Batman/Superman Annual #2 ends with Clark, powerless after a solar flare, getting shot due to Xa-Du's manipulations and left bleeding out, with a to be continued saying Truth would follow up on that...and then it's never mentioned again.

Ah. My LCS then was in its worst stages of "losing" my pulls and I've always assumed I just missed whatever that was. I only read about it through spoilers anyway.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

This wasn't a plotline, but there was this moment I think in Kelly's run where Lois's mom sees her kissing Superman and I don't think it was ever mentioned again after that.

[Kuwagaton]

They actually had a thing where hilariously Ella observed several times and then drops a bomb like, "yeah I cheated on your father, too." Only to later talk to Lois, Clark (and SUperman iirc) about how that's not what's happening between them.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

They actually had a thing where hilariously Ella observed several times and then drops a bomb like, "yeah I cheated on your father, too." Only to later talk to Lois, Clark (and SUperman iirc) about how that's not what's happening between them.

Do you know what issue that was? Because I somehow I missed it when reading through that era.

[Kuwagaton]

It was in "Gangs of Metropolis" a bit after OWAW ended in Man of Steel.

[Dolores - The Worst Poster Ever]

It was in "Gangs of Metropolis" a bit after OWAW ended in Man of Steel.

Thank you, now I can finally get some closure.

[Jim Kelly]

The two issue LOIS LANE (cover dated August and September 1986) broke my heart. Given the events of COIE, I wasn't sure if this book was part of the new continuity or the old, because it introduced a few new wrinkles into the lives of the Metropolitans, yet seemed to preserve the established continuity.

Written by Mindy Newell and illustrated by the late great Gray Morrow, the second issue came out on June 26th, 1986--the same week as ACTION COMICS 583--and two weeks before MAN OF STEEL No.1

The story, "When It Rains, God Is Crying" gives a higher profile to Inspector Bill Henderson. Lois is on the outs with Clark and Superman, dating other guys. The sibling relationship is strained between Lois and Lucy (who now has brown hair)--but Lucy and Jimmy seem to be back on. Lana reveals to Lois that, when she was in Europe, she was married and had a child who was abducted by the Red Hand.

The plot concerns Lois investigating child abductions. It's a much more mature story than what was usually done. And Lois is going through a lot of psychological stress.

The series (which was supposed to be four regular issues but ended up as two double issues) is tantalizing and promises so much more to come. But that was all she wrote.

[Sacred Knight]

To this day it was never concretely answered exactly why Superman's powers changed into energy based in the late nineties. I think they hinted at one time that it might have had something to do with shrinking down into Kandor or something--my memory's fuzzy though--however a definitive answer of what it was never provided to my knowledge.

[Doctor Know]

Superman x Lashina and their bastard son on Batman Beyond.

[Jim Kelly]

The first issue of SUPERMAN immediately after the Sand Superman Saga wrapped up (in issue 242) was 243 (October 1971) which cover featured "The Starry-Eyed Siren of Space." Many will point out that this story--by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson--completely ignores the plot developments from the Sand Superman Saga and it's almost as if the Saga (and its implications for Superman) had never happened. However, the Bates story introduces a plot that itself is never returned to.

This outer space tale, which is a lot like a classic Star Trek adventure, introduces two higher intelligences that take on the form of the Starry-Eyed Siren and a Superman clone. At the end of the story, Superman discovers that he had somehow travelled into the distant past (he knows this because the stars are different) and he returns to the present. But this established this super-powered couple existing billions of years in the past. An editor's note says that there will be more answers to this mystery if readers demand it (or something like that). But this super-couple were never mentioned again.

And speaking of the Sand Superman Saga, that story was rehashed for SUPERMAN SPECIAL (1992) in "Sand Man" by Walt Simonson. I won't get into it too much, because I can't remember all the theories swirling around that story without doing research. I'm sure someone else can better speak about this. But that story, which was supposed to come out earlier, could have had implications for later Superman stories. Or so the theory goes. In effect, the Superman at the end of the story is not the real Superman--which could have explained away events like the death, the marriage, the electric Superman, and such like, as not having actually happened to the real Superman who was trapped in another dimension all this time.

Of course, that's just fan theory and Walt Simonson says it was never his intention. But it's fun to speculate about what could have happened.

[Ra-El]

Superman x Lashina and their bastard son on Batman Beyond.

Someone have to follow up on this. Maybe we should start a petition or something.

[Alan2099]

Joe Malone never made another appearance.