thoughts on Dominus arc?

[RonG]

Just rearranged several storage places for my collection, and pulled out the entire arc in single issues (was it ever collected?)

Anyone remembers this?

what were thoughts on this entire arc? I recall the different 'Ages' of Superman (at the start of the arc) were positiviely recieved.. what about the main arc?

[Kuwagaton]

I have this daydream where I pay DC a few million to put out a four volume set to collect it. Last time I had this thought was 5pm yesterday.

From Superman Forever to King of the World, I think it's peak fiction and not for nothing, the transition back to status quo for Reloaded was also excellent. I mean, how deep does the world building get when you think of the extensive history of Strange Visitor? The Supermen of America? The final synthesis of Kirby's world? The conversation in the limo with Lex had how much weight behind that simple exchange? "Superman became a JL villain and destroyed all nukes" just scratches the surface. It's the basis for the Superman I'd dream of doing and there's so freaking much, like 60 parts, that that doesn't even tip my hand.

[sunofdarkchild]

The King of the World storyline is one of my absolute favorites. The way it slowly builds, the way the changes to Superman are so much more subtle than the later 'evil Superman' stories popularized by Injustice so he never comes across as evil, merely going farther than he would have previously gone. The worldbuilding, the epic scope. The lasting consequences. Of course, I do have a strong nostalgia bias since this was THE big Superman story I read as it was happening as a kid, having been too young to have read the other 90s stories as they came out.

[Thor-Ul]

Just rearranged several storage places for my collection, and pulled out the entire arc in single issues (was it ever collected?)

Anyone remembers this?

what were thoughts on this entire arc? I recall the different 'Ages' of Superman (at the start of the arc) were positiviely recieved.. what about the main arc?

The ending of that original arc was a little abrupt for my tastes, but I enjoyed how each creative team played with tropes of different eras. That seemed like something they liked to do after the Reign, take a moment to write the character in their own way, independent of the other teams. Personally, I liked more the Golden and Silver age takes, with Kesel/Grummet and Simonson/Bogdanove exploration of the Golden age. I mean, I always enjoy Superman punching a nazi svastika and crushing it.
The Bronze age take and the space age were not hat good in my opinion. I concede the Bronze age had good art but I was not a fan of the Bronze era and the "space age", it was more like an imaginary story from the silver age instead a proper faux past era. I think it would had been more interesting if Jurgens would had write the book in full dark age format, a more exagerated version of the kind of Superman seen in the Dark Knight. After all at that point of history, there was the whole "Renaissance" of the neo silver age (two years after Kingdom Come), so exploring the Dark age, compared to the other books could had been a good way to make each other be different. As it was published, the segment of Jurgens and Ryan was a lost chance.

If something this saga presented a villian who could had been a more sinister take on Mr. Mxyzptlk, a reality bender, but I don't think they have the chance to give him substance.

In any case, the Dominus saga was the begginig of the end for the first time of the traingle era and the team of the creators who made the Death of Superman were ready to leave. After all the story with Dominus, the 2000 team took over and a new direction was a go.

[Kuwagaton]

I concede the Bronze age had good art but I was not a fan of the Bronze era and the "space age", it was more like an imaginary story from the silver age instead a proper faux past era. I think it would had been more interesting if Jurgens would had write the book in full dark age format, a more exagerated version of the kind of Superman seen in the Dark Knight. After all at that point of history, there was the whole "Renaissance" of the neo silver age (two years after Kingdom Come), so exploring the Dark age, compared to the other books could had been a good way to make each other be different. As it was published, the segment of Jurgens and Ryan was a lost chance.

The funny thing about Jurgens is that he's actually a big silver age fan. He pretty much did the Superman 2965 as close to verbatim as the other writers did their takes. I think imaginary was too big a part of lore to ignore and while it was my least favorite of the four, he did have the luxury of closing the... door.

[Knightsilver]

I loved that arc...it was really the grand finale of the Triangle Era. Sure some of the team stuck around for a little while afterwards...but it was all just kind of killing time until the Loeb/Kelly era kicked off that Fall.

[Kuwagaton]

Amazing things part I:

It's almost never said how Immonen grew through Superman. Over about half of the 90s he made some major refinements to style and writing, and his contributions at the end were perfect for an arc where he could really cut loose.




https://i.ibb.co/GF4wqzd/9vy4b2w4bia61.jpg

I enjoyed his writing just as much as his team up with Millar and happened to really like End of the Century, too.

[magha_regulus]

I loved this arc so much! I wish current writers would call back to it from time to time.

[exile001]

I was a big fan of the Dominus saga, especially the whole long build to the King of the World stuff. Unfortunately, I remember KotW being a pretty weak period for art on the Superman books.

There were some awesome moments, top for me was crashing the synthetic Kryptonite filled Luthor tower into the Fortress of Solitude from space! Also, this era my favourite use of the Superman Robots.

Remember when DC put out two random books a few years ago that felt important but were actually kind of meaningless and Jurgens doing a quick repeat of the Dominus arc (with a weird happy ending for him)? That was odd.

Sadly, like so much great material, this hasn't been collected.

While the absolute dregs creatively, it's sad that the Superman Blue era only managed one collected TPB before being cancelled. It wasn't good, but it is definitely an interesting era.

DC need to just start releasing a version of Marvel's Epic Collections. £30 for 20 odd digitally converted issues in chronological order on nice paper. Great value for money and it gets the work in bulk into people's hands.

Marvel are now reprinting a lot of the older ones, whereas DC won't TPB release Superman in order past Byrne's departure. Sad.

[Kuwagaton]

I thought it was interesting to mix Superman mainstays (Bog and Grummett) with the dudes who were just four or five years from having a huge impact on the big two (Mahnke, Immonen, Epting). Felt like Starlin in particular found out they were doing a cosmic Freddy Krueger and bought in



I've always been interested in a Millennium Giants collection, not because I like the story much (I originally lapsed as a reader during Superman Red) but as a lead in to this one that I have in full.

Also, I don't remember that Dominus repeat I guess

[Adekis]

I never read the entire arc. I remember the "Silver Age" style issue I read was really fun - but the "Golden Age" style issues, in Superman: The Man of Steel # 80-82, are some of my favorite issues ever published with the character.

However, the part where Superman ostensibly takes over the world just seems kind of bland to me at this point. At the time, it wasn't that common of an idea, I guess. Maybe they pull it off really well, I don't know. I've never read it. But the idea leaves me cold in a way that the throwback arcs to the 30s and 60s just don't.

[Kuwagaton]

That's the problem. As exile mentioned, Marvel will collect massive amounts of stuff. DC... I dunno, is it being stingy with royalties or something? It's a pain to go out and collect a bunch of back issues whereas it's super easy for the company to go collect these issues that aren't making them any money. It's a shame that my two favorite periods, this one and the Bronze age in general, never come up on the schedule. I mean was Bronze age Batgirl that much more fascinating? Or Marvel's eye patched Dr Strange era?

They'd have to do:
Superman Forever
Action Comics 745-748, 750-755
Superman 136-139, 141-145
Man of Steel 80-83, 85-90
Adventures of Superman 568-562, 563-567
Man of Tomorrow 12-13
Superman: King of the world

And I like Supermen of America but that's obviously quite extra, even at four issues. When it comes to just the Dominus Effect well, it's a really fun gimmick but it doesn't even allow itself to feel like a story because it ends so abruptly. It's a really cool prologue.