I've recently been reading the whole run of Superman comics from the relaunch in 1987 through the end of 1999 (more about which in a later post). There's some very wonderful stuff in there amidst a lot of frustrating and very often muddled and boring storytelling, but I will say that THIS find in particular was just stunning; Artist/writer Stuart Immonen - who is great - composed the lead story for a 1998 "Secret Files" comic - which are usually quite boring - focusing on the origin stories of Superman's 90's-era Rogues Gallery.

What makes it more than just a flashback or recap is that Immonen told them by way of Lex Luthor telling fairy tales to his infant daughter Lena, and illustrated the origins in one- or two-page comics fashioned after Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland.



Metallo:




Brainiac ("Your brainwaves bother me some!"):




Doomsday (HE'S ADORABLE):




The Cyborg Superman ("um!"):




Toyman (I love Superman assaulted by fireworks):




And lastly, Lex Luthor:


One of the things I love about this is that, whereas the civilian Metropolitans - like the police, or Lois and Clark - are dressed in Nemo-esque fashions, Superman and his villains are largely wearing their actual outfits from the mainstream comics. Including Metallo, who actually went shirtless and wore a purple vest during his first post-Crisis battle with Superman, a look which only actually seems to fit the character and the environment if it's 1902 in a Winsor McCay cartoon.

Honestly, these are just fantastic. I wish I had copies of the (I think) J.H.Williams' Nemo pastiche from Promethea, or the one from Gaiman's Sandman (which I think was Dringenberg and Jones III, wasn't it? Anyone?)