Laurie S. Sutton

A nice selection of Superman stories, ranging from the 1950's to the 1970's. I remember many of these from my kiddish Saturdays, blissfully spent in the basement reading a pile of comic books. Actually, I never quite stopped. There are several pivotal stories here, ranging from how Lex Luthor became Superman's enemy, to the introduction of Supergirl, Superman's return to the Krypton of his infancy, and the team-up of Luthor and Braniac to kill Superman. The book concludes with a frustrating show more and intriguing storyline in which Superman somehow becomes ordinary when dressed as Clark Kent. He decides to explore what Clark Kent is really like and loses his meek persona, becoming a crusading reporter who no longer takes guff, and wins Lois Lane's heart. For a few issues I finally thought that DC Comics had grown a pair and written a major change in the time-honored and hoary pattern they'd created for their most popular character. Alas, things went back to status quo at the conclusion of the storyline. A lot of the older stories had such glaring holes in plot and logic, but nostalgic affection helped me quickly achieve the necessary suspension of disbelief to enjoy them. show less

I realized that it’s a little weird that I like reading these middle readers so much. But, a lot of it is because of stuff like in the beginning of this where scientist Barry tells the reader why the fabric threads would be swollen (water). The plots sometimes are out there (like here, Gorillas and Robot Chimps attacking Central City), but the little details are generally awesome.

Not to mention I think that the authors of these (Laurie S. Sutton in this one) don’t get enough credit for show more having very tightly written interesting (if simple so the age group gets it) stories. show less

Cute. It’s always an interesting story when Mirror Master is involved.

And I thought that this middle reader book took an interestingly different look at Mirror Master too.

Instead of just jumping from place to place he’s found some other universe and appointed himself King. Can Flash save the kingdom and save the Princess/Ruler? (Wait, I thought he was ‘married’ to Iris, heh).

Ah, Sinestro. He's in the negative universe on a planet called Qward, and he wants to bring it into the positive Universe. So he jumps himself to the positive universe and starts building a ring that will be powered by fear. Of course, that means he needs fear so first he and then his corps go to all the different sectors and scare and put tons of fear into all the planets so they can charge the ring.

Of course, Hal and his fellow Green Lanterns get in the way and the fight between them and show more the Sinestro Corps is super intense. But Ialso thought the end was abrupt. Usually, these books are more tightly written. Still, it had a cool stargate sorta story. show less