[Superman Fan Club] Presents: DC Challenge // Challenge of the Super Fans: Season 3! Week 1

[Don-El]

Challenge of the Superfans Season 3 Week 1 DC Challenge #1-3

Welcome to Week 1 of Season 3 of a very special challenge / contest , reading one single issue a week (except 3 issues this emergency launch so we can have fun reading these as they are freshly-digitized on DC Universe Infinite) from the currently- digitized DC Universe Infinite collection of Silver and Bronze Age Superman and Family comic over an interesting space of time!

If you get time to read all three of these before next Wednesday, we’ll give you “Challenge of the Super Fans Season 3” credit for ALL THREE ISSUES!!! An amazing can’t-refuse offer!

But going forward, starting next week June 28th, 2023, this will be a single issue a week challenge, and, as always, participants can go back and read an issue and comment on it weeks after it is posted (especially important during the summer months!!!)

This time around: DC Challenge #1-3, written at the very precipice of the Bronze Age before the Crisis rolled in the Modern Age officially at DC Comics (but what rolled it in for other publishers, hmmm?). This is the Pre-Bryne Superman.

#1 Writer: Mark Evanier Artist: Gene Colan (a late arrival at DC in the Bronze Age)[spoiler]

DC Challenge #1

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#2 Writer: Len Wein Artist: Chuck Patton[spoiler]

DC Challenge #2

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#3 Writer: Doug Moench Artist: Carmine Infantino[spoiler]

DC Challenge #3

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(links are blurred to avoid spoilers for this 37 year old story)

Q & A:

1. Which artist’s style did you prefer between the three issues?

2. Which writer’s story of the three issues did you like best?

3. What Bronze Age writers and artists would YOU have tried to assemble for this 12 issue spectacular?

I read DC Challenge #1-3

• Yes I did
• Oops, I did not

Here are the final exciting standings of Season 2 of The Challenge of the Superfans (to be posted soon, stay tuned!)

To join the [Superman Fan Club] (and enjoy the chic benefits of membership such as direct messaging for club members only and our occasional audio Discord [Superman Fan Club] chats), click here: Click Here to Join the Superman Fan Club

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And be sure keep an eye out for our once a month first Thursday evening of the month Listen A Longs of the classic 1940’s Superman Radio Show adventures (in the Watchalong aisle), the next one being Thursday July 6th !!

[Don-El]

Woo hoo! Triple the action, triple the fun!

[patterson65.37405]

I think my favorite is the first one, and it was cool to see the random appearances of Humphrey Bogart and Groucho Marx. And speaking of something random: Beta? Really, Bruce?

[Don-El]

Agreed. Part of the fun of running two clubs here that feature huge spoonfuls of the Silver and Bronze Age is that we get to enjoy the history and culture that they were immersed in at the time, full of references made that we might not make necessarily today.

I’ll post the issue #4 reading later today hopefully.

It’s a little bittersweet that the story lines here are taking place as the 1985-86 Crisis on Infinite Earths’ radical changes, deaths and modifications are rolling out for many of these characters.

[patterson65.37405]

Is there a Silver or Bronze Age story that you think could make a good movie?

[Don-El]

What comes to mind is that early '80s storyline where Luthor is the big hero of the planet of Lexor, and then everything falls apart.

[Don-El]

First issue reminds me of the Superman radio show. There’s a new copy boy who first discovers some of the mystery to be solved. We keep having new copy boys on the radio show used to to hand notes, brown paper bags with shards of Kryptonite in them, that kind of thing.

I’m a huge fan of Gene Colan and enjoyed especially the scenes he drew of Superman on the moon, along with his rendition of Batman and also Wonder Woman.

Also pretty amusing, the horrible cliffhanger that the first set of writer/ artist leave for the next batch with an atomic bomb about to go off in 8 seconds.

[RexRebel]

1. Issue 2 Chuck Patton and Mike DeCarlo
2. Issue 3. Doug Moench
3. I would’ve liked to have seen Kirby, O’Neil and Perez, and Wolfman added.

[Don-El]

Issue 2 was definitely a fast-paced affair.

It was fun seeing Len and Chuck draw themselves into the story:

A times I felt like I was rapidly paging through the Who’s Who of the DC Universe from the '80s, with a different character flipping through so quickly page after page.

And once again issue 2 has an almost unforgivable cliffhanger that the next writer / artist have to solve in 30 days.

[Don-El]

Issue three of the DC Challenge highlights for us that this 12 issue series is literally full of challenging puzzles for the writers and artists, us and the superheroes:

Always a good day when there’s an excuse to have Hawkman and Adam Strange fighting together against a foe instead of each other:

And one of the cliffhangers to Issue #4 which is posted under Week 2 of our third season of The Challenge of the Super Fans… is a literal hanging off a cliff.

[Mystery_and_wonder]

I am getting a late start, but I will catch up!

[Mystery_and_wonder]

@Don-El

• Which artist’s style did you prefer between the three issues?

• Which writer’s story of the three issues did you like best?

• What Bronze Age writers and artists would YOU have tried to assemble for this 12-issue spectacular?

1. All the art was effective, but I most liked Colan’s pencils in the first issue.

2 Similarly, I liked Evanier’s story the best, largely because his story flirted with silver age wackiness the most while rooted at the end of the bronze age. I wanted to know how the writers reference each other across issues.

3. Denny O’Neill and Neal Adams or Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen.

The first three issues have been a giant ball of fun to read. Now, I wanted a Brave and the Bold series where Groucho Marx teams up with a DC character every month to solve a mystery.

[Don-El]

Now I’ll have to go look up all the times that O’Neill and Adams worked together!