Curt Swan draws Superman…getting his ass kicked by a lightning super-villain!
Panel 1: One of my favorite old-timey comics clichés is the “Expositional Greek Chorus”. This panel sets up the dock workers on the left of the panel to deliver the “DC Super-Heroes Are Trusted, Admired and/or Loved Celebrities To The Populace” meme which, to my ears, was always a response to Marvel’s Expositional Greek Choruses that stated, by and large, “Marvel Super-Heroes Are, At Best, Ambivalent Figures To The Populace”. Moving rightwards, we see Lightning (who is in a supervillain duo with Thunder, natch) riding some (what else) lightning and destroying fragile S.T.A.R. Laboratories shipments with a shipping vessel and a customs house in the background. Superman emerges from the left, leaving plumes of Metropolis Bay sea water in the air behind him, looking really thick and powerful.
Panel 2: The combination of Superman’s alarmed expression, his elegant left hand which implies something other than violence, and the forearm and fist that are so powerful they’re drawn in exaggerated perspective and breaking through the frame of the panel, tell you that Supey is not doing this out of brutality or rage but out of a desire to protect. Meanwhile, Lightning’s pose is so elegant and insouciant it sells that the villain just does not give a fuck about destroying public property and endangering the public…and is confident that no harm will come to him…
Panel 3: …and it doesn’t. The villain’s lack of concern becomes a smug grin when Supey hurts himself trying to punch him in the chest. Supey’s face does look like he’s screaming in pain but not so much look he’s frightened. WOW, look at Supey’s body language in this panel: elegant, powerful and unbowed.
Panel 4: NOW Superman’s scared and bowed: look at those hands and those legs as he crashes on his ass. If this doesn’t make you want to flip the page to see what happens next…!
From Superman 303, inked by Bob Oskner and written by Gerry Conway. If I could post every page of this comic and analyze it for your edification and pleasure, I would, but that goes beyond Fair Use of copyrighted material. :-( (If anyone at DC Comics wants to contact me to give me permission to post the whole thing for scholarly purposes, I would be so delighted!)
