Elseworld

In "Superman Inc.," Kal-El grows up to be an egotistical sports star named Dale Suderman who is quickly dubbed "Superman" by a Lois Lane who works the sports beat.

Though there is violence in the comic, it falls into the "code approved" type seen in the regular Superman comics. This issue is more of a morality tale than typical alternate history.

A revelation, courtesy of Lex Luthor, that Dale Suderman is really an alien, something Dale himself didn't know, ends the egotistical basketball player's career and his huge money-making franchise machine grinds to a hault. Needing to deal with the consequences of the revelation and hide from the limelight, Dale ends up with the Kents in Smallville.

After being humbled and finally getting his head on straight, Dale changes his name to Clark Kent and signs up for Lois Lane's journalism class. The legend moves back into alignment.

While this was a fairly good story and nicely illustrated, there was a tendency towards tragic motivations for the character, even the death of his adoptive mother which he felt was his fault. Also, though a romance seems to be promised, one isn't actually delivered and that would have gone a long way to show that Dale, who kept people at arms-length, had learned to let someone into his heart.

Gary Shandling once said that he hated seeing ugly people kissing. Well, he should steer clear of this issue.

Basically it's a redo of the Frankenstein story. It's all fairly morose as would be expected. However, after Lois is killed (hey, I said it was morose), she is resurrected as the monster's bride. Love and ugly kisses ensue. Save your money.

As mentioned earlier, crossing one hero's history with that of another can be very confusing to readers who are not versant in the history of both. Such was the drawback of "The Last Son of Earth."

This otherwise clever reversal of the Superman origins story became bogged down when the Green Lantern history was introduced. So much plot is expended explaining this hero's origins that Superman becomes utterly lost.

Even the inclusion of familiar supporting characters fails to untangle the Green Lantern intrigue and make it clear that the person whose exploits are taking place are those of Kal-El.

Often a function of Lois Lane is to jumpstart the Superman legend in alternate reality stories. However, this story ends without even a hint of the famous costume, name or accoutrements of Superman.

While Lois does qualify as something of a vague love interest, it would probably only be a satisfying read to those who know their Green Lantern history.

The Elseworld story format also includes some recurring book types such as "Generations," "World's Finest" and others that have Superman as part of the storyline such as the occasional JLA Elseworld. However, I covered only the typical stand-alone format that focuses on the Superman legend specifically.