Superman #300: Superman 2001

There are certain stories that stick with you over the course of time, for me Superman #300 is such a story. Cast your mind back to 1976, the nation was celebrating its bicentennial and Superman was celebrating was celebrating the tricentennial issue of his eponymous comic book. To celebrate the creative staff decided to tell the story of what if Superman landed on Earth "today" in 1976. This is...Superman 2001.

 

The story begins with the usual way, the destruction of Krypton and young Kal-El being rocketed toward earth but instead of landing in Kansas he lands in the north Pacific.  This being the cold war and all, the United States and the U.S.S.R. rush to see who can capture the alien craft.  The results are disastrous but an American Lt. Thomas Clark claims the rocket for the U.S.

 

The Americans take the rocket home and promptly shoot a baby in the face with a super-laser.

 

So the military decides to raise Skyboy, as they've named him and they've even managed to put him in a familiar uniform.

 

 Note to self: Jor-El's teaching-machines leave something to be desired when it comes to Earth languages.  

Anyhow, time passes the 70s become the 90s or at least the 70s version of 90s we all thought would come about with things like supersonic aircraft, a female president, and of course the Soviet Union still around.  After hiding Skyboy for 14 years the U.S. reveals his existence which causes the Soviets to demand he be made a ward of the United Nations.  And here's where the story kind of goes off the rails.  You see even though it was the cold war it was also the era of detente.  So rather than have the Soviets be the baddies we instead get this scene.

 

So somehow this unnamed third world power tricks the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. into a full-scale nuclear exchange.  Luckily Skyboy is here to save us.

 

The near miss with nuclear war leads to the U.S. and U.S.S.R. to disarmament talks but the war was not without cost.  Skyboy's adopted father/mentor/captor died due to the strain.  This leads him to adopt the name Clark Kent and abandon the identity of Skyboy.

 

Flash forward to 2001 it's just how you remember it.

 

And in 2001 there's a world-wide 24 hour news network hosted by none other than Clark Kent.  Also we get the location of this world's Metropolis.  

 

I don't know why I find Moka's design so captivating it's pretty simplistic, but 30 years later it's still fresh in my mind.  Perhaps because this is only a few years after the Spider-Man with six arms story and I was just obsessed with extra limbs.  Maybe it's the goggles, I don't know.  But I like Moka.  It turns out Moka is being controlled by the same third world power that attempted to engineer the nuclear war.  This drives Skyboy out of retirement only to reappear as a Superman.

 

 Superman battles Moka with predictable results all while being incredibly condescending to the little people.

 

Then in typical Superman style he makes a speech about having faith in yourself the only thing missing is the wink at the reader.

 

A couple of things, people in 2001 sure are into hero worship, ascots were more popular than I recall, and I had this story completely wrong in my head for 30 years.  I could have sworn that the Russians were the bad guys behind Moka.  I admit I have an irrational love of this story but love it I do.  It's kind of a typical what-if story complete with a happy ending but the gimmick of Superman landing "today" and the weird design of Moka make it memorable.