Thursday, May 02, 2013

80-Page Thursday: DC Universe Special: Reign in Hell #1!


Today, a perfectly serviceable 80-pager, that I was completely at a loss on the reason for: from 2008, DC Universe Special: Reign in Hell #1, written by Roger Stern, Louise Simonson, and Dan Jurgens; with art by Jackson Guice, Kerry Gammill, Brett Breeding, and more.

That collection of creators' names may sound especially familiar to you if you read any Superman comics in the late eighties to mid-nineties; particularly since this issue is just a collection of three issues: Action Comics #680, Superman: the Man of Steel #15, and Superman #71. This was back when the Superman books had a "triangle" number on the covers, to indicate what in order you should read them, and these were #32-34 for 1992. Oddly, these issues make up the latter three chapters of "the Blaze/Satanus War!" The first part, Adventures of Superman #493, isn't included or mentioned.

And as you might have guessed by this point, this was a war (eh, more like a skirmish) between sibling devils Blaze (the girl) and Satanus (the guy), which dragged in Lois, Jimmy, Perry White and his wife; all in an attempt to use Superman as a pawn. I didn't even get the sense that they were trying the old corruption, temptation, or devil's bargain business, either. Blaze is working more of a long game, but neither he nor his sister seem devilish enough: they look and act like they could just be supervillians, not royalty of hell. (Were they royalty of hell? They could've been middle-management, for all I know...) Even with Keith Giffen on some of the art in the hell section of the middle chapter, it's superhero stuff, not horror.

This whole package was apparently a tie-in to the 2008 limited series Reign in Hell; a series I have seemingly no recollection of. Seriously, I usually have at least a vague idea about these things. I think I saw mention that Keith Giffen gives Lobo the what-for in there somewhere, but that's it.

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