It All Comes Back to Superman Series Two – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to the third episode of It All Comes Back to Superman Series 2, the very irregular reaffirmation of my Kryptonian faith. This time out I'm hopping into the Time Bubble and heading back to 1994 to look at the DC Comics event Zero Hour: Crisis in Time. And I am not alone. Joining me to talk about the series is none other than the writer/penciller on that series Dan Jurgens!

Dan was nice enough to spend about an hour with me to talk about how Zero Hour came about, what it was like writing and drawing five issues that were coming out weekly while also juggling all of the characters and books that were connected to the event. Dan also tells me why some of the promotional artwork and the artwork created for the distributors that existed at the time isn't reprinted in the collected editions that have been published in the last few years, why the Justice Society was taken off the table during the story, his favorite parts of the story, and how much he got paid to draw the cover to the zero issue.

After that we discuss the Zero Month issues of the Superman books and where Kenny Braverman came from. Finally, Dan talks a bit about the Zero Hour 30th Anniversary Special that is coming out on the day this episode is dropping!

I wanted to thank Dan for spending some time with me and being so forthcoming and open with his answers.

ALSO...BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE FORTRESS OF BAILEYTUDE PODCASTING 2.0 FEED FOR AN INTERVIEW WITH RON MARZ ABOUT THE 30th ANNIVERSARY OF THE KYLE RAYNER GREEN LANTERN!

Feedback for It All Comes Back To Superman Series 2 can be sent to [email protected]. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or stream it through Spotify and Audible. The Fortress of Baileytude Podcasting Network is on Patreon. It’s mostly a tip jar as I have no time at the moment to produce exlcusive content, but if you like the content I do produce please consider contributing a dollar a month.

The closing theme to the show is titled Journey and was composed by Pontus Rufelt. It is licensed from Shockwave-Sound.

Next Time: If everything works out I'll have the audio from a panel I am moderating at DragonCon this weekend. It should be fun.

This time I am re-presenting an episode of a show I did for like five seconds called Fortress of Baileytude Showcase Presents. Or something like that. It was this weird thing I was trying to do that just didn't catch on. To be honest, this episode should have been on the It All Comes Back to Superman in the first time.  

Anyway, back in 2018 my good friend the Irredeemable Shag and I spent nearly three hours talking about the Death and Return of Superman phenomena and it was a fun episode to record. We go through the entire event from inception to the return of the one, true Superman. Shag gives a lot of insight about what it was like to be a retailer during those days, and I played a bunch of clips from various news reports that...reported on the event.  

During the episode I mentioned an Oral History that was on SyFy Wire in 2018. That article doesn't exist anymore, which is a shame.

Below are a list of the various shows that Shag hosts or co-hosts over at The Fire and Water Podcast Network.

• Once Upon a Geek
• Justice Society Presents
• Who's Who Review
• Aquaman and Firestorm: The Fire and Water Podcast
• Justice League International: Bwah-Ha-Ha Podcast

Next time: No clue. Haven't decided yet, but something should be coming next month.

Welcome to the third episode of It All Comes Back to Superman Presents…Reuse, Recycle, Re-Release, a sub-series of It All Comes Back to Superman Series II where I will occasionally re-present an episode of one of my other shows (either the first iteration of It All Comes Back to Superman or one of the Superman centric episode of Views From The Longbox) and represent them here for…no real reason other than it sounded like a good idea to get all of my non-From Crisis to Crisis Superman podcasting in one place…eventually. These episodes are presented in their entirety with original opening and closing themes, ads, commentary that may not mean anything anymore, and humor that may not have aged well.

This time out I am bringing Views From The Longbox Episode 157 out of the vault, which was originally released on March 26, 2013. This was the second of a two-part episode where I had my good friend and Overlooked Dark Knight co-host Andrew Leyland on to talk about the Silver and Bronze Age origins of Superman. In this installment, which was part of the Superman at 75: The Celebration of a Legend series I did in 2013, Andy and I talk about Action Comics #500, which is one of my favorite Superman comics ever and one of the best re-tellings of the Pre-Crisis origin ever as well.

Feedback for It All Comes Back To Superman Series Presents…Reuse, Recycle, Re-Release can be sent to [email protected]. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or stream it through Spotify and Audible. The Fortress of Baileytude Podcasting Network is on Patreon. It’s mostly a tip jar as I have no time at the moment to produce exlcusive content, but if you like the content I do produce please consider contributing a dollar a month.

The closing theme to the show is titled Journey and was composed by Pontus Rufelt. It is licensed from Shockwave-Sound.

Next Episode – The next time I roll out one of these I'll have a conversation with Steve Glosson from 2013 all about Smallville.

Welcome to the second episode of It All Comes Back to Superman Presents…Reuse, Recycle, Re-Release, a sub-series of It All Comes Back to Superman Series II where I will occasionally re-present an episode of one of my other shows (either the first iteration of It All Comes Back to Superman or one of the Superman centric episode of Views From The Longbox) and represent them here for…no real reason other than it sounded like a good idea to get all of my non-From Crisis to Crisis Superman podcasting in one place…eventually. These episodes are presented in their entirety with original opening and closing themes, ads, commentary that may not mean anything anymore, and humor that may not have aged well.

This time out I am bringing Views From The Longbox Episode 156 out of the vault, which was originally released on March 19, 2013. This was the first of a two-part episode where I had my good friend and Overlooked Dark Knight co-host Andrew Leyland on to talk about the Silver and Bronze Age origins of Superman. In this installment, which was part of the Superman at 75: The Celebration of a Legend series I did in 2013, Andy and I talk about how Superman's origin evolved from his first appearance up to the 1970's. What was added to the origin? When did we, as the audience, first see the full out origin in the comics? How irresponsible is Jonathan Kent with firearms? Listen and find out.

Feedback for It All Comes Back To Superman Series Presents…Reuse, Recycle, Re-Release can be sent to [email protected]. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or stream it through Spotify and Audible. The Fortress of Baileytude Podcasting Network is on Patreon. It’s mostly a tip jar as I have no time at the moment to produce exlcusive content, but if you like the content I do produce please consider contributing a dollar a month.

The closing theme to the show is titled Journey and was composed by Pontus Rufelt. It is licensed from Shockwave-Sound.

Next Episode – The second part of a two part episode where Andrew Leyland and I discuss Superman’s Silver and Bronze Age origins that was part of Superman at 75: The Celebration of a Legend.

Welcome to the first episode of It All Comes Back to Superman Presents...Reuse, Recycle, Re-Release, a sub-series of It All Comes Back to Superman Series II where I will occasionally re-present an episode of one of my other shows (either the first iteration of It All Comes Back to Superman or one of the Superman centric episode of Views From The Longbox) and represent them here for...no real reason other than it sounded like a good idea to get all of my non-From Crisis to Crisis Superman podcasting in one place...eventually. These episodes are presented in their entirety with original opening and closing themes, ads, commentary that may not mean anything anymore, and humor that may not have aged well.

For this first episode I'm going back to Views From The Longbox Episode 15, originally released on January 1, 2013. That episode kicked off my Superman at 75: The Celebration of a Legend series that was centered on celebrating Superman's...75th birthday. It's right there in the title. In the first installment, titled 7 Ways Mike Defends Superman, I recorded an hour long reply to a cracked article titled 7 Ways Batman is Objectively Better Than Superman. That article got under my skin a little over a decade ago and I felt that I needed to respond.

Did I really need to do that? Not really, but it made for a solid way to beging a podcast series.

Feedback for It All Comes Back To Superman Series Presents...Reuse, Recycle, Re-Release can be sent to [email protected]. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or stream it through Spotify and Audible. The Fortress of Baileytude Podcasting Network is on Patreon. It’s mostly a tip jar as I have no time at the moment to produce exlcusive content, but if you like the content I do produce please consider contributing a dollar a month.

The closing theme to the show is titled Journey and was composed by Pontus Rufelt. It is licensed from Shockwave-Sound.

Next Episode - The first part of a two part episode where Andrew Leyland and I discuss Superman's Silver and Bronze Age origins that was part of Superman at 75: The Celebration of a Legend.

Welcome to the second episode of It All Comes Back to Superman Series Two, the pretty much the same, not really all that new reaffirmation of my Kryptonian faith. I am your host, Michael Bailey, and this time out I am finishing my two part series celebrating Superman’s 85th anniversary because…I really want to.

It’s just that simple.

In this installment I look at how Superman's birthday has been celebrated over the decades and how big and small those celebrations have been. The bulk of this section is spent on the 50th anniversary, but that's because his 50th was probably the biggest birthday the character has had judging by the sheer amount of...stuff that happened in and around 1988. I also talk about the barebones celebration from 1968, the almost non-existant celebration from 1998 and how the anniversaries ramped up for 2013 and 2018. After that I talk about the Superman comics and television series that came out in 2023 and what I thought of them.

(Note, during the first segment I state that the Lex Luthor and Brainiac makeovers went down in Action Comics #543. This is wrong. It was Action Comics #544. I totally kept blowing that one over and over again. My bad.)

Feedback for It All Comes Back To Superman Series Two can be sent to [email protected]. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or stream it through Spotify and Audible. The Fortress of Baileytude Podcasting Network is on Patreon. It’s mostly a tip jar as I have no time at the moment to produce exlcusive content, but if you like the content I do produce please consider contributing a dollar a month.

The opening and closing theme to the show is titled Journey and was composed by Pontus Rufelt. It is licensed from Shockwave-Sound.

Next Time: Taking a short break for personal reasons but new episodes will return (hopefully) in mid-2024!

Welcome to the first episode of It All Comes Back to Superman Series Two, the pretty much the same, not really all that new reaffirmation of my Kryptonian faith. I am your host, Michael Bailey, and this time out I am starting a two part series celebrating Superman's 85th anniversary because...I really want to.

It's just that simple.

For this first installment I do an off the cuff solo episode where I talk about six of the sub-anniversaries happening during Superman's 85th. Superman The Movie, Superman III, the Ruby Spear Superman animated series, the live action Superboy series, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Man of Steel all have big anniversaries this year and I thought it would be fun to go through them all in one shot instead of devoting specific episodes to them for...reasons. Various reasons. Reasons I go through during the episode itself.

I mentioned during the episode that I had done a commentary for Superman The Movie back in 2013. That was on episode 153 of Views From The Longbox, which I don't have a handy link to...sadly...because the post with the show notes for that episode no longer exists. Views is readily available on just about all podcatching services, so it should be easy to find.

For those interested, episode 155 of Views was a commentary for Superman II and episode 162 was the commentary for Superman IV that I did with Scott Gardner. Not to be outdone, if you search for episode 135 of the Palace of Glittering Delights where Andy Leyland had me on to yak over the "coherence cut" of Superman IV.

Feedback for It All Comes Back To Superman Series Two can be sent to [email protected]. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or stream it through Spotify and Audible. The Fortress of Baileytude Podcasting Network is on Patreon. It’s mostly a tip jar as I have no time at the moment to produce exlcusive content, but if you like the content I do produce please consider contributing a dollar a month.

The opening and closing theme to the show is titled Journey and was composed by Pontus Rufelt. It is licensed from Shockwave-Sound.

Next Time: The second part of Happy Anniversary, Superman!

A new era for It All Comes Back To Superman begins! The pretty much the same, kind of new but not really Series Two begins because I've moved the show to a new hosting platform and new number ones are guarenteed to bring in new listeners and sales, right?

Right?

(crickets)

Okay, it's just a trailer, but It All Comes Back to Superman Series Two is live and new episodes will be coming soon.

It All Comes Back to Superman Series Two is back with another interview! Actually it's the first of two interviews talking to the authors of Insight Editions book Superman: The Definitive History. This time out I once again sit down with Ed Gross, who is no stranger to books about Superman or books about pop culture in general. Ed and I have a great conversation that starts with us talking about the finale of Superman and Lois before getting into how this book (which you will need a spotter to read) came about. We chat about the differences in writing this book compared to Ed's last Superman book Voices From Krypton, how to balance the comic book side of Superman's history with all of the other places he has shown up over the decades, where we are in terms of Superman's place in pop culture, and so much more.

To order Superman: The Definitive History by Ed Gross and Bob Greenberger click on this link.

To order Voices From Krypton (which I am quoted in towards the end) click on this link.

To see all of Ed's books on pop culture click on this link.

Many thanks to Ed for sitting down and speaking with me.

Next Time: The Definitive History Tapes continue with my talk with Bob Greenberger.

This time out I finish up my two part series talking to the authors of Superman: The Definitive History by having a great chat with Bob Greenberger. Bob is no stranger to working on a book about Superman as he was one of the co-authors of The Essential Superman Encyclopedia and I talk to him about that, The Definitive History, his time working on Comics Scene for Starlog, how he came to work for DC Comics, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Who's Who, and so much more. We also touch on the history of comic book fandom and Bob tells us what it was like collecting comics in the sixties and seventies.

Once again, I'd like to thank Bob for sitting down with me to record this. It was a lot of fun.

To order Superman: The Definitive History by Ed Gross and Bob Greenberger click on this link.

To order The Essential Superman Encyclopedia by Bob Greenberger and Martin Pasko click on this link.

To check out the other books Bob has written or been a part of click on this link.

To check out Crazy 8 Press click on this link.

Feedback for It All Comes Back To Superman Series 2 can be sent to [email protected]. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or stream it through Spotify and Audible. The Fortress of Baileytude Podcasting Network is on Patreon. It’s mostly a tip jar as I have no time at the moment to produce exlcusive content, but if you like the content I do produce please consider contributing a dollar a month.

The closing theme to the show is titled Journey and was composed by Pontus Rufelt. It is licensed from Shockwave-Sound.

Next Time: A mostly off the cuff episode about my feelings on the recently released Superman trailer and my thoughts, thus far, on the movie in general.