Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #SupermanAnalogue
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Might as well be thorough while talking about #AstroCity, so let's talk about one of the more unlikely #SupermanAnalogue offerings: Steeljack! 
As with many characters in the series, we meet Carlie Donewicz years past his glory days. He had a career in his youth as "The Steel Jacketed Man", a Sandman style villain who was part of a Frightful Four style gang of medium power levels. He was their "strong guy".
But crime really doesn't pay and we pick up his story as he's just getting out of jail. His old friends are all in jail and their families are struggling to get by. He tries to play it straight, but then criminals start dying and he wants know why.
Where was I? Oh, yes! Another #SupermanAnalogue of #AstroCity! This time it's Supersonic, and while the name may sound like more of a Flash type (though, we've been over this ), his adventures 100% call back the Man of Steel's.
Dale Enright was an aeronautical engineer who got caught in a turbine explosion and came out with vast might and durability, as well as an incredible flight speed. In flashbacks we see him having a slew of Silver Age Superman style adventures. However, we meet him long past that.
Supersonic retired after the 80s (and a near death experience), and we find him in the early 2000s a quiet man living in the suburbs. His former government handler calls on him to deal with a rogue robot. And while he takes convincing, eventually he goes on one last ride.
Woo boy... Uh time is meaningless right now. Sorry about that. Anywho, still in #AstroCity, or rather outside of town, so let's talk about Roustabout! He's the answer to a real city mouse missing her urban superheroes.
Roustabout was yet another #SupermanAnalogue from the "Local Heroes" collection. The story follows a girl named Cammie who's staying with her cousins in the countryside. She complains that it's not as exciting as Astro City until she finds out there are heroes everywhere!
Unlike the faster paced city she's used to, Roustabout is part of the community. Cammie pieces together that her family knows more than they're sharing.
So "today" (I know it's after midnight) was #NationalSuperheroDay and really it's time I get out of this funk and get back to posting #SupermanAnalogue posts! So let's go back to my favorite city, @KurtBusiek's #AstroCity, and talk about a silver age love letter, Atomicus!
Atomicus was a newly born radioactive being taken human form. The text explains not to dwell on the nature of the beings origin, just that he was a new being in the body of an adult. While he was knowledgeable and social, he lacked the experience of an adult to feel comfortable.
Enter Irene Merryweather. This was Astro City's take on the classic Lois Lane/Superman/Clark Kent love triangle. She was there when he was "born" and became his guide at first to this world only for them to both fall for each other.
Time to get back at it with a weirder example of the #SupermanAnalogue: ULTRA the Multi-Alien! This is another composite character, but with a pump fiction sci-fi bent. In this case, a human swashbuckling hero in a far future who became fused with 4 alien pirates!
How did a human become a composite of 4 aliens, you ask? Why they shot him. Yep. Ace Arn encountered a group of alien slavers, each armed with guns that would transform their targets into members of their own species but under their command. Does this make sense? Fuck no!
But he was struck by 4 beams at once, preventing any one of them from gaining direct control. It also blessed him with the unique abilities of each! In this case: flight, super strength, magnetism, and electrokinesis. Certainly a good base for a powerhouse character!
Let's pick up the spirit of things with a #SupermanAnalogue that is decidedly more lighthearted. Let's talk about Captain Hero from Drawn Together!
Voiced by Wakko Warner himself, Jess Harnell, Captain Hero was an archetypal Superman type in a series full of archetypal characters, spoofing early aughts reality tv like #RealWorld, #SurrealLife, or #BigBrother.
Captain Hero was just as big a fan of debauchery as the rest of the cast. #DrawnTogether was a series known for pushing the limits of what basic cable was allowed to discuss...which feels so outdated now.
So it's been awhile since I posted a #SupermanAnalogue post and that's because my company has been declared an essential service and I've been working more hours than usual. Would have been nice to have some help, like perhaps a feel of robots. Superman certainly thinks so!
I mentioned them last time when I was talking about the 50s Power Man. By the time we got to the Silver Age, Superman (and his younger version Superboy) had become a very closely associated with having robot helpers to assist in maintaining their secret identity.
He also had one for Clark Kent, but also had once for all of his human friends. Overtime, they received upgrades so that eventually the ones emulating Superman possessed enough of his powers to convincingly pass for him.
It's been a minute, due mostly to the craziness of the world. However, I've been at work, mostly listening to @LarryTye's book on Superman on audible. So even though this #SupermanAnalogue wasn't brought up, it's a bit of trivia that I've always meant to bring up: Power Man!
Power Man appeared in a story where Superman was threatened by Kryptonite, but he didn't want to risk Batman and Robin's lives. Instead, he deployed a robot to act as his surrogate, disguised as a new hero. While he couldn't fly, he was plenty strong and able to handle shit.
Since this predates the Superman Robots... I should discuss them... It can be seen as a prototype. He wouldn't be seen again save for as references like in Kingdom Come.
How about a whole team full of warriors each in the class to be a #SupermanAnalogue? The Hyperclan were superbeings from outer space who came to fix our world and relieve us of our problems. But what if they're not all they appear to be?
What? Even that dreamy Protex? Yup! The Hyperclan actually came to Earth to reclaim a world they saw as theirs, a world they rules when they expanded from Mars. That's right! These are White Martians! As strong and fast as Superman with shape shifting and telepathy.
White Martians look a little more monstrous in their base forms, but otherwise all as powerful as J'onn J'onzz, The Martian Manhunter. They're this in top most tiers of beings in the DCU AS A SPECIES!
DC has their own race of #SupermanAnalogue aliens out there (aside from the Kryptonians)! Several actually! And they can be used for a variety of stories as needed, villains, observers, or occasionally as heroes. So let's talk about the cousins of Kryptonians, the Daxamites!
The most famous member is of course Lar Gand/Mon-El/Valor/M'Onel, aka Superboy's big brother! This guy is a silver age alien that young Clark Kent found, adopted as kin, then poisoned him like a petty bitch and imprisoned in a hell designed by his father. Wait...
Ok, that's a harsh read and I already covered him, but he is one of the great heroes of the DC Universe, both in our time and 1000 years in the future. He's the one who established the rules: Daxamites are just like Kryptonians but weak to lead instead of Kryptonite.
I guess that any look works when the person wearing it is young and in shape, even skin tight white with gold and red accents! I guess that's why no one in the Supremacy has any issues. It's a whole heaven for #SupermanAnalogue characters who've been retconned out of existence!
I covered Supreme a long time ago, but the nutshell is early Image expy of Superman who was vain and violent, with a shifting origin. Then Alan Moore came in and rebooted the character (Ha! Classic Moore!) And did so by having him actually meet all of his past iterations.
Traveling to a place out of continuity, he discovered a vast metropolis made in his archetypal image, populated by versions of himself and his supporting cast.
An all white body suit is hard to pull off, but what about a species of #SupermanAnalogue examples that rock the look? That's right, since we're definitely in the endgame for this series, it's time we talk about the big race of heavy hitters in the Invincible universe.
So this is a race that's hard to talk about without spoiling good chunks of the series and I really don't want to do that because this is a book that I think is really worth reading from start to finish. I'm going to avoid big ones, but there is an early one that I have to note.
You ready?
It has been awhile since I've done as blatant a #SupermanAnalogue. I've been saving this one, too. Today, I want to talk about "The American" from Cla$$War. A Superman for a Bush era commentary.
Cla$$War was not... subtle. The series began in 2002 with Authority style hyper violence and even angrier politics. It featured the Superman of the Justice League expy group called "The Enola Gay" going AWOL when he realized that his actions were in the name of American hegemony.
His teammates had given up their ideals and become superpowered privateers, murderers and drug smugglers (this series was REALLY into the CIA as secret cocaine traffickers thing). When American went AWOL, they pursued, luring him out by murdering civilians, of all nationalities.
How about a #SupermanAnalogue that was a man of mystery, despite being a powerhouse on a VERY mighty Justice League roster (Superman, Maxima, Yellow Ring Guy Gardner, Booster Gold). Today, I want to talk about Bloodwynd!
Wait, who? That's the question we were all asking when he first showed up. But with powers like his, Bloodwynd was able to stand out. This guy was even present in the fight against Doomsday and did ok until exposed to his weakness.
What was his weakness you may ask? Well, this telepathic, super strong Titan was weak to fire and, yes, that should ring a bell. Yes! The Bloodwynd who stared down Superman's killer was the fucking Martian Manhunter!
How about a Starman who better for the #SupermanAnalogue when he was a Starboy? Thomas Kallor, formerly of the Legion of Superheroes a thousand years in the future, he travelled back in time to be the eighth Starman.
So Starboy is mostly known for having the power to increase the mass of an object, making them super heavy. I guess it's a gravitational pull of a star thing. He was an old school Legionnaire, dating back to the early days.
As with everyone in the Legion, he grew up in the 70s and 80s into a mature role, before being rebooted ad infinitum. His 80s design would be his best known look, influencing many of the later versions.
Continuing with Starmen for my #SupermanAnalogue series, let's move on to Mikaal Tomas. As with most Starmen, I know the character mostly from the James Robinson series from the 90s, but this one dates back to the 70s... Obviously.
The short version is that Mikaal is DC's version of Mar-Vell: he's an alien warrior, sent to infiltrate Earth, then discovers that he's cool with Earth and sides with humanity. He's powered by a star amulet which he at first wore around his neck before it was fused into his chest
The amulet gave him the standard space hero package of flight, protection from damage, some physical augmentation, and beams of stellar radiation. As with similar characters (Nova, Moonstone, the Darkstars, etc) the idiosyncracies of those powers were developed by later writers.
Starman is a name borne by several DCU characters, but only some of them have been examples of the #SupermanAnalogue. The original was definitively not and the one I'm most familiar with, the 90s incarnation, also wasn't, so let's start with one that REALLY was: Will Payton.
Uh...Will Payton is a character who I only have limited experience with. He was discussed a lot in the 90s book (which dwelled on the history of the name) and I remember characters like Wally West making cracks about him being one of the big guns. Never read the series, sadly.
My direct experience was the Superman arc "Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite" where he legit played the part of the Man of Steel when Superman lost his powers.
Alright, let's talk about a character who was once described as "Superman meets Green Lantern" as this #SupermanAnalogue: Star Brand, the Mightiest hero of Marvel's New Universe, and has since been reimagined several times. Kenneth Connel originally, Kevin Conner when reimagined
So, the Star Brand is a cosmic energy mark that channels vast power through a representative individual. Whomever bears it has access to vast energies, granting any number of abilities. The base abilities are physical, but it extends to flight, energy, and potential...
Star Brands are typically linked with "White Events" where vast radiation bombards a region, unlocking metahuman abilities in those caught in the blast. In every iteration of the character, the Star Brand has been linked with the creation of superhuman potential.
Let's take a trip back to the WildC.A.T.S. for the team's original #SupermanAnalogue the Spartan series robot called Hadrian!
Spartan was part of the original roster introduced when the book was launched. He was the "balanced" one with a broad range of abilities rather than a specialist. Unlike most of the team, he was not an alien or human/alien hybrid, but rather a bodyguard robot... Or so we thought.
Now, obviously Majestic showed up shortly after the book's launch and was the more 1 to 1 Superman type, but Spartan certainly could hold his own. He was the team's Vision to Majestic's Thor.
We knocked out Dynomutt last, so how could I not talk about a character who was created by Superman creator himself, Jerry Siegel? Yep! For this #SupermanAnalogue, we're talking about the Golden Age Robotman!
Robert Crane was a scientist who crafted a robot body that could preserve a human brain from a dying body. We all know where this is going. Thieves break in, kill him, and his assistant puts his brain in the robot body. And of course his first mission was avenging his own death.
As you'd expect, Robotman had incredible strength and durability. On top of that, he had extending arms, much like Dynomutt. Perfectly good powers for a lower powered aspiring Superman.
This #SupermanAnalogue is...uh... a bit of a reach but I wanted to talk about a Hanna-Barbera superhero after yesterday's Scooby gang and I think he still works, despite a more obvious resemblance to a different franchise. Blue Falcon's partner, the Dog Blunder himself, Dynomutt!
If I was going to bring Dynomutt up, I probably should have included him when I ran through the various powerful puppers but I'm doing this off the cuff and personally I just need to talk about a dog today. So let's do this...
Dynomutt was yet another 70s cartoon hero, much like Mightor and Birdman, however this one sort of spun out of Scooby Doo (or at least crossed over). It took the idea of a canine protagonist but mixed in elements of the 60s Batman show and some gadget fetish for good measure.
Fuck it. Just found out this existed and it 100% brightened my sad week. Special thanks to @CaptMarvelology for sharing this image from the Scooby Doo comics. So without further ado, today's #supermananalogue (s) are Norville "Shaggy" Rogers and Velma Dinkley!
@CaptMarvelology These two of course hail from the enduring property "Scooby Doo" from the animation juggernaut Hanna-Barbera. It originated as a show about a group of late teens/early 20 somethings who solved mysteries with vague counter culture overtones that were kept kid friendly.
@CaptMarvelology There have been multiple iterations and adaptations. For example, growing up in the 80s, my first exposure was to "A Pup Named Scooby Doo". That series was a little more meta, with a character even named "Red Herring".
I've spent a lot of time talking about #SupermanAnalogue characters: thinly veiled copies, distaff counterparts, rivals, and funny animal versions, but what about his best pal? Jimmy Olsen doesn't normally have superpowers, but there have been times when he's rivaled Superman!
Jimmy Olsen was introduced officially in the Superman radio show, as an audience viewpoint character who could react to Superman's deeds. He was a cub reporter and photographer and like many elements of the radio show he quickly migrated over to the comics.
Jimmy got his own book and a frequent trope was short brushes with superpowers. (Superdickery.com had a drinking game for this: superdickery.com/the-jimmy-olse…) The 2 most famous were probably his Elastic Lad and Turtle Boy identities.
How about another #Elseworlds #SupermanAnalogue, this time from the FUCKING AWESOME 1-shot "Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone" by Adam Warren? Let's talk about Hikarimono, aka Dead Pretty Boy.
Titans: Scissors, Paper, Stone was a one shot about some far off future colony with a goddamn out there style which frankly could be the future of our world or a comic timeline... Who knows? It's so far in the future that comics are considered a form of mythology
The sort of lead, Jama, is able to utilize any magic system, regardless of legitimacy, so when she has a premonition of a disaster she decides to emulate a form of mythology that always have a happy ending: super hero lore.
