Opening Adventures of Superman #500!

Last week we opened a copy of Superman #75 where the Man of Steel was "killed" by Doomsday. Today we'll be tearing open a copy of Adventures of Superman #500! This is the issue that started the rebirth of The Man of Tomorrow.

We all knew that it was inevitable that Superman would return, but what we didn't know is how DC would pull it off! This issue gives us a peak into that question by giving us a tale about Pa Kent taking a journey into the afterlife where he encounters war flashbacks, demons and his son Clark. After this magical journey we find out that Superman's body is no longer in it's tomb in Metropolis! Where did it go and who could have taken it?

Yes, that mystery was at the heart of this issue, but the big draw for me was the introduction of 4 new Supermen! Superboy, Steel. Cyborg Superman and Eradicator Superman all make their debuts at the end of this issue in grand fashion. Are any of these guys the real deal? Do any of them have anything to do with the missing body of Superman? This single issue led into the "Reign of Supermen" storyline. One of my favorites from 90's DC.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon a copy of Adventures of Superman #500 at a Dollar Tree store, so I had no problem opening it to find out what goodies were inside. Let me tell you, I was pretty bummed. After all the great stuff packed into superman #75, I was expecting some sweet swag. What we got was a fairly cool variant cover that features a removeable translucent sticker showing Pa Kent reaching out to his son in the afterlife...

and this AMAZING DC Bloodlines card. Okay, this card was worth the $1 I paid alone. We also go 8 extra pages of story. These pages were not really necessary and pretty much just took up the space held by ads in the regular edition of the comic. It was 2 pages of  Gangbuster fighting crime and a few more pages of Pa Kent struggling to come back to life. Nothing of note really. 

I did enjoy this issue and it moves the whole death/life story forward, but once again this comic was 50 cents more than Superman #75 and we got a variant cover and 1 card! C'mon DC us loyal Superman fans deserve better than that. Now that I have typed that sentence, I feel kind of jerky. Especially since I got my copy for $1. Ugh! Let's just move on with our lives now and enjoy the richness of storytelling this issue spearheaded with the Reign of Supermen story line.