Friday Night Fights: Thunder - Round 8: Upon Further Reflection....

In light of recent news about Superman's new jeans and T-Shirt "costume", I thought I'd showcase Big Blue in his classic look for tonight's round of Friday Night Fights: Thunder.


Tonight's atomic altercation comes from Superman#308 by Gerry Conway, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, and Frank Springer. This issue was part of a classic 3-part Bronze Age story arc that was....not one of my favorites. The premise was that, fearing that Supes' obsession with stopping polluting industries was becoming too great, Supergirl revealed to him that they were actually human mutants (their powers came from radiation Fred Danvers and Jonathan Kent were exposed to) and that Krypton and their exploits with various remnants and artifacts, including the bottle city of Kandor and the Phantom Zoners, were all part of a delusion Clark created in his own mind to block out his true origin.


While this was a bold premise on Conway's part, the story that resulted wasn't quite my cup of tea. At times, Superman was written wildly out of character. Some of the scenes were overwrought. Lopez would quickly become on of my all-time favorite Super-artists, but at the time he still had a few bugs in his Supes rendition to work out, and Springer's inks left much to be desired. Still, it did have some nice character moments and, best of all, showcased how clever and effective the Man Of Steel can be when he is on his game.


Here, the atomic-powered villain Radion, fresh from his retreat from Superman after the latter foiled the former's plan to detonate a nuclear reactor and mutate everyone on Earth, has retreated back to his lair, where he is berated by his protege, the Protector, a mutant who can change his molecules into a variety of different elements. Unfortunately for them, they're about to get an unexpected guest..

And how will Superman stop these two?


Like this.

Now that's how Superman is done, people!


And what better fight music is there for this battle "supreme" than this?

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