Superman & Batman: Generations, An Imaginary Tale by John Byrne

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


John Byrne comes up with a truly great concept for an imaginary story: Superman, Batman, and their associated cast aging normally from their origins in the 1930s to the present.

There are eight stories collected in this edition beginning with 1939 and continuing on to 1999 and then taking a jump into the distant future. There's a lot to like about this mini-series particularly in the early going. The 1930s and 1950s tale are the best.

While most modern incarnations of Superman and Batman imagine Superman as good cop and Batman as bad cop. The 1930s Superman was quite as aggressive as Batman and the two hit it off quite well. The 1950s story of Batmite and Mxyzptlk battling to prove whose hero was the best was a classic Silver age pastiche.

The serial began to go downhill with the 1960s story and the injection of anti-war politics as superheroes declined to win the Vietnam War for Richard Nixon because Vietnam was different than World War 2 and less clear cut. However, the heroes hadn't won World War 2 for the U.S. either. Byrne delves deeper by portraying Superman's non-superpowered son as a war criminal.

The 1979-89 serials were the worst as Superman is defeated by the bad guys in a way that's ignominious at best and really dark and depressing. Then the 1999 and 2919 (yep you read that right) basically turns the two into demigods, although a flashback to 1929 showing Bruce Wayne as the first Robin fighting along Superboy in Gotham city was actually pretty good.

Overall, it left a bad taste. The anguish inflicted on Superman was extreme. The success of Luthor against Superman was almost complete vengeance. We get to see the this happen but Byrne fails to create any emotional space for readers to actual feel anything about it one way or another except to feel down about our heroes.

Then the end with Superman and Batman still living and in good health after everyone passed away suggests that the point of a generations story was missed. This type of story should be about the passing of the torch and how the principles that Batman and Superman believe in and the example they set blazes a trail that their descendants follow. Instead, they become the point and live on, but both as compromised heroes. Both survive only because of technology from some of their worst enemies. In the end we're left with an imaginary tale that at best suggests that there's less to the imagination of John Byrne that meets the eye.

In addition to the story elements, his drawing of Lois Lane was horrible. She's never looked worst than in this serial which emphasizes her smoking in a way that is far from attractive for whatever reason.

Byrne's project could have been great, but in the end it fails on an emotional level, it fails to inspire, and instead we're left with a soulless pointless story that never takes enough time or space for its readers to feel anything. The result is a mess.



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