Superman & Batman: Generations 2, An Imaginary Tale by John Byrne

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a great concept. Imagine Superheroes aging like normal passing on the mantle to the next generation rather than magically remaining artificially young to hold a fickle reading public and corporate executives who love having established commercial properties.

Apparently, this was a sequel to the original Generations book and it attempted to focus on other heroes such as the Green Lantern, the Flash, and Wonder Woman as well as Superman and Batman. The book eight stories set eleven years apart each beginning in 1942.

The first three stories work pretty well but by the 4th some of the weaknesses in concept begin to show. First of all, while the first two stories did pretty well with the concept particularly as we saw Wonder Woman having a child in 1953, the attempts to pay attention to other Justice League characters becomes sporadic at best after the 1960s story. Superman, Batman, and their families take up so much space.

The other big problem was that it felt like, he just didn't have space to do this story right. To do this right, I think you'd need a whole book dedicated to each decade. The way it was, it felt like I'd picked up a book that collected eight random comic books, many of them taken out of the middle out of other story lines. That makes for some frustrating reading.

The last story too is a bit of a cheat as it "happens" at the Fortress of Solitude in 2019 but it's Batman and Superman viewing a video of an attempt by Jonathan Kent to prevent the murders of Martha and Thomas Wayne. The story was moving at the time, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes from a pure human perspective.

In the end, it's a mixed bag. Worth a read from the library or as used book, hard to imagine shelling out coin of the real for a new copy.



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