John Byrne Action Comics #252 Homage

My comic book store recently put out a glut of $1 books that required some degree of patience as I flipped through the jumbled collection. One of the things that I came across were nice crisp copies of all three parts of 'The Supergirl Saga', the formal introduction of the Matrix Supergirl to the post-Crisis DCU. The copies in my collection were somewhat dog-eared from the multiple readings. So I splurged the $3 to buy a more pristine set, putting the older original ones in the 'readable' pile, a longbox I have of beloved issues, out of bags and boards, and available for reading in almost any environment.

I haven't reviewed this story properly on the site, something which feels like an oversight that I should rectify at some point.

But until that day, I thought I would share one panel from Superman #21 which is a nice homage to Supergirl's first appearance.

In the issue, Superman feels he is being followed and so does some fancy flying to end up face to face with ... Supergirl?

Surprised, he says 'Great Guns! A flying woman in a variation of my costume! Is it ... some kind of illusion ..?'

Those words sound awful familiar

Looking back to the classic cover of Action Comics #252, we hear Superman say something very very similar. 'Great guns! A girl flying! It - uh - must be an illusion!'

Changing the 'girl' to 'woman' makes sense given the time and the character of Matrix.

But there can be know doubt that those words were chosen very carefully by Byrne. How often does Superman say 'great guns'? These sort of Easter Eggs are appreciated by this old time fan.

Writer/artist John Byrne always had a healthy respect for the source material and often would do nods to the past like this one. I have talked about how this Bizarro story was very similar to Bizarro's first appearance in the Superboy book. And over on Too Dangerous for a Girl, I talked about Byrne's reimagining of Lori Lemaris in the new universe. So this little nod to Supergirl was recognized and appreciated.

So should I review this story in the usual in depth Anj fashion?

Posted in: Reviews