I bought the new issue of Star Wars: Republic yesterday, in which the Gungans (yeah…the damn GUNGANS) are all wiped out in a chemical attack on Naboo. I reflected on how poor the book’s timing could be in the event that there is a serious chemical attack, either in Iraq or here.
It also reminded me that, every so often, there’s a “prophetic” comic book in which its events tend to be too close to real life. There was an issue of Adventures of Superman released the week after 9-11 that had a panel with two smoking towers, and a Superman issue shorly after that with a shot of the Pentagon and the phrase “After the War.” The connection is tenuous and ridiculous, of course, but it still made a lot of people quesy.
I’m also told there was a Superman comic in the 40s in which Supes rescues an accused killer from an angry mob, who later comments “I’m being held for the murder of Jack Kennedy.” Pure coincidence, but the book was considered prophetic when JFK was killed in 1963. And then there’s the legendary story that the FBI prohibited DC from running a Superman story about an “atom smasher” in the 1940s, because the tale was just a little too close to the Manhattan Project.
Yup. During the Byrne run of Wonder Woman, the last panel of one of his issues had a bunch of shocked people standing around saying “Princess Diana is dead!”
It came out the same week (IIRC, the same day, for that matter) that Princess Di died.
DC published some kind of sci-fi survey a few years ago–for the life of me, I can’t remember its title–with a variety of stories, such as Adam Strange, the origin of Ultra the Multi-Alien, etc.
One of the stories from the 50’s wasn’t so much a story so much as an article called “How Television Will Change Your Future” or somesuch. The story successfully predicted several uses for television, including ordering products advertised on TV (Home Shopping Network), identifying wanted criminals (America’s Most Wanted), and even man watching the moon landing. IIRC, every prediction except for one came true.
Freaky. I suppose anyone could have made those predictions, but still, freaky.
I don’t remember this. I do remember that when the Russians’ “Coldbringer” bomb went off, it knocked out power worldwide…including airborne jets. One collided with a Gotham skyscraper, which prompted Jim Gordon to lead a firefight since the Fire Departments were apparently out of commission.
A) It’s not that rare, IMO. I’ve got a copy and I’ve seen numerous others. And it’s not listed for much more at www.milehighcomics.com
B) Not only did he reveal his secret ID to the Pres, IIRC the Pres put on a rubber mask to help Supes protect his secret ID from Lois(?).
C) It wasn’t even remotely tasteless, even by the standards of the time; Weisinger was a huge Kennedy fan and his Pro-Kennedy propaganda* was, if anything, a trifle nauseating in it’s gushiness. That said, Bosda’s completely correct, they did run a sort-of apology.
D) In an earlier “Tales of the Bizarro World” story, at a costume party, a Bizarro dressed up to look like Kennedy was dancing with a Bizarro dressed up to look like Marylin Monroe, which may have been the first in-print reference to their affair.
If you want to see some pages from the story, look here (there’s an English translation of the page about halfway down)…I think they have the dates wrong though: I’m pretty sure that Action #309 was the “tasteless” issue.
Fenris
*I’m not saying it was bad: Kennedy and Superman starting a youth-fitness program for kids in another issue, for instance is as nice and wholesome as you can get. But nice does not preclude propaganda.
The Superman story mentioning the murder of John Kennedy was, in fact, Action Comics #1, the character’s first appearance. Kennedy has never been an uncommon name in 20th Century America.
Actually, the dead man’s name was Jack Kennedy, not John.
MAD Magazine used to print letters of people pointing out how one of their stories had been prophetic. The only one I remember clearly was during a parody of Rocky III. Stallone was face-to-chest with Hulk Hogan, then later face-to-chest with Mr. T. He comments: “If this kind of posing keeps up, I want my next match to be with Dolly Parton.” After Rocky III, Stallone appeared with Parton in the truly awful Rhinestone.
The issue here is Adventures of Superman #596, the issue right after “Our Worlds at War” ended. It’s got four tower shots:
page 2: The tops of what I guess are the Lex Towers are gone, smoke is coming from them.
page 8: Top panel has the JLA watchtower with a huge chunk of it gone.
The bottom panel has the Eiffel Tower being repaired, and pictures of the WTC, with a chunk missing from each tower.