Quantum Leap Through A Time Tunnel For Seven Days of Time Trax...
Let me confess to a misconception I'd had reading this series. When I first picked up issue one, and saw Superboy, Lana, Pete, Lois, Bruce and Irma, my first thought was: awwww, yeah Golden-Age Titans! It was perfect, I tell ya! The Parademons show up and these kids have to figure out how to beat them.
Instead of Titans, we get New Gods.
Now, if you like Jack "The King" Kirby, and his Fourth World New Gods, you should be in heaven with this series so far. Except for a few appearances, mostly a JLA/JSA/New Gods fall team-up, I'm not that familiar with them. But there really isn't that much backstory to catch up on. The characters and concept isn't that complicated.
Plus, I've been looking at this series so far pretty straightforward. G1 and G2 were pretty simple and basic. This series is a bit more ambitious. Sprawling. Epic in nature. This is where you hear a phrase like "distended storytelling", which might be interpreted as "padded storytelling". Stretching a story to a ridiculously long length.
I'm not sure twelve-issues is a good thing for this series. I'm not sure spreading it out over a thousand years works either. G1 was spread out by decades. G2 was spread out by eleven years. This is spread across a thousand in one hundred year increments. The fact that this limited series was not followed up on is telling.
Century 29: Little Girls Lost opens with Lana Lang and Lois Lane finally - finally! - reaching the pre-programmed destination of their Time Bubble ride. Smallville, 2925. Naturally, they are surprised at the changes. Mostly they are amazed at what they find wandering into the Superman Museum.
The first thing they see is that Superman's 20th Century Wife is/was Lois Lane! Lana is overjoyed to find out what she suspected all along: Superboy/man is Clark Kent! Byrne's Rog2000 tells them where they can find Superman - outside the domed city fighting Parademons. Quickly, and comically, they make their way out a vent tunnel and into the center of the action.
They encounter Supergirl Blue, Clark and Bruce and share their amazing journey to the future. It is obvious what has to be done next!
The five use the Time Bubble to go back to 1925. Bruce immediately heals Irma's wounds. They make plans to put right what once went wrong. Superman introduces Ma and Pa Kent to the daughter-in-law they never got to know.
Lana asks Clark for a small favor. Now, taken in context it is supposed to be sentimental. Lana was pretty much young Clark's Gwen Stacy. When they went back for Superboy. We've seen their relationship unfold on Smallville. She didn't get the memo that their relationship was doomed from the start. She was just a boyhood crush. What if she had feeling for Clark. And then found out that he grew up, and moved on, and married someone else. Yes, it's awkward for an well-aged Superman to kiss a fourteen-year-old Lana. That's not the kind of image any one needs. But in the context of the story this issue, where her memory and Lois' will be erased - and, they'll pretty much be sent into a loop of finding the Time Bubble, travelling to the future, bringing the heroes back - it works. It's creepy and awkward, but from Lana's perspective it's sentimental.
Leaving 1925 Smallville, Saturn Girl, Supergirl Blue, Batman and Superman go back to the future! And find that it is concluded next issue!
The Good ~
This is what the series should have been about! It should have been about young heroes. Yeah, you can love the Justice Society all you want. Those characters were best in the Golden-Age. God bless you if you liked their recent run, but give me All-Star Squadron and Justice Society of America. James Robinson, David Goyer and Geoff Johns have dome some great work, I'll admit; but, the field is pretty cluttered as far as teams and team books go. This could have been the start of a very cool ongoing, looking at Superman and Batman over the years. Just like G1 and G2. It didn't and it wasn't. Instead G3 gives us a time-and-space spanning epic.
The Bad ~
Reading G3, it feels more about the scenery than the story. Story and scenery worked hand-in-glove in G1 and G2. This series seems to drag in parts. The pace seems off. I chalk that up to maybe Byrne being a better writer than I am a reader. This story works better read all together.
The Ugly ~
In one sense, this issue makes Superman look like a perv and a dirty old man. From a certain angle, this whole series makes Superman look a little un-heroic. Irma plants a subliminal message in his mind that he can't or won't recall for hundreds upon hundreds of years. It takes an intervention to help him remember. From a certain angle Superman looks pretty simple-minded and foolish rather than optimistic and inspiring. To me, the core of Superman is to inspire. Maybe not so much a faith, but hope. Superman is to super-heroes and comic books what Star Trek is to science fiction. An optimism that the future is brighter.
Of course, Batman could appear kind of sleezy from a certain angle, too. His relationship with his first wife is complicated, the one with Wonder Woman is unclear; and then there's his marriage to Supergirl Blue...But then, he has a playboy image...which would work if he could make up his mind which it was - playboy or family man. Generations plays kind of fast and loose with that one.
The Skinny ~
This is a good read in one extended sitting. Broken up, it feels a bit slow and plodding. You'll probably have an easy time finding copies in the back issue bin. Unfortunately this has not been collected in a trade paperback. Considering the direction of the DCnU, I doubt that it will. This has a definite Golden Age/Earth-2 feel to it.