“Retconning” is a popular past-time in modern comics, wherein something about an established character’s history is changed on purpose for some reason or another. In extreme cases, retcons can turn into full-fledged reboots, as John Byrne famously did in the Eighties with “Superman”.

Which is what brings us all here today.

Discussion after the jump.

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A bit on the grim side, but also fun after the dying part, so here goes:

Let’s take a closer look at these exciting options.

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Personally I’ve been a huge space-program nut since I was a kid, but since relatively routine flights there now seem to be on the horizon, I got to wondering about you all, too:

The answers pretty much spell out the discussion areas; rather than just a yes or no, I wanted to get a feel for why you’d want to, or not want to. My wife, for instance, thinks I am completely insane for saying I’d jump on the chance in a heartbeat. And I don’t know that I have just one reason, but you so rarely get the chance to make a dream come true, I’d totally take it, risks and all.

What about you, what did you answer, and why?

“Inspired” by the recent Tiger Woods gossip, I started thinking about character issues when it comes to super-hero characters. Modern comics are chock-full of heroes with significant personal defects, most pointedly in various Image books like “Dynamo 5″ (five bastard children of a Superman analogue, each having inherited one of the father’s powers) and “Noble Causes” (super-hero family soap opera), or the Millar-Hitch “Ultimates” stories (wife-beating, philandering, treason, etc.).

Big Blue, however, has long since been untouchable in that regard. Whatever else he is, Superman has always had not just the best super-powers, but the most stringent and inspiring personal code of ethics. Except for the lying about his identity and the various bits of Super-Dickery documented on SuperDickery.com, of course. But hey, that was mostly in the Golden Age, and you can hardly harsh on a guy in a world that also had Bulletdogs getting flung out of windows.

So I wondered how you would personally feel if Superman were revealed to have had a serious personal failing in a non-super-related event:

The question brings up a lot of issues. What does it mean to be a hero? What relevance does a person’s non-public actions have to his or her public duties? How much weight do we give a person’s failings when compared to their successes? How much of ourselves do we let get wrapped up in our idols?

For me personally, I don’t think it would diminish my respect for him as a defender of the public good, if that’s what you consider his “job” to be. I’d still think he’s great for, you know, keeping Brainiac from blowing up the planet or Luthor from enslaving us. Stacked up against that kind of thing, what he does sexually with whom is small potatoes.

But.

Part of what makes Superman, Superman, is the idea that he’s not just the best anyone could be in terms of physical prowess, but also in terms of moral prowess. The latter is almost more important than his physical greatness because no one, no matter how hard they work out, can stop bullets with their skin. But we can each hope to be the best moral creature we can be.

So on those terms, yes, I’d lose some respect for him as a person, if not as a public defender.

Another facet to consider is whether this is Earth-2 married Superman, or just Superman and Lois “having a good time”. It shouldn’t matter in terms of betraying a trust, but on the one hand there’s a vow taken, and in the other something a level below that.

Anyway, what do you think?

One of my favorite parts of “Invincible” is when Mark’s father reveals that he is actually global super-hero “Omni-Man”, much to his son’s surprise. Which got me to thinking:

Discussion after the jump!

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Our poll position this week is graphical in nature, since this is, after all, a site that deals with the visuals of the genre:

Discussion after the jump!

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A question for what kind of fantasy life you’d most like to be in:

Note that this isn’t the kind of story you like the most necessarily, but which sort of world you’d actually want to live in. Discussion to follow …

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We all love Bulletman around here, so this week’s poll position tackles the thorny issue of how best to expand the franchise head-on:

There’s not a lot to discuss here, because Bullet-anything is made of pure awesome, so I’d be happy with any of them. But my favorite is still from the comments last week, with a Bulletgun shooting Bulletbullets. Perhaps he could load up the Bulletuncle and the various Bulletpets into the Bulletcar while doing a drive-by. Then I could die a happy man.

You can add your own Bulletrequests to the list, but please keep them clean.

A lot of heroic fiction is based on the main character waking one day to discover that he or she is not, in fact, a powerless drone, but a mighty warrior / king / Kryptonian with massive powers / what have you. So I got to wondering:

Discussion to follow.

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Our Poll Position for this week asks you to put yourself in the position of a super-joiner:

Discussion after the jump.

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