Superman: Speeding Bullets

Superman: Speeding Bullets
Cover for Superman: Speeding Bullets
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
Format Prestige format one-shot
Publication date January 1993
No. of issues 1
Main character(s) Kal-El
Thomas Wayne
Martha Wayne
Lois Lane
Perry White
Lex Luthor
Creative team
Created by J.M. DeMatteis
Eduardo Barreto

Superman: Speeding Bullets is a DC Comics Elseworlds prestige format one-shot comic book published in 1993. It is written by J.M. DeMatteis and features the artwork of Eduardo Barreto. The comic book is based on the concept of an amalgamation of Superman and Batman.

Plot

Baby Kal-El crashes into Earth, where he is discovered by Thomas and Martha Wayne. The couple adopt Kal-El, and name him Bruce. One night, Thomas and Martha are gunned down by a mugger. Bruce incinerates the mugger with his heat vision and discovers his superpowers, but it is too late to save his parents. He represses the knowledge of powers in shame.

Years later, Bruce has become a recluse, hiding out in Wayne Manor. His super-hearing forces him to be aware of all crimes in Gotham, and Bruce obsessively collects newspaper clippings of violent crimes around the world. Armed robbers break into the Manor and take Alfred hostage. Bruce, in a violent fury, remembers his powers and attacks them.

Alfred takes Bruce to a cave under the manor, showing him his ship and revealing Bruce’s alien origins. Meanwhile, the robbers return to their employer, who kills them for their failure. As the Batman, Bruce begins to brutally strike back at the criminals in Gotham.

Lex Luthor, a Metropolis-based industrialist who survived a life-threatening industrial accident the year before, moves LexCorp headquarters to Gotham and organises a buyout of Wayne Enterprises. To the shock of everyone, Bruce arrives just as the contract is about to be signed and shuts down the deal, announcing that he will take personal control of the day-to-day running of his businesses going forward.

Bruce purchases the Gotham Gazette and poaches Perry White and Lois Lane from the Daily Planet, which has become a mouthpiece for Luthor. Lois gains a great respect for Wayne’s passion and idealism as a publisher, and he in turn is smitten with her. Weeks later, Batman rescues Lois from a gang of assailants. Horrified at the vicious superpowered beating he delivers, she angrily rebuffs him when he tries to help her up.

Late at night, Lois writes an editorial criticising Batman’s brutal conduct. Lex arrives to kidnap Lois and reveals that the chemical accident he suffered has bleached his skin chalk-white, turned his lips ruby-red and driven him insane (strongly resembling a bald Joker). He reveals he has used his vast fortune to attempt a total military take over of the continental United States, with a huge army of heavily armed mercenaries and armoured vehicles simultaneously assaulting all major cities. Batman stops the takeover and confronts Lex/Joker, who seems to care very little at his failed coup and all the loss of life it has caused.

Bruce is eventually persuaded by Lois Lane that a more hopeful superhero is needed than his dark, violent Batman persona, giving rise to his new, more heroic identity of Superman.

Characters

  • Dr. Thomas Wayne: He and his wife, Martha, discover Baby Kal-El's spaceship in a smoldering crater and they adopt the baby. He spends his time journaling his thoughts about his son's origin.
  • Martha Wayne: She nurtures and coddles her son, Kal-El, thoroughly enjoying raising a child she has never had the chance to have herself.
  • Alfred Pennyworth: The Waynes' butler and Bruce's trusted adviser and friend.
  • Superman: The adopted son of the Wayne family, young Bruce would witness his adopted parents being killed in front of him, and would swear never to use his powers at all after killing the mugger with his heat vision. The young Wayne heir would create the identity of the Batman as a means to fight against the criminals of Gotham City, until he would be convinced to forsake his dark persona by Lois Lane and assume the more hopeful persona of Superman.
  • Lex Luthor: A wealthy genius eventually driven insane in a disfiguring accident.

Awards

Superman: Speeding Bullets won the Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award for Favorite Original Graphic Novel or Album for 1993.[1]

Publication

The comic was released as a 52-page prestige format one-shot comic book ( ISBN 1563891174).

See also

References

  1. ↑ CBG Fan Awards
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