Today, we look to see how Superman got rid of his awesome 1990s hair style after he returned following his death at the hands of Doomsday.
This is "Never Gonna Be the Same Again," a feature where I look at how bold, seemingly "permanent" changes were ultimately reversed. This is not a criticism, mind you, as obviously things are always going to eventually return to "normal." That's just how superhero comic books work. It's just fun to see how some of these rather major changes are reversed. This is differentiated from "Abandoned Love," which is when a new writer comes in and drops the plot of the previous writer. Here, we're talking about the writer who came up with the idea being the same one who resolved the change. This is also differentiated from "Death is Not the End," which is about how "dead" characters came back to life, since this is about stuff other than death.
Today is Albert Ching's birthday. The former CBR Managing Editor and new DC Marketing Manager (congrats, Albert!) has an affinity for the comics of the 1990s, so I always like to do a 1990s-themed feature for him every year on his birthday. This time, I figured I'd combine the 1990s and DC for a look at the Super-Mullet.
IS IT EVEN A MULLET?
Let's get it out of the way right off the bat. The Super-Mullet is not technically a mullet, at least not in its original intention. A mullet haircut is where the person has relatively short hair in front and long hair in the back. The joke about mullets is "business up front, party in the back." So if you just have long hair period, you don't have a mullet. Similarly, if you wear your hair in a ponytail, you don't have a mullet. A mullet and a ponytail are different things. That said, there are people with mullets who then also had ponytails. Superman was NOT intended to have a mullet, but just plain ol' long hair, but as you can see from the Brian Bolland Wonder Woman cover that I used as the feature image for the piece, some artists definitely DID draw him with a mullet (I can only imagine Bolland getting set to do that cover and seeing that he had to give Superman long hair. "....Ugh...okay." But it's more fun to say "Super-Mullet" than "Super-Longhair," so I'm sticking with it for the rest of the piece, even though you all know the truth.
THE BIRTH OF THE SUPER-MULLET
During "The Death of Superman," Superman, well, you know, died. However, even after Superman's soul left his body, his Kryptonian power kept his body barely still viable (it helped that Cadmus shocked Superman with a large jolt of energy in an attempt to get his heart to beat again). The Kryptonian entity known as the Eradicator then stole Superman's body and brought it to the Fortress of Solitude and put it into a regeneration matrix to heal. At the same time, the Eradicator borrowed some of Superman's energy to power itself up as it became a replacement Superman for the Man of Steel while he was healing. That would have all been for naught had it not been for the fact that Superman's adopted father, Jonathan Kent, had also had his soul separate from his body temporarily due to a heart attack. His soul met Superman's and the two fought together to return to life and their souls returned to their respective bodies. It still took some time for Superman to heal fully and during that time, his hair kept growing and so when he emerged from the regeneration matrix towards the end of the "Reign of the Supermen" event, his hair was now long....
When he regained his powers from the Eradicator, he decided to keep the long hair. The Superman creators felt that this signified a difference with the return of the character. However, they differed on HOW long "long" meant. See Dan Jurgens' drawing Clark Kent. He thought it was short enough that Clark could just slick it back and it wouldn't be too noticeable...
While the other artists drew it long enough to need to be kept in a ponytail. Jon Bogdanove was the biggest proponent of the long hair (he also decided to give Clark a...gold medallion for some reason?)...
THE DEATH OF THE SUPER-MULLET
After nearly three years (which is EONS when you are starring in four comic books a month), the mullet finally saw its end. First, during the crossover event, "Final Night," the Earth's sun was drained and so Superman slowly lost his sun-powered abilities. By Superman #118 (by Dan Jurgens, Ron Frenz and Joe Rubinstein), it was totally drained...
However, at that same time, Lois Lane (who had left Metropolis after she felt too constrained by being engaged to, well, Superman), decided to return to Metropolis. She met up with Clark and not only did they decide to get married again, they got married, like, RIGHT AWAY!
In Superman: The Wedding Album (written by all of the main Superman writers of the time and drawn by DOZENS of artists), the now-powerless Clark no longer had invulnerable hair that he would have to use a piece of his spaceship and his heat vision to cut, so instead, he got a proper haircut in time for his wedding, as shown for the first time on this page by comic book art icon, Nick Cardy...
(That's not actually Jimmy Olsen, but Mr. Mxyzptlk in disguise as Jimmy, hence him knowing Clark's secret identity)
Soon after this, Superman got his powers back via an influx of energy, but it turned out that the energy was TOO much and it transformed Superman so that he became an energy being. This was the so-called "Blue Superman" era. But that's a whole other story...
If anyone else has a suggestion for Never Gonna Be The Same Again, please drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!
Happy birthday, Albert!