DC Comics Presents Annual 1

DC Comics Presents Annual 1
1982

Crisis on Three Earths
By Marv Wolfman, Tich Buckler, Dave Hunt, John Costanza

Superman of Earth-1, Superman of Earth-2, and Alexander Luthor of Earth-3 team up to battle Lex Luthor of Earth-1, Alexei Luthor of Earth-2, and Ultraman of Earth-3.

This story marks the first appearance of Alex Luthor and the second appearance of Lois Lane, both of Earth-3. Both are killed in their next appearance, Crisis on Infinite Earths 1. Lois Lane (E-3) first appeared in Secret Society of Super-Villains 14.

Alexei Luthor had only appeared made a handful of appearances since the early 1950s, all in the pages of Superman Family, prior to this issue. His only appearances after this issue are in a couple issues of All-Star Squadron and of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Superman and Lois Lane of Earth-2 are married at this point in continuity but their counterparts on Earth-1 are not.

Earths Beyond Earths
By Rich Morrissey

This is a one-page text piece about parallel earths in DC Comics. Morrissey’s introduction to them was in Superboy 117 (Dec 1964) where he met an evil version of the Legion of Super-Heroes. He talks about the dividing line between Superman of Earth-1 and Earth-2 without coming to any definite conclusions. At the time that this piece was published I would have considered it to be gold. Today it is just another fun piece in which a fan gushes about his memories of old comic books. I like it but it isn’t quite as important to me in 2019 as it probably would have been to me if I had read it in 1982.

Thoughts

This was a fun read. I had never read it before, despite having heard about it numerous times. It isn’t a deep story. I think the biggest developments here are the first meeting of the two Luthors and the introduction of Alex Luthor of Earth-3.