New Adventures of Superman Series: Did DC win back the rights to Superman's Red Underpants?

I sort of don't know what to make of the (I'm calling it unsubstantiated) news that DC is launching a new web comic called The Adventures of Superman that will eventually be collected.  Somehow.  Whatever.

The things I care about are as follows:

1.  There's a lot here to suggest that most of the changes made to Superman in the New 52 were due to the Siegel/ Shuster heir lawsuit.  Things were looking pretty bad for DC for a while, which would have meant anything from Action Comics #1 that was ownable would now be the property of the creators.  That included red trunks on Superman and a girl reporter as a love interest.*

A short while ago, DC seems to have won the lawsuit (the heirs should still be receiving royalties, which is, I suppose, something...), which would mean DC can continue to exploit their trademark.  I mean, make great Superman comics in the popular tradition.


Well, according to the sample image, after disappearing in September 2011, the red trunks are making their triumphant return in an official DC comic.  Maybe.  We'll see.

puzzling evidence

2.  The comic takes place outside of the "New 52" Universe, allowing writers and artists to work in the classic Superman style and with classic sensibilities.  Perhaps away from the Slipknot-album-cover that Bob Harras thinks makes for a keen DCU, we won't be gnashing our teeth so much over the loss of Morrison on Action at the same time DC shuttered the remarkable Superman Family Adventures.

It would be nice to see a Superman who isn't embroiled in a DCU I don't really find appealing and off in his own corner somewhere.

3.  There's a line of creators wanting to work on this Superman like I haven't seen in years.   Superman has been toxic for so long, it seemed pretty clear DC was offering sweetheart deals to established writers to take on the series and grabbing less established writers looking to make a mark.  Until the arrival of the DC Yes Men on the books.

I may not be super excited about JT Krul's name on the list, but there are lots of others on there that I am pleased to see giving it a whirl.



I'll be honest, I find it odd that this isn't a story anywhere but IGN, and I'm kind of wondering if this is some stunt or a plant or something for a project that doesn't yet exist.  Superman Homepage has not yet posted on the story, and they're usually on this stuff like ants on a picnic.

But, you know, we're also getting that unexpected Joe Kubert Presents comic, so all kinds of surprises happen in this weird old world.

late edit:  it looks like this story has legs, so we're now believing that some sort of comic like the one described will exist.  That's good news!


*  Note - The New 52 version of Superman had no red trunks, Lois was now "a best buddy", and she was now some sort of multimedia news producer or something.