In his comic gossip column “All The Rage“, Markisan Naso
broke the rumor that Superman may be split up. No, not Superman-Red/Superman-Blue again. This time, the three Superman books will be split into three radical continuities: One where Lois is dead, one where Superman and Lois are married (the current chronology) and one that restores the old Superman/Clark Kent/Lois Lane triangle. Then it will probably all wind up in a crossover that irons out the timelines in some new mess.

That is, if any of this is true.

I first heard of this over at Dixonverse and have been wondering whether to mention it here, as it’s rumor, but I thought I’d share the following.

See, I responded that the Superman books have been pretty-much-a-bad-mess for years due to the format, not the relative strengths or weaknesses of the creators. Even the best writers have been telling mediocre Superman stories, and I think the big problem is the rambling-cross-title soap opera format. Lex Luthor’s rise to the presidency, for example, is not a tale with an actual plot. It doesn’t have conflict, a rise towards a climax and then a conclusion…you know, actual story structure. It merely meanders around until Luthor wins. I’d make a Blair Witch joke here except that Blair Witch actually follows a proper story formula, however executed.

I’ve complained about the handling of President Luthor before, but now that I’ve read DC’s TPB on the subject I think even less of it. I also postulated a way that I would restructure the books so that they would be separate and make for better reading. But I included the caveat that it would only work if they were separate entities, instead of getting back into the soap opera at the first major opportunity for a crossover as they always seem to do. You can read more on all this here.

The funny thing is, Josh Elder said almost the exact same thing on his website. (Great minds and all that.)