Superman Week — Revisiting ‘Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle’

Welcome to the table,

 

It’s Superman Week here at Comicon.com, and that means we are covering all things Superman. While my talented colleagues are covering amazing offerings in the mainstream universe and the new film by James Gunn, I am out here in the long boxes digging out stories of Superman that I remember really enjoying as someone who preferred his “Man of Tomorrow” stories to be a little less… traditional.

With that, let’s get into Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle.

A quick aside before we get too deep. In my early 20s, I took a trip to Europe with friends. We traveled to a few places, but upon arriving in Brussels, I found myself almost immediately at the Brussels Comic Art Museum. To this day, I don’t think I have been to a more magical place. It could be memory conflating it with space and time, but the gift shop of this museum was a cross between the library from Beauty & The Beast and some kind of magical comic archive with full art hardback comics and artist editions as far as the eye could see. There was also a phenomenal little comic shop across the street and up a ways that looked like one of those designer handbag stores you see in movies, but they sold comics.

I left the majority of my clothes in Brussels, stuffing my suitcase with graphic novels and comics. The majority of these books were volumes of Blacksad, Humberto Ramos‘s Revelations, and Carlos Meglia‘s Canāri. I was fascinated by Meglia’s lines and fluid art style, having seen it in a series from Wildstorm called Monster World and wanting more of it wherever I could find it.

As someone who was pretty adverse to superhero, or as I called them “cape” books at the point in my life where Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle came out, the art of Meglia and it being a Tarzan story that hearkened back to Superman Annual #6 (see my Superman Week retro-review from earlier this week true believers!) I knew I had to pick it up.

The first issue of this three-issue series kicks off with a Mutiny where pirates take over the Fuwalda. Lord and Lady Clayton are among the members of the crew that the pirates now in control of the ship are planning to set adrift near an African beach. The reason they do not outright plan on killing the Claytons is that Lady Clayton is pregnant, and even though they are pirates, they have some shred of honor.

As is the nature of such stories, the Lord and Lady Clayton beg to be kept on board and returned to a port near civilization. The lead pirate tells them to pray to their god for salvation, and as if on cue, a shooting star rockets through the sky and crashes in the jungle landscape on the beach nearby. The pirates see this as a sign and take the Clayton away rather than setting them adrift.

This is our first alteration to the general story of Tarzan, as these two nobles, adrift and left stranded in the jungles of Africa in most tellings of the tale, would become the human parents of a baby born in this dangerous landscape. They would be slain by a jungle cat, and the baby would be raised by apes to grow into the man who would become Tarzan.

However, this is a Superman story as well, and that shooting star contained a blue-eyed baby who is found by the apes Kerchak and Kala. Kerchak wants to kill the baby, but Kala wants to raise him as she has recently lost a child. As they argue, this toddling infant rips the fingernail off Kerchak, displaying superhuman strength, and Kerchak reluctantly gives the baby to Kala to raise.

A baby is born to the Graystokes and named John, and we time jump ten or so years to the jungle where a panther kills Kala in front of a now grown-up man-child they have named Argo-Zan.

Argo-Zan wrecks the panther, and as he is mourning his loss, Kerchak tells him he was found and is unwanted. Argo-Zan runs off and finds a cool space pod in the trees, honestly, the coolest version of the Kryptonian baby pod I have ever seen.

Argo-Zan stumbles upon a hologram message from his actual birth parents, who tell him his world is ending and he is the sole survivor. They tell him his birth name is Kal-El, and the pod is full of knowledge from his world, and he should study it and become enlightened.

While Argo-Zan now Kal-El begins his studies, we jump over to England, where John is struggling to keep up in school. It’s not because he is unintelligent; it’s because he just does not feel like he fits into the world he is in.

His father, Lord Clayton, is upset because John seems to be too much of a dreamer and is worried he is going to ruin the family name, as he is not locked into nobility.

The first issue wraps up with Argo-Zan now Kal-El encountering a group of native African human hunters and making his presence known to them, an act that shocks them, as I assume, they have not seen a levitating white man in the dense jungle with perfect hair and teeth and a loincloth before.

Issue two kicks off with the hunters trying to kill Argo-Zan now Kal-El, an absolutely logical response to the thing that just came out of the jungle at them. I would 100% think it was some kind of horrible monster and want to defend myself from it. I mean, these people have to deal with jungle cats and vipers and all manner of things that will kill them with tooth and claw. This floating white guy dressed in animal pelts with hair like some kind of liquid shadow given form is easily the most worrying thing they have seen in a while, so trying to shoot it full of arrows and ask questions later is an understandable reaction.

Argo-Zan now Kal-El has that Kryptonian DNA, though, and the arrows don’t do anything to him aside from frustrating him as he just wants to be friends.

Our man Argo-Zan now Kal-El, is sad and explains that to his monkey friend as he sulks in the jungle near his baby space pod. The story, in an unhinged and delightful mood, because if you have not gathered at this point, I love comic book nonsense when it is unafraid to just be nonsense, jumps to the American Southwest, where John Greystoke is hanging out with his friends being a cowboy.

Why? I have no idea. It seems John is traveling the world with his companions, trying to find himself, but this random page we spent in the American Southwest could have worked in almost any setting. Nevertheless, it’s fun and looks cool, but mostly serves as an exposition dump of John lamenting on his wanderlust and feeling of not having a real, true connection to any place he has been yet.

We jump back to Africa, where a massive alligator is about to eat a baby. Kal-El drags it into the river and kills it, saving the baby, and the locals think maybe Kal-El is a devil trying to lull them into a false sense of security, or maybe he really is a cool guy.

Kal-El’s monkey friend tells him stars have fallen, and when they go to look, the glowing green stones make Kal-El very sick. An ape in the shadows sees the rock, makes Kal-El sick, and takes it after Kal-El  and his monkey pal leave.

John shows up in a hunting club, talks about Africa, and then we get some very caveman-looking individuals who throw a spear at the ape who took the glowing green rock. The caveman-looking individuals take the glowing green rock to their leader, a very pin-up style woman named Princess La, and the issue draws to a close.

As an aside, the page above is one of my favorite comic pages of all time. It feels so weird and pulpy, and I love the way Carlos Meglia does hair and anatomy.

We kick off issue #3 with the ape chained up speaking in ape to Princess La about the stone being able to weaken Argo-Zan now Kal-El. She is all about this and wants her gem crafters to come make something out of the stone for her.

We jump to Air-ships… because of course we do!

I love the introduction of air-ships because we have a lady who has a kingdom of cave-men, a flying alien space baby, and a princess who can speak ape. Nothing has to make sense, nothing has to be grounded in reality, because the world is mixed up and weird and 100% fun, and this is the kind of weird, unhinged story that brings me joy.

I don’t need explanations, I just want a story that keeps me locked in. Maybe that says more about me than I am willing to unpack, but if you just drop in airships and people who can talk to animals without explaining to me why those things exist, I am going to go along with it. The second you try and give me a backstory, my brain kicks in and I need it to be locked in and world building needs to be on point, but if you just roll with it fast and loose, I am here for it and absolutely delighted.

We get introduced to Jane and Lois Lane, because, of course, we do! They have amazing style and I love them so much. I wish this book could have been 100 or more issues, truth be told, because I adore this strange cross-world thing that is happening within these pages.

Kal-El and his new friends, thanks to all his baby-saving and such, see the airship and freak out. He thinks they are Kryptonians, as they are in the sky, his friends think they are some kind of evil bird. The cave-man people, however, see the airship as well and attack it with a catapult with a flaming stone, causing it to crash.

Why do these cavemen have access to medieval technology, and how can they produce powerful springs and delicate gears to build one in a jungle? Who knows? Who cares? Comic books!

The airship crashes, Lois and Jane are separated, and John runs off to find them. The cavemen, of course, capture Lois and Jane and bring them before Princess L.

Kal-El shows up in his baby blanket looking like an unhinged mess and but is quickly weakened and subdued by Princess L and her newly found glowing green rock. Princess L wants him to marry her and is planning on killing him if he does not agree to her proposal. 

John shows up at Princess L’s stronghold, and the chained ape calls him “Tarzan,” a term in Ape that means “white skin,” and off we go to a quick rescue where the ape, now freed by John, and John kick over a massive statue, knocking the green stone tipped staff out of Princess L’s hand and freeing Kal-El from her clutches.

Kal-El wrecks house, and Lois Lane, Kal-El, Jane, and John all escape with the ape somehow serving as John’s new guide.

Lois and Kal-El pair up in a truly “horny on main way” and Jane and John stay in the jungle because John feels more at home there.

We then get treated to this final page of the three-issue run where John now Tarzan, and Jane are hanging out in the jungle with a baby monkey, and Kal-El is flying around in Metropolis with Lois Lane in a rad-looking suit.

I mean… this is why I show up at the comic shop, friends.

Until next time, Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle is one of those absolutely unhinged pulp romps that borrows from the great works of Burroughs and Siegel, passes it through the lense of unbridled high adventure, disregards logic and pacing any time it does not serve the story and delivers one of the most enjoyable, visually stunning pieces of comic mythos I have ever put eyes on. I can not emphasize to you enough, dear reader, go find this story and enjoy it.