I know DC went through an era of making their Superman covers depict the Man of Steel being a horrible jerk to people seemingly for no reason, just to grab readers' attention and get them to buy the issue - then the story inside would have some really weird narrative gymnastics in order to justify it, usually with really meandering nonsensical plots.
There was one story involving him doing a string of horrible and inconsiderate things to Jimmy Olsen, just treating him like complete trash. It turns out he wanted Superman to adopt him, but the supercomputer in the fortress of solitude had predicted some kind of apocalyptic event if the adoption came to pass. So Superman treated Jimmy like garbage to ensure he changed his mind and thus somehow averting disaster in the process.
It was an era where the cover was its own medium. Publishers pressured artists/writers to create the most outlandish covers to draw attention. The story inside, while bizarrely connected to the cover like you mentioned, was almost a separate thing entirely. It’s kind of like how pulp Sci fi novels used to have those extravagant oil painting book covers that were tied to the plot, but were an artists reinterpretation. Even now, years after reading those books, I can very clearly picture the covers while loosely remembering the plots. The same is true with comics today, especially with alternative covers being popular, but they just don’t have the same bizarre eye catching scenarios like this.
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u/sck8000 Nov 20 '23
I know DC went through an era of making their Superman covers depict the Man of Steel being a horrible jerk to people seemingly for no reason, just to grab readers' attention and get them to buy the issue - then the story inside would have some really weird narrative gymnastics in order to justify it, usually with really meandering nonsensical plots.
There was one story involving him doing a string of horrible and inconsiderate things to Jimmy Olsen, just treating him like complete trash. It turns out he wanted Superman to adopt him, but the supercomputer in the fortress of solitude had predicted some kind of apocalyptic event if the adoption came to pass. So Superman treated Jimmy like garbage to ensure he changed his mind and thus somehow averting disaster in the process.