Superman Annual #11 – “For the Man Who Has Everything” – Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons
This one starts with a weird prologue of Kal-El living on Krypton, working as a scientist, and celebrating his birthday with his family … including his wife (Lyla) and kids. The story moves to Earth, where Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman arrive at the Fortress of Solitude to celebrate Superman’s birthday. This is Jason’s first trip to the Fortress, and his first time meeting Wonder Woman; hard to say which he’s more impressed by. When the trio get inside, they find Superman with a weird bouquet of flowers attached to his chest. He’s in some kind of catatonic trance. Judging by the wrapping paper on the floor, the flower was a “gift” that attached
itself to superman, growing right into his body somehow. They don’t dare remove it and Batman figures (from Superman’s life signs) that his body is here but his mind is elsewhere. That explains the “Kal-El on Krypton” stuff we saw earlier. We get more of that, finding out Kal and his father Jor-El don’t see eye to eye. Jor-El was kicked off the science council years ago for wrongly predicting that Krypton was going to explode and now he’s very bitter. Jor-El has joined something called the Old Krypton movement, that wants to turn the clock back to when Krypton was more warlike. He’s also palling around with a guy named Lor-Em, the leader of a sect called the Sword of Rao. Kal doesn’t like it, but 
his father is too stubborn to change, and is disappointed that Kal isn’t a great scientist, just an archaeologist who digs through the Kandor Crater looking for relics. Back in the real world, Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman speculate about the deadly “gift” someone sent Superman, figuring it probably came via space teleporter. Their guesses are confirmed when Mongul shows up and admits he sent the flower, which is called a Black Mercy. It attaches itself to a host, reads their mind, and provides whatever the host desires most. The hosts can break free from the fantasy if they try, but why would they when they’re living out their fondest wish? Wonder Woman takes Mongul on, but he’s a hell of a lot tougher than she expected. In Superman’s fantasy, things aren’t
quite perfect; his cousin Kara is beaten by some anti-Phantom Zone campaigners (who hate the House of El, since Jor-El invented the Phantom Zone). Kal decides he should get his family out of town, but while he and his son Van are heading out, they run into a rally of Old Krypton supporters. In reality, Wonder Woman tries to take Mongul down, but he kicks the shit out of her, leaving Batman and robin to try and get through to Superman. In Superman’s dream, Jor-El is leading the Old Krypton rally and his speech about the world ending and the need to go back to the old ways starts a riot. Kal takes Van out to the Kandor Crater and tells his son he doesn’t think he’s real. As Kal watches his son disappear 
before his eyes, Superman starts crying in the real world and Batman realizes he’s coming around. He grabs the Black Mercy (not using the protective gauntlets Mongul used when he touched the plant) and it comes off Superman, but attaches itself to Batman. The Black Mercy gives Batman his fondest wish, that his parents weren’t killed when he was a kid. Superman freaks out and goes after Mongul, while Robin uses the gauntlets to try and get the Black Mercy off Batman. Superman is so pissed off he goes wild on Mongul, but still can’t really hurt him, so they just knock each other around a bit. Robin pulls the Black Mercy
off Batman, stuffing it into one of the gauntlets. He tracks down Mongul and throws the Black Mercy onto his chest, giving Mongul his fondest wish … that he kills Superman and becomes the ruler of the universe. Superman plans to drop the catatonic Mongul into a black hole to keep him out of the way. Batman and Wonder Woman give Superman his presents and wish him a happy birthday.
DC Comics Presents Annual #4 – “Welcome to Luthorcon III” – Elliot S! Maggin/Eduardo Barreto/Jerry Ordway
This one starts in the year 2865 with Kristin Wells (aka Superwoman, who we met in DC Presents Annual 2) being celebrated by the public. But Kristin feels like a bit of a fraud; history records that she travelled back to the 20th Century and did all sorts of heroic deeds, but so far she’s only had one 20th Century adventure. Kristin decides to get a time-travel visa and go back through the centuries to embrace her destiny as a hero. (In case you’re wondering, the women of the 29th Century still dress pretty sexy, but the men dress normally.) In the 20th Century, Superman saves
Greg Reed (the lookalike actor who plays Superman in the movies) from a car accident, but since Greg is laid up in hospital, Superman decides to take his place at a convention Greg was supposed to attend. So Superman is pretending to be the guy who makes a living pretending to be Superman … got all that? As for Kristin, she arrives in the 20th Century, but something went wrong during her time jaunt and she can’t remember who she is or why she came. She doesn’t seem too freaked out by being in a different time (or the fact that she’s walking around dressed like Dale Bozzio), but she is fascinated when she 
finds the Superwoman costume in her satchel. Superman arrives at Luthorcon (a convention celebrating Luthor, ironically I assume, where Superman is considered the “villain”) and meets the three directors, who all look like Luthor … even though one of them is a woman. We also see the real Luthor is watching the convention remotely and planning something nefarious. Meanwhile, some kid notices Kristin’s funky outfit and tells her she should be at Luthorcon. She makes quite a splash in her Superwoman costume and a few memories come back, including some slang that’s unfortunately a couple decades out of style. When she notices some green kryptonite, she wonders about it but
a food vendor assures her it’s fake, since all kryptonite on Earth was turned inert years ago. But apparently a piece of Lexor (the planet once ruled by Luthor) landed on Earth with some intact kryptonite, and the vendor just happens to have some inside his cart. It’s close enough for Clark Kent to be affected, but he recovers when the vendor leaves. Kristin vaguely recalls Clark, but still can’t remember who she is. The “vendor” takes the green kryptonite from his cart and removes a mask, before knocking Kristin out when she wanders by. At least, he tries to knock her out, but her super-powers keep her 
conscious. That surprises her, so obviously she doesn’t remember her powers either. Later, Superman saves a ship and an errant whale in Metropolis harbour while Superwoman watches. In the 29th Century, Kristin’s boyfriend finds out she hit a time vortex on her way back in time and lost her memory, but the guy who sent her says they’ll just have to wait until her memory returns in the past … though he doesn’t know how long that’ll take. In the 20th Century, Superman appears at Luthorcon pretending to be attacked by the three fake Luthors, but the kryptonite they’re using is real. Superman keels over and tries to tell them what’s happening, but everyone
just assumes he’s Greg Reed acting up a storm. While that’s happening, Luthor is putting his big plan into motion. Kristin decides she should be wearing her Superwoman costume and when she stops some bank robbers (using her decorporealizing power and her ability to create space warps), it brings back some more memories. When she arrives at Luthorcon and sees Superman near death, she tosses the kryptonite through a warp to save him. The organizers realize what’s going on as Superman and Kristin take off. Outside, Luthor has a bunch of flying energy projectors and threatens to destroy the city if Superman doesn’t go back and expose himself to the kryptonite again. 
Luthor demonstrates by disintegrating a bridge, which Superman and Kristin fix. Kristin’s memory finally returns and she tells Superman to play along with Luthor because she knows what’s going to happen in exactly 43 seconds. Superman stalls for time and Kristin tosses him a chunk of fake kryptonite, which pisses Luthor off enough to start blasting Metropolis. Thanks to Kristin’s warp powers, nobody is killed and the destruction is all reversed through some kind of time storm. Later, Superman takes Superwoman to meet Greg in hospital. There’s an epilogue set in the 29th Century with Kristin’s boyfriend talking about her adventures in the past and how she disappeared after years of being a superhero. Kristin shows up and he’s thrilled to see
her and to hear of her fantastic adventures in the past. The way it reads, it sounds like this was Maggin’s way of asking fans to petition DC for a regular Superwoman feature, which never happened because Crisis removed Superwoman from continuity. Would she have gotten her own comic if Crisis hadn’t been going on at the time? It’s possible, but my gut says no; they already had Supergirl as a distaff Superman, so why would they bother with Superwoman?