This is something that I’ve wanted to share for quite some time, and it would have come earlier in the week, but I’d battled a nasty stomach bug for a good part of the week, and only now am I strong enough to get this blog finished and ready to share with you. Sometimes you just have to take care of yourself first, and that’s okay.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since the Christopher Reeve Legacy Reunion took place at the Motor City Comic Con in Detroit. And yet the memories are so thick, it’s like I was there yesterday.

The Legacy Reunion marked the first time since the 2015 WonderCon that a large assemblage of cast members from the Superman film series gathered together. And the 2022 Motor City Comic Con was the first time that a large comic con was held since the outbreak of Covid in the spring of 2020. So this was going to be a fascinating time for all.

I had first heard about the 2022 Motor City Comic Con from Jay Towers and Jim Bowers during a special broadcast of the CapedWonder Superman Podcast three months earlier, and what an announcement it was! There would be seven different actors and actresses from the Superman films all in one place. Sarah Douglas, Jack O’Halloran, Marc McClure, Aaron Smolinksi, Mark Pillow, Mariel Hemingway, and Damien McLawhorn – all in the same place. And joining them would be writer Robert Venditti and artist Wilfredo Torres, the creative duo behind the highly successful Superman ‘78 series. What a lineup indeed! And that was just for starters.

Somehow, something inside of me clicked. And I told myself, go. So I started working hard and saving my money for the trip. I worked as many overtime hours as I could to save for lodging, gasoline, food, admission to the convention, autographs from the actors, swag from the convention, and a photo opportunity with the cast. No credit cards. I’m sure a number of people had used their credit cards for numerous purposes that weekend, but not me. I was determined to pay for it all out of pocket and not worry about incurring any debt whatsoever for the convention.

One of the first things that would be a part of the Legacy Reunion was a special screening of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace at the Novi Theater close to the convention. I was determined to get there in time for the film. It would have been the first time since its release in 1987 that I would see the film on the big screen with an audience. At least that was the plan.

Apple Maps told me it would take me a little over ten hours to get from Alabama to Detroit. It took me thirteen hours and change because of slow traffic through Kentucky, and because of construction delays and a massive amount of 18-wheelers through Michigan on my way to Detroit. Ugh. It was like pulling teeth getting through all of that traffic. When I finally arrived at the Novi Theater, it was around 9:00 or 9:30 that evening. And the movie had ended. Ugh.

But it was there that I got to meet several fans and friends whom I had connected through Facebook and the CapedWonder Superman groups, and now we were together in the same place. Andrew Hanton and Martin Lakin had arrived from England for the convention. Ty Bjornson was there, along with Daniel Sanchez, one of the most prominent Superman cosplayers in the country. And Lynn Anderson, a fun wonderful lady who is also a Lois Lane cosplayer and who was friends with Christopher and Dana Reeve. And my friend Brad Day and his son Andrew had come all the way from the Gulf Coast in Mississippi. It had been four years since Brad and I had seen each other since the 2018 Superman Celebration in Metropolis, so it was wonderful to connect with him again.

But it turns out that I didn’t miss much where the film was concerned. It had been the 92-minute extended version, according to Ty. It would have been the first time that I would have seen the extended version on the big screen. Oh well, it happens. But I was able to see a recreation of the teaser trailer for The Goonies, another fan favorite Richard Donner film. There was also a special trailer for a fan re-edit of Far and Away, which combined theatrical footage and clips from the extended TV broadcast.

But afterwards I got to spend some time with Ty, Lynn, Daniel, Damien McLawhorn, and two other fans, Dave Santia and Frank Berman. Frank had with him the actual photomat prop of Clark Kent changing into Superman from Superman III. I have a 1-1 replica of that photo strip, but to see the actual screen-used prop, complete with the rip that Christopher Reeve made on screen in the film, was even more impressive.

If that Friday night was fun in and of itself, the real fun began the next day when I arrived at Motor City with Ty and Daniel. Right from the start the three of us bonded like we were old friends.

Once we arrived at the venue, the atmosphere was far beyond what I had imagined or even expected. Thousands of people in attendance to meet their favorite celebrities, comics artists and writers, and other fans. Booths as far as the eye could see with posters, comics, collectibles, you name it. And everywhere you turned, lots and lots of cosplayers from different films and television series. It wasn’t hard to spot a Darth Vader, a Lego Mandalorian, a Baby Yoda, numerous stormtroopers and Wookiees, and an assortment of droids. Of course, I spotted a fully functioning R2-D2, and I couldn’t help but feel like the boy who first saw Star Wars in a darkened theater with my parents back in 1977. I was that awestruck, I had to ask R2’s permission to have my picture taken with him. If you’re going to do it, do it right.

And then there were these cosplayers… see anything familiar?

And then there was this cosplayer… perhaps the most creative one of them all that was there!

And there were other celebrities there as well. Cary Elwes from The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights was there. (Side note: Cary Elwes was Marlon Brando’s assistant in March and April 1977 during his work on the two Superman films, so it would have been interesting to hear stories from him about working alongside Brando.) Alan Ritchson from Smallville and The Hunger Games. Alicia Silverstone from Clueless. Christopher Eccleston from Doctor Who and Thor: The Dark World. Danny Trejo, who made a memorable guest appearance as the rancor keeper in The Book of Boba Fett. Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Matthew Lillard from the Scooby-Doo movies. (Zoinks!) And that’s for starters.

But my focus was participating in the Christopher Reeve Legacy Reunion. To say that the meet and greet booth was huge is an understatement. It was the largest booth ever, and to accommodate seven actors and the Superman ‘78 creators was a big undertaking at that. And yet it all felt so close knit and maneuverable.

Of course, I also got to see my friend Jim Bowers again. We hadn’t seen each other since Metropolis in 2018, and even though we had texted and messaged and emailed each other and talked via Zoom for a couple of episodes of the podcast, it just wasn’t like being there with my friend. I first talked with Jim in 1997 through the Superman Cinema message boards, and that’s how our friendship began and continues to this day. He is as real and genuine and sincere in person as he is through all of the many forms of social media and instant messaging.

And then came meeting the actors. For a moment I felt awestruck because these were the actors and actresses who had all been on screen with Christopher Reeve for nearly ten years and across four films (five, if you count the Richard Donner Cut of Superman II). And yet these were real people, not larger than life except only on the big screen, giving of their time to meet the fans.

Marc McClure is, I would have to say, the most tenured of the actors who attended, having been in all of the Superman films and in the Supergirl spin-off film in 1984 (and even in an episode of Smallville). In one video on one of the Superman DVDs and one of the graphic novels he referred to Christopher Reeve as a teacher. He learned from Reeve’s example and has done his best to share those lessons with people to this day, just as all students become teachers and pass down their knowledge and experience to future generations.

Jack O’Halloran… what a ball of fun he was! He is a fascinating storyteller and has such vivid memories of his boxing days and how he got into the acting business. He loves the fans that much, and we just give the love right back to him.

Aaron Smolinksi is more than just an actor from Superman and Superman III, he is a friend. We have connected with each other on Facebook and have shared similar life experiences with each other, and we have talked about those experiences with each other. And he is an encouraging soul, giving such positive outlooks to others both in person and on social media. That’s how much of a good soul Aaron is.

If there’s a single word that I can use to describe Mark Pillow, that word is humble. Granted, Superman IV was his only film appearance, but he has great memories of working alongside Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman, even in the deleted scenes that appear on the DVD and Blu-ray. To this day he is thankful for the fans who remember him as the Nuclear Man. And believe me, he is as tall as I am, as tall as Reeve was.

What can I say about Mariel Hemingway? The granddaughter of the legendary writer Ernest Hemingway, who was Lacy Warfield in Superman IV, she is fun and bubbly and full of energy! You can’t help but love her! I shared with her how I’d read The Sun Also Rises back in school and how I hope to read it again soon. And she’s really tall, too!

Damian McLawhorn was also a great person to meet and talk with. This young man, whose character of Jeremy was the catalyst for the events of Superman IV, is also thankful for his fans, even though a significant portion of his work on the film was cut from the final release. Thankfully we have all of his scenes on the DVD and Blu-ray, and we see how he sees the world without borders.

I was excited to meet Robert Venditti and Wilfredo Torres as well. I shared with them about finding so many written and visual Easter eggs that I’d come across in Superman ‘78, and while Robert was the more quiet of the two, and that’s not a bad thing, Wilfredo was more open and communicative with the fans. He also had pages of his original artwork from the series, and I got a special Motor City copy of the first issue, which they both autographed for me.

But if there was one person among them all that I wanted to most meet, it was Sarah Douglas. I had originally planned to go to Metropolis in 2017 for the Superman Celebration where she and Margot Kidder were in attendance, and I’d wanted to meet them, but just a couple of weeks before the celebration, I lost my mom after a nine-year downhill struggle with Alzheimer’s disease that ultimately claimed her life. All of a sudden, the money that I’d set aside for Metropolis was now spent in returning to my home state of Mississippi for fuel, gas, and lodging that weekend for her memorial service, and that left me with no choice but to cancel going to Metropolis that year. I simply had no means to get there. I shared my story with Sarah, and she was so supportive of me and held my hand in our conversation because she had gone through a similar experience in losing her mom too. Sarah is warm and genuine, a beautiful soul, so unlike her extremely memorable character of Ursa.

And yet there was one other celebrity there in Detroit that I had wanted to meet about as much as the Superman cast members. I had worked so hard to get there and saved my money—about a thousand dollars altogether—that I got my dream shot. This would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I got it. The icon who has been there, done it all, even to outer space and back, and still keeps going. I hope to be as active at 92 as he is.

In addition to my Superman IV print, I asked the actors to sign my copy of Jim’s beautiful coffee table book Superman: The Richard Donner Years—A Photographic Journey, to which I had contributed written content. In addition to the actors, I got Jim to sign it, along with Ty, Daniel, Lynn, Brad, and several others as well. Before long, everyone was getting their copies signed by everyone all around, too. It was like getting your high school or college yearbook signed, because this was a special occasion for us all. This was all about making memories.

Afterwards we attended a special Legacy Reunion panel with all the actors and actresses, and each one shared their memories and experiences of working on the Superman films and alongside Christopher Reeve. A special video was played, with greetings from Will Reeve and Jon Cryer (Lenny from Superman IV), and they offered their thanks and support for the fans in keeping the legacy alive all of these years later.

Later on that day I participated in a photo session with the cast members. The photographer said that I could have a couple of people join me for the photo shoot, and I could think of nobody better to join me than Jim and Jay.

That evening a number of us went to a local pizzeria for authentic Motor City deep dish pizza and antipasto salad. A week earlier I had gotten a frozen Motor City deep dish pizza from a local grocery store to prepare me for this trip, but nothing, and I mean nothing, was like the real thing. Along the way one of us in the group, I want to say it was Mike LaMere, I forget, suggested pulling a practical joke on Jay Towers and charging up a thousand dollars of drinks and sending him the bill! It was all in good fun, and we had a blast together.

Sunday morning came, and I had heard from Ty and Daniel that everyone was going to get together for one last blast and a group photo before we left Detroit. It allowed me to get some more swag while I was there. Two Star Wars posters and a Superman II poster for my office. Sold!

And there was some fun moments with Daniel. At one point he wrestled a T-Rex, something that was right out of a Superman comic. Everyone could not resist seeing this showdown!

And then Daniel and Lynn, or should I say Lois Lynn, recreated one of the most iconic moments from Superman: The Movie. All that was missing was the classic John Williams music.

Then we all came together for one final group shot. Actors, organizers, and fans alike. This was the moment that for a number of us like me marked the end of a most memorable weekend. Nobody wanted it to end. Nobody ever wants an experience like this to end.

We have stayed in touch with one another since then through texts, messages, emails, and Facebook. To this day we are there for each other in our own corners of this world. But nothing will ever compare to that weekend we shared together in Detroit.

More than friends… more than fans…