1. Superman: The Man of Steel
Author: Andrew Helfer
Illustrator: José Delbo
First Published: June, 1983 (American edition), 1985 (British edition)
ISBN: 0-671-47463-4 (American white cover), 0-552-52256-2 (British white cover), 0-671-64332-0 (blue cover)
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 38
Plot Summary: Superman battles some familiar foes and explores an alien
world.
My Thoughts: The third-person narration is somewhat annoying, but this
isn't too bad a gamebook. Apparently it wasn't nearly as successful as
the publishers had hoped, however; this book, the first in the Super
Heroes Which Way series, lists Wonder Woman, Justice League
of America, and Batman as forthcoming books. As far as I can
tell, only two of these three books ever happened, and Batman didn't
come out until three years later.
2. Supergirl: The Girl of Steel
Author: Andrew Helfer
Illustrator: José Delbo
First Published: July, 1984
ISBN: 0-671-47566-5
Length: 118 pages
Number of Endings: 47
Plot Summary: Supergirl hears a strange sound and wanders into typical
superhero adventures.
My Thoughts: There's a Wizard of Oz plotline in here which seems kind of
strange, but otherwise this is a pretty unexceptional gamebook.
3. Justice League of America
Author: Robert Loren Fleming
Illustrator: José Delbo
First Published: 1984
ISBN: 0-552-52257-0 (British edition)
Length: 119 pages
Number of Endings: 45
Plot Summary: It seems like everything's going wrong at once;
supervillains are simultaneously attacking Metropolis with giant bugs and
hijacking the space shuttle Columbia!
My Thoughts: This rather minimalistically-written adventure allows
the reader to follow the adventures of various members of the Justice League
of America, all of which are full of the usual comic book silliness. It's
really remarkably uninteresting, though the way all of the separate plot
lines come together into one climactic battle is a fairly interesting bit of
design work.
4. Batman: The Doomsday Prophecy
Author: Richard Wenk
Illustrator: José Delbo
First Published: August, 1986
ISBN: 0-671-68312-8
Length: 119 pages
Number of Endings: 51
Plot Summary: When the Bat Signal projects a death's head over Gotham
City, Batman knows something is wrong...
My Thoughts: This book certainly has a lot of endings, but it's no better
than the other books in this little series. Although no number appears on
it anywhere, this was the fourth and final Which Way Super Powers book,
and it came out not long before its parent series
was also discontinued.