Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter

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"Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter" is a comic book story by Kyle Baker, co-written with Liz Glass. It originally appeared in DC Comics' Elseworlds 80-page Giant #1 in June 1999, but the story, which included a baby Superman crawling into a microwave oven and drinking milk directly from a cow, was deemed too offensive by DC president Paul Levitz, and the issue was pulped. However, around 2,000 copies of the issue had already been shipped to the UK, and the book quickly became a highly sought after collector's item.

"Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter" earned Kyle Baker two 2000 Eisner Awards: For Best Short Story and for Best Writer/Artist - Humor. In his acceptance speech for the award, Baker ironically thanked Paul Levitz, "without whom none of this would have happened."^[1]

In May 2001 the story was finally reprinted in the Bizarro Comics hardcover (ISBN 1-56389-779-2) and for the first time available to a wider audience. In April 2003 a softcover edition of Bizarro Comics (ISBN 1-56389-958-2) followed. Later, Baker used Letitia Lerner in an issue of Plastic Man, although she appeared only in an alternate universe.

The name Letitia Lerner is an obvious nod to other Superman characters with double L initials such as Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Lana Lang, Lori Lemaris, Luma Lynai, Lyla Lerrol and Linda Lee.

The story from the 2005 Pixar short "Jack-Jack Attack" was heavily inspired by "Letitia Lerner, Superman's Babysitter".^{[citation needed]}

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