Superman returns to Metropolis after the events of "Bizarro's World" and finds that... there's no Metropolis. It's completely gone. Did someone pull a Coast City on it? Is Brainiac back to his Pre-Crisis city-stealing ways? Superman flies down to take a closer look at the nothignness, only for the buildings to suddenly re-appear right in front of him, making him clumsily crash into one. And right in front of some hot ‘90s babes, too. How embarrassing.
Turns out Metropolis wasn't gone: Superman's powers are so out of control (as seen in recent months) that he didn't realize his X-Ray vision was making him see through the entire city. Superman tries to rescue the people falling off that building with the old "air cushion" trick, but he ends up creating a mini-tornado and injures more people. When Maggie Sawyer and the Special Crimes Unit show up to find out who's been going around destroying buildings and injuring pedestrians, Superman volunteers to be arrested for everyone’s safety, but Maggie is like "eh, let's just pretend this didn't happen... this time."
She does encourage Superman to go get his condition checked out by a specialist ASAP (which, come to think of it, he should have done weeks ago). Superman goes to Professor Hamilton, who determines that his internal solar battery has gone out of whack and is making him absorb too much energy after being exposed to some sort of kryptonite-like substance. And when was the last time Superman encountered kryptonite? At the end of "Reign of the Supermen," when a big blast of it passed through the Eradicator first and instantly gave Superman his powers back. "A bit of foreshadowing," as the Professor says.
According to Hamilton, Superman's powers will keep increasing until his body can't contain them anymore and, I guess, explode. The Professor does suggest a possible solution: taking Superman's excess energy and giving it to those sick Underworld clones who have been dying off all over Metropolis (as part of that OTHER long-ass storyline we've been seeing recently). Superman likes the idea but decides that a massive government agency would be better equipped to make it happen than some ex-con in a run down building (sorry, Hambone), so he flies over to Project Cadmus to tell them about it.
Like two minutes after Superman arrives at Cadmus, the place is attacked by some Underworlders who believe Cadmus created the illness that's killing them. Superman and the Guardian team up to stop the clones, but it isn't a terribly long fight, since the Underworlders are dropping off like flies. Very big flies.
Meanwhile, we find out that LexCorp is currently being attacked by OTHER clones and Lex Luthor Jr. is trapped inside. Lex sends a televised message blaming Cadmus for the attack and promising to "deal" with them "once and for all." In other words: WAR. TO BE CONTINUED!
Plotline-Watch:
Of course, those clones attacking LexCorp weren't sent by Cadmus, they were sent by the mad scientist living UNDER Cadmus, Dabney Donovan. Earlier in the issue, Dabney snooped into a heated Zoom call between Lex Jr. and Cadmus' Director Westfield where the latter refused to join forces to cure the Clone Plague, because he thinks Lex would just steal their tech. Lex indignantly accuses Westfield of putting lives at stake (meaning HIS life specifically, since he secretly lives in a clone body). Dabney worries that Lex might attack Cadmus and thus endanger his own operation, so he... attacks Lex and makes it look like it was Cadmus? They don't call him "mad" for nothing.
Westfield's comment about Kryptonian DNA is obviously a reference to Cadmus' troubles attempting to clone Superman after his death, which resulted in them giving up and creating Superboy. Incidentally, Superman asks Guardian how Superboy is doing, given the whole “clones dying” thing (the Newsboy Legion kids are in pretty bad shape), and Guardian just says he's "been through a lot lately." In other words: buy his solo series if you want to know if he's dying too, kids!
Back to Lex, he instructs Dr. Happersen (still wearing bandages over his head after Bizarro burned him) to contact the Underworlders, presumably with nefarious purposes. In the same scene, we learn that Lex has a virus in LexCorp computers that alerts him to any mention of his name. And guess who happens to be using a LexCorp computer to write an article about how Lex murdered his personal trainer?
We've been following Lois Lane's investigation into the Sasha Green murder for a while, but I'm a little confused about the "father" part above. Does that mean Lois knows Lex Jr. is Lex Sr.? When did she find out? Did she put two and two together after learning clones are getting sick and seeing Lex all frail last issue?
Don Sparrow points out: "As far as I know, this issue's billboard is the first appearance of Whitty Banter, the David Letterman of the DCU. It's a confusing look, though, as he seems to be a blonde, musclebound Billy Batson lookalike, with John Lennon glasses, so apart from having a talk show, he doesn’t greatly resemble any real world hosts. (A quick look into it indicates Banter’s first in-person appearance is a few years later, in Superman #117. He also appears in Man of Steel #67, where the Letterman connection is made more explicit, though Banter’s face doesn’t appear in either issue.)” As we pointed out on Twitter, there was also a reference to Whitty in the letters page for Adventures #511, in answer to a letter praising his real life counterpart, colorist Glenn Whitmore.
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This post was sneak peek’d at patreon.com/superman86to99 earlier this month! Shout out to patrons Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, and Bol; we are the Dabney Donovans leeching off of your Cadmus. We’ve been slacking on the exclusive Patreon material lately (other than the sneak peeks) but we hope to have more to show you in the next year, including more Elseworlds reviews and out-of-continuity stuff.
But right now: more Don Sparrow, under the jump!
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
We start with the cover, and it’s a very good one, with a grim Superman and Guardian ready for battle. Perhaps a little generic, and lacking in background, but it’s just a great drawing of the protectors of Metropolis, even if it doesn’t give much of a hint to the actual story. Inside the book we are greeted almost immediately by the real reason people check in on this blog each and every week: wall to wall ass. Superman crashes through a skyscraper Zack Snyder style while a diverse group of sunbathers look on. This is fairly racy for a code book from 1994, so it’s worth a mention.
I love Barry Kitson’s art (even if the Jim Lee-style hatching is a bit overpowering at this time) so it’s a challenge to narrow down outstanding panels, because it’s all pretty great. But the drawing of Maggie Sawyer in full tactical gear is a highlight, as her boots, body suit, and armour all appear to have a different surface texture. Great stuff. There is lots of laboratory scenes in this issue, from Professor Hamilton’s studio apartment to Project Cadmus, and all the technical equipment and wires look appropriately high-tech.
As the only action scene (Superman and Guardian battle a dying and apparently nameless Underworlder) unfolds, the image of Guardian shielding himself from an energy blast is well drawn and well coloured.
That scene is as close to we get to excitement in this story, which was definitely one of the less eventful issues I can remember. It moves the ongoing “B” stories (Superman is overpowered, Lois is investigating Sasha Green, the clones are all dying) without having much of an “A” story. Still there’s always forward motion in this era, setting up for the next big thing.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
The idea that Lex is monitoring Lois Lane, and is in turn being monitored by Dabney Donovan is a trippy one, especially if we add in the layer that we, as readers are monitoring them all. One small detail I’d like to highlight here is that Dabney Donovan refers to himself while he monologues, which is quite helpful to new readers, who might be thinking, “who is this guy, and why isn’t he fighting a blue hedgehog?”
Speaking of DCU analogues, apparently one of their daytime dramas is called Secret Hospital which sounds a lot more exclusive than our General Hospital.
I do love that for all his many sins, Lex II is about to be brought down by journalism, rather than superheroic fisticuffs.
The attacking Underworlder (if he got named, I missed it) seems like a riff on the Incredible Hulk, referring to the Cadmus agents he’s fighting as “puny soldiers”.
Slightly amusing to me that the Underworlder attacker refers to Newsboys and Superboy as “dogs on a leash”, when Cadmus once had their own strike team flat out called the Bloodhounds (who are currently chilling with Doctor Stratos in the “never seen again” lounge). [Max: Actually, someone let us know recently that Doctor Stratos DID appear again in a Roger Stern Superman novel in the 2000s, to my shock... What if the Bloodhounds also have a novel we never learned of? Or an entire YA book series? It’s possible.]
DC Retroactive: Superman - The '90s (October 2011)
Wait, why are we talking about a comic from 2011 if the blog is still in 1994?! Because this was part of DC's “Retroactive” event, where they brought back iconic creators from various eras to do new issues retroactively set in the middle of their old series. This one happens to be (roughly) set in the time period we're covering in the blog, so we couldn’t let it pass.
More specifically, this story takes place during the time when Lex Luthor Jr. is losing his hair (and also his mind) due to the "clone plague" hitting Metropolis. Literally, a deadly plague that only affects clones. And since "Lex Jr." is actually Lex Sr. in an enhanced clone body, he's getting it pretty bad.
Lex is jealous of Superman's media attention and impressive hair (we're smack dab in the middle of the Mullet Era, after all), so he pulls out an ace he's been keeping under his sleeve for quite some time: a new and improved version of "Cruiser," the gigantic tapeworm that attacked Metropolis back in 1992's Man of Steel #12. (Yes, this comic picks up on a 19-year-old plotline.) This new Cruiser was created by genetically modifying an egg left by the original one, which begs the question: do Cruisers reproduce asexually, or are there a whole bunch of giant worms getting it on deep under Metropolis? Maybe we'll get an answer in another follow-up issue in 2030.
Anyway, Superman spends most of the issue dealing with some strange earthquakes around Metropolis, which turn out to be caused by Lex maniacally remote-controlling Cruiser 2 as it burrows under the city. Superman is able to prevent the monster from destroying the orphanage where his unlucky little pal Keith lives, but just being in contact with the toxic slime secreted by the bug for 20 seconds leaves him in pretty bad shape... and bald, to Lex's delight.
But Lex's victory doesn't last too long, because he ends up losing control of Cruiser 2 as it heads towards LexCorp. Superman manages to stop the monster right before it hits Lex’s building, but he realizes he can't throw this Cruiser into space like he did with the original one because the toxic slime would drip down and probably kill some people (or at the very least make them bald... wait, was that Lex's plan all along?). So, he does the opposite: pushing it through the Earth's crust into the magma below, which is a reminder that Superman is actually okay with killing if you're ugly and destructive enough. See: Doomsday.
Speaking of which, Lex is pretty sure Superman died since he's taking so long to come back from the center of the Earth, but once again he's celebrating too early.
The issue ends with Lois Lane telling Superman that she did some digging and figured out that Lex Jr. was behind Cruiser 2 because it targeted buildings LexCorp had been trying to buy via dummy corporations to build luxury high rises. And if there's one thing Lex Luthor loves, that's a real estate scam.
Character-Watch:
This issue is pretty special to me since I believe I might be responsible for one of its many cameos! When this was first announced in 2011, I told Jon Bogdanove on Twitter "Hope we see the return of Dragon Lady and/or Mildred Krantz." At the time, Mildred (the middle-aged waitress who gained Professor Hamilton's heart) hadn't appeared in a comic in almost 20 years... I think. I'm actually not sure how long it had been since she last showed up, because this blog seems to be the only website tracking all of her appearances and we're not done yet. And hey, who is that fine lady with the funky glasses visiting the Daily Planet offices?
Bog enthusiastically confirmed to me on Twitter that that's indeed Mildred. You're welcome, Krantz-fans! It’s worth noting that two other characters in the panel up there (and in a subsequent staff meeting) also hadn’t appeared since the ‘90s: Daily Planet publisher Franklin Stern and reporter Fran Johnson (EDIT: thanks to our patron Bheki Latha for informing me that Fran does have a last name!). Ron Troupe is also there but he’s lucky because he was designated as the Planet’s token black guy at one point, so he has continued appearing over the years.
And, yes, of course Bibbo shows up elsewhere in the issue -- it wouldn’t be a ‘90s Superman comic without him. He’s seen feeding some people who had to be evacuated from the subway via a mobile version of his Ace O’ Clubs bar (I hope that’s not a mug of hot beer he’s handing Lois there).
Plotline-Watch:
Placing this issue in the continuity is tricky: it obviously takes place after the fight with Lobo in Man of Steel #30 (since we see newspaper stories about it), and therefore also after Superman came back to Earth from his mini space adventure with Lobo, which happened in Man of Steel #31. HOWEVER, Lois Lane's hobo friend Charlie dies in MOS #31, yet he's very much alive in this issue. That could mean this story takes place between the pages of #31, but Lex Luthor's hair contradicts that: on the last page of that issue we learn that he's just starting to go bald, and at the start of this one he already looks like a monk. The only logical explanation is that Lex started wearing a wig after this story, or maybe got some hair plugs that fell off within a few weeks.
Lex's characterization itself is also somewhat inconsistent: in this story he's a raging maniac who doesn't give a crap about destroying Metropolis, but in upcoming issues we'll find out that his love for the city is actually his one redeeming quality. Let's chalk this up to the clone plague causing temporary mood swings. This would also explain why Clawster, the evil Underworld mutant who keeps trying to overthrow the surface world, acts a lot more reasonable than usual in this issue. I mean, he still wants to murder people, but at least now he's nice enough to warn them about it.
You might think that Superman's hair is also a continuity error, since he's bald by the end of this issue yet has gone back to the glorious "mullet" look in the stories directly after this one, but no: we learned during "Reign of the Supermen" that Kryptonians are able to grow their hair extra-fast in certain circumstances (like if they’re traveling from Antarctica to Metropolis in a giant battle armor). And, since recent issues have established that Superman's powers are going out of control (he keeps punching things too hard, using his heat vision by accident, etc.), it stands to reason that his hair should grow faster than usual too. In fact, I’m assuming that Superman is constantly having to cut his hair off-panel during these issues, or he’d look like Alan Moore.
I like the mention of Clark Kent's novels going into best-seller lists after his miraculous reappearance after being presumed dead (which happened to coincide with Superman's resurrection). One of those novels was actually the basis for a one-shot special that came out right when this issue is set, so we'll look at it soon.
Clark gets a phone call from a certain "Bruce" who tells him about some weird earthquakes that were just detected under LexCorp. That couldn't possibly be Bruce Wayne, who was too busy traveling the world looking for a cure to his Bane-related paralysis when this story takes place, so I'm gonna assume it was Mighty Bruce from the Injustice League.
It's briefly mentioned that Superboy, being a clone, "has been ill for several days." That kinda lines up with him showing his first symptoms of the clone plague in Superboy #2, which we're about to cover. We also see that the Newsboy Legion kids are sick (as mentioned in MOS #31) yet still allowed to wander around Project Cadmus in their pajamas. That is not how you contain a plague, guys.
Don Sparrow points out: "We see the Ed Sullivan Theate-esque marquee for the DCU’s David Letterman analogue 'Whitty Banter' in the background of Superman’s soaring from the Daily Planet, located on the cross-streets of (Wayne) Boring and (Otto) Binder avenues." Chronologically, that would make this issue the first appearance of the Whitty Banter Show, which I think didn't appear in the comics until 1995, though it had been an in-joke among the creative team since 1993 ("Whitty" is actually long-running colorist Glenn Whitmore).
Lois has a framed poster of Jon Bogdanove's pin-up from Action #600, his first official Superman artwork, in her apartment. What a nerd! She also has the cover for Man of Steel #66, which came out in 1997, but that isn't necessarily an anachronism (who knows, maybe the Planet has published more than one newspaper with nothing but the S-shield logo on the front page over the years).
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This post is getting way too long, so quick shout out to Aaron, Murray Qualie, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Hank Curry, and Bol! You can join the exclusive shout out club at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99
And now, more from Don Sparrow and even more sweet Bog art from this issue!
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
We open with the cover, and right away, it’s a good example of what went wrong with the experiment of the “Retroactive” books—they got period artists, but still used modern colouring and paper stock, which kind of defeated the purpose of matching the style and feel of the old comics they were trying to recapture with these one-shots. It’s less glaring on this issue than some others (the Superman 70s and 80s issues come to mind) because 90s colouring was closer to the style of 2011, but it’s still a bit jarring to see the glowing effects and other colouring tricks of the modern era on this retro looking era. That said—it’s a classic Bogdanove cover, with his long-limbed, hyper muscled and lantern-jawed Superman striding out toward the viewer.
Inside the issue, we’re placed right where we left off last week, with Lex in the barber’s chair. Apparently he has a whole team of stylists, as this guy doesn’t look a thing like Meschach Taylor, unlike the other fella. Yes, I’m quibbling about a continuity error in stories 17 years apart! [Max: But he fired the other fella, Don! And then this one too. He probably went through 20 hairstylists off-panel.]
There’s another unique 2010s touch, as the LexNews logo on the screen is decidedly Fox News-esque (as is Clark’s later dismissal of doing an interview on the channel). Bogdanove (inking his own pencils here, which might explain some of the uncharacteristically thick and un-rendered lines) always had a good handle on the grotesque, and it’s used to good effect seeing the illness-ravaged Lex Jr. rage at his hair stylist. For the most part, Bogdanove hasn’t lost too much of a step in the intervening years—there’s some cartoony moments, which we’ll discuss, but that stylization was always a hallmark of his unique style. One issue that persist throughout begins here, which is a pretty sizable gap between the eyes of the characters.
We get a pretty Kirby-esque LexCorp lab as we see Cruiser 2 being worked on by AIM looking scientists.
As we see the interiors of the Daily Planet, it’s clearly like riding a bike, as ponytail Clark and the rest of the Planet crew look exactly as they did in the mid-90s, right down to the outfits. Bogdanove always drew a fetching Lois Lane, and there are a couple adoring shots of her in these pages.
They give Superman a dynamic double page spread as he leaps into action (once again, I always love it when it’s snowing in Metropolis, so bonus points for showing the seasons). The sequence of Superman rescuing the citizens of Metropolis’ Chinatown is well done, especially the joy on his face as he flies the group to safety. We’ve talked a lot on this blog about how the Simonson/Bogdanove team seemed to showcase the most ethnically diverse side of Metropolis, so it’s nice to see that continue in these pages
We get pretty cartoony as Lois meets up with Professor Hamilton and Charlie—though it does put the lie to my assertion last week at how much Ham and Charlie resemble each other—while also buttressing Max’s point that Charlie looks like George Carlin.
As Jimmy and Clark wok their leads, we return to eyes-far-apart land, followed closely by another great image of Superman flying.
The actual battle scenes against the landwhale are well done, but perhaps excessively similar to Superman battling the first version (which we see at the back of the book).
Lois’ slippers falling off as she smooches Superman is a nice touch, and it’s interesting to see Superman with such short hair, even if it gives be a shudder thinking of the immediately retconned Greg Pak era to come, with brush cut, street fighting Superman.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
There are a few Easter eggs hidden throughout the issue, particularly in the Daily Planet scenes. There seems to be a shout-out to Walt Simonson (husband of writer Louise, and a comic art legend in his own right) on the construction outside the Daily Planet. Inside, I’d bet that’s a caricature of 90s group editor Mike Carlin hunched over a page layout in the corner.
In two different places, we see grabs from the famed vinyl cling issue of Superman fighting Lobo, which puts this issue right around our current coverage.
At first I thought perhaps the Chinese toddler’s broken English as she cries for her beloved stuffy toy was borderline insensitive, but then I remembered her age, and that pretty much any kid has broken/limited English at that age!
There’s another Walt reference on the Subway, where it’s referred to as a radio station, with KROQ sounding hosts “Something and the Bean”.
I’m guessing a few of these extras on the Subway are cameos of people Bogdanove knows? They seem a little too prominent (and in the case of the heavy-set bearded guy, repeat too often) to be just background filler. [Max: He looks disturbingly like Ron Jeremy to me, so I hope that’s not someone Bog knows personally...]
Another insider reference as the Children’s Aid Society subname is a wink at Phyllis Coates, the Lois Lane of the 1950s. [Max: Note that Steel had just stopped using the S-shield at this point, so unfortunately that snowman can’t be him either.]
