Action Comics #681 (September 1992)
"Odds &...Endings"
Script: Roger Stern
Pencils: Butch Guice
Inks: Denis Rodier
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Bill Oakley
Grade: A+
Well, it's taken long enough, but we finally have an issue that's reminding me what I love about this franchise. From a plotting perspective, it's just a further wrap up of the highly forgettable Blaze/Satannus War and a done-in-one story pitting two villains (well, one isn't a villain anymore, apparently) against each other, but it's the characterizations and small moments in between that make this one soar, like Perry composing the lead Daily Planet article along with the team as one big, functional work family:
Though (once again) where's poor Ron Troupe?Supes and Maggie Sawyer just taking a moment to process some of the crazy they've experienced over the past few years:
and Lois being a perfect support to Clark:
as well as so many other human moments in this story that do nothing to further the plot and everything to make these characters feel real and lovable:
...and boy do Butch (Jackson) Guise's pencils help!
Speaking of Guise (whose artwork has really become the star of this title), I was concerned at first that we were going to see a repeat of the same problem we've seen from him a lot lately: namely that he can draw gorgeous everyday poses, seemingly from photos or models, but that he couldn't depict comic book action and extreme expressions to save his life. We certainly begin to see that here:
...or, more specifically, here:
Please note that's the same woman from two images earlier!but he pulls out of this rut and draws a few really dynamic moments after (with some significant help from Rodier):
Seriously, with Stern writing this well, and Guise overcoming pretty much his only weakness as an artist, this book is comic gold!
Now, for those that don't know or remember Rampage, she began as a forgettable Byrne villain waaaay back in
Superman #7. Back then, Kitty Faulkner was a low level scientist working on a project that she felt was unethical. As punishment for trying to expose the lead scientist, he caused her to be transformed into, essentially, an orange Incredible Hulk. The true bad guy was stopped, Kitty was cured, end of story. But then, only two issues after Byrne departed from the office, seemingly without warning nor plan for the franchise without him, Roger Stern revisited Kitty and made her into a complex and sympathetic character, dying as a result of her experience, and fearful of seeking a cure that could cause her to become Rampage again. Perhaps most notably, by the end of the story (in which the evil scientist returns to manipulate her once again), there was some evidence that Rampage, once calmed from the shock (and perhaps outrage) of her transformation, had some level of self-control and intelligence:
Superman describes her as "quite lucid," though whether he means Kitty is fully aware or merely functioning at Hostes fruit Pie ad Hulk levels was never really explored because Kitty goes on to make further appearances after that, always as a recovered scientist putting her life back together, and never again as Rampage now that no one was controlling her externally. In
Adventures of Superman #450, she is working for STAR Labs alongside Prof. Hamilton, and she then goes on to play a key supporting role in the
Will Payton Starman title (note: also written by Roger Stern) in Phoenix, Arizona, still as Dr. Kitty Faulkner.
And now, in the wake of the Will Payton Starman title being cancelled five months earlier, Roger Stern has Dr. Faulkner return to Metropolis, now as the lead director of the new STAR Labs overseeing its reconstruction in the wake of
Armageddon 2001. It's a really uplifting move, seeing this character rise back up from a character who was used, abused, and left for dead as much by John Byrne as by her previous employer, to someone who has built back her life better than ever through tireless resilience.
And the growing friendship between Kitty and Lois in these pages is so positively endearing, as well. About time Lois had a life outside of Clark (though I suppose Clark could use a few friends who aren't Jimmy Olsen nor a half-mad scientist, himself).
Anyway, while experiencing all of this for the first time, with the cover of the issue firmly in mind, I couldn't help but grimace. Goddamn, they were going to pull another Lana Lang and tear this woman back down by having her turn into Rampage again...but no.
She does it herself.
In the midst of an emergency, she makes the conscious choice to become Rampage again and, best yet, she is fully in control of herself as Rampage this time, more Jennifer Walters than Bruce Banner.
In fact, she and Superman playing baseball with Hellgrammite's body might be the most fun this franchise has been in over a year!
Really, the awful name and costume aside, I'd be all set to buy a Rampage solo series by this point, except that Stern keeps the character real: this is who Kitty needs to be in an emergency, but it isn't who she really wants to be:
and I respect that choice, though I can't help but think they're missing out on a profitable new character, here. I wonder if they pitched it to Carlin for the up aboves and were told no? Either way, I'm VERY glad Kitty will be playing a role in the supporting cast going forward and have no doubt we will see Rampage again. Sure the resemblance to Marvel's She-Hulk is clear, but the characterization and tone are very different; I truly like Kitty Faulkner better.
As for Hellgrammite, he's finally turning into a character too. His previous appearances have been forgettable at best, his characterization completely vague. So, while I still have no idea what his actual powers are beyond his ability to regenerate extremely slowly, Stern makes the unusual choice to play Hellgrammite both as a terrifying, methodical psychopath:
and as the butt of the joke, totally ineffective once again:
though I'm still left wondering what a guy like this is going to do with the millions of dollars in payment he is demanding from Markahm. Assuming he even has the ability to launder that kind of money successfully, how is he going to spend it? Weird dude with a giant tail just setting up residence in Beverly Hills? Even if he wants to build a high tech lab with the money, does he have the connections to make those purchases? I'd love to see him get the payment in cash, understand that it cost Markham everything, and then just burn it all because he's
that crazy, but I doubt the Superman Office is giving his motive that much consideration.
Important Details:1. Kitty Faulkner is the new Director of the newly rebuilt STAR Labs and now has total control as her alter ego, Rampage.
2. Hellgrammite has slow regenerative powers (it took days for him to regenerate the end of his tail from his previous encounter with Superman), and his backstory has not changed from the Pre-Crisis Brave and The Bold #80.
Minor Details:1. Remember how it was implied two issues back that (miraculuously) absolutely no one was injured during the Blaze/Satannus War?
from Superman #71Well someone apparenly forgot to tell that to Stern:
Enjoy that guilt-free malt, Jimmy.2. I'm wondering if this is the first time we've heard Art Bailey's traffic report, as well as mention of radio station Q-96.
Sure seems like the kind of thing this office would keep bringing back.
3. It's kind of a big deal that Stern has just decided the events of Brave and The Bold #80 (from 1968!) went down pretty much exactly the same way in the Post-Crisis:
I'm not going to go back and examine the issue closely, but it's safe to say that was a very different Pre-Crisis Batman. Sure, it was Bob Haney writing, so there probably weren't any connections made to any continuity occuring in the core Batman titles of the time, but that's still a pretty reckless move to declare an entire 1968 DC comic book still "happened" in the Post-Crisis, especially when it would have been so damn easy to just recreate the Hellgrammite's backstory for the Post-Crisis in half a page.
4. For ages and ages, this office teased that there was something suspicious about the new director of STAR Labs, and now I guess that idea is totally abandoned. No mention whatsoever of a previous director in all of Kitty's explanations about the new job, here:
Incidentally, that's Hellgrammite in the air vent, not the shadowy old director.5. Poor Jimmy Olsen (who I otherwise cannot stand) has been torturing himself over what happened to Clark Kent since the beginning of the Blaze/Satannus War, and you've got to love how Lois and Superman keep gaslighting him over making such a big deal about Clark likely being lost in a weird dimension full of Satannic demons:
I seriously don't understand why they can't just tell him at this point. Superdickery in the Post-Crisis Era.
6. Please tell me this moment means Supergirl is going to take on a secret identity.
I'm a huge Supergirl fan, and I really like how Matrix is developing into that hero in this title, even with her blind spot for Lex Luthor II.
7. And, speaking of Supergirl, do Stern and Guice have some sort of exclusive control over her at this point? I feel like we only see her in this title ever since
the culmination of Panic in The Sky.
8. Sam Foswell doesn't remember that he was a demon nor that Satannus (disguised as Colin Thornton) is really controlling him, and no one other than Superman knows that Foswell was a demon in the first place.
9. I still don't buy that Thornton was always Satannus and hope we'll see an explanation for this down the road.
