Superman, The Man of Steel #16 (October 1992)
![](https://i.imgur.com/tuJ0mwQ.jpeg)
"Hard Knocks" (Crisis At Hand, Part 1)
Script: Louise Simonson
Pencils: Jon Bogdanove (layouts); Dennis Janke (finishes)
Inks: Dennis Janke
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Bill Oakley
Grade: A
And here it is, the story that inevitably had to be told and which has the potential to be the pinnacle of everything this Superman Office is striving to achieve.
I don't just mean that Clark's neighbor, Andrea,
has been hanging around in the background for over three years now, nor that the abuse she has been enduring was teased recently in both
STMOS #14 and
Adventures of Superman #493. Instead, consider that some of the greatest strengths of this office are:
1. Interpersonal relationships and side characters with meaningful development
2. Emphasis on Clark as the center of the Superman character and on problems that can't be solved with powers alone.
3. Tackling real-world social issues
4. Strong continuity
So developing a background character like Andrea, using her abusive relationship as a contrast to the healthy exemplar of Clark and Lois, creating a socially relevant crisis for Superman that he absolutely cannot use his powers to stop, and pulling inspiration from Superman's VERY first appearance all at the same time
from Action Comics #1
this issueseems both like a stroke of genius and like an inevitable story that had to happen sooner or later. And, while I personally would have handed it to anyone other than this office's weakest writing and penciling team, Weezy and Boggy manage to do a great job with it, anyway.
![](https://i.imgur.com/GhQINvp.png)
Personally, I would have given this to Dan Jurgens as one of his poignant and socially relevent annual Christmas stories, but I give Carlin and the team credit for making this into a two parter across two titles instead. Whatever else can be said about
Carlin's alleged issues with women, this was a bold move from his office
especially in realistically depicting a battered woman who doesn't want saving,
![](https://i.imgur.com/Z9NHe8A.png)
but it also answers an essential question about this Post-Crisis Superman. Ever since we were first given clues that Clark's
next door neighbor was being abused, I've been asking where the heck his super hearing has been. It seems absurd that Superman, of all people, could fail to note what's happening. I'd hoped the Superman Office would turn that into a message about how we all choose not to see what's happening around us, but Simonson takes a different route, instead exploring the larger issue of how a morally righteous man who can hear EVERYTHING manages to maintain his sanity at all:
![](https://i.imgur.com/AwEDN55.png)
Though, by the end of the story, these boundaries are up for renegotiation:
![](https://i.imgur.com/N4J64nc.png)
I truly worry. There's been a disconnect between Simonson and the rest of the writers from day one, and inconsistencies across multi-part stories have been widespread as a result. I truly want to see someone bring a satisfying conclusion to the interpersonal journey Simonson has laid down for Clark, here. I hope that's what we'll get next issue.
Important Details:1. The spousal abuse incident from Action Comics #1 is still in continuity and happened about a week after Clark publicly became Superman, though the details have changed.
![](https://i.imgur.com/Fywc2kD.png)
Please note that this is
not Andrea and her husband, but rather a similar event Clark experienced years earlier.
2. This is now the second time in two issues that events from the Pre-Crisis are said to have still happened in Post-Crisis continuity, something this office has never done prior to last week!
3. During his first week as Superman, Clark was overextending himself in an effort to help everyone until The Kents helped him set some boundaries for his own sanity.
Minor Details:1. While Superman's long-time address of 344 Clinton Street has already been
reaffirmed in the Post Crisis continuity, this is the first time we are shown that Brown Blvd. is the cross-street. Is this a nod to someone?
![](https://i.imgur.com/PnhxWFf.png)
2. Speaking of nods, I enjoyed this one to Phyllis Coates:
![](https://i.imgur.com/bTr0DcJ.png)
There have been multiple moves as of late (and largely in this title) to acknowledge Superman's rich history outside of comics, including both the Adventures of Superman television series of the 1950s and the Fleischer cartoons of the 1940s.
3. Boggy is getting better (or at least his blunders are getting masked better by Janke's inks) but he still has major issues with consistent proportions.
![](https://i.imgur.com/nDPhNKd.png)
4. I absolutely cannot get enough of the chemistry between Clark and Lois, especially when it feels believable. I may not enjoy the "Babe" this and "Babe" that going on, but I really like how realistically Simonson makes Clark's powers a meaningful part of their exchanges.
![](https://i.imgur.com/mXuBmIc.png)
Of course, if he can hear Jay Leno's monologue several floors up and through external walls, then why the hell couldn't he hear Andrea getting annihilated next door?
5. I also love the contrast drawn between Clark and Lois' relationship and that of Andrea and her husband.
![](https://i.imgur.com/3Qxs2R8.png)
I think I've mentioned here before that Clark and Lois' relationship really helped shape my expectations for a romantic partner and for myself in a romantic relationship while at a critically impressionable age. Kids needed this message.
6. This kid, totally unrelated to the main plot, ended up making for the most poignant part of the story.
![](https://i.imgur.com/7aOoV3T.png)
Too bad that, in a story that resounds so hard with realness, Simonson had to take this route with it:
![](https://i.imgur.com/3u5wO5M.png)
And, seriously? This was the best face Boggy could draw?
![](https://i.imgur.com/ZzXsSGp.png)
Weezy and Boggy still have their flaws and remain my least favorite part of this Superman Office, but (a few odd moments aside) they did incredibly well on this one.