Thanks. I'm still hopped up on post-surgical pain meds and wondered if I could push out a review without screwing something up

I've never read the original series, so I don't know whether it was revealed there or first revealed in ACW, but the original Mockingbird was August Durant according to the ACW feature. Carlo DiRienzi has only been serving as Mockingbird since Durant's death at the beginning of this series.

One big question answered.

Coming up soon, the eleven year saga of Action Comics Weekly #642.

Thanks for the links Hoosier,that made fascinating reading. The Secret Six was such an innovative (for comics) series back in '68. Probably the most mature title DC had in the 1960s.
Hell,I'd rank it as one of the best reality-based series in comics for the 20th century.Thats a pretty bold statement. But what other book grounded in reality would compete?

Maybe I'm overly cynical, but I wouldn't be surprised if the reason it didn't go by the code is the production schedule was too tight.

Superman #28



"Superman in Exile"
writer: Roger Stern
pencils: Kerry Gammill
inks: Brett Breeding
letters: John Costanza
colors: Glen Whitmore
assistant editor: Renee Witterstaetter
editor: Mike Carlin

grade: B-


There's little doubt in my mind at this point that I prefer Ordway's writing to Stern's. There's nothing wrong with this issue but, much like Stern's work on ACW, this story just sort of ambles along, lacking momentum even as it marks a major turning point for Superman. Essentially, we see Superman wander around in space, run into minor conflicts that seem to be there just to be there, while his exposé on Intergang breaks back on Earth, prompting Morgan Edge's assassins to try to eliminate Kent, mistakenly ambushing Amanda McCoy's hired private investigator instead, all of which interests me not at all.


Important Details:

1st appearance of Team Luthor



Minor Details:

- Page 2 captures a better summary of Superman's Post-Crisis origin in two panels than Byrne's "Man of Steel" did in six issues. Worth noting is the renewed emphasis on Clark not being born until after he was removed from the birth matrix and no mention whatsoever of Clark having spent years anonymously saving people before becoming Superman. More evidence that the Post-Crisis timeline may be under revision.

- In addition to the breathing apparatus Prof. Hamilton gave him, Superman now has a teleportation belt he apparently got from the Omega Men. When did this happen?? The belt is depicted at the end of Adventures of Superman #450, but I don't recall it being mentioned there.

- It's a little weird that we never really saw Clark investigating the whole Intergang thing that has now become a ground-breaking exposé threatening to finish them off. Seeing him get the story would have been a lot more interesting and less jarring. And, while it makes sense for him to be away when the story breaks, has he given any consideration to the danger this might pose to his family and friends?

- Stern seems to have fun exploring the "what if" of Superman being sucked into a sun's gravitational pull, simultaneously being recharged by it while it also threatens his safety.

- Gammill never disappoints me. I love how he depicts Superman as looking so beaten and prostrate as he flails through space, his mental duress expressing itself through physical exhaustion.

- This is by no means the first appearance of Luthor's Doctor Kelley (Superman #2), but this may be the first time she is mentioned by name(?)


plot synopsis in one sentence:

Superman is in space, recalling all that has led to his self-imposed exile, Perry recieves Clark's exposé about Intergang and gives it a special edition, deciding it's big news, Morgan Edge decides Clark expose has come too close and hires assassins to take him out, Brainiac is still knocked out from his run-in with Gangbuster last issue, and Luthor and Dr. Kelley are drugging him to make him a tool of Luthor's, Superman first finds himself on a planet he mistakes for the Pocket Universe Earth again, then almost falls into a sun, then stumbles upon a fertile world where he quickly becomes a hero and flees, fearing that he'll endanger these people just as he feared endangering all of Earth, Amanda McCoy continues to keep Clark's secret safe from the private investigator she has hired, electing not to reveal her suspicions unless the investigator arrives at the same conclusion, and also reiterates that the investigator not break any laws to expose Clark, but the investigator decides to break into Clark's apartment anyway, just as Edge's assassins show up to kill Clark, and they mistake the investigator for their target.