Adventures of Superman #489 (April 1992)



"Panic in the Sky Epilogue: Hail the Conquering Heroes"

Script: Jerry Ordway
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Doug Hazlewood
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Albert DeGuzman

Grade: B-


If last issue's falling action felt awkward, that's probably because there wasn't supposed to be any. Apparently, that issue was supposed to end with the climactic moment of Brainiac getting lobotomized and unleashing that metal orb thing that hasn't gotten explained yet



and the moments afterward were supposed to be told here, in the epilogue. Thus we get this moment at the start of this issue, in which Maxima is crying for Brainiac's blood:



which absolutely does not match the final subdued moment we had last issue:



Furthermore, Brainiac has apparently destroyed Maxima's home planet now:



when Almerac was very much alive just two issues back:



It's truly frustrating to see an office once so remarkable for its coordination stumbling this badly. Clearly, the decision has been made by this point to move Maxima into Justice League, and her planet needs to be dead for that to happen (otherwise wouldn't she just return home?), except the entire reason Brainiac had been able to control her throughout this story was because she feared what he might due to her planet. If he was going to destroy it, we really needed to be shown that. Heck, it would have been a more believable reason for why Maxima suddenly turned on him late in the story.

Speaking of poor coordination, you've got to love how Superman doesn't hesitate to install a puppet government on Warworld without a second thought, instructing them to choose their leaders differently next time:



So I guess we're just going to ignore the lesson Superman learned from interfering with the regime of the terrorist nation of Qurac way back in Adventures of Superman #427? It's not like the Superman office was still exploring the repercussions of that single event three years later or anything:


from Adventures of Superman #471.

Granted, the story above was written by Bill Messner-Loebs (fill-in writer), and Marv Wolfman (long gone by this point) was the one to originally write the Qurac episode and explore its aftermath, but Roger Stern (still very much one fourth of the Superman office) certainly revisited its implications during his Action Comics Weekly stretch:


from Action Comics Weekly #639

Maybe the difference is that Warworld's leader was directly responsible for the threat against innocent people this time? Maybe the difference is that they're aliens and not an anaologue for a real-world nation, or maybe Ordway just didn't give a f**k.


Anyway, Dan Jurgens' words about this storyline weighed on me quite a bit as I read this final issue. Specifically his statement that:




Okay, so Superman is all about taking the fight to the hostile invader before he comes to Earth, and you've got Orion, Lightray, and Metron right there, so why is he installing them as puppet governers on Warworld instead of saying, "Hey, why don't we take the fight to Darkseid next? After Legends a few years back, you know it's just a matter of time before he comes for Earth again, and I clearly no longer have any qualms with disrupting the internal politics of other nations/planets."

But I suppose that if you take Superman too far down the road of bringing the fight to the enemy before the enemy brings the fight to you, we're going to end up with something out of Frank Miller or Alan Moore; a super-powered bully just kicking enemy rulers' teeth in when they refuse to sign non-aggression pacts with Earth.


Anyway, it's clear that the main reason why this epilogue was needed was because the Superman Office needed to show Superman arriving at this conclusion



in order to justify him and Maxima joining the Justice League this same month:



Incidentally, I don't intend to include those stories in my reviews unless anyone here thinks they'll matter in terms of Superman continuity.

However, I will admit that I was confused by this portion of Superman's speech:



What was going on with the League at this point? The comic was still hitting stands each month. I really should get back to my Justice League in the Post-Crisis Era review thread sooner or later.


Beyond all this, we finally return to the Superman Office's default structure of exploring multiple character arcs at one time, with Matrix deciding to remain as Supergirl:



I am REALLY glad we moved away from the creepy idea of her wearing Draaga's body as a means of somehow honoring her deceased almost-lover.

Jimmy Olsen's obnoxious story arc coming to an end with his return to the Daily Planet:



and Professor Hamilton randomly remembering that he forgot a critically important promise he made two frickin' years earlier:



Look, I get it. There was a short time in which George Perez was gone, and all the remaining writers were free to write whatever Superman stories they felt like writing, and then suddenly someone decided that they should start writing interconnected crossover after interconnected crossover. And then, when those were done, the last minute decision to create a 4th Superman title (as well as other factors that I strong suspect included the original plot for Time and Time Again becoming Armageddon 2001, requiring a whole new crossover to be planned at the last moment--but I won't get into all that again) created massive delays and last minute scrambling in 1991. So now that the big crossover for 1992 is concluded, Ordway is getting right back to that story. Fine. That makes sense, but couldn't we be shown that the professor had been working on fulfilling his promise all along and just not getting anywhere until now? It's deeply troubling to see a character we love be so absent-minded and blasé about another innocent character's fate.

Anyway, Ordway wastes no time in thrusting us into this new story arc that has nothing to do with Panic in the Sky. Parts are downright amusing in a way that only Ordway can make them



while others are so steeped in forgettable continuity from two full years (and 92 full issues!) earlier that even I barely know what the hell he's talking about:



I will say that it's a bit ironic, at the tail end of a story that so deliberately invoked both Crisis on Infinite Earths and Invasion by name, to meet a character named Flashpoint:





Important Details:

1. Matrix decides to remain as Supergirl.

2. Brainiac has been lobotomized.



Minor Details:

1. Orion and Lightray now rule Warworld, and Metron is in possession of Brainiac.


2. Stop trying to sell us on Deathstroke as a hero just because the fanboys love him:



He certainly had no qualms about repeatedly trying to kill a certain other green kid who was only a few years older than that.


3. Okay, so Luthor organizes a parade to celebrate Earth's victory against the invaders, and THEN the heroes come through the boomtube unexpectedly:



So how did Luthor know the invasion was over? How embarrassing would it have been if he organized a victory parade in the middle of a lull while Brainiac was warming up some huge death beam that was going to rip into Metropolis a few pages later?


4. the letters page is still adamantly insisting that Lex Luthor I is really and truly dead.



(as always, no spoilers on this one, please).


5. In fact, the letters page is a virtual treasure trove of minor details this time around. For example, I hadn't realized that we never ever saw Tiny Bubbles (Manheim's girlfriend)'s face:




6. And this little bit of trivia is somewhat disturbing:



So they branded her? Like, Superman owns that particular farm animal now? Why aren't they drawing an LL into his curls? Up until now, I've been really impressed with the equality these writers have given to Clark and Lois's relationship, but this little detail really bothers me.

Didn't say it wasn't sexist and I agree with regards to Wood and a double standard in comics; but I still think you are reading way more into the Lois hair thing than was intended.  Perception is reality, though.

I was joking, though, about "having a little fun" and didn't mean to cause any offense, so why don't we rein in the clydesdales and call it a day?

I suspect that Clark isn't as amused as Lois is at Luthor's "hilarious" impression of a blind man.

Superman #67 (May 1992)



"Another Panic in the Sky!"

Script: Dan Jurgens
Pencils: Dan Jurgens (layouts); Brett Breeding (finishes)
Inks: Brett Breeding
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: John Costanza

Grade: B


So, in the wake of a major Superman event in which the villain never had a clear goal nor plan, and his threat to Earth was undefined and existential at best, Jurgens is going to give us a done-in-one story in which that same villain's B plan is a clear danger to Earth and seems far more threatening than that other never explained thing he spent eight issues never getting around to doing.

Weirder still, while Panic in the Sky took great pains to explain that absolutely nobody died and the damage was minimal, we've got people dying left and right this time around:







It was so thoroughly unbelievable that absolutely nobody died and nothing was seriously destroyed during Panic. Why even try to sell us on that if you're just going to start a body count like it's no big deal right afterward?


And yet, the rules surrounding the "swarm" keep changing so that it can look dangerous without killing too many folks. So, while one excuse we're given for why pretty much everyone on Earth isn't dying all at once is that the swarm starts up above and then gradually works its way down:



that's not at all what Jurgens' art is showing us in other panels:



And besides, in the prologue to this issue, with the final remaining family on another planet jumping to their death to avoid the coming swarm, the swarm shows up AND descends fast enough to kill them mid-fall.

Of course, we're also told that the swarm eats through buildings:



...except when that is inconvenient to the story:



Stupid enough as all that is, let me also beg the question: isn't the swarm sent to destroy planets? So, then, why is it only attacking Metropolis and (at times) only attacking Superman?



Oops.


I mean, there are more problems too, like since when does Warworld use/need settlers?



Building and settling isn't really what they do.

Additionally, while previous issues alternated between depicting Warworld's champions as a single race of green invaders:


from Action Comics #675


or as the best champions from any number of worlds and (mostly green-skinned) races, but all wearing the same uniform:


from Superman #66 (also drawn by Jurgens)


they're a rag-tag band of aliens wearing completely different war gear from one another here.




Come on, Jurgens. You can't even be consistent with yourself?


Beyond this, Jurgens does his best to return to the human aspect of this franchise with mixed results. I really like the uncomfortable balance this office is achieving with Lex II, who is self-serving and not to be trusted, but also capable of compassion and almost heroic at times, too:



Sure, he ultimately uses this moment of heroism as leverage to win the public's trust away from Superman:



but it still makes him a more complicated and potentially almost likable villain for Superman than his one-note predessessor who never ever purposefully broke a sweat to accomplish anything.


On the other hand, I don't think anyone in this office is ever going to manage to make me care about Lana Lang and Pete Ross's adventures in DC. While the human-aspect of this series is arguably its finest selling point, it doesn't work the same when there are no superheroics and no fight scenes.





This sort of day-in-the-life soap opera drama might work with characters we are already invested in, but we have absolutely no reason to care about Lana and Pete, and what they are involved in has absolutely nothing to do with anything happening anywhere else in the Superman franchise, so I think this subplot is doomed to fail unless Pete ends up single-handedly taking down political assassins or something.


Finally though, I absolutely adore this little Clark moment enough to forgive this issue the rest of its flaws. Clark and Lois are discussing the first films they ever saw, and Clark's answer is both a clever acknowledgement of how different Superman is from Batman AND a fundamental key to better understanding exactly who this non-Byrne Superman is:



To Kill A Mockingbird is the ultimate story of compassionate, non-violent heroism in the face of hopeless adversity. Atticus Finch is a personal hero of mine. Somehow, I never made the connection until now just how closely Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch resembles Clark Kent:



To be fair, the Adventures of Superman television series long predates this film, so it may have intentionally been channeling Clark Kent (and certainly not the reverse), but darn if the Clark that Jurgens, Breeding, McLeod, Bogdanove, Janke, and Grummett are drawing doesn't look just like a hip-for-the-'90s version of this character.

Man, Superman and I have the same hero. This moment made my year.


Important Details:

1. The Warworld swarm is now following a Lexcorp satellite into the depths of space indefinitely and could foreseeably return.


2. Well, chadwilliam was certainly right. The metal ball that Brainiac launched at Earth at the conclusion of Panic in The Sky is revealed/explained here, and not only was it's intended purpose to be a beacon for the swarm, but it's also definitely too small to be what Doomsday will eventually bust out of:





Minor Details:

1. What was the point of this cheesecake panel with Lana undressing?



It's completely unnecessary to the story.


2. Look, I'm as big a fan of diversity and inclusion as anyone, but how come every time new minor characters are introduced in Suicide Slum lately, it's a black guy and a white guy?

This issue:




Last issue:




Six months ago:





3. And, speaking of race, maybe the same issue where we find out that Atticus Finch and To Kill A Mockingbird strongly shaped Superman's identity is not the time for Superman to choose this nickname for his antagonist:





4. I'm really surprised that Jurgens gives such a big shout-out to Singles (1992), a film that I adored so much as a teenager that I wore out my VHS tape from repeated viewings and had to buy another.



It wasn't exactly a major film that general audiences would know/care about, and it doesn't have any relation to Superman nor to comics in general. Did Jurgens perhaps know writer/producer Cameron Crowe? Crowe was writing for Rolling Stone prior to shifting into film, so perhaps a magazine writer and a comic artist crossed paths somewhere?


Anyway, while this was a deeply flawed issue (surprising considering how well the other titles are doing at this moment), I give it major credit for making Atticus Finch into Superman's Zorro.

Action Comics #677 (May 1992)




"...In Love and War!"

Script: Roger Stern
Pencils: Butch Guice
Inks: Denis Rodier
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Bill Oakley

Grade: A-

I'd expected that I'd spend most of this review discussing the revelations about how Luthor II is controlling Supergirl, but that actually gets answered with surprising ease:




Instead, I think we need to talk about Butch Guice's artwork, which (for better and worse) has become the centerpiece of this book.

There's no denying that, at this point, DC is fighting a losing battle for sales against Marvel, and Image just hit the scene with their release of Youngblood #1 as well. In both cases, much of what DC is losing to is creative marketing and an emphasis on art. It will take a few more months before this office attempts to tackle creative marketing, but this issue seems hyper aware of the need to meet Marvel and Image at their art game. Heck, if Art Thibert's work on the cover doesn't immediately remind you of Rob Liefeld (note Supergirl's face, as well as Thibert's stylized signature), then maybe this will look familiar to you:



We're not seeing it in the other titles for some reason, but Action is absolutely trying to attract impressionable fans of the hot artists of the era, and I have to assume that's what's going on with Guice's increasingly stylized internal art. I'm a writer first and foremost; I usually have to push myself to notice the artwork in a story unless its truly exceptional(ly good or bad), but Guice's art was most of what was capturing my attention in this issue.

Sure, his attempt at realism occasionally results in some awkward facial expressions:




But, generally, the face isn't the primary focus of most of his Supergirl panels anyway:



I'd surmised in my review of Action #676 that Guice was using photo references (if that's so, then what magazines was he looking at??), but if that's the case, then why does he draw breasts as perfect circles? I mean, he makes them the primary focus of this panel, and then draws them so...wrong:



Look, this is not the kind of thing I ever expected to discuss in a review. Cheesecake art and cheesecake comics are not really my thing, but that's what's screaming for attention in panel after panel of this issue.

And I'm not knocking it. Once we see some other women in this issue, it becomes more obvious what Guice is up to. Check out how Lois is introduced later in the story:



While I don't accept for even a moment that the Post-Crisis Lois Lane who was wearing innovative new fashion and hairstyles right off of the runway at the start of this franchise is suddenly using her vast income as one of Metropolis' top journalists to scour Goodwill shops without some acknowledegment about her change in perspective, I value the visual contrast Guice is drawing between Supergirl and Lois. Matrix/Supergirl is a shape-shifter. She is choosing to look like an impossible sexy playmate for Lex II, while Lois can come off just as beautiful and even sexy wearing a frumpy nightshirt and with her hair a mess:



Guice is definitely depicting a range of outward appearances for women in this book, and while Supergirl's is the most overtly sexy, each has its own dignity and charm:



But then what the hell happened with Superman here?




Beyond that, we get a confrontation between Superman and Matrix (do I start calling her "Supergirl" at this point?) that feels believable and earned:



and Lex II's means of taking control of the situation is smooth as hell:



even if it ultimately leads Superman to once again suspect that he is not what he seems.

Speaking of which, I absolutely love how this office is teasing us with Lex II. Take this exchange between him and Matrix:



Confusing himself with his father seems like a dead giveaway...but then he doesn't seem to understand his father and assures Supergirl (and the reader) once again that "he is no longer here." I truly hope the payoff on this mystery isn't as simple and disappointing as the one about how he was controlling Matrix at the start of this issue. If he really is just Lex's son, I'm going to be plenty disappointed.

Of course, Lex II's comment about "duplicating" in this issue raises some questions:



Heck, maybe his efforts to duplicate Matrix will result in the creation of the Connor Kent Superboy, or maybe Lex II and Connor Kent were both clones created by Lex I (as usual, no spoilers please!)


Oh yeah, we're still pushing Ron Troupe in this issue, and this time Stern proves you can have your cake and eat it too as we're finally getting an obligatory Black character in this franchise while being told how progressive both the Daily Planet and Perry White have always been about race:



Oh, and the protesters arguing for minority inclusion are just dead wrong. No subtlety in how it's handled at all.


Finally, Sam Fosworth is getting fired, and I somehow actually feel bad for the guy:



especially as his firing seems due more to a bureacratic merger than a personnel decision:





Important Details:

1. I was irate last issue when associate editor Dan Thorsland indicated in the letters page that Clark and Lois had been engaged for "about six months" when the usual time progression for this office (one month in our time equals approximately one week in theirs) should have had Clark and Lois engaged for only about four months by this point. Well, it looks like Thorsland may have been wrong, after all:



"A few months" to me means three to five. Six months would be "half a year".


2. I'd just recently noted (as per the discussion amongst badwolf, zaku, and lordyam concerning Superman #22) that the Superman Office seems to have avoided mentioning Superman killing the rogue Kryptonians over the past two years, even while taking great pains to reference pretty much every other aspect of Post-Crisis Superman continuity. Here, it becomes even more obvious that this is being intentionally omitted:



We get a pretty accurate retelling of the events of the Pocket Universe story arc, and yet the crucial climax of that story is strategically omitted. Zaku also mentioned that (at some point) DC felt the need to remove the Time Trapper from that storyline, and that already seems to have happened as of this retelling:




3. Lex II is "barely 21". I assumed he was a little older.




Minor Details:

1. For the second issue in a row, we have a moment where Stern's words clearly don't match what Guice was drawing.



Heck, the changes to the dialogue were likely made after the inking had already been done, as the inks in that last panel are the strongest giveaway that Matrix was originally supposed to be pissed and not repentent. I wonder why this keeps happening.


2. Yup. Lex does have his own television network. WLEX gets referenced twice in this issue.


3. Cat Grant is back after a considerable absence. She and Jose Delgado keep falling off of the proverbial map and then randomly reappearing in this franchise.


4. Did we know Supergirl could turn invisible prior to this story?


5. When Clark was six years old, he got into a shoving match with Steve Davis. Somehow, I repeatedly misread this as "Steve Dallas," but I guess that was a different story:



Honestly, the cover made it out to be a lot more sensational than it was:





In the end, this issue actually managed to accomplish quite a bit, placing Supergirl's loyalty in Lex II's hands, making the relationship between Superman and Supergirl refreshingly complex, raising more questions about Lex II for Superman as well as the reader, making us feel something for the once detestable Sam Foswell, and enthralling us with some (mostly) masterful artwork that truly took center stage, here. I think the Supergirl mystery from last issue was teased to be bigger than it was, and I guess I can't blame Stern for the way this entire office is awkwardly handling the introduction of its first major Black character, but otherwise I was darn pleased by this outing.

Superman #68 (June 1992)



"Sins of the Father"

Script: Dan Jurgens
Pencils: Dan Jurgens (layouts); Brett Breeding (finishes)
Inks: Brett Breeding
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: John Costanza

Grade: D+

I'm confused.

An entire issue of Superman wasted on promoting an upcoming issue of Deathstroke, The Terminator is obnoxious, but it would at least make sense if Jurgens were writing or penciling it. He's certainly given his creation, Agent Liberty, far too much free promotion in this book, after-all. But Jurgens isn't associated with the Deathstroke title at all, and (weirder still), the issue being set up (Deathstroke, The Terminator #12) is written by a fill-in team, with regular creators Marv Wolfman and Art Nichols returning a month later. So why in the world is the entire purpose of this story to get Slade Wilson here:




While Jurgens showed so much promise at first, I've been arguing since at least "Time and Time Again" that his work has felt more rushed and less carefully considered than it used to be. Fourteen months later, one would expect to see him back at his A game, but this issue felt especially sloppy. Even putting aside the inexplicable Deathstroke promotion, his art alternates between looking gorgeous



and absurd:



and his characterizations feel even less consistent than that. Superman is extremely quick to judge Slade before even talking with him after this extremely rushed moment at the hospital in which even Lois doesn't seem exactly right:



Granted, they've just experienced a tragedy, but they literally just arrived at the hospital and had just been told that Deathstroke was responsible.

Superman then goes on to insult Maggie Sawyer, somehow implying that good cops never ever let innocent people get hurt:



and did I mention that Clark and Lois somehow know almost nothing about each other all of a sudden?



They spend the night with each other constantly and wake up the next mornings together. We've seen them go to Dooley's for breakfast together. Lois has repeatedly commented on how she cannot/does not cook, so how is this news to Clark here?

And the most upsetting part of all was Jurgens' need to make Superman look helpless so that Deathstroke could look cool. This naturally means that Superman conveniently forgets to use his X-ray vision and super hearing:



and forgets he has super speed a moment after that:



It's...stupid.

As is Deathstroke's final confrontation with Sam Lane, which feels so thoroughly forced and inauthentic:



I suppose we're just going to forget the fact that Deathstroke was not responsible for Lucy Lane getting shot at the start of the story:



because DC wants this hot selling character to be a misunderstood and noble good guy now.

Gag me.


Important Details:

1. Lucy Lane is in serious condition after having been shot in the waist/abdomen area by an advanced energy weapon. Apparently, having been blind for much of her life wasn't enough. Give the poor girl a break!

2. Deathstroke/Slade Wilson and Sam Lane were lost in Vietnam together and have a close bond as a result. Sam does not know that Slade is Deathstroke.


Minor Details:

1. One thing Jurgens does immensely well here is continue to make me care about poor Sam Foswerth.



I really respect this office forcing us to feel compassion for someone we once perceived as a sort of villain.


2. And yet, even Jurgens can't make me care about this C plot:



Look, I'm a huge fan of classic Superboy, so Pete Ross is a character I'm used to actually caring about, but the writers have done nothing to make us care about Pete Ross in this continuity, and everything they and John Byrne did to make us care about Lana Lang absolutely did not work on me. Additionally, these two are totally disconnected from Metropolis and all that is happening there, so I have absolutely zero investment in this subplot.


3. Can we talk about Metropolis PD's Special Crimes Unit? It's a great idea, but I truly don't understand the point of having them around when someone could just signal Superman instead. Have we ever seen this team successfully do something without Superman's intervention?



I know the SCU will be getting its own title eventually, so hopefully the concept will make more sense there.


4. Speaking of the SCU, where was Dan Turpin?


I truly love every Superman story from this era that gives attention to its thoroughly rich supporting cast and the world of Metropolis as a whole, but making Superman impuslive and foolish, like it's John Byrne's Action comics teamups all over again, is truly disappointing, as is the weak depiction of Clark and Lois' relationship. Jurgens is better than this, and I hope to see him back to his old standard of excellence soon.

I'm seldom ever one to defend John Byrne, but I think this is more a product of the era, of the company vision for a Post-Crisis DCU, and of editor Andy Helfer (who was hell-bent on explaining absolutely everything right down to the X-ray vision).



On the surface, I agree with you. Had this story been told differently, I would have accepted the explanation and story without hesitation. My problem with Byrne's Luthor is always the extent to which he is over the top foolish and cruel in a wild, uncalculated way. This Luthor was headed for a downfall with or without Superman as an enemy. I prefer a more cold, precise, and amoral (not immoral) depiction that better encapsulates American corporate greed. Superman can stop anything...except big business. It's a powerful message that gets muddied when Luthor is this over-the-top. I would have accepted this ending without issue had Luthor disregarded the truth and then pitied the foolishness of his underling in some polite but utterly condescending way, "One day, you'll understand that what makes a successful businessman is taking the facts and filtering them through the lens of good instinct!" or something like that. But Byrne thinks he needs to play up his evilness and foolishness to the max in case the reader didn't already understand that Lex was the bad guy.


Wholeheartedly agreed.




Ha. Honestly, any idea you have for what to do with Lana is inevitably better than anything this Superman office came up with.




Heheh. Give him time. Action Comics #592 is still eight months away.