The Adventures of Superman #462



"Home for the Holidays!"

writer: Roger Stern
breakdowns: Dan Jurgens
finished art: Art Thibert
letters: Albert Deguzman
colors: Glenn Whitmore
assoc editor: Jon Peterson
editor: Mike Carlin

grade: B+


Jurgens' cover here is one of the finest from this stretch. I've been wanting to read this issue for a long while now, both because I've been intrigued by Alice and because I've been looking at this cover. But if you were expecting some deep insight into who Alice is and what makes her tick in this issue (as I was), that's not quite where it goes. The surprise that Alice is living in the storage closet is uncovered quickly, and it's the aftermath instead that gets most of the focus of this issue, the Daily Planet crew reflecting on how homelessness can happen to anyone (and nearly did to both Jimmy and to many families Lois knew while growing up on army bases):



and Perry writing up an editorial on the homeless problem in reaction to all this, which ends up taking four pages of the story.



There's nothing profound in the editorial, but it's thorough, describing the different challenges many homeless face, the different ways that people can help (even listing specific charities), and also discussing the reasons why we don't lend a hand and talking us past them. It's a commendable effort. I respect a Christmas story that actually tries to get back to the "reason for the season," not just engaging in empty holiday fervor.

But, speaking of "the reason for the season," it's a little odd that Clark spends the entire first page feeling such reverence for Christmas to the extent that he decides someone cursing on Christmas is cause for alarm and a job for Superman:



It ends up being some construction workers' whose generator broke down. That's it. But Clark seems to take Christmas very seriously.

And that brings us to this panel, much later in the issue:



I don't know if the Pre-Crisis Superman ever touched upon this, but our Post-Crisis one is a practicing Christian (or was at least raised by a practicing Christian family). Interesting to see that addressed.

And, of course, it's more interesting still since both of Superman's original creators were Jewish, but at least Stern throws us this little bone clarifying that not everyone who works at The Planet is Christian:



It's a nice gesture, and I do like the implicit meaning throughout the issue -- Christmas is a time to live up to Christ's example (even if the name, itself is never given. Making Superman a practicing Christian was probably already a drastic departure from the secular nature of most mainstream comics). In fact, even Brainiac, an evil alien, gets in on the fun, impersonating Luthor and making his underlings give all his employees overly generous bonuses, presumably just to mess with him:




In the end, things work out for Alice. Perry petitions the Planet to give her a higher paycheck since she'd been spending all those extra overtime hours working at The Planet for three years, and he invites her to move in with him and his wife (also named Alice) until she's back on her feet:



I do worry that this is it for Alice, though. All along, I liked the idea of having someone completely ordinary hanging around in the background of Superman's world. I wanted to learn more about her perspective, how these people we all take for granted as heroes and cherished favorite characters would appear to someone like us living in their world, but I doubt we're going to get that now. Alice's problem is resolved and, thus, we don't need to spend any more time on her.


Important Details:

- Confirmed that Clark was raised as a practicing Christian



Minor Details:

- Lana Lang is out of the hospital after her experience in Action Comics #644. Nice continuity there.

- And yet, intertitle continuity isn't as strong as it could be here. Just the other week in Superman, we saw Supes flying off, ditching everyone who needed him (especially Jimmy Olsen) in favor of attending to other pressing duties because it was the "logical" thing to do, but now he spends an entire morning helping a construction crew make their Christmas bonus at the expense of going to The Planet on his last day working there:



How is that logical?

Really, once he gets there, and everyone gets nostalgic that this is the end of an era, I struggle, because it doesn't seem like Clark has ever made The Planet much of a priority beyond Man of Steel #1, 2, and 4 way back in the day. Heck, we just established recently that an entire week had gone by without his reporting to work. We haven't seen him spend much time there, getting in deep with the supporting cast there, so how can we care that their time together is now up? And, of course, it isn't really. We know that.


- Stern suddenly and inexplicably reverts Cat Grant to her original tramp/harlot persona, undoing all the careful progression that's occurred to turn her into a real and respectable three dimensional character:





Even just the way Jurgens is penciling her now is a drastic reversion. Here's how he drew her just recently in Adventures of Superman #458, where she was a single mother struggling to get her life back and also kicking her alcoholism:



So what happened?



plot synopsis: Clark reflects on how much he loves Christmas and then, as Superman, ends up helping out a bunch of construction workers to make their Christmas bonus before showing up for his last day at The Planet. At first everyone is giving him the silent treatment, but it was an act, and there is a surprise party as they commemorate the end of an era. Then Clark discovers Alice crying in the supply closet she secretly lives in. The crew comforts her, Perry writes an editorial on homelessness, and Alice gets to live with Perry while she gets her life back together, all while Brainiac has figured out how to appear like Luthor over video screens, further amassing control of Lexcorp with Luthor as his hostage.

The Superman holiday issue, often done by Dan Jurgens, will continue for the next several years.

How did I manage to do that???

I thought they also changed which war Pa Kent fought in and some other details. More than that though, it opened up a Pandora's box in which any previously stated fact could just be pronounced no longer canon at any point down the road.

Say what you will; I still love that film

It definitely helps that it was being re-run on TV (where I first saw it) when I was still in elementary school. I was not smart or mature enough to be disappointed by that film and, thus, only enjoy the fun nostalgia factor in hindsight