As we're now finally getting some old Byrne stuff concluded, I thought it was time to whip this out again and give it an update:

Old Byrne Plot Points Still Left Unresolved (as of Superman #38, Novemember 1989)

This is based upon memory, not thorough research, so chime in if I've missed something.

Note: I'm not including villains that left and might show up again or who still have mysteries involved in their backstories. It goes without saying that we'll see more from Draaga, Mxyzptlk, and the like.


Needs to be resolved:

- There has now been a laboratory floating in orbit of Earth containing ALL of Superman's secret information since Superman #1, and yet no one has noticed it yet.
- Elinore Lane (Lois' mother) is still battling a deadly illness. Luthor is controlling Lois in exchange for treating her mom.
- Amanda McCoy is trying to prove that Clark Kent is Superman and was inadvertently involved in the death of the private detective aiding her.
- When is Perry going to learn his "son" Jerry is the biological son of Lex Luthor?
- What's up with the new director of STAR labs who was implied to be shady and have questionable motives? And is STAR labs still under the control of Morgan Edge's company?
- Luthor and the Kryptonite radiation.


Getting addressed right now:

Jose as Gangbuster. Will that continue to be a thing?
Alice, the Daily Planet research assistant
Jimmy Olsen's mom is still trying to find his dad now that she has a photograph proving he is alive


Probably should be revisited:

-Jimmy Olsen dating Lucy Lane (last mentioned in Superman #4)
-Cat Grant's son. We had some serious foreshadowing that things were going to go bad for that young man.
-Will there ever be a "real" Bizarro in the Post-Crisis, or are we stuck with the lame clone concept we got in Man of Steel #5?
-Lois and Superman shared a kiss during The Earth Stealers

Superman #39



"Jimmy Olsen's Excellent Adventure"

writer: Jerry Ordway
pencils: Kerry Gammill
inks: Bob McLeod
letters: John Costanza
colors: Glenn Whitmore
assoc. editor: Jon Peterson
editor: Mike Carlin

grade: B-

Ordway appears to be taking a break from penciling for the moment, and maybe that's why he plots and writes this issue so much better than the last one. Sure, the only plot point he managed to get around to in the last confused issue ends up totally forgotten now (and seriously, couldn't the construction crew Superman rescued have been a repair or demolition crew instead? How easy would it have been to drop some reference to the devastating tidal wave that blew through Metropolis just last issue??), but he offers us a lot of new instead, suggesting no less than four new potential story arcs in this issue.

Plot point 1: Jimmy's mom and the extraordinary backstory with his father is FINALLY (slowly) getting addressed.



(no, that's not Nathan Summers).


Plot point 2: Going along with this, Jimmy's father worked for Project Cadmus, and there is apparently a mad scientist and two escapees from The Project that we now need to be concerned about:




Plot point 3: Professor Hamilton vows to help out Tehra (the girl who keeps getting referenced from waaay back in Adventures of Superman #443).


Plot point 4: Something's wrong with Superman's noggin (again).








Considering how long it's taken us even to get to the plot about Jimmy's father, I worry that Ordway has bitten off more than he can chew here.



That being said, this issue felt more like a series of loosely connected ideas and teasers than an actual story, but I did enjoy the visual look of that weird dimension Jimmy gets teleported to:



So, within a span of two months, we've had two weird new dimensions that follow their own laws of physics introduced in the Superman books.



Important Details:

- Jimmy Olsen's father was involved in the creation of Project Cadmus.

- Clark Kent accepts the job at Collin Thornton's rival publication.



Minor Details:

- Morgan Edge is out of the hospital and about to stand trial. In the last issue of Action Comics, Superman wrongly suspected that Intergang was back in action. Seems like something big is being planned for Edge's return.

- What's up with Lois drastically changing her look over the past two issues, once to look like Perry, and once to look like Clark? Ordway is calling a lot of attention to it and specifically noted last issue that this was beyond the normal extent of fashion shake-ups Lois usually employs.

- We get a sixteen page comic insert promoting "Lightning Racers". Clearly, expensive advertising in comic books did not correlate with massive market success.

- The title of this story is a bad reference to the 1989 film "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"

- Ordway's "syms"



seems a lot like Claremont and Buscema's "S'ym"



Similar looking, similar named creatures in similarly alternate dimensions. Just sayin'.



Plot synopsis: Superman rescues a man from a transforming construction vehicle only to recognize the brother from Adventures of Superman #443 as the cause (and again, I marvel at how we are continually expected to recall the events of this old and forgettable storyline). He takes him to Professor Hamilton but then runs off quickly to deal with the pre-trial of Morgan Edge, Jimmy is stuck in some other dimension where he meets some kind of echo of his father who explains how his father was involved in Project Cadmus, how his mother is in danger, and how there are escaped creations from Project Cadmus to watch out for, but Superman and Professor Hamilton are able to rescue Jimmy from the dimension before he can learn everything, and we cut back to The Daily Planet, where Clark announces that he's taking Thornton's job offer and leaving The Daily Planet.

Action Comics #650



"Reflections"

writer: Roger Stern
pencils: Jerry Ordway, Curt Swan, George Perez, Kerry Gammill, Dan Jurgens
inks: Brett Breeding, Bob McLeod, Art Thibert, Dennis Janke
colors: Glenn Whitmore, Brett Breeding
Letters: Bill Oakley
assoc editor: Jon Peterson
editor: Mike Carlin

(Note: even The GCD doesn't attempt to determine who drew and inked which pages. Sadly, even with all the time I've spent examining these issues and teams, I'm a writer first and often miss the subtleties of the artwork, so I won't try to wager my own guess for much of it. Swan's clearly penciling the Lois segment, and Perez appears to be penciling the Maxima segment. I don't know about the rest.)


grade: A-


I've had this issue in my collection for a long while now and never bothered to read it, never once suspecting its importance. That's one seriously underwhelming cover (which, by the way, doesn't even convey anything that actually happens in the issue), and any reference to this being an anniversary issue, or even a double-sized issue, is severely understated in the bottom right corner.

Nevertheless, it is important.

Nine months earlier, the newly restructured Superman office worked together to produce Action Comics Annual #2 as a wake-up call and beacon that big new things were in store for the Superman office. We weren't going to see Supes meandering around in space without direction any longer. Sure enough, they got him home, they cleaned up many of Byrne's loose threads and, only recently, they found new and exciting directions for the franchise.

Now, with this issue, the entire team is onboard again to send a big message about where Superman is going next. Previously, Perez had envisioned the three Superman titles addressing what he considered to be the three chief aspects of Superman's life -- his role as a superhero, his role as a Kryptonian, and his role as a reporter at The Daily Planet. This issue tackles all those facets and more, paving the way for a new direction no longer restricted by those three narrow perspectives. After this issue, the titles are no longer so regimented, allowing multi-part story arcs to sweep across them (beginning with Day of the Krypton Man next week).

So while there really isn't a plot to this issue, it's instead a restructuring of sorts, taking all that's been done with Superman up until now and prepping it for the next phase.

Considering the importance of this story then, as well as the symbolism of having the entire Superman office contribute, it's a bit odd to me that Roger Stern gets full writing and plotting credits. Certainly, he was not the most senior member of the Superman office (Ordway), the most popular (Perez -- though he's nine tenths out the door by this point), nor the most capable (arguably Jurgens). But I guess Action was his title.


So here are the facets of Superman that this issue addresses:


Superman as a Kryptonian/Interplanetary hero

How quickly we forget Mongul and Warworld, but Superman's impact there was a tremendous one, and the universe has not forgotten, even while life on Earth has moved forward. Draaga is back, seeking a second chance after his embarrassing defeat at Superman's hands



but while he wears Superman's costume as a form of penance, everyone else in the space-faring universe appears to be wearing it as a form of merchandising. Superman is their big hero after winning the games on Warworld and toppling Mongul's reign. In fact, the holovids are being distributed everywhere.



Even to Maxima.



There's a really amusing contrast then created when we downshift to watching what's occurring on Earth, and we get this subtle reminder that, while Superman is clearly the biggest and the best of DC's heroes, so much so that the entire universe is enamored with him, we're the one stubborn planet that is obsessed with some other costumed dude instead:



I actually knew a guy who did that to his hair around that time.



Superman as an Earth-based superhero

We get a little reminder of how Superman began his career on Earth (which hasn't been discussed since Man of Steel #1)



watch him save the day twice, and also get some heavy hints that Maxima, Draaga, and even Lobo are all coming for him soon.





Superman as a member of the superhero community

Here's the one that's never really been addressed in these pages before. Adventures of Superman #463 did a lot to try to merge the best of Superman's Pre-Crisis continuity with his Post-Crisis one, but the major omission up to this point has been his relationship with other heroes, and especially The Justice League. Here we're finally given a detailed eight page recap of some of his best adventures fighting alongside the League, which now still did happen, only without his being an actual member in The League.



The team remembers him saving the day on some of their earliest adventures (Xotar, The Weapons Master) as well as some of their later ones (Starbreaker, Darkseid). In fact, they offer him membership, but he declines due to time limitations (which makes sense, but shouldn't that rationale have also applied to Batman, Blue Beetle, and Booster Gold in the new League??).

It's important to note that ALL of these adventures are said to have occurred "before he learned of his Kryptonian parentage" (which occurred in Man of Steel #6). Following The Post-Crisis Superman Timeline, this would mean all the adventures recalled in this issue occurred between 3 years and 3 months prior to Superman #1. So I guess my objection in Adventures of Superman #463 that it was unlikely Superman knew Barry Allen all that well has now been effectively countered. No more doubt about it -- Superman enjoys the same standing and relationships in the superhero community that he did Pre-Crisis.



Superman as Clark Kent

Stern spends a little more time than Jurgens did trying to sell us on Lois' developing feelings for Clark, admiring how upstanding, sincere, and caring he's always been across a number of panels.



We then get teased as she almost seems like she's about to figure out that Clark is Superman (a nice nod to the Pre-Crisis)



but then we're reminded of the cover story she was told in which Clark and Superman were raised by the Kents together:



Even I'd forgotten that one. I never liked that idea.


Meanwhile, we finally get the rationale behind why Clark thought he could get away with becoming a managing editor at Newstime while still being Superman:



and we're reminded that Amanda McCoy is still out to prove he's Superman (a pursuit she began in Superman #2)




But Stern did screw up on one important little bit of continuity here:



World of Metropolis #2 established that Lois began working at The Planet when she was 15, as well as five years prior to Clark moving to Metropolis. Part of the rich tension between them was suppoosed to be because Lois had been there longer, was more experienced, and had earned her place as his better. Presenting them now as equals is a tad too idyllic for me. Sure, she's growing soft for the guy, but she still wears the pants at The Planet.



Superman as a FUN book that doesn't always take itself as seriously as every other comic in the 1990s

Beyond this issue having a strange obsession with taxis, folks often being charged "six fifty" (because it's issue #650, doncha' know) whether on the streets of Metropolis or the outskirts of Warworld, and beyond having an interplanetary taxi driver clearly modeled on Ralph Kramden, Amanda McCoy's taxi driver's fantasy of what Superman goes home to each day was utterly priceless:



LOVE that smoking jacket.



So a critical and very well done issue, even without an A plot to guide it.



Important Details:

- Superman assisted the Justice League many times between 1984 and 1987 (cross-referencing their time references with The Post-Crisis Superman Timeline), was offered membership, declined due to time constraints, and is revered and befriended by the membership (NOTE: Batman is not shown to have been a member during any of these adventures and can thus remain an uneasy ally to Superman instead of a clear friend).

- Superman is revered as a hero across the universe for defeating Draaga and overthrowing Warworld (Superman #33).



Minor Details:

- While celebrating a 650th issue might seem a bit arbitrary, it's worth noting that Action Comics would have been the first DC Comic (or Marvel comic, for that matter) to hit that number. While Detective Comics was older, Action Comics surpassed its numbering when it went to weekly publication during the Action Comics Weekly phase. The first American comic book to have ever reached that number would have been Dell's Four Color in 1955, but no superhero fan of the 1980s was going to remember that.

- Maxima is back (first introduced in Action Comics #645), while her former servant Sazu is being held by the authorities and waiting for Maxima to enact revenge upon her.

- Draaga and Lobo are both seeking a match with Superman.

- A few weeks back, a letter writer asked how Superman shaved. Jon Peterson replied by saying this had already been explained, but apparently someone decided it warranted repeating after all:



- I'm still perplexed by DC's devotion to Curt Swan. For a company that's done so little for its creators, they treat Swan like a king, providing him with full health benefits and creatively finding new ways to give him work, since he demands it but also can only pencil about ten pages a month at this point (see earlier reviews in this thread concerning this).




Plot synopsis: Draaga hires an intergalactic cab driver to take him to Earth in order to get a rematch with Superman, Lois recalls how she first met Superman and what attracts her to Clark, Superman saves a submarine that has collided with a merchant ship, Flash brags to Justice League Europe about his race with Superman, but J'onn J'onzz interrupts to remind Wally of all the times Superman helped The League and how much they respect him, Sazu is in custody and awaiting Maxima's retribution (see Action Comics #645), Maxima is still planning to win Superman, Jimmy Olsen locks his signal watch in a bank locker and decides he will not use it anymore, Amanda McCoy is still trying to prove that Clark is Superman but is beginning to doubt herself after seeing that Clark has accepted the managing editor position at Newsstime, Clark enjoys a quiet night at home while both Draaga and McCoy wonder what Superman must do in his spare time, and Lobo shows up at an interplanetary dive bar looking for a good fight (we just know this is going to lead to Superman).

Superman #42



The Day of the Krypton Man, Part IV: "Krypton Man"

writer/pencils: Jerry Ordway
inks: Dennis Janke
colors: Glenn Whitmore
letters: John Costanza
assoc. editor: Jon Peterson
editor: Mike Carlin

grade: B-


First off, a moment of nostalgia for me. This was the first Superman comic I ever bought or read. At the age of 10, that Ordway cover and new costume caught my attention fast. I was convinced that Superman was changing his costume (and maybe name) permanently because, you know, I was a stupid ten year old. It's interesting to now contrast the series my adult self has been reading and analyzing for the first time against my memories of first entering at this point as a kid. I didn't understand a lot of what was happening in this issue, but I did understand that Clark was choosing an identity more aligned with his Kryptonian heritage. As a kid, I thought this made total sense because, not having been part of three years worth of continuity (nor, for that matter, the past few months of continuity) I didn't understand that Krypton was now bad; a place that "deserved to blow up". Suffice to say, this issue didn't make a regular reader out of me, but I came back again for Dark Knight Over Metropolis, and that storyline ended up being a lot more accessible to me.

As for "The Day of the Krypton Man" storyline itself, it now appears that the Superman Office's first big multi-title story arc can be easily summed up as "three aliens all conveniently decided to travel to Earth in search of Superman at the same time, he fights each one off [two with very little excitement], and decides he's The Krypton Man." Not much of a story there. Hopefully, the final two chapters will add a little bit more to the mix.

So this issue marks the third of Superman's battle royals with aliens who have come to Earth in search of him. But the big final showdown between Supes and Draaga that we've been awaiting for ages now doesn't end up doing all that much for me. Once again, Ordway is giving the whole thing a Wrestlemania feel with the poses he draws, as well as the cameras and circling helicopters broadcasting the whole thing, but it lacks the kind of kinetic energy and pacing Perez gave to the battle with Maxima. Honestly, it's dull.




However, it's nice to see us getting back to tidying up some of the final loose ends left behind from the Byrne era. Looks like Jose Delgado is about to become Gangbuster again, and waaaaaaay back when Cat Grant first started dating Morgan Edge, we got all sorts of foreshadowing that something terrible was going to happen to her son. I think we're finally going there:






And Ordway is mindful of several little details that made me smile in this issue. For example, this billboard keeps popping up as of late, and this time Kraamdan and Draaga have driven right into it:



It's one of several reminders Ordway gives us in this issue that Luthor still controls Metropolis, even after his embarrassing three part loss during the Brainiac Trilogy (lost to Brainiac, was nearly convicted of working with Brainiac, was saved by Superman). Clearly, we haven't heard the last from Luthor.

And, of course, Ordway just had to keep this running joke going just a little bit longer:




So, not a terrible issue. I like what Ordway is trying to do with the Wrestlemania feel, and I enjoy his attention to detail, but this issue still bored me. Interestingly though, it foreshadows several things we'll see used again during the infamous Doomsday storyline two years from now -- an alien come to Earth looking to battle Superman, and en epic battle royal ensuing that visually resembles this one pretty closely.


Important Details:

- Clark has now fully embraced the Krypton Man persona (though he only calls himself Kal-El)

- Mannheim, Morgan Edge's employee controlling Intergang for him, is now disregarding Edge's orders and putting out a hit on Cat Grant, Clark Kent, and Lois Lane expressly against Edge's directives.

- Intergang has ties to Qurac (we haven't heard from them in a while!) that they are looking to cement with an arms deal.



Minor Details:

- It really irks me what an overly convenient narrative tool Professor Hamilton has become to the Superman Office. When he was first introduced in Adventures of Superman #424, Hamilton was a poor scientist who had spent years perfecting one invention. Now he's creating brilliant sci-fi gadgetry practically once a month and with seemingly limitless resources. Yes, he's now got a job with STAR labs (that we never see him go to), but that laboratory we saw while he was working on Jimmy Olsen's elasticity condition looked like a multi-million dollar private complex made up of scientific innovations decades beyond even where we are now in 2016.

Anyway, here is his scientific brilliance extended beyond the realm of believability once again in this issue:




- I found it hilarious that Kraamdan comes from a race that reveres G'Nort as a god.



Is this coming out of something that happened in Justice League (my review thread for that title isn't up to 1990 yet), or is this just something Ordway added for fun? Green Lantern volume 3 hasn't hit stands yet, so I know nothing happened there.



Plot synopsis in one sentence: Clark has now fully embraced his new Kryptonian identity and goes to seek Draaga, who is in Times Square and demanding to fight Superman. Professor Hamilton decides to teleport them away from New York City so as to protect the innocent and figure out what's wrong with Superman, but his experiment goes awry and ends up teleporting them both on the moon, along with the top of the Statue of Liberty, where Superman is about to deliver the killing blow as astronauts broadcast the feed to television stations on Earth. Meanwhile, Mannheim has reactivated Intergang's file on Cat Grant and is putting a hit out on her despite Morgan Edge's orders for Intergang to lie low while he faces trial.

Things that I wanted to know

I always wanted to know how Jose became Gangbuster.

How Jimmy Olsen went about dating Lucy Lane.

Cat Grant's son ... I really do not know anything about him - a real mystery to me.

George Perez's Legacy: The Eradicator Device

Action Comics #652 will mark Perez' final work on the Post-Crisis Superman franchise under Mike Carlin. His eleven month run didn't quite yield the expected results, due either to Perez being over-committed to other projects or to health issues, but he did help return Superman to his Pre-Crisis/Iconic characterization (even if Ordway and Stern had already been working towards this before his arrival) and, most importantly, he gave us The Eradicator Device.

Whether you liked the concept or not, it was unmistakably intertwined with Perez, first being introduced in Action Comics Annual #2 (Perez' first issue) and now reaching its final conclusion in Action Comics #652 (Perez' final issue). In between, it was a significant presence in nearly every single Superman, Adventures of Superman, and Action Comics story published during that time.

Don't believe me?

A quick search reveals that I mention "eradicator" by name in fourteen of the thirty three reviews I wrote since Perez came aboard. I'm sure that, if you added to those results every review where I discussed Clark not being himself or referred to "the device Cleric gave him", you'd have closer to thirty.

For comparison's sake "Lois" is mentioned seventeen times in that same stretch, and "Olsen" is mentioned fifteen.

So, love it or hate it, The Eradicator Device appears to be the mark that Perez left on the Post-Crisis Superman franchise, and it was probably the single most prevalent character/concept in the series next to Superman himself during Perez's time.