I remember be thrilled to see that (being a Spin Doctors fan in high school).   I think that was kinda Jimmy's role in this era, to be the relatable character, while Superman was a on the pedestal.

Also, I despise the visual of red haired Lex.


Van Halen IS with the times.. pretty sure this was around the time they did the Sammy Hagar thing, so they were definitely in heavy air play at the time.

Edit:  I guess it was a bit before this that happened, but the 2nd Hagar album was out in 1991, and wikipedia tells me they won a couple grammy in 1992 (when people still cared about such things)

According to Wikipedia, the album's full dreadful title was For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, and Right Now only reached #55 in the Billboard Hot 100.

LOL yes, I sort of felt that the moderator in me should shorten the title

It may have only made Billboard's #55, but I was an avid MTV fan, and it was in the top 3 on the countdown every week for what felt like a year.

Superman: The Man of Steel #5 (November 1991)



"The Curse of the Atomic Skull"

Script: Louise Simonson
Pencils: Curt Swan and Jon Bogdanove
Inks: Dennis Janke
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Bill Oakley

Grade: C-

The visual concept for this one is quite fun. The villain believes he is a hero in an old movie serial, so the book is published horizontally, with one side being what happens in the serial (drawn by Swan), and one side being what is actually happening in Superman's world (drawn by Bogdanove). It's quite visually striking:



though it definitely wears thin as the story progresses. The movie serial is neither particularly compelling nor especially important to the plot, so I found myself speed-reading through it, just trying to get back to the main plot.

Beyond the unique visuals, what becomes immediately apparent is that there was some sort of miscommunication in the DC Office this time around. This otherwise extremely tight-run office has been making blunders left and right in 1991, and the worst of them seem to happen with Simonson, the new guy (gal) on the block. This time around, she has a very different idea of what happened last week in Action Comics #670 than we do. We saw Superman first encounter The Atomic Skull at the very end of the issue. Simonson thinks they had a whole previous battle:



In fact, Lois and the police seem to already know all about The Skull within seconds of their first (brief) encounter, once again reiterating the idea that there'd been some previous battle we never saw:



Beyond that, Simonson falls into many of the same blunders I noted in her previous issue:

1. Laziness. The last bad guy she invented was a well-meaning guy named Joe who becomes radioactive at STAR Labs. This bad guy is a well-meaning guy named Joe whose powers first activate at STAR Labs. To make it worse, Action #670 explicitly told us that his powers come from his unique genetic make-up, but here Simonson has him radioactive too!




2. Pacing and over-explaining. Once again, ordinary, non-powered people are having complex thoughts about abstract problems when they should be panicking and wondering if they're about to die:




3. Convenience. This conflict should have been resolved in five seconds. Even Lois notes this:



as does Superman:



and increasingly stupid things have to happen to keep it going:



The second fastest person in the DCU, possessing super fast mental processing, as well as super fast reflexes, as well as super hearing, can't stop in time to avoid hitting a truck he didn't see??


4. Horrible logic lapses, especially involving radiation. In Simonson's last issue, Lois chose to get this close to a radioactive mutant whose radiation levels were posing a threat to the entire city without any medical repercussions whatsoever:



This issue, she gets on a bike with a villain that Superman clearly notes was experiencing significant radioactive decay:



and then Professor Hamilton goes on to haphazardly handle a nuclear control rod (which has presumably already absorbed radioactivity from whatever it was previously being used for) without a protective mask:



which he immediately figured out would stop The Atomic Skull while inexplicably knowing the nature of his powers within (literally) seconds of Superman conveniently stumbling across him and the wreckage of STAR Labs while battling the Skull, AND Professor Hamilton knows exactly where to find a nuclear carbon rod amidst the wreckage:



(Note: in all the cleanup we saw last week in Action #670 no one was wearing hazmat suits!)

Finally, Superman's solution of bending the control rod around the Atomic Skull's head doesn't crush his skull in once his powers dissipate:



...and he somehow now has hair again. Don't try to tell me it was just a visual illusion or anything either. We literally saw his hair fall out in Action #670.



At this point, I feel like Simonson is wasting my time. Whereas the other three Superman titles reward me for diligently paying attention to what they are doing, Simonson feels like the teacher who repeatedly forgets to prepare a lesson plan. Just sit there and nod; don't ask questions.



As for Bogdanove, I have to admit his art improved dramatically this issue. In addition to these horrendous panels (cue that Benny Hill theme again):










we get a few truly beautiful/striking ones as well, most memorably this:



He seems to be having fun with the format of this particular issue. I hope to see more of this from him. Honestly, I can handle bad art, and I can handle bad writing, but getting both together on the first four issues of this title were soul-deadening. Simonson's writing may be getting worse, but at least the art is sometimes pleasing now.


Important Details:

In the letters page, Carlin finally provides his vision/explanation for the four inter-locking Superman titles functioning as one:



I like it, and I mostly agree.

(though I would caution him that the rise in sales is an artificial boost stemming from Man of Steel #1)



Minor Details:

1. Joe Martin, the Post-Crisis Atomic Skull, is cured by a nuclear control rod.

2. Nice homage to the Rocketeer, which had been in theaters only eight months earlier:

See, though it didn't relate to the story much at all the movie serial portion of the issue was always the part I focused on and would often find myself skipping the rest. The art style and the coloring are just way more appealing than anything going on in the actual story.

As always, you are my best editor. Thanks. I'll make the necessary changes when I next have a free moment.