Adventures of Superman 500 – back from the dead

After a break of a few months, Adventures of Superman returns with issue 500 (Early June 1993), the bulk of which is by Ordway, Grummett and Hazelwood.

Although the issue had a pretty good 3D cover, I always think of it as pictured above, in the white plastic bag it came in.

The final issue of Funeral for a Friend saw Jonathan Kent die of a heart attack, and this story sees him find his son in the afterlife.

The comic intercuts a lot of scenes with the supporting cast, as Pa Kent fights to bring his son back from the dead.  We see Gangbuster fighting drug dealers and fleeing from the police.

Cat Grant is upset about Jose’s activities, which have driven them apart.  Vinnie Edge sees this as an opportunity to make the move on Cat.

There is also an entertaining sequence with the Prankster killing his cell mate, although this does not tie in to the larger storyline in any way.

Pa Kent gets separated from Clark, and winds up being tempted by Blaze, although he has no interest in her deal.

Kismet also encounters Pa Kent, and leads him to where he can find Superman.

Superman is being carted into a weird afterlife by demons who appear to be Kryptonians.  Pa Kent helps him see through the illusions, and together they enter a tunnel that will bring them back to the real world.

We see Pa Kent revive, to the delight of Lois Lane and Ma Kent, and he announces that Clark is alive as well.

Lois Lane convinces Inspector Henderson to open the tomb, and the find the body gone.

This is followed by four very brief stories, each one introducing a possible resurrected Superman.  Louise Simonson, Jon Bogdanove and Dennis Janke introduce the villainous White Rabbit just before John Henry Irons pulls himself out of the wreckage left by Doomsday.

Roger Stern, Jackson Guice and Denis Rodier show us the vicious Last Son of Krypton, who is pretty obviously the Eradicator.

Karl Kesel, Grummet and Hazelwood take us to Cadmus, where the Newsboy Legion have helped Superboy escape, despite the Guardian’s efforts.

And Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding go the high tech route with the Cyborg Superman.

Each of these four continue to appear in one of the four ongoing Superman titles, which all return later in the month.

Adventures of Superman 496 – Mxyzptlk poses a puzzle

Mxyzptlk is back in Adventures of Superman 496 (Nov. 92), by Ordway and Janke.

Superman is amazed at the extensive changes Mxyzptlk has made to reality in this visit, showing himself for more powerful than Superman had ever imagined.  He had even changed the past, having himself elected president in the previous election.

Superman asks Mxyz the rules of the game this time around, and the imp makes it easy, having his henchmen spell Mxyzcorp backwards.  Superman does this, only to discover that Mxyzptlk has learned how to lie.  There are no rules anymore.

Mxyzptlk has also changed Luthor back into his old body, though denying him Lexcorp.  There are a couple of really nice Watchman homage pages with Lex.  Although Superman could learn from this that the new Luthor is really the old one, Lex convinces him that he has turned him into his “father,” and as this is the kind of thing Mxyzptlk would do, Superman believes him.

Superman persuades Mxyzptlk that a game has to have some sort of rules, and so Mxyzptlk decides to pose a puzzle for the hero. It’s a variation on the old classic, with two liars and one telling the truth, with Luthor’s life in the balance.  It’s really not that hard to figure out which Mxyzptlk has the safe switch,and Superman does so.  Mxyzptlk plays fair, and returns to his dimension.

As with all the Superman titles this month, the last page has Doomsday pounding on a door, and in this case, penetrating it.

 

Adventures of Superman 485 – breaking in to Superman’s mind

Blackout has its concluding chapter in Adventures of Superman 485 (Dec. 91), by Ordway, Janke, Grummett and Hazelwood.

Emil Hamilton, Lois Lane and Guardian find the island that Superman and Mr. Z are on, just in time to prevent the amnesiac Superman from marrying Lola La.

They take Superman back to Metropolis, but leave Mr. Z there, where he is happy and harmless, and about to start a romance with Lola La.  We never see him again, but he gets left in a tropical paradise, so why would he want to go?

Rather than risk bringing Emil Hamilton into Cadmus, Dubbliex ventures out, and with Hamilton’s help he enters Superman’s mind.  Together they break through the barriers and restore his memory of who he is.  Nice use of the classic Fortress door to represent the way into his subconscious.

Emil Hamilton winds up getting arrested for causing the blackout, but is quickly bailed out by the big hero of the day, the man who ended it, Lex Luthor Jr.

Adventures of Superman 484 – Blackout begins

Mr. Z returns as Ordway, Janke, Grummett and Hazelwood begin the Blackout story arc, which runs through the other Superman books before concluding in the next issue of this comic, in Adventures of Superman 484 (Nov. 91).

Mr. Z is on the trail of his magical gemstone, and seeks out Emil Hamilton, after seeing press reports linking him to Superman.  He uses some mind-control on Hamilton, and learns about a helmet he has created to see through Superman’s eyes when Superman needs to work on something and Hamilton cannot be there.  Mr. Z alters the machine so that he can see into Superman’s mind.

Taking control of Superman, he sees that the hero has the gemstone in his Fortress, and together they leave to head there.

Once Mr. Z is gone, Emil regains control of himself.  Lois Lane gets involved, and together they figure out what Z’s plan is.  Emil thinks he can short out the helmet, but needs more power than he has.  They link into the main electrical grid.

But Emil’s plan backfires in so many ways.  Both Superman and Mr.Z are affected by the electrical charge, leaving them plummeting to Earth, while the entire city of Metropolis gets blacked out.

The story continues in the next issue of Action.

Adventures of Superman 480 – Krypton Man and Superman fight near the sun

The third chapter of the Krypton Man storyline takes place in the oversized Adventures of Superman 480 (July 1991), with a huge cast of artists.  And supporting characters, for that matter.  Jerry Ordway scripts, with pencils by Tom Grummett, Curt Swan, Jon Bogdanove, Jim Mooney, Art Thibert, Bob McLeod, and Dan Jurgens, and inks by Dennis Janke, Denis Rodier and Brett Breeding.

The Eradictor has formed a human-ish body (or I guess I should say, a Kryptonian-ish body), and is able to fight Superman toe to toe.

But their battle pretty much takes a back seat in this issue to the lives of the other characters.  Vinnie Edge has taken over as CEO of Galaxy Communications while his son Morgan is in prison, and makes a play for Cat Grant, who reluctantly goes along with it.

Jose has been looking after Adam, but gets mugged and dragged away while the two are in the park.  Adam has no idea what to do, and winds up leaving a panicked phone message for his mother.

Ron Troupe makes his debut, though it is not a really impressive one. He comes to the Planet looking for a job, but is fobbed off by Foswell, who has been working as editor while Perry White and his wife are on the Caribbean cruise with the Kents.  The cruise itself is suffering from dangerous seas, a result of the Krypton Man’s climactic manipulations.

Emil Hamilton is at the Fortress, working on Mr. Z’s strange gemstone.  He decides to try out the Kryptonian battle suit for some entertainment.

Krypton Man gets the best of Superman, hurling him into the sun and coming down to Earth.

He announces that he is here to teach humans about the superior ways of Kryptonians.  He callously murders soldiers in a tank as he refashions the machine into a statue of Lincoln-as-Kyptonian, and does the same thing with a Big Belly Burger sign, referring to it as the “food god,” which I particularly enjoyed.

Jose has been kidnapped by a crippled gang member who wants to know his secret for being able to walk again.  Jose has no patience for these fools.

Superman eventually makes it back to Earth, but is exhausted.

While the Krypton Man senses someone not Kryptonian in the Fortress, and is incensed to see Hamilton in the battle suit.

The story concludes in the next issue of Action.

 

Adventures of Superman 471 – Sinbad takes on Luthor

The Sinbad storyline continues from the previous issue of Superman in the story by William Messner-Loebs, Curt Swan and Dennis Janke in Adventures of Superman 471 (Oct. 90).

Luthor is becoming quite ill, and racked with pain from his kryptonite poisoning.  But that does not lessen his general evilness.

Davood’s sister insists that if he returns the belt that gives him his Sinbad powers and explains the situation, all will be well with Luthor.  She tries to do this, only to find Luthor intends to keep her and torture her for information.  Sinbad bursts in, wearing the real belt, and frees his sister.

But now Luthor knows who has the belt, and plans to play up Sinbad as a Quraci terrorist.

Superman really doesn’t get to do much at all in this chapter.

The story concludes in the next issue of Action.

Adventures of Superman 454 – Superman enslaved, and Luthor feels no joy

The weekly order of the Superman books alters with this issue, which follows upon the last one, rather than coming after the latest issue of Superman.

Adventures of Superman 454 (May 1989) begins as Superman wakes up on the slave ship, getting pawed by various alien creatures.  Once again, this story is all Ordway.

Back on Earth, Morgan Edge drives Cat Grant and Adam back to Metropolis.  He is very concerned about the Intergang exposes, and wonders how Clark can still be filing stories if he is dead.  He asks Cat to use her contacts at the Daily Planet to find out who is Kent’s source.

Matrix arrives in Metropolis, dressed as Clark Kent.  He runs into Bibbo, who is not as dumb as he appears.  He does not recognize Matrix as Clark, but does recognize him as Superman.

As the issue ends, Superman is hauled before the master of the slave ship, Mongul, making his post-Crisis debut.

The story continues in Action Comics Annual 2.

Lex Luthor triumphs in this chapter of the Stern, Jurgens and Janke story, though the people at STAR Labs do all they can to fend him off.

They even approach Morgan Edge about making a counter bid, but he plans to make money selling Luthor the vast amount of STAR Labs stock he has bought, and turns them down.

STAR winds up selling off a psionics facility to get money to buy up their own stock, at which point Luthor pulls his bid, leaving Edge with stock whose value is now plummeting.  But STAR was unaware that the firm they sold the labs to was really a shell corporation for Lexcorp, and was the one thing he wanted from them all along.

But he is not really happy to have won. It was no challenge, and with Superman gone, he wonders if he will ever face a real challenge again.

Adventures of Superman 453 – Superman’s oxygen deprived hallucinations, and Luthor expresses an interest

Superman travails in space are more interesting in Ordway’s Adventures of Superman 453 (April 1989), which also contains the second chapter of the Lex Luthor solo story, continued from the last issue of Superman.

On Earth, Matric has been listening to Ma and Pa Kent worry about how to cover Clark’s absence, and shape shifts (quite painfully it appears) into Clark’s form.

In space, Superman is unaware that his oxygen supply got damaged, and he is severely lacking air.  He hallucinates his various enemies taking joy in his current situation, and later sees his Superman and Clark Kent sides battling for dominance.

He passes out near the end of the tale, and is hauled aboard a passing space ship.

In the Lex Luthor story, by Roger Stern, Dan Jurgens and Dennis Janke, rumours spread about Luthor’s intent to take over STAR Labs.

The people who run STAR really do not want Lex in charge, and are also puzzled as to why he would even want them, when he already owns facilities that largely duplicate those of STAR Labs.  Perry White wonders what Luthor is up to, Emil Hamilton, who has been working with STAR, is enraged, and Morgan Edge plots to benefit from it somehow.

As the issue ends, Luthor shows up at the stock exchange to make a bid for STAR Labs stock, and the market goes wild.

This story continues in the next issue of Superman.

Adventures of Superman 452 – Superman vs the Word Bringer

Dan Jurgens joins Dennis Janke as the Word Bringer, from Annual 1, comes back in Adventures of Superman 452 (March 1989).

Superman comes across the Word Bringer’s ship, with its row upon row of brains.  Superman cannot convince Word Bringer that he is doing anything wrong, he still feels that “union,” as he calls it, is in the best interests of those he collects.  Superman does learn that he was not actually responsible for the deaths back in Trudeau, that the brains had knocked him out to prevent him from stopping them from turning their life support off telepathically.  Lois Lane, back on Earth, has stumbled across the town of Trudeau, being kept secret by the military.

Morgan Edge continues to romance Cat Grant, and gives Adam expensive toys.  As Cat seems quite impressed, Edge begins to open up about his activities outside GBS.

Back on the ship, Eon is the physical manifestation of the brains, and believes that Superman has a point.  He is more powerful than Word Bringer, and decides to no longer follow his orders.  They will continue to harvest brains, but only of those dying and/or willing.  Superman has little choice but to go along with it.  And presumably that is what happens, as we never see Eon or Word Bringer again.

Adventures of Superman 450 – Superman says goodbye

Ordway and Janke touch on Invasion! in Adventures of Superman 450 (Jan. 89), but the main thrust of the story deals with events from the Superman books themselves.

The story picks up immediately after the previous issue of Superman, as the Guardian rips open Gangbuster’s costume, discovering that he is really Superman.  Superman is just as surprised about this as the Guardian, he had no awareness of his alternate identity.

Jose Delgado finds out that Lois Lane’s feelings towards him are not as romantic as his for her.  His displeasure at the situation prevents him from paying attention to her warnings about his new legs.

So it’s doubly crushing when Delgado discovers that Lois was right all along, and Luthor’s people are in complete control of his implants.  Jose Delgado will now be Lex Luthor’s bodyguard, whether he wants to be or not.

Cat Grant’s subplot continues, as Morgan Edge invites her and her son for a weekend in the country.  But Cat seems a bit more concerned about a letter she needs to mail.

Fearing what he might do now that he knows about his split personality, Superman decides to leave Earth.  He lets Perry White know that he is taking time off to work on his Intergang expose, and leaves a bundle of articles with Ma and Pa Kent, to be mailed at intervals.  He had visited Emil Hamilton earlier in the issue, getting an oxygen supply, and a mini-teleporter that allows him “small” jumps through space.  As Matrix looks on, he kisses Lana Lang goodbye, and flies off.

The last couple of panels show the explosion of the meta-gene bomb, which leads into Invasion! 3.  This was neatly done.  Superman does take part in the final installment of that crossover series, but his own books simply follow him into space.