That makes so much more sense to me, and (if you're correct) I can absolutely see how the creators could conflate those events in hindsight, or even just purposefully compact them for a more concise anecdote.




Oh, I firmly believe that was exactly it. In 1990, once the Superman Office found its footing in the wake of abruptly losing its head writer for a second time, there was a very clear agenda to compete with the Batman Office for top sales, beginning with Day of The Krypton Man, continuing into Dark Knight Over Metropolis, then Soul Search, then Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite, and so on and so on WHILE killing off Jerry White, having Clark pop the question, and having Luthor die, all without advance warning.

I have to think the goal was to draw readers in with such sensationalism and then scale down to just telling quality stories once folks were hooked, but they never hit the level of success they were looking for. Even when Superman: The Man of Steel #1 rocked the sales charts in 1991, it didn't translate into a substantial bump for the rest of the Superman titles.



Except that he leaked the Death of Superman in advance and was doing interviews left and right, whereas (to the best of my knowledge) no one knew Luthor was going to die until it happened. He may not have expected the level of reaction he got upon announcing it, but he certainly had some sense that this was going to be huge prior to the actual issue hitting stands.

That being said, DC was off of everyone's radar by this point, so his sales projections might still have been modest compared to what he got. I think Panic in The Sky was a very humbling moment for Carlin, the Superman Office, and DC in general.



Could have been a more flippant response intended for the readers, not the journalists. In that respect, he wasn't wrong.

I'd say the wedding is a good place to stop, as the 'conclusion' to the will they/won't they arc for Lois and Clark. Stopping there also ends it before the whole electrical powers schtick begins.

Superman #71 (September 1992)



"Evil's Pawn"

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

Grade: D


So much of the beauty of the 1990 Superman Office was the thrill of their discovering that, with three monthly titles, they could churn out major, multi-part events practically every month and, with a supportive editor looking to generate sales in their corner, they could shake things up within those storylines as much as they pleased.

Now, two years later, we're feeling the inevitable backlash from this: four issues of content (six if you want to count the loosely related and equally worthless vampire storyline before this) that are forgettable, incomprehensible, and largely inconsequential. Every comic book line has its filler issues that aren't up to snuff, but when this office falters, its a major multi-issue disappointment.

The story itself feels...arbitrary. They just seem to be making things up as they go. Here, Satannus is suddenly evil, and I'm not sure why nor when Superman decided this:



He and Blaze are fighting for control of a dimension and all the souls in it, I guess, except Blaze also wants the Newstime Staff, except hadn't we established repeatedly in the previous issue that she was just using them to get Superman's soul (which doesn't seem to interest her at all here)?

Once again, we're shown that Superman's powers don't work in this dimension...



...except that all of his powers other than flight apparently do?

And don't get me started with why the hell this is the climax of the storyline:



nor why it causes this to happen:



nor why Blaze WANTS to go through the portal Satannus created to the ordinary world.



Weren't they both trying to claim the dimension they're now trying to leave up to this point?

This is some serious "winging-it" nonsense that might get a pass in a single, stand-alone story, but when you've taken eighty eight pages and $5 of an adolescent's spending money (A LOT in 1992!), you owe them a little more than this.


The few positives from this story include being reassured that Jerry White is definitely and truly gone, beyond even the reach of Hellish demons:


Jerry's "appearances" were just illusions concocted by Blaze.

this damn impressive moment for Perry White:



After all, we've just been reminded that this office unceremoniously killed of Jerry White two years back. While Supes, Lois, and Jimmy weren't going anywhere (just yet) who's to say that this wasn't going to be the true and final death of Perry White? For half a second, I was ready to believe it.

and (of course) the coining of the term "Fosgoyle":




I guess it's a big deal that Colin Thornton finally has a purpose in this franchise;



but I call foul on the implication that he was Satannus all along. After all, why would the guy looking to either steal Superman's soul or at least keep it from Blaze (I'm still confused on this matter) fire Clark Kent way back in Adventures of Superman #464, and why would an otherworldly demon who can posses people and seemingly amass limitless material gain for himself in such a way be distraught that his empire is crumbling due to lack of capital only four months back in Adventures of Superman #490?


from Adventurs of Superman #490

Sure seems like such a being wouldn't need to sell out to Lex Luthor. So either we're later going to be shown that Satannus only recently took over Thornton's life, or the Superman Office is just making up even more stuff as they go.


Important Details:

1. Confimed by Satannus that Jerry White is really, truly dead and in some sort of Heaven where he cannot be touched.

2. Collin Thornton IS Satannus.

3. Sam Fosworth's soul now belongs to Satannus (though I missed how/when that happened too!)





Minor Details:

1. Gotta love how, in a chapel full of Newstime employees AND Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry and Alice White, they're the only ones shown in most panels, the only ones who ever seem to talk or do anything, and, at the end, absolutely none of those faceless people in the background died or were even seriously injured when the chapel they were in was collapsing because a giant demon was wailing on it. Lazy.







2. Supergirl goes for a classic Kirby pose and ends up somehow turning her hand into a disjoined mound of mush.



Not sure whether that fleshy lack of linework is on Jurgens or on Breeding, but...eww.

Action Comics #681 (September 1992)



"Odds &...Endings"

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

Grade: A+


Well, it's taken long enough, but we finally have an issue that's reminding me what I love about this franchise. From a plotting perspective, it's just a further wrap up of the highly forgettable Blaze/Satannus War and a done-in-one story pitting two villains (well, one isn't a villain anymore, apparently) against each other, but it's the characterizations and small moments in between that make this one soar, like Perry composing the lead Daily Planet article along with the team as one big, functional work family:


Though (once again) where's poor Ron Troupe?


Supes and Maggie Sawyer just taking a moment to process some of the crazy they've experienced over the past few years:




and Lois being a perfect support to Clark:




as well as so many other human moments in this story that do nothing to further the plot and everything to make these characters feel real and lovable:



...and boy do Butch (Jackson) Guise's pencils help!


Speaking of Guise (whose artwork has really become the star of this title), I was concerned at first that we were going to see a repeat of the same problem we've seen from him a lot lately: namely that he can draw gorgeous everyday poses, seemingly from photos or models, but that he couldn't depict comic book action and extreme expressions to save his life. We certainly begin to see that here:




...or, more specifically, here:



Please note that's the same woman from two images earlier!

but he pulls out of this rut and draws a few really dynamic moments after (with some significant help from Rodier):








Seriously, with Stern writing this well, and Guise overcoming pretty much his only weakness as an artist, this book is comic gold!


Now, for those that don't know or remember Rampage, she began as a forgettable Byrne villain waaaay back in Superman #7. Back then, Kitty Faulkner was a low level scientist working on a project that she felt was unethical. As punishment for trying to expose the lead scientist, he caused her to be transformed into, essentially, an orange Incredible Hulk. The true bad guy was stopped, Kitty was cured, end of story. But then, only two issues after Byrne departed from the office, seemingly without warning nor plan for the franchise without him, Roger Stern revisited Kitty and made her into a complex and sympathetic character, dying as a result of her experience, and fearful of seeking a cure that could cause her to become Rampage again. Perhaps most notably, by the end of the story (in which the evil scientist returns to manipulate her once again), there was some evidence that Rampage, once calmed from the shock (and perhaps outrage) of her transformation, had some level of self-control and intelligence:



Superman describes her as "quite lucid," though whether he means Kitty is fully aware or merely functioning at Hostes fruit Pie ad Hulk levels was never really explored because Kitty goes on to make further appearances after that, always as a recovered scientist putting her life back together, and never again as Rampage now that no one was controlling her externally. In Adventures of Superman #450, she is working for STAR Labs alongside Prof. Hamilton, and she then goes on to play a key supporting role in the Will Payton Starman title (note: also written by Roger Stern) in Phoenix, Arizona, still as Dr. Kitty Faulkner.

And now, in the wake of the Will Payton Starman title being cancelled five months earlier, Roger Stern has Dr. Faulkner return to Metropolis, now as the lead director of the new STAR Labs overseeing its reconstruction in the wake of Armageddon 2001. It's a really uplifting move, seeing this character rise back up from a character who was used, abused, and left for dead as much by John Byrne as by her previous employer, to someone who has built back her life better than ever through tireless resilience.



And the growing friendship between Kitty and Lois in these pages is so positively endearing, as well. About time Lois had a life outside of Clark (though I suppose Clark could use a few friends who aren't Jimmy Olsen nor a half-mad scientist, himself).

Anyway, while experiencing all of this for the first time, with the cover of the issue firmly in mind, I couldn't help but grimace. Goddamn, they were going to pull another Lana Lang and tear this woman back down by having her turn into Rampage again...but no.

She does it herself.



In the midst of an emergency, she makes the conscious choice to become Rampage again and, best yet, she is fully in control of herself as Rampage this time, more Jennifer Walters than Bruce Banner.



In fact, she and Superman playing baseball with Hellgrammite's body might be the most fun this franchise has been in over a year!



Really, the awful name and costume aside, I'd be all set to buy a Rampage solo series by this point, except that Stern keeps the character real: this is who Kitty needs to be in an emergency, but it isn't who she really wants to be:



and I respect that choice, though I can't help but think they're missing out on a profitable new character, here. I wonder if they pitched it to Carlin for the up aboves and were told no? Either way, I'm VERY glad Kitty will be playing a role in the supporting cast going forward and have no doubt we will see Rampage again. Sure the resemblance to Marvel's She-Hulk is clear, but the characterization and tone are very different; I truly like Kitty Faulkner better.


As for Hellgrammite, he's finally turning into a character too. His previous appearances have been forgettable at best, his characterization completely vague. So, while I still have no idea what his actual powers are beyond his ability to regenerate extremely slowly, Stern makes the unusual choice to play Hellgrammite both as a terrifying, methodical psychopath:



and as the butt of the joke, totally ineffective once again:



though I'm still left wondering what a guy like this is going to do with the millions of dollars in payment he is demanding from Markahm. Assuming he even has the ability to launder that kind of money successfully, how is he going to spend it? Weird dude with a giant tail just setting up residence in Beverly Hills? Even if he wants to build a high tech lab with the money, does he have the connections to make those purchases? I'd love to see him get the payment in cash, understand that it cost Markham everything, and then just burn it all because he's that crazy, but I doubt the Superman Office is giving his motive that much consideration.


Important Details:

1. Kitty Faulkner is the new Director of the newly rebuilt STAR Labs and now has total control as her alter ego, Rampage.

2. Hellgrammite has slow regenerative powers (it took days for him to regenerate the end of his tail from his previous encounter with Superman), and his backstory has not changed from the Pre-Crisis Brave and The Bold #80.



Minor Details:

1. Remember how it was implied two issues back that (miraculuously) absolutely no one was injured during the Blaze/Satannus War?


from Superman #71


Well someone apparenly forgot to tell that to Stern:



Enjoy that guilt-free malt, Jimmy.


2. I'm wondering if this is the first time we've heard Art Bailey's traffic report, as well as mention of radio station Q-96.



Sure seems like the kind of thing this office would keep bringing back.


3. It's kind of a big deal that Stern has just decided the events of Brave and The Bold #80 (from 1968!) went down pretty much exactly the same way in the Post-Crisis:



I'm not going to go back and examine the issue closely, but it's safe to say that was a very different Pre-Crisis Batman. Sure, it was Bob Haney writing, so there probably weren't any connections made to any continuity occuring in the core Batman titles of the time, but that's still a pretty reckless move to declare an entire 1968 DC comic book still "happened" in the Post-Crisis, especially when it would have been so damn easy to just recreate the Hellgrammite's backstory for the Post-Crisis in half a page.


4. For ages and ages, this office teased that there was something suspicious about the new director of STAR Labs, and now I guess that idea is totally abandoned. No mention whatsoever of a previous director in all of Kitty's explanations about the new job, here:



Incidentally, that's Hellgrammite in the air vent, not the shadowy old director.


5. Poor Jimmy Olsen (who I otherwise cannot stand) has been torturing himself over what happened to Clark Kent since the beginning of the Blaze/Satannus War, and you've got to love how Lois and Superman keep gaslighting him over making such a big deal about Clark likely being lost in a weird dimension full of Satannic demons:



I seriously don't understand why they can't just tell him at this point. Superdickery in the Post-Crisis Era.


6. Please tell me this moment means Supergirl is going to take on a secret identity.



I'm a huge Supergirl fan, and I really like how Matrix is developing into that hero in this title, even with her blind spot for Lex Luthor II.


7. And, speaking of Supergirl, do Stern and Guice have some sort of exclusive control over her at this point? I feel like we only see her in this title ever since the culmination of Panic in The Sky.


8. Sam Foswell doesn't remember that he was a demon nor that Satannus (disguised as Colin Thornton) is really controlling him, and no one other than Superman knows that Foswell was a demon in the first place.


9. I still don't buy that Thornton was always Satannus and hope we'll see an explanation for this down the road.

Superman #72 (October 1992)



"Rage" (Crisis At Hand, Part 2)

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


Grade: A++


In spite of my fears last issue, this one certainly did not fail in bringing "Crisis At Hand" to a powerful close. Inevitably, Dan Jurgens was the right person with whom to entrust this story. For three years now, he's been using Superman Christmas stories to advance awareness of social issues, and the stories/messages have always been powerful and memorable. But this one is bigger than a stand-alone holiday tale, tying directly into Superman's origin/development as a hero three full months before we'll be seeing any mention of Christmas in these pages. Here, Jurgens shows us how a tragic miscalculation from Superman's past forced him to start using his head in addition to his fists:



as well as the importance of trusting the system and not taking matters into his own hands:



In some ways, this is very similar to what Jurgens did with his 1991 Christmas story, "Face To Face With Yesterday", where a poor decision on young Clark's part results in our seeing his moral compass begin to develop on panel:




It's powerful and utterly human to show Clark repeatedly faced with difficult decisions, failing to make the right call, and developing as a hero in response. Jurgens may not be my favorite writer in this office, but in these moments I think he gets Superman best.

And I can't help but think this whole thing was Jurgens' baby. Everything that happened last issue was setup to get us to this point in which Clark knows he can't get involved in the domestic abuse occurring next door, but also knows he can't sit by and do nothing. it also gives Jurgens space to finally show us the end result of that early adventure in which he tried to threaten an abusive husband into leaving his wife alone:



Holy geez is that a powerful scene.

And so is what happens here, where the final moral seems to be that you can't get involved until the abused wants you to:



but then it's incredibly significant that it's Clark and Lois, two ordinary neighbors (and not Superman), that get involved and do something about it:



It's a powerful call to action for us all, and it doesn't shy away from the muddy complexities of such a situation either:





Heck, Jurgens even takes a page to explore the husband's perspective with serious realism:



How far we've come in this moment from the simplicity of that minor episode in Action Comics #1:




Brad Vancata is an up-and-comer at this point. From what I can tell, he'd only done a smattering of coloring for Marvel and inking for DC by this point, but Jurgens and/or Carlin let him do finishing art AND inks, and it really really works, right from the first page.



And even Glen Whitmore seems to get the importance of this story and turns in possibly his most striking work yet at the start of this story, where Clark is lost and in darkness, but Pa Kent help him gain insight just as the dawn approaches:



Just...wow.


Even Simonson managed to maintain consistency with someone else's story for once, as almost everything Jurgens writes here is an accurate summation of Simonson's script last issue:



...except the kids last issue definitely didn't look "hysterical" to me:



Oh well. Everything else lined up.



Important Details:

1. Clark and Superman's first meetings with Inspector Henderson both occurred as a result of the murder of the abused wife roughly a week into his dual career as Superman and reporter for the Daily Planet.




2. That murder taught Superman to use his brain more than his fists and to prioritize the law over his own sense of right and wrong.



Minor Details:

1. Okay, so for three years now, I've been tracking the appearances of Clark's neighbor, Andrea, who the writers seemed to have big plans for and then abruptly forgot about until she resurfaced recently, but a lot more than Andrea's appearance has changed in that time.

Andrea three years ago:


from Adventures of Superman #457


Andrea now:


from Adventures of Superman #493


Back then, Andrea was implied to be single, and the letters page was strongly hinting she was a potential future love interest for Clark. Here, she has adolescent children, suggesting she's been married for well over a decade. More significantly, her full name (as of Adventures of Superman #465) was Andrea McElroy, but here her husband's last name is Johnson, and there's just no way that guy would have allowed his wife to keep her maiden name. So have Carlin and the writers just been careless, or is this an entirely different neighbor at this point?


2. Once again, I can't get enough of Clark and Lois' relationship, especially as it realistically acknowledges how his powers affect their everyday life together:




3. And I absolutely cannot believe they brought back this running gag from ages back:



"Six-fifty" was a running joke that began in Action Comics #650 in which an alien driving a cab on the cover proclaims, "That'll be six-fifty, pal", presumably in honor of the anniversary issue number. It was then the exact cab fare in these stories countless times afterward, regardless of destination, until the cover price went up to a dollar and so, as a final joke, the cab fare went up as well. Only in the Superman Office is such attention paid to past continuity that a flashback inevitably has to incorporate an old and long-since-forgotten running gag in the office.

A very powerful storyline indeed.  

I don't have much to add since I think you've covered things extremely well here, but a few points which stand out at me:


"While I personally would have handed it to anyone other than this office's weakest writing and penciling team, Weezy and Boggy manage to do a great job with it, anyway."

I think that Bogdanove's Superman with his ballooned up physique made him the best artist to set-up the "I was going to save the world, right all wrongs" approach outlined in part one before Jurgens with his more down to Earth rendering came in with the second half to deflate that guy.  Plus, seeing as how Bogdanove has been injecting little Wayne Boring/Al Plastino flourishes into his work since day one, it would have been odd to have passed the squinty-eyed Superman flashback to Action Comics #1 assignment on to someone else.  


Speaking of that flashback...

There's a part of me that bristles at the revelation that the wifebeater Superman kicks around in that flashback later murdered his wife.  There's a much larger part of me that agrees with Jurgens taking this direction since it underscores the fact that good intentions can only accomplish so much, but still, I'm not so sure that the homage was necessary.  "Wow, Dan - that was an incredibly affecting story you just told.  I gotta say - seeing Superman screw up like that so badly early in his career hit me like a ton of bricks."  "Hey don't blame me for that - blame Siegel and Shuster!"

On the other hand, it does finally merge the spirit of the original Superman with his Post-Crisis incarnation if only to make an argument for why that guy can't stick around.  A Superman who'll grab the Mayor by the scruff of his neck, take him to the morgue, and force him to stare into the faces of people killed by drunk drivers allowed to act with impunity is going to be hunted by the police day and night and not starring in the stories this team wants to tell, but it's nice to get confirmation that that guy is still inside him somewhere.


"Just checked: six issues 'til Doomsday..."

With The Death of Superman leading into Funeral for a Friend leading into a brief hiatus leading into Reign of the Superman...  I'm worried that Andrea Johnson is going to be forgotten about.  Not that I expect a sequel to happen, but will the team remember that Clark and Lois should be checking up on her from time to time or does that get swept under the rug what with the distraction those major events will have upon this little two-parter six weeks away from Doomsday?

This inadvertently reminds me that it was only a few months earlier when Clark explained to Lois that To Kill A Mockingbird was the book that shaped him most. So righting injustice has always been central to who he is, but Atticus Finch isn't able to strong arm; he was to work within the system and accept that system even when it fails to bring justice by the close.

Thanks for the information about this alternate take. I may need to check it out.