It's odd, isn't it? I mean, I'm fine with the de-powering. It makes sense. But these ACW covers attempt to portray a more "classic" feel in their treatment of Superman, so depicting him with a reto feel but at his current power levels is an odd combo.

I've never agreed with the de-powering. I like my Superman to do anything and everything.

But the debate of pre-Crisis vs post-Crisis is something for another day. 

I'm so with you on Action #592/593, but liked Superman 9 fine and very much liked the back-up (possibly helped by having read it before I'd ever heard any hype).

Superman #29



"If This Be My Fate"
writer/pencils: Dan Jurgens
inks: Brett Breeding
letters: John Costanza
coors: Glenn Whitmore
asst. editor: Renee Witterstaetter
editor: Mike Carlin
plot assist: Jerry Ordway

grade: B-


A filler issue of sorts as Jurgens takes over in order to give Stern, Gammill, and (next week) Ordway a break after scrambling to pick up the pieces in the wake of Byrne's abrupt departure (the letter column in this issue again confirms that the departure was abrupt).

There's a lot working in this one, and a lot that isn't. The art and somber tone are quite moving, and Jurgens definitely enjoys toying with the reader quite a bit, misdirecting us to believe that Superman's Gangbuster persona may have emerged again to wipe out an entire planet Superman had recently visited ("A grim, haunting memory begins to gnaw its way to the surface of Superman's mind..."), and taking his time in allowing us to remember just what the heck happened in Trudeau, South Dakota (hint: Adventures of Superman Annual #1).

Along related lines, I love the effort made to respect continuity. I never expected anyone to return to the story of the Word Bringer, but I suppose it makes sense that people would eventually wonder where a whole town went, and using the end of that story, where the townspeople momentarily took control of Superman's brain in order to have him mercy kill them, as further ammunition for why Superman ended up with the dual Gangbuster persona, is brilliant. Additionally, I love that we can still clearly see the Daily Planet being rebuilt in the long aftermath of Invasion. Carlin is doing a hell of a job making all of this feel real and believable. It's amazing what he can accomplish now that Byrne is out of the way.

As for what isn't working, a lot of how Superman rescues that stranded spaceship in the beginning makes absolutely no sense. How would he know which circuits connect to life support if he can't even understand their language, why is the stellar mapping display still on when he returns to the alien if he disabled all non-life support systems, how do you restart a power core just by shooting energy into it, and how can even a genius like Superman calculate his throw exactly while in space and using an alien gravitational constant in throwing a space ship at a nearby sun so that it will swing around the sun and break its orbit? Just a lot of silly conveniences, even while Jurgens takes amazing pains to explain it all and make it seem believable.

Finally, what are the chances that Lois would be investigating the Word Bringer's attack from a year ago just as Superman stumbles upon his latest attack deep in space?


Essentially, I love what Carlin is doing as editor here, and I think Jurgens did a decent job considering the demands of creating a multi-part filler story on the fly.



plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:

Superman rescues a stranded astronaut from the planet he'd recently visited, repairs his ship, and sends him on his way, returns to the planet and finds it devoid of life, Lois is unable to bare Clark having been murdered (so everyone believes) and thus accepts an assignment to investigate the disappearance of the entire town of Trudeau, South Dakota, she figures out that the disappearance was caused by an alien and gets the scoop on The Word Bringer from the presiding military officer stationed there while Superman (conveniently enough) figures out that the Word Bringer was also responsible for the disappearance of the entire planet he'd recently visited, so Superman pursues the Word Bringer and enters his ship, only to find it lined with countless abducted alien brains. To be continued.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, I think I knew this, but I'd long since forgotten.

Thanks for the reminder!

I always took the memory line to be referring to the AoS annual, I never got the impression it was a Gangbuster tease (considering we've been with Supes since he left and he was seemingly light years away...).

I agree with the Lois investigation being a bit eye-rollingly conveniently timed, but have no issue with the super-genius who can scan a ship with x-ray vision and such figuring out how to fix it or a nav-com having a back-up power source.