shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 17, 2014 12:43:00 GMT -5
Superman #7
"Rampage!"
writer/pencils: John Byrne
inks: Karl Kesel
colors: Tom Ziuko
letters: John Costanza
editors: Michael Carlin & Andrew Helfer
grade: C-
It wasn't all that long ago that I was praising Byrne for continuing to plan long term for this franchise, never just settling for what complication to introduce in order to sell the next issue. However, I have to say that this issue absolutely felt like the opposite. For the first time in seven months, there's truly nothing new brewing. We have a one shot villain and no larger threats looming in the horizon. A quick reference to a "Cletus Powel" (who I'm sure will show up in a future issue) aside, there's nothing going on. Wolfman's "The Circle" won't be showing up in these pages, Luther is out of the picture for now, and nothing else is going on. I'm bored and suddenly not excited to continue with the franchise. I sincerely hope this feeling won't last. No matter what, I'm in it for the Jurgens/Ordway team-up coming later down the road, but I'd hate to have to push through the Byrne issues with TOTAL reluctance.
Important details:
- First appearance of Alice, a researcher at the Daily Planet. Byrne gives her unwarranted attention for several panels in this issue, suggesting she's coming back later.
- First post-Crisis appearance of Dan Turpin.
Minor details:
- Love that Byrne gave this issue a truly interesting and science-based sci-fi premise, but the super excelerated algae turned wild feels a little too much like the mutant bacteria concept from the most recent issue of Action. This isn't the first time Byrne has repeated a premise recently used in a different Superman book, but at least last time he was borrowing from Wolfman, not himself.
- The Daily Planet sends a lone reporter to check out high profile stories without a crew or even a photographer?
- Why would Superman try to reach Wonder Woman as Clark Kent? I have to imagine he'd get further by flying to Boston and asking for leads on her as Superman. And, again, not psyched about the whole Clark-having-the-hots-for-Diana thing anyway.
- How many times is Superman going to claim that he's never been hurt this badly by a villain's punch before? This time, he claims not to have been hurt so badly since he faced the proto Bizzaro in Man of Steel #5, but what about Metallo (Superman #1), or The Host (last issue)? Metallo came closer to killing Superman than anyone, and The Host knocked him out for roughly a day. Proto Bizarro just punched hard.
- Seriously, Lois knows that there's a regular connection that, whenever Superman disappears, Clark does too. How long before this top investigative news reporter pieces it all together??
plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:
Lois is touring an experimental power generator that accelerates the life functions of amoebas to generate limitless energy, one of the scientists behind the project intentionally sabotages it to demonstrate how dangerous it truly is, Lois is presumably transformed into Rampage, a super powered being as a byproduct of having her own life functions accelerated by the facility's destruction, Clark is interrupted while trying to contact Wonder Woman when he learns of the devastation and arrives as Superman, they fight, it turns out Rampage is actually the female scientist from the facility and Lois is fine, Superman (somehow) absorbs the energy from Rampage into his own body (no, it didn't make any sense to me), returning her to her normal self, Superman goes off into storm clouds to discharge the extra energy and apparently goes missing for three days, Lois becomes suspicious that Clark has once more disappeared along with him, and a solicitation indicates that we'll learn next issue what happened over the course of those three days and that it involved the Legion of Superheroes.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 17, 2014 13:02:10 GMT -5
Adventures of Superman #430
"Homeward Bound!"
writer: Marv Wolfman
art: Jerry Ordway
letters: Albert DeGuzman
colors: Tom Ziuko
editors: Mike Carlin & Andy Helfer
grade: C
At the end of the previous issue, after being confronted with an awareness that Superman was far from 100% perfect 100% of the time, Clark decided to fly home to Smallville for advice and comfort. However, in this one, Wolfman has backtracked, providing Clark with a second reminder of this fact before sending him back to Smallville in the second act for a Super pep talk.
Again, I like what Wolfman is trying to do here. While Byrne has tried to emphasize Superman's de-powering on a physical (and sometimes intellectual) level, Wolfman is having more fun providing him with real world fallibility. Last issue, he deluded himself into believing he was doing the right thing while abusing his authority as Superman for personal reasons. This time, he's finding it impossible to remain effective and responsible as both Superman and Clark Kent, losing the respect of Perry White and finding himself bested in battle a bit too easily as well.
Still, Pa's pep talk didn't do much for me. It was too easy, and didn't really offer any fresh perspective or answer that reassured me of the doubts Clark himself was facing. Superman returns to Metropolis rejuvenated and with a new-found sense of purpose, but I don't buy it. Is this going to fix his reputation as Clark Kent or keep him from ultimately getting fired? Is this going to help him reconcile his dual roles better or manage his time more effectively? It was little more than a cheer-up speech, and not a great one at that.
Beyond that, this marks the first post-Crisis appearance of the Fearsome Five, but, coming from the pages of the New Teen Titans (which, I believe, was the only major DC superhero title not to be rebooted Post-Crisis, I presume due to complexities surrounding rebooting Dick Grayson, the overwhelming former success of the title, and the fact that Marv Wolfman was heavily involved in making the call) there's a clear sense that this is a team with a long continuity, referring to previous members that appeared pre-Crisis. This team has not been rebooted, and, if I can trust Wikipedia on this, it doesn't appear again after this until Outsiders #6 in 2004.
Finally, Wolfman makes a clear effort to maintain a sense of co-existence amongst the Superman titles in this issue, even while each is now functioning largely independently from one another, when he has Superman recap his busy week, depicting the events of Action Comics #589 as having happened on Tuesday (but wait, Action #589 immediately followed the events of #588,m yet we saw no Thanagarians mentioned on Monday...), the events of Superman #7 as having happened on Thursday, and even going so far as to suggest something equally big occurred on Friday ("And you don't even want to know what happened on Friday,") giving the sense that, far from being excessive, three monthly titles for following The Man of Tomorrow isn't even enough to capture it all. A cute little gesture, Marv.
All in all, as usual, I didn't love this issue, but I respected the ideas behind it. Wolfman never feels like a complete writer to me, but he's a fantastic character-centered idea man in need of a George Perez to round his ideas out into something a little more interesting.
Minor Details:
- Why is the cop on page 5 so surprised that Superman got defeated? Apparently, he hasn't been noticing that Supes gets his butt handed to him in just about every one of these post-Crisis adventures.
- A little numbers checking. It's Ma and Pa Kent's 48th anniversary. They found Clark 28 years prior to the current date of this issue, meaning they'd already been married for 20 years when they found him. Let's assume they got married young (as was more common in rural areas in the first half of the 20th century) -- say 16 to 18 years old at the time. That puts them in their late 30s when they find Clark, so the idea that they led everyone to believe Martha was Clark's birth mother is a little atypical, but certainly possible. It also explains why, in the current day, they appear elderly but still fully physically independent, as they should now be in their mid 60s.
- Why doesn't Clark just freelance as a reporter if he has no plan for how to keep his assignment commitments? How can he responsibly accept an assignment to interview the president on a certain date, fully aware there's a significant chance that he won't show? How would that make The Daily Planet look???
- Why do we keep getting so many D-list villains in these titles when Superman has a perfectly good rogues gallery that we're not making use of? Where's Brainiac, Toyman, the REAL Bizarro, etc? Maybe it's the desire to provide a believable explanation for where all these super villains come from. Byrne has given up on trying to show that all his villains come from Luther, but Wolfman is still trying to tie everything back to The Circle. I wonder how long he's going to keep that going for. It's certainly more intriguing and a bit more respectful to our intelligence than all the random circumstances that keep providing Byrne with antagonists.
- What is Wolfman trying to do with Lana Lang? Why feature her so heavily at the end of this issue as someone without her own life who's just there to help out on a moment's notice? Is he trying to build a second supporting cast for Clark in Smallvile (perhaps explaining his need to have Clark address "Dave" by name every other dialogue bubble so that we'd get to know the guy)? Ma, Pa, Lana, and "Dave"...Yeah, not a cast of characters I can see myself getting attached to.
- No Lois Lane in this issue. Especially odd since her reaction to Clark missing so many deadlines would seem critical here. Is Wolfman forbidden from using Lois in the same way that he's been totally hands off with Luther since the first issue?
Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:
Superman is fighting the Fearsome Five (complete with two new members), we learn that Clark has been missing many of his assignments due to Superman emergencies and that his reputation at the Planet is hurting as a result, the Fearsome Five are fighting amongst themselves as the new members want to kill Superman while the originals do not want to commit murder, Clark plans his parents' anniversary party but fails to attend when the Fearsome Five attack again, he finally gets there after the party and gets a pep talk from Pa Kent, he flies back to Metropolis with a newfound sense of purpose and kicks the Five's butts, also figuring out that the two new members are working for someone else, and this proves to be The Circle working behind the scenes once again, Superman defeats them all, and Clark gets the exclusive story, suggesting that things just might work out after all.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 17, 2014 13:03:14 GMT -5
Action Comics #590
"Better Dying Through Chemistry"
writer/penciler: John Byrne
inks: Dick Giordano
letters: John Costanza
colors: Tom Ziuko
editors: Michael Carlin & Andrew Helfer
Superman created by: Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
grade: D
Back in the Atom and Silver Ages, superhero comics were chock full of unbridled imagination. Anything a writer or artist could dream up was fair game as long as it was full of action and resulted in a compelling cover. Of course, as comic book readers began to age and mature, comics were expected to do the same. In the Bronze Age, we saw creators move further and further away from these absurd storylines, and, upon reaching the Copper Age, writers were often expected to offer detailed explanations for everything. Oftentimes, I believe this worked in fun ways and made our favorite heroes even more accessible to us, as well as exciting and new again, as a result. But, I think it's fair to say that John Byrne's approach to Superman encapsulates a lot of the worst of this trend -- offering full blown Silver Age imaginative fancy in some of these stories, but attempting to provide excessive Copper Age explanations for this fancy that absolutely makes no sense.
Initially, I planned to detail each and every explanation Byrne created for this story, in which Chemo obtains Superman's powers and uses them to battle Superman and the Metal Men, but it just truly isn't worth it. So little about the explanations Byrne offered for how Chemo got the powers, how the Metal Men used their powers to try to stop him, and what finally defeated him, made any sense whatsoever. Granted, the Metal Men and Chemo are both concepts that probably don't make much sense to begin with (to be fair, I've read precious little of them), but then don't provide such detailed explanations as if they did.
This was a truly stupid story that had a small chance of being fun had Byrne just went with it and not tried so damned hard to make it make sense, but he did, and so it couldn't.
Important Details:
- Another attempt to make Superman's schedule function in real-time. In the previous issue of Adventures, Wolfman framed all of the previous month's stories into days of the week so that we could see that they were all part of the same continuity, even without maintaining any real continuity points amongst them. In this issue, published a week after that issue of Adventures, Superman notes that "it's been more than a week since any would be world-beater or super powered attitude-problem turned up in Metropolis."
- Superman's body efficiently processes one hundred percent of the food he eats, but how? If he isn't using it all for energy, where's the by-product? Does it all turn to muscle, and if so, wouldn't that make Superman absurdly and inefficiently muscular if he ate too much? Besides, how does Superman even develop muscle when his body is near-invulnerable? And isn't this processing-100%-of-what-he-eats thing further complicated by the fact that his cells function as solar batteries? Doesn't that mean he shouldn't need food at all in order to function? And, if he processed one hundred percent of the food he eats, doesn't that mean he never goes to the bathroom? Certainly, that would have been an issue for a young Clark Kent who didn't know he was an alien until he was 18 years old. Of course I'm thinking too much about this, but here's the problem again. Byrne ASKS us to think too much about these things and then offers explanations that make no damned sense.
Minor Details:
- So Lois has a reputation for being absurdly biased and hostile in her interviews, outright ignoring what the interviewee has to say or show? Why in the world did this unnamed chemical company invite her for an interview if, as the interviewee says, "I was warned Miss Lane might be somewhat hostile to our endeavors." Sorry, Byrne, but that's not journalism. I would have expected Lois to remain professional and open-minded and surreptitiously seek evidence to support her hypothesis, all while being open to the idea that she might be wrong.
- And yet neither she nor Clark find anything interesting about the fact that a safety rail on the catwalk over the vat of hazardous chemicals is faulty? Clark falls into the vat and, seeing as how he doesn't die right there and then, they just move on.
- And why would Perry send both of his top reporters for one story that Lois clearly wasn't going to take seriously anyway? Why not just send Clark? It could be rationalized that both were sent since Clark has been missing most of his recent assignments in the pages of Adventures of Superman, but I doubt Byrne was paying much attention to what Wolfman was doing in those pages.
- Do the Metal Men usually combine into a giant robot, or is this just another example of how it feels like Byrne has been watching a lot of Voltron lately (see the previous issue of Action Comics for another example)?
- Superman's solution at the end is to disperse the chemicals that were Chemo out into orbit. I seriously thought he'd learned in the previous issue of Action Comics that constantly throwing the remnants of his enemies out into space has potential consequences, but no, without even raising the question of whether something like chemo could survive out in space, he flings him there, says "That takes care of Chemo," and just forgets about it.
- The build-up in this issue for the Superman vs. Superboy battle building in a four part crossover with the Legion looks darn enticing, especially since Superboy's being removed from continuity was a major issue for fans of both Superman and the Legion in the Post-Crisis. Still, I've no intention of buying the Legion issues in order to follow this cross-over. I'll only be reviewing the chapters occurring in Superman #8 and Action #591 unless those stories clearly contain major gaps that would require me to obtain the other issues.
plot synopsis in one stupid sentence:
Clark falls in a vat of chemicals during an interview at a chemical plant, the chemicals contain Chemo from a parallel Earth prior to the Crisis (it's stupid; don't ask), this causes Chemo to obtain Superman's powers (it's stupid; don't ask), Chemo immediately appears at the HQ of the Metal Men for no apparent reason, Superman just happens to be flying by at the time, a lot of stupid explanations involving stupid abilities takes place as the stupid battle wages on, they find an entirely illogical way to shut down the powers that Chemo obtained in a completely illogical fashion (it's stupid; don't ask), Superman launches the chemical portion of Chemo out into space, and the Metal Men are left wondering why Doc Magnus is so grumpy, even unwilling to repair Tin, and what he's hiding on Sub-level 7 (it's probably stupid; I won't ask), though Byrne and Carlin/Helfer are unclear as to where we're supposed to go to find a continuation of this storyline, only stating that we should "Keep your eyes peeled for future! Metal Men announcements!" (yes, the mid sentence exclamation point was really there in the comic; I'm quoting accurately).
Stupid stupid stupid.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 17, 2014 13:25:22 GMT -5
Superman #8
"Future Shock"
writer/pencils: John Byrne
inks: Karl Kesel
colors: Tom Ziuko
letters: John Costanza
editors: Michael Carlin & Andrew Helfer
dedicated to the memory of Edmund Hamilton
grade: B
A pretty fun issue in which Byrne seems intent on accomplishing three things:
1. Giving new readers an introduction to the classic Legion
2. Clearing up some mysteries about how the Crisis has impacted post-Crisis continuity
3. Establishing interest in Cosmic Boy and the Legion in the post-Crisis continuity
Most importantly, with so much information to cover in 21 pages, we get a nice break from D-list villains, Superman being an idiot, getting his butt kicked, and/or getting uncomfortably interested in other women, and just about everything else Byrne usually does wrong. Even without having read Cosmic Boy, the Legion story this continues from, nor really ANY Legion story after Jim Shooter's time, this was a fun story that was pretty easy to follow, and it left us with questions that truly make me want to read the next Superman installment.
Important Details:
- This story continues in this month's Action Comics, but skips over this month's Adventures of Superman issue. Wolfman and Byrne really are working totally independent of each other at this point, aren't they? Feels a bit like mom and dad sleeping in separate beds. Anyone know if there was a story behind this? I can infer from all that we've seen that Byrne had near total control of the franchise (including its handling of Luther and Lois, neither of which are ever featured in Wolfman's stories even though Wolfman was responsible for the post-Crisis Luther's characterization), and that there is tension or at least an "agree to disagree" energy between the two, causing them to work entirely independently whereas they initially seemed to be collaborating extensively.
- Superman doesn't get hungry.
- Superman's super hearing extends at least to the size of Smallville, as he's able to hear something (though we're not quite sure what he heard the Legion doing) all the way "on the other side of Smallville."
- Confirmed that the Superman of this universe is de-powered when compared to the Pre-Crisis Earth One version. Thus, Superboy is much stronger than him.
- Confirmed that Ma and Pa Kent were significantly older in Pre-Crisis Earth One.
- Confirmed that Superman recalls the Crisis, the red skies, and meeting Superboy Prime. Of course, this still poses the problem that he didn't appear to remember being friends with Wonder Woman in the numerous instances in which he thought about her in previous issues.
Minor Details:
- As if Byrne didn't have Clark chasing enough tail and being enough of an idiot, this issue opens with him positively teasing Lana Lang, doing gruntwork for her with his shirt off (actually clutching a giant tree trunk between his legs in that opening panel) when he should know how lovesick she is for him after Man of Steel #6. And let's be clear -- Clark has no reason to take his shirt off. Pulling a tree out of the ground shouldn't take much effort for him.
- Clark claims his glasses are a hand-me-down from Pa Kent, and implies he's been wearing the same pair all along, but we've seen him lose his glasses or get them destroyed at least twice already (most recently in Superman #5). And, if the glasses he's wearing are someone's prescription glasses, wouldn't he have to change the lenses, or is he just constantly using his X-Ray vision through the prescription lenses? Once again, Byrne tries to explain an aspect of Superman and just makes it more complicated.
- It's a little disturbing when Byrne has Superman refer to the Invisible Kid as "The black kid." Yikes.
Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:
Clark is in Smallvile, helping Lana fix up her house and picnicking with his parents when the Earth One Legion of Superheroes show up in Smallville, Superman loses control over his heat vision and accidentally fires on them, they fight back, they ultimately decide they are on the same side, the Legion explains who they are and that they are from a different reality with a different Superman/boy, we get a recap of how Superboy met the Legion, as well as a brief recap of what's been happening in the Cosmic Boy and Legion titles, both Superman and the Legion appear to recall elements of the Crisis, and Superboy shows up, explaining that he must reluctantly kill the Legion members.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 17, 2014 19:52:29 GMT -5
Adventures of Superman #431
"They Call Him Doctor Stratos"
writer: Marv Wolfman
pencils: Erik Larson
inks: (various)
letters: Albert De Guzman
colors: Anthony Tollin
editors: Mike Carlin & Andy Helfer
grade: C-
There's a lot that's odd about this issue. Beyond the fact that, for whatever reason, this issue was clearly rushed, with a practically unheard of at the time Erik Larson assuming penciling duties and inking responsibilities being passed around to no less than nine artists at the DC Offices, I'm utterly bewildered by the introduction of Dr. Constantine Stratos in this issue. He was clearly set up to be a recurring villain, amassing super powers at the end of the issue and pledging:
"...and Stratos will return for his due. Not tomorrow or the next day, but it is inevitable!"
...well why not tomorrow or the next day? The dude is superhumanly tall and amped up with demonic powers. What the heck else is he going to do between now and whenever he can find time in his calendar to do bad guy stuff again? From what I can tell, this character never came back though. So why spend an entire issue establishing the character, evolving the character, and promising the character will return? Was this a Larson concept??
There's also the guy's name, which is utterly confusing. DC already has a Constantine, and (through the licensed Masters of the Universe properties) already has a Stratos. Plus, shouldn't a guy living in Greece trying to pass himself off as a god, fall under Wonder Woman territory?
So I find this concept confusing on so many levels.
On the plus side, I like seeing Wolfman give Superman more of a sense of humor in this issue, playfully bantering with his criminal prey. While the humor is unmistakably Wolfman's, I wonder if the idea to do this (and, perhaps, the concept for the entire issue) came from Larson. If anything, Wolfman's been working hard to make Superman darker and more troubled as of late, but I see none of that in this issue beyond a brief (and, perhaps, forced) reflection on his ideology late in the issue.
It's also worth noting that Lois' characterization in this issue is starting to feel a lot like what we saw in Mindy Newell's Lois Lane mini-series, with Lois building up walls against others and Cat Grant generally seeming to assume the role of the Pre-Crisis Lana Lang in terms of her relationship with Lois (trying to be a friend and not understanding that Lois resents her because she appears to be with Clark). Hmmmm. Is it possible this was a late pre-Crisis file story that was pulled out at the last moment, with Lana's name changed to Cat? I could see this as having been a story conceived of and penciled by Larson that was pulled out at the last minute for Wolfman to write dialogue for.
Overall, an entirely forgettable and oddly done issue. Not to say it was terrible; just unnecessary and puzzling.
Important Details:
-1st appearance of "Gopher," an archivist at the Daily Planet. Does this guy come back?
-1st appearance and mutation of Dr. Constantine Stratos, but he does not appear to ever come back.
-Superman's telescopic vision can see into orbit. This may also be the first mention of Superman's telescopic vision, though it seems like it's been used before. My notes are probably just lacking, here.
Minor Details:
- The portrayal of President Reagan here is ridiculously unflattering, playing up the age and the senility quite a bit. It seems that it was general practice in the Post-Crisis DCU to use fictitious presidents and world leaders (Batman's 10 Nights of the Beast and NKVDemon sequel being clear examples of this), and yet we've got Reagan and Gorbachev both featured for no apparent reason in this issue. They really don't add anything to the story other than providing a laugh at and criticism of Reagan as being inept and needing Superman to save the day.
- Did Superman destroy the Tower of London on page 13 in order to build a storm wall around the English parliament??
- Superman figures Constantine's satellite "must have some form of cloaking device to have avoided being detected this long," and yet the laboratory he placed in orbit in Superman #1, containing every useful bit of info about Superman's powers, weaknesses, and identity, is also in orbit, doesn't appear much larger, and has no such device. So, once again, I ask why no one has noticed this thing and why Superman isn't concerned about it?
- Superman even decides to take the time to dismantle Stratos' satellite at the end of this issue, but he's perfectly happy leaving the other one, containing all his secrets, floating out there for anyone to find.
- "AIEEEEE! I--I've been hit -- I'm DYING!!" Seriously, we're still writing dialogue like this in 1987?
plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:
Dr. Constantine Stratos, a man who believes he's a Greek God because he was found as a baby at the base of Mount Olympus, has passed himself off as such, has a band of unwilling followers, and is using his powers to create devastating freak weather patterns, Lois is growing cold to Clark and Cat Grant, Dr. Stratos makes demands of the president, causing the president to call Superman in, Gopher is digging up evidence for Cat Grant to use in her custody battle, we discover that Dr. Stratos has no actual powers and is using a secret laboratory and satellite to warp weather patterns, he throws intense weather at Superman, Superman perseveres, a bolt of lightening intended for Superman hits Dr. Stratos, and Stratos reappears days later, now as a mutated giant with his own super powers (which are implied to have come from Hell).
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 17, 2014 19:52:54 GMT -5
Action Comics #591
"Past Imperfect"
writer/pencils: John Byrne
inks: John Byrnes & Keith Williams
letters: John Costanza
colors: Tom Ziuko
editors: Michael Carlin & Andrew Helfer
Superman and Superboy created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
grade: B
In the end, it seems that the true purpose of this two parter was to complete John Byrne's reinvention of Superman while also allowing the Legion of Superheroes to remain a viable DC property. So the following occurs in this issue:
1. We learn that the Legion of Superheroes has come through the Crisis the same as any other Earth One DC franchise -- they are in the future of the regular Post-Crisis DCU. Yet they have held onto their Pre-Crisis legacy and are also still the team that was once led by Superboy due to #2...
2. We also learn (and this gets fuzzier) that the Legion's Superboy was NEVER the Superboy of Earth One, but rather a manipulated product of the Time Trapper's "Pocket Universe". Each time the Legion went back in time, they were going to the Pocket Universe. Therefore, the Post-Crisis Legion could still be led by Superboy up until this point, even though the Superman of the Post-Crisis era was never Superboy.
Of course, the regular Pre-Crisis Superboy and Superman titles made regular reference to his adventures with the Legion, and those didn't occur in the Pocket Universe, so that throws this whole idea into chaos. Perhaps the Time Trapper only thinks he was around since before the Crisis, and his "Pocket Universe" has only existed since that time??
3. Finally, The Pocket Universe Krypto needlessly (and entirely illogically) subjects himself to Gold Kryptonite in this issue, thus reverting into a normal dog, and (as dupersuper has now informed me) Superboy is going to bite the big one in the Legion's next issue, so the chalkboard is wiped free. The Legion continues, Superboy and Krypto DID team up with them, but those characters and their universe have been neatly removed. Byrne wins.
That being said, this wasn't a bad issue. Byrne drawing Krypto's face like a rat/rabbit aside, I liked Superman meeting the Pre-Crisis/Pocket Universe Ma and Pa Kent, as well as his reconciliatory hug with the Pre-Crisis/Pocket Universe Superboy. It's at least as moving as I've seen Byrne's work get thus far, though it's certainly not tear-worthy content.
Nothing else I found particularly note-worthy about this issue. Just a relatively good story that accomplished what Byrne and DC needed it to. Granted, without knowing the fine details of the plot (explained in the Legion issues) it's a lot easier to not be critical of Byrne's plotting. I wonder if Superboy's being able to change his mind so easily makes any sense if you actually know what the Time Trapper has done to control him (I don't).
Plot synopsis in one sentence:
Superman pursues Superboy back to his own reality, we learn that Superboy's Earth is an artificially created "Pocket Reality" manipulated by the Time Trapper in order to shape Superboy into the instrument of his final victory, Superman talks Superboy out of helping the Time Trapper after Krypto needlessly sacrifices himself to become a normal dog, and Superboy and the Legion go off to fight the final battle against the Time Trapper.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 17, 2014 19:55:07 GMT -5
Superman Annual #1
"Tears for Titano"
script: John Byrne
plot: John Byrne & Ron Frenz
pencils: Ron Frenz
letters: Albert T. De Guzman
inks: Brett Breeding
colors: Tom Ziuko
editor: Mike Carlin
grade: A-
I apparently first read this story four years ago when I had picked up a tpb reprinting Byrne stories that had been influential upon the Lois & Clark TV series of the 1990s. The funny part is, it wasn't Byrne's writing that caused me to realize this. Rather, it was Ron Frenz's unforgettable imagery in this issue -- certain expressions and body language conveyed by Titano that just couldn't have come from another retelling of this otherwise fairly cliche story that outright acknowledges its theft of King Kong. More than anything, it was that look of exhausted terror and pain surging through Titano's mostly limp but active body on page 3 that made me realize I must have read this story before.
Sure enough, the best penciling I've seen yet in this Post-Crisis franchise, and it was a fill-in artist. If Byrne can't write, and he can't pencil, and he wasn't responsible for most of the concepts surrounding the post-Crisis Superman's universe, then what good is he?
Anyway, this was a pretty touching story (largely thanks to Frenz's sympathetic pencils), and it does more to align the post-Crisis Lois Lane with the character Mindy Newell was portraying in her Lois Lane mini -- a bleeding heart champion of lost causes, even while she puts up a cold and aggressive front to all around her. Still, this is the second time (the first being Superman #7, referenced in this issue) that Lois has completely unprofessionally gone off on an interviewee. How does she keep getting interviews? How has she maintained a reputation for journalistic professionalism when she walks in, already convinced of what is right and what is wrong? What is she -- Fox news??
Truly, this was a moving issue, but I feel it would have been even stronger without Byrne. After all, his heavy handed dialogue at the end, with Moyer embodying animal hating scientists that don't exist, really drowns out much of the beauty and tragedy Frenz tries to build with his imagery. I really think this could have been an A+ issue without Byrne involved.
Important details:
- Amanda Waller and "Section Seven" make a cameo here, clearly now employing Dr. Moyers (from Superman #7) to develop a method of creating, well, super soldiers. Was this stemming out of a subplot in Suicide Squad?
- We're reminded that Superman is vulnerable to electricity in this issue
Minor details:
- Whereas Dr. Moyers' motives were concern for the well-being of others when he committed morally questionable acts that led to wanton destruction in Superman #7, Byrne portrays him as a ruthless mad scientist villain this time around. Where's the consistency?
- So now we have random criminals robbing banks in broad daylight with cutting edge laser tanks? Yeah, it got a bit repetitive when Byrne initially tried to explain all this crime as stemming from Lex Luther, but to now fly so far in the opposite direction just feels absurd.
- Just as in the last odd issue of Adventures of Superman, we now have the big guy cracking jokes as he stops his criminals. Things are definitely moving toward a more light-hearted tone, even as Superman continues to question his actions/decisions in this issue, never comfortable when required to make a tough call.
- Hmm. No Andy Helfer on this issue? Did he and Carlin divide up the Annuals, or is he walking away at this point? I know we're only a few months away from Wolfman doing the same. I naturally assume it was Byrne being too controlling, but I have no evidence to support this.
- Okay, let's be clear: We just watched Byrne wipe Superboy and Krypto out of existence in brutally depressing ways in order to create a more realistic Superman only to have him fighting a giant ape in this annual? And seriously, was Dr. Moyer TRYING to create a procedure for making people turn super large, or was that just accidentally caused by a random surge of power??
plot synopsis in one long sentence:
Dr. Moyer is conducting experiments on a chimp named Titano, Lois is trying to get the cruel experiments shut down to no avail, a random bank heist leads to a power surge at the lab, causing Titano to break free and become enormous and super powerful, he and Superman battle, Superman stuns him, Lois calms him down, and Dr. Moyer (now clearly backed by Amanda Waller and Section Seven) takes a cheap shot and kills Titano.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 17, 2014 20:02:27 GMT -5
Superman #9
"To Laugh and DIE in Metropolis"
writer and pencils: John Byrne
inks: Karl Kesel
letters: John Costanza
colors: Tom Ziuko
editors: Michael Carlin & Andrew Helfer
grade: F-
If John Byrne had been standing next to me while I read this issue, I would have punched him. I've seen the ego before, and I've seen the laziness, but this one just took the cake for oh so many reasons.
1. You conceited little sh*t:
So the basic premise is that the Joker, Batman's most dangerous and popular villain, comes to Metropolis to test out Superman's skills, only to discover Superman can stop him faster and more efficiently than Batman. So the entire point was to borrow Batman's best villain in order to make Superman look like a better hero than Batman in comparison???
2. The tyrant is a hypocrite:
Okay, so once again, Byrne has completely revamped the Superman franchise and removed long-time fans' favorite aspects of the series in order to make Superman more realistic, and yet we've got Joker building robotic doubles of Superman complete with thermonuclear centers on the fly as a means of seeking a nemesis that he believes will be less challenging than Batman. You've got to be kidding me.
3. Pay attention to your own damn rules:
We've been told, over and over, that this Superman is depowered, and we've seen him nearly get killed from super-powered punches, electrical shocks, and giant tanks, yet he's still standing after being at ground zero of a thermonuclear detonation???
And then there are the minor little annoyances, like:
- There's absolutely no lead in any buildings in Metropolis, allowing Superman to easily spot the three lead coffins in contrast? How about even a little lead based paint???
- Why in the world would the Joker know that Perry White and Jimmy Olsen are important to Superman?
- Love the little overt falling action with Superman conveniently explaining everything for an inquisitive Perry White. I know 7th graders who write with more subtlety.
So, if you couldn't tell by my uncharacteristically aggressive tone, this issue truly pissed me off. Byrne needs a good smacking, but it's Wolfman who will be leaving in only a few more months, while we're stuck with Byrne for another frickin' year or so.
Important details:
- Captain Sawyers' Special Crimes Unit is devoted specifically to super villains
- Toby Raynes, a rival reporter from the Metropolis Star (nice reference to early Pre-Crisis continuity) makes her first appearance here. Will she or the Star be mentioned ever again?
- Lex Luthor is back in the picture and working on something called Project Overload. Presumably, the robot drone that abducted Lana Lang, and Ma Kent's scrapbook being sent to Clark Kent at the Daily Planet are both parts of this plan.
I suppose I should also discuss Lex Luthor's "Indecent Proposal" subplot in this issue, in which he toys with a small town waitress's mind by offering her a million dollars to be his whore for a month and then drives off, content that she'll torment herself over which decision she would have made for the rest of her life.
Yeah, I should mention it, but it was dumb. Byrne has always been too over-the-top with Luthor, and depicting him as deriving joy from tormenting innocent people is just too much for me. No villain is THAT evil, and no villain portrayed as being THAT evil is even remotely interesting to me because he's too simple. The greatest villains are the ones we have complex feelings about: Galactus, Doctor Doom, Magneto, even the Joker -- they compel us because they aren't variations on the scoundrel with the black mustache. But, sure enough, after ruining everything else in this issue as well, Byrne just had to piss all over Wolfman's Lex Luther concept at the end of this issue.
Plot synopsis in one ridiculously long sentence:
The Joker creates a robot double of Superman to steal jewelry, kidnaps Lois, Perry, and Jimmy and assumes Superman will be too stupid to see through his ploy, explains that his motivation is to take a vacation by taking on a nemesis who is easier to defeat than Batman, gets schooled by Superman, Lana Lang gets abducted by a robotic drone, and Lex Luther messes with the feelings of a small town waitress as a means of getting his kicks.
Yeah, every copy of this issue needs to be tracked down and burnt to a crisp.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 18, 2014 11:36:40 GMT -5
Adventures of Superman #432
"Gangwar, Part One: From the Streets, To the Streets"
writer: Marv Wolfman
pencils: Jerry Ordway
inks: P Craig Russell
letters: Albert De Guzman
colors: Tony Tollin
editor: Mike Carlin
grade: A-
Hmmmm. Again, no Andy Helfer. He was on the previous issue of Superman, but not the annual. Is he gone for good?
Anyway, this is finally the Wolfman story I've been waiting for. Seems like he's going to end his tenure on Adventures with a bang if the remainder of the Gangwar storyline proves as good as this first installment.
First off, I really enjoy the character-building at work, here:
-Lois is now firmly established as wearing a cold facade and having a bleeding heart on the inside
- Jose Delgado (who first appeared in Adventures #428) returns as a regular guy with the heart and courage of a superhero -- a perfect "other man" for Lois to fall for in that they make sense as a couple and you can't help but like the guy (perhaps even moreso since the fact that he lacks Superman's powers makes his actions all the more courageous).
- Lex Luthor. Wolfman FINALLY gets to write his own damned character, and boy does the depiction soar. He writes Luthor with perfect subtlety and grace -- a true mastermind. Most importantly, he exposes most of Luthor's motives through subtle cues as opposed to outright stating them (especially the zoom-in on the newspaper headline giving Superman good press for aiding criminal youth while Luthor explains his supposed motives for launching a program to do the same).
Really the only character who still isn't working here is Jerry White. Yes, I know the big surprise that is being planned that will better explain Jerry's troubled relationship with Perry and all that jazz, but I still think the kid is a one-dimensional whiner. He really turns me off.
Important details:
- Metropolis is "miles" long. That's quite a large city!
Minor details:
- I really like Wolfman's continued attempts to place his stories within the same continuity as Byrne's, explaining that Superman was just coming from finishing up with The Joker (this month's issue of Superman).
- Wolfman seems to be treating Delgado's "guidance counselor" title as more of a nickname than anything as he clearly depicts Delgado as a teacher in this issue.
- Luthor's plan to raise an army of well trained inner city thugs here seems unrelated to "Project Overload" that he just hinted at in Superman #9.
- Ordway's art is getting stronger, especially that panel on page 11. And seriously, getting P Craig Russell to ink the book -- wow!
Plot synopsis in one long sentence:
Lois and Jimmy are near a tenement in Suicide Slum that is on fire (though we never find out why), Lois goes in to rescue children inside, a mysterious stranger who was apparently Jose Delgado goes in as well and rushes off before Lois can identify him, Luthor launches a new program to help inner city kids that's secretly designed to recruit them as a private army (it's also implied that he started the fire at the beginning of the issue), Jerry White rejoins his gang and then vanishes, Lois and Delgado are becoming romantically interested in one another, Delgado is trying to find out what happened to Jerry White as well as who's behind the soldier recruiting thing, he and Lois are attacked by thugs trying to silence them on Luthor's behalf, and Superman rescues them and figures out that Luthor is behind this, though he is unable to prove it.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 18, 2014 11:37:32 GMT -5
Action Comics #592
"...A Walk on the Darkside!"
writer/pencils: John Byrne
inks: John Byrne & Keith Williams
letters: John Costanza
colors: Tom Ziuko
editors: Michael Carlin & Andrew Helfer
grade: F-
Well, at least this issue was better than the last one. I mean, it's not like Byrne decided to piss all over other people's DC properties once again for his own sick sense of amusement.
Oh wait. He did.
You see, in this issue, Byrne attempts to do a loving homage to Jack Kirby. He not only makes Big Barda a key character in this issue, but (as he had no trouble touting in the teaser provided in the previous issue) he has been practicing drawing Barda like Kirby, and it really does work. It's impressive.
And then he pisses all over the character.
Let's be clear. Big Barda gets repeatedly RAPED in this issue.
Yes, one of comicdom's strongest female characters.
Yes, by a nobody villain Byrne first introduces in this issue.
Yes, not even in her own (or at least Mr. Miracle's) title.
Yes, and without any concern for how this affects her as a character.
Truly, this seems to have been done without an ounce of thought, and certainly without an ounce of respect for the character or her fans. I'm truly outraged by this. I can't even begin to imagine what Byrne is going to do in the infamous issue #593 to top this (and I'm afraid to try).
This man needs to be beaten...badly.
Important details:
-First appearance and origin of Sleez
- Metropolis has a population of approximately 10 million
- Suicide Slum has a population of approximately 5,000.
Minor Details:
- Andy Helfer is back once again. What's going on with that?
- Clark indicates that he tried to clean up Suicide Slum when he first got to Metropolis, but in what capacity? He wasn't yet Superman, and he wasn't yet a reporter.
- What the heck is the point of the doctor showing him the clinic other than to get Clark to his next plot point of wondering about why those old people aren't dying? It seems like the doctor is trying to get Clark to write a human-interest piece about the turmoil of Suicide Slum, but he shows Clark two beds, explains the aging mystery, and then happily says goodbye to Clark.
- The title of this story is quite misleading, as Darkseid's only role is a brief cameo in Sleez's flashback.
- Of course, any good slum has a black pimp in a trenchcoat, fedora, and sunglasses, featured prominently while threatening to slice a prostitute in broad daylight in front of everyone.
- Barda wouldn't notice a two bit thug sneaking up behind her to snatch her purse?
- How convenient the thug just happened to run into a renegade from the same planet from the far reaches of space that Barda came from.
- Hmmmm. Wolfman writes a story heavily focused on Suicide Slum -- Byrne writes a story heavily featuring Suicide Slum in the same month. I'm pretty sure this is the third time we've seen Byrne coincidentally have aspects of his stories heavily resemble something Wolfman had done in the same month.
- Darkseid's Omega Beams can accidentally transport a person to Earth instead of killing them??
Plot synopsis in one long sentence:
Barda shows up in suicide slum, gets her purse snatched (with her Mega Rod inside of it), the purse snatcher runs into the sewers and is killed by Sleez, a refuge from Apokolips, Sleez uses the weapon to mentally control and repeatedly rape Barda, Clark visits a clinic in Suicide Slum and discovers that some are being kept alive well beyond life expectancy by an odd kind of radiation, he traces the radiation's source to (presumably) Barda's Mega Rod, he runs in to Barda, breaks Barda's trance, and tries to prevent Barda from killing Sleez for what he's done, Barda tries to kill Superman (presuming Sleez is controlling him), and Sleez traps both in a pit.
Sure enough, I will be driving to dupersuper's home immediately after posting this to burn his copy of this issue...
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 18, 2014 11:49:21 GMT -5
Adventures of Superman Annual #1
"The Union"
writer: Jim Starlin
pencils: Dan Jurgens
inks: Steve Montano
letters: John Costanza
colors: Tom Ziuko
editor: Mike Carlin
grade: A-
Once again, no Andy Helfer. He seems to be on the "every other issue" schedule.
I'm assuming this issue was planned after Wolfman had already decided he was on his way out. Otherwise, it seems odd not to have him involved in the first annual for the title that he went out of his way to preserve and re-brand in the Post-Crisis. I at least expected that this mysterious "Union" was going to be "The Circle," the secret society bent on Superman's destruction that Wolfman had been building up for a number of issues. It seems clear that he isn't going to get to that story before he leaves Adventures of Superman, so I'd hoped Starlin and Jurgens would tell it here.
Still, what we got instead was fantastic. I'm used to Starlin telling great science fiction in the space opera style (ala Adam Warlock and The Metamorphosis Odyssey), but this Earth-based sci fi story in which an intergalactic religious zealot collects human brains in order to connect them to a holy union positively rocked. The ending felt a little too forced whereas it should have been more moving, but I still enjoyed the story immensely.
And Jurgens truly came alive for this one. I've begun to notice his art slowly becoming more dynamic and impressive as of late, but he really kicked it into overdrive in this issue with dynamic panels, unique arrangements,striking images, and inker Steve Montano truly bringing Jurgens' pencils to life, especially when immersing Superman in partial shadows with the S still peeking out dramatically.
In short, this was a brilliant issue. A true gem in an otherwise desert of creativity that has been the Post-Crisis Superman franchise thus far.
Important Details:
- Should we know who the gentleman with the bionic hand advising the President is?
- First appearance of The Word Bringer. Is he ever coming back?
Minor Details:
- So the tentacle monster thing abducted the first batch of Trudeau citizens, but when Superman uses his microscopic vision to search for clues, he doesn't notice any trails of slime (which the monster clearly leaves behind later), nor a trail of any kind. Couldn't he have even noticed a large number of footprints heading towards the sewer since the citizens were all hypnotized to go down there at one point?
- Another unflattering depiction of Reagan, especially since, in response to a letter in Adventures #432 requesting that Superman take on some real world dictators, Carlin(?) responded by saying:
"The concept of addressing current political and social situations in the pages of ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN is a very intriguing one, Arthur. However, comic books are a fictional medium, and there is a limit to how close to the truth we can get. We can use situations that parallel the ones that occur in our own world, but we cannot use real people or events in our pages." (my bolds).
I have no particular problem with the critique of Reagan in this issue (as opposed to the over-the-top depiction in Adventures #431), but it is incredibly inconsistent with this policy. We've seen with Wolfman's Qurac, O'Neil's Santa Prisca, and even the fictitious Russian bureaucrats that Starlin, himself, is about to write for Batman's "Ten Nights of the Beast," a careful and deliberate attempt to avoid taking on real world politics directly, so why is Reagan fair game? Because he's within our own government?
- I'm relatively sure the Oval Office doesn't have a window and, if it does, I'm relatively sure Superman couldn't just open it from the outside, and if he could, I'm relatively sure an alarm would go off, followed by a swarm of secret service agents.
- This issue feels like a nod to (and definitely an improvement over) the premiere Twilight Zone episode, "Where is Everybody?"
- Is Starlin homaging Gary Trudeau with the name of the town?
Plot synopsis in one long sentence:
The town of Trudeau goes silent, the President reluctantly sends Superman in, Superman cannot find anyone at first but is ultimately confronted by a tentacle monster that drags him into the sewer, he meets The Word Bringer, a zealous alien that believes all minds should be connected to "The Union," and their bodies converted into mass to create tentacle monsters, Superman defeats the Word Bringer and sends him fleeing back to space (with a suggestion that he'll return), and the brains, no longer linked to the Word Bringer, use telepathy to force Superman to kill them all since they can no longer return to their bodies.
Yeah, it's better than the plot synopsis makes it sound.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 18, 2014 12:00:39 GMT -5
Superman #10
"The Super Menace of Metropolis"
writer/pencils: John Byrne
inks: Karl Kesel
colors: Tom Ziuko
letters: John Costanza
editor: Michael Carlin
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
grade: C
So is Andy Helfer gone or not? Perhaps he'd only gotten half the issues done for this month before walking out or being shown the door?
Anyway, Luthor's Project Overload proves to be a disappointment this issue. Whereas all the mysteries created at the end of the last issue seemed to be tied to this initiative, none of them were. Lana Lang's abduction appears to be tied to the upcoming Millenium crossover (as indicated in the letter column), and though Luthor should have been the last person in possession of Ma Kent's scrapbook, he's apparently not the one who sent it to Clark. Maybe it was Amanda, the assistant who determined that Clark Kent was Superman in Superman #2 and was then dismissed by Luthor for coming up with such a ludicrous idea.
So instead, this is an issue in which Superman's powers overload, he's perceived as a public enemy (too easy and contrived a concept that isn't handled particularly well), and Luthor never really bothers to plan this thing out that well, getting caught quite easily and being dragged to police headquarters a second time (which he swore in MoS #4 would never happen). Again, Byrne just doesn't use him well.
I should also point out that part of this plan required Luthor putting a new satellite into space 4 weeks earlier. Further suggestion that Superman keeping a laboratory containing all of his secrets in orbit of the Earth does not place it out of reach for Luthor. But, again, Byrne seems to have forgotten all about this even though it happened in his premiere issue.
Important details:
- Though implied in Byrne's pencils on previous issues, it's now stated that Superman's heat ray vision is invisible unless turned to maximum power. Makes sense, though it also makes for less dramatic imagery.
- Alice, the Daily Planet assistant, makes a return cameo in this issue and is disregarded by Clark once again. I can't decide if Byrne is planning to go somewhere with this or if it's just a silly inside joke, teasing someone at the DC offices.
- First mention of Captain Sawyer's divorce, her ex-husband, Jim, and her nine year old daughter, Jamie.
- Ben Friendly, of the FBI, is mentioned by Captain Sawyer in this issue as if that's someone we should know. Is it?
- First appearance of Klaash, though, like virtually every antagonist introduced by Byrne this far, established or new, he blows through it in one issue and doesn't leave us any reason to believe it will ever come back.
Minor details:
- We knew it was coming, but did Byrne REALLY have to remind us that Clark's X-Ray vision gives him the ability to see everyone naked?
- Cat's son, Adam, briefly appears in this issue, creating a nice tie-in with what Wolfman is doing over at Adventures of Superman. This is the first time Byrne has ever acknowledged that continuity in any way.
- However, on a somewhat problematic note, he also dates Superman #7 as having happened 9 days earlier. That means 11 subsequent Superman stories occurred over the course of 9 days. I suppose we can discount Adventures #432 and Action #592 since they are both part ones of multi-part story lines that have yet to conclude, so that would mean each other Superman story published over the past two months occurred once per day over the course of nine days. Possible, I suppose. Wolfman, himself, suggested in an earlier issue of Adventures that Superman fights a major menace about once per day. Kind of hard to believe that much goes wrong that often, though. How did Metropolis survive before Clark showed up with that kind of a schedule??
- What's with the plug for Swamp Thing on page 7?
- This is now the second time a villain equipped by Luthor has made use of teleportation technology. I'm impressed to see Byrne remaining consistent here.
Plot synopsis in one long sentence:
Superman's powers keep overloading without warning (as was previously hinted at in Superman #8), he tries to fly away from Metropolis to protect innocents when Klaash, a new armored nemesis appears and attempts to draw him back to the city, Superman is perceived as a hostile threat to the city and can't figure out why, Luthor is controlling Klaash by remote, Superman figures out that no one can see Klaash but him, he realizes Luthor is controlling Klaash, he drags Luthor to Captain Sawyers, but Luthor's lawyer shows up and makes it impossible to convict him, and Luthor makes plans to crush Captain Sawyer (this will presumably involve her nine year old daughter, first mentioned in this issue).
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 18, 2014 12:01:54 GMT -5
Adventures of Superman #433
"Gangwar, Part Two"
writer: Marv Wolfman
pencils: Jerry Ordway
inks: Bob Smith (come back, P. Craig Russell!)
letters: Albert DeGuzman
colors: Anthony Tollin
editor: Mike Carlin (Helfer appears to be gone, after all)
grade: B+
Much like part one of this storyline, this issue is crafted with strong writing, deep moral idealism while also offering ethical questions, and also rests heavily upon Jerry White, who, fortunately, isn't annoying me quite as much as usual, though I certainly don't have any love for the character at this point.
It's odd, though, that Wolfman begins this issue by promising "a tragedy in five acts," and yet having the issue (divided into five acts) end with no tragedy of any kind. In the fourth act, I was ready to expect DelGado would die, especially after seeming to take a bullet to the back that later proves to be lodged in a shoulder instead (to be clear, a panel on page 17 right after the shot shows absolutely no injury to the shoulder in question). Seems as though he's destined to become "Gangbuster" next issue instead (as that new hero's first appearance next issue is solicited in this one). Perhaps Wolfman changed his mind partway through?
Can't say this issue was particularly memorable, but the quality remains consistently high, and I can't get enough of Wolfman writing Luthor.
Important Details:
- Elinore Lane (Lois' mother) is out of the hospital, though we were recently reminded she is still seriously ill. Perhaps it happens in bouts?
- Sam Lane (Lois' father) appears to like Clark, asking him to stay and continue their discussion when Lois runs off.
- Mayor Walters appears visually to be the same mayor we saw in Man of Steel #4 (two years ago in Superman's time) whose only given name in that issue was "Frank." At that time, he was the one who ordered Superman to arrest Luthor, but now he is clearly and willingly in Luthor's palm. I assume it was a conscious decision to make this the same mayor rather than a new one who had come in by this point. Luthor has made some headway since that time, apparently.
- Luthor does not appear to have any particular interest in, nor familiarity with, Jerry White beyond his situation within the context of this storyline. This will be important to note once we get to the World of Metropolis mini series, if I know what I'm talking about.
- Jerry White is 18 years old (thus born in 1969)
Minor Details:
- Jimmy Olsen, unsure of what to do, takes on a band of armed muggers by himself and then, only after facing a moral dilemma in regard to whether he should turn in Jerry White, finally uses his SIGNAL WATCH to summon Superman, even though, when Superman arrives, he doesn't even tell him about Jerry. Is Wolfman trying to show how confused Jimmy is here, or is Wolfman the one who is confused?
- I like how Luthor asks to be reminded which project they're discussing (even though it's the very project Wolfman had him immersed in last issue) because he has so many he's been keeping track of. It's a loving nod to our own struggle as readers to keep up with the fact that he and Byrne are using Luthor for two entirely different purposes in their comics right now.
plot synopsis in one sentence:
Jimmy Olsen stops a hold-up and discovers that one of the gunmen is Jerry White, he debates about whether to turn Jerry in but tells Lucy Lane, who tells Lois, who decides to print the info and get Jerry arrested, an organized attempt is made on Jerry's life in prison out of fear that he will talk about Luthor's recruiting of teens, Superman attempts to protect Jerry but doesn't always succeed in preventing the beatings and threats, Jerry finally decides he will talk, DelGado attempts to expose Luthor at a publicity event, Luthor's thugs try to kill him, Superman intervenes and captures the thugs, believing they will talk, and Luthor reviews the results of his secret experiment, which we learn was attempting to give the teens he was recruiting the powers of Superman, though it killed most of the trial participants and only affected Jerry White's antisocial behavior, and Luthor decides not implement it on a full scale unless/until it has a higher success rate.
With the experimentation aspect of the storyline now ended, I assume the rest of the storyline will focus on Jerry attempting to testify against Luthor. Intriguing...
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Jun 18, 2014 12:16:00 GMT -5
Action Comics #593
(The one you've ALL been waiting for...)
writer/pencils: John Byrne
inks: John Byrne & Keith Williams
letters: John Costanza
colors: Tom Ziuko
editor: Michael Carlin
Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
Mister Miracle created by Jack Kirby
grade: F-
I'd like to pretend I was surprised by this one, flip out in response, and post an angry reply in all caps that would make you die of laughter, but really, there wasn't all that much surprising about Byrne descending to this depth. It's just sad is all.
My mind goes back to the story we keep hearing about how it was Byrne's childhood dream to write Superman. When you think of all that's wrong with this comic, the non-sensical real-world explanations of how his powers work, the obsession with Superman only being able to mate with super powered women ("any co-star's gonna wind up looking like my DESK!" -- Grossman, commenting on the problem in this issue), the simplistic emotional conflicts, the need to point out that Superman can use his X-Ray vision to see people naked (Superman #10), and now this issue, in which Superman and Barda are brainwashed into starring in home-made pornos, it ALL feels like a 10 year old conceived of it.
I don't say this to mock Byrne, mind you. Every now and then, even in my mid 30s, I find a belief I've held since childhood challenged and suddenly realize how irrational and immature it was. For some reason, we hold onto certain attitudes and ideas from our childhood, believing in them the way that we did when we were 8, until they are confronted by reality and we are therefore forced to challenge them. I suspect Byrne's ideas for Superman work in much the same way. I think he considered how he would handle Superman extensively as a child and, now, as an adult, he either hasn't bothered to re-examine these concepts, or he suspects everyone else out there is thinking the same things he did as a 10 year old.
Either way, it's pretty much the worst thing ever.
What truly does confuse me, though, isn't why Byrne would write this story, but rather how in the world it got published. I suppose I can accept the idea that Carlin has no actual power over a "superstar" like Byrne (and perhaps this is even why Andy Helfer left the Superman office at this time), but where the heck was the Comics Code on this one, and how did Byrne manage to stay on the book afterwards? His run was being watched by many, and I have to believe there was a blowback reaction from readers and parents, so Jennette Kahn and Warner Brothers were perfectly okay with this? Warner's going to have a coronary a year from now when O'Neil authorizes the death of Jason Todd; is America's most cherished symbol of goodness after Jesus Christ enacting a homemade porno on a bed in a sleazy backroom that much more tolerable for the brand? KIDS were grabbing these comics off the stands!!!
Something is very wrong for the comic industry to have let this one through. I am generally not a fan of the Comics Code, but here's a time where it was actually needed to protect young, impressionable readers from pure smut for the sake of pure smut, and they missed the boat. It seems that as long as Byrne could avoid depicting racy visuals (we never see the video that Scott and Oberon view, and Barda's clothing on page 8 isn't much worse than a bikini) and expletives, things got rubber stamped.
Anyway, beyond the horror of watching Superman and Barda enact a homemade porno in a sleazy backroom while under the influence of Sleeze, there are a multitude of minor problems with this story (far more than usual):
1. Darkseid is not some classy mobster who is sitting in your favorite armchair, sipping wine, when you come home from work. He is the frickin' demigod lord of Apokilyps. I'm sure it made Byrne giddy to draw this panel, but it's inauthentic to the character.
2. If these Action Comics guest appearances are supposed to function as advertisements for other DC properties, Byrne couldn't have failed worse here. He spends way too much time giving us an unnecessarily in-depth retelling of Mister Miracle's origin only to completely avoid giving readers ANY sense of what to expect in his comic book. So Scott came to Earth and "it's been one adventure after another ever since," but in what way? Does he fight crime, is he trying to thwart Darkseid's efforts to do...something, is Darkseid just showing up in his living room each month with a new way to torment him? We have no idea. In fact, we don't even understand why he's returning to his normal looking suburban home in full costume. And, as for characterization, we receive absolutely none for either him or Barda. Byrne truly gives us nothing to latch onto with either character beyond their origin story.
3. So what was in the video Darkseid showed to Scott? I'm assuming it wasn't a nude or sex scene, or his reaction would have been stronger. Assuming this is one of Grossman's homemade pornos, wouldn't it have been obvious at any given moment what the nature of the video was? And yet, Scott doesn't seem to suspect this much until far later in the story.
4. In the video, Scott recognizes that Barda appears to be in a sewer, but she's not. We learn later in this issue that the scenes are filmed in a backroom of Grossman's "studio." Perhaps this was an earlier first video that Sleaze recorded while still keeping Barda in that sewer area, but that could probably be better explained.
5. WHY is Sleaze filming a porno of Superman and Barda and selling it to Grossman, anyway? Does he actually require money that he can't acquire with his hypnotic powers? Is it because he's supposed to be an embodiment of our society's worst perversions, which would inevitably include such a business? Again, I can fill in the gaps myself, but I shouldn't have to. Still, what was his end-goal? Did he really expect to keep doing this without being stopped and without retribution?
6. Damnit. Did the creep Sleaze is working through have to have a Jewish last name and be drawn in such a stereotypical New York Jew manner, with the beard, thick glasses, and balding head? It's just as bad as the stereotypical black pimp Byrne featured so prominently in the beginning of the previous issue.
7. Okay, so Sleaze explains that his powers work like hypnosis, and thus he can't make someone do something they really don't want to. How the hell do you explain Superman allowing Sleaze to use him in any manner, then, including intimidating Grossman?
8. I'm sure Byrne thinks this was amusing, but I find it utterly absurd that Sleaze's minions' method of disposing of Mister Miracle so thoroughly resembles an escape act. Wouldn't it make more sense to just shoot and stab the dude once you have him in the sack? And the explanation for his escape that he offers comes so quickly and without any images to accompany it. It feels like a wasted punchline to a joke with an excessively lengthy setup.
9. So, if Sleaze cannot make Superman and Barda do anything against their will, even struggling to get them to kiss, then why is Byrne implying at the end that they slept together?
10. I'm assuming, since it's implied that several videos have already been made with Barda prior to Superman entering the picture, since the hypnosis cannot make Barda do something she doesn't want to do, since Sleaze is only worried that Superman is resisting him (no concern for Barda), and since we know this was already occurring in the previous issue, that all the previous videos involved Barda being raped. Of course, sitting on a bed and waiting for it to happen after being raped excessively would certainly also qualify as doing something you don't want to do.
11. So if Sleaze is a reflection of the depravity all around him, how was he like this back on Apokilypse, surrounded by downtrodden slaves and mindless minions? Was he supposed to be a reflection of Darkseid's depravity? I just don't see it.
12. Where the heck did that Ash Crawler come from on page 17? No joke; I actually laughed out loud when this thing came flying out from nowhere.
13. So explosive sewer gas has the same effect on Superman as the nuclear explosion he experienced while at ground zero in Superman #9? He looks equally damaged both times. And I guess his aura of invulnerability does not protect his hair?
14. Why can't Superman explain his motives for preventing Barda from killing Sleaze? And why wasn't his primary motive "I don't condone murder?"
15. I'm sorry -- what was that ending all about? So Sleaze wasn't causing those old people to keep living? Are we supposed to therefore understand what was, or is this some cliffhanger mystery that will be resolved later on? Is this some saccharine message about how the human spirit prevails in spite of the presence of depravity? Are we supposed to infer that Sleaze is actually still alive and hanging around? I absolutely don't get it.
Important details:
- Superman has super smell.
Plot synopsis:
Do you really want this?
Okay.
Mister Miracle returns to his home and finds Darkseid there, Darkseid shows him some sort of video with Barda being held captive in a sewer, Sleaze has been bringing Barda to a small-time homemade porno producer named Grossman, he brings Superman this time and wants the two filmed together, Superman (and presumably Barda) are resisting his telepathic influence, we get an excessive recap of Mister Miracle's origin, he is abducted by Sleaze's minions in an excessively elaborate style and escapes, he breaks into Grossman's studio and breaks Sleaze's influence, Sleaze presumably kills himself by igniting sewer gas while Superman pursues him, it's implied that Superman and Barda were intimate, but their memories are foggy and Barda makes it clear that it should remain forgotten, and Superman discovers the elderly patients from last issue are still alive even after Sleaze appeared to die.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,870
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Post by shaxper on Jun 18, 2014 12:17:12 GMT -5
Action Comics Annual #1
(No clear title. Cover says "Cry Vampire!" "Skeeter!" is exclaimed loudly on the title page and may be intended as such.)
writer: John Byrne
pencils: Art Adams
inks: Dick Giordano
letters: Albert DeGuzman
colors: Petra Scotese
editor: Michael Carlin
grade: C
I think the first two pages of this issue do an excellent job of capturing the weird balance of impressive and awful that pervades this issue, including a non-sensical narration trying to sound dramatic ("Some say the night is just like the day." Uhhh, who?) and the weirdly mixed work of Art Adams in this issue, which is sometimes quite impressive (as it is on the first half of the splash title page) and sometimes quite awkward (as it is on the second half, with a girl whose face looks like its out of Elfquest wearing a Mr. Peanut t-shirt in the midst of an incredibly dark scene).
In short, this is a weirdly imbalanced story, and it really doesn't accomplish its purpose, which was to finally bring the fan-demanded reunion team-up of Superman and Batman. Well, they don't ever work together in this issue, share a few sparse lines of dialogue with one another, and Batman's rationale for calling Superman in on this case doesn't even make any sense. Is Batman's first reaction to call Superman every time there's a mass murderer on the loose and citizens patrolling in the streets? What was it about this story other than meeting obligatory fan demand that made it a job for Superman?
Then there's the problem with "Skeeter," the cutesy girl the village is chasing who, it should be obvious only a few pages in, is a vampire. We're invited to feel sympathy for her in the beginning, as she's still young and impressionable and (presumably) feeding of necessity. But, when Batman and Superman show up, they just view her as a monster, and we're just supposed to take the sympathy we previously felt for her as misdirection, even finally culminating in Batman (with his no kill policy and his attitude that guns are cowardly) staking her from behind! She's just a monster to be killed in the end. Superman even calls into question the idea that she's any kind of girl because she's a vampire ("Generally I make it a point to avoid punching out the ladies..but then...you're no lady, are you?") and Batman refutes Gordon's idea that she was a child by pulling her birth records. So I guess we're just supposed to ignore her earlier characterization? Certainly a century old vampire can't still have the innocence and naivety of the child it was when it was first turned.
Finally, I just don't know what to make of Adams' art. As said earlier, it's sometimes dead on, and sometimes far too cartoony. Superman, for example looks utterly ridiculous to me in this issue, yet I love the Miller inspired visual approach he takes to Batman. There's also the problem that Bruce Wayne, at the beginning of the issue, looks too much like Clark Kent. If Adams was trying to intentionally confuse us, I don't understand why.
Overall, this wasn't an unenjoyable story in many respects, but it certainly had more than its share of problems, and the little misdirection Byrne and Adams offers as to who the victim is feels like the generic kind of horror story reversals Archie Goodwin threw at us repeatedly in his days at Warren, and I suspect even he was simply borrowing from the playbooks of earlier conventional horror writers (though I haven't read much from EC, Atlas, and the like). Worse yet, I'm still troubled by Batman and Superman's reaction to "Skeeter" and by the pointlessness of their team-up in this issue. Anyone could have snuck up behind Skeeter and staked her. Did Batman really bring anything to this story other than sales (and maybe gross mischaracterization)?
Important Details:
- Why is Clark working late at night at the Daily Planet? Does Superman not require sleep in the same way that he doesn't require food??
- Superman's ability to create a wall of hard air and build a wall around the pseudo-vampires at super speeds seems in conflict with Byrne's earlier implications of just how fast Superman could move. To circle a group of people so fast that you can build a wall around them in mere second would require flying much faster than we've seen him move before.
- Superman's aura of invulnerability is electro-chemical in nature. I suppose that makes more sense than magic, especially since magic is one of his aura's primary weaknesses.
Minor Details:
- Bruce's disguise at the beginning of the issue looks absurd. He's supposed to be a far better master of disguise than that. And seriously, calling himself "Mr. Smith"??
- I like Skeeter's accent. It feels more authentic than most writers' attempts to portray back-water rural dialects.
- Why in the world would the citizens of the small town in which this story is set be terrified that all visitors are vampires if they KNOW Skeeter and her parents were the vampires and that they'd been natives of this area for over a hundred years? Heck, haven't these killings been happening all along? Why wouldn't they have called someone in about it by now? I can rationalize that everyone's afraid to go to sleep because Skeeter might be on the warpath since her parents were killed, but even that requires too much filling in the gaps for myself.
- Batman notes that Gordon is acting strangely in this issue. That's an incredibly subtle Millenium-related hint that I doubt anyone reading this comic was going to catch.
- Considering how carefully Batman prepared for a confrontation with Superman in MoS #3, I'm a bit surprised he hasn't done enough further homework to realize that Clark Kent is Superman yet. Instead of calling Clark out on the phone and putting him on the defensive, he feels the need to furnish proof that he's the real Batman.
- I love how Superman is suddenly well-read in vampire lore and just automatically assumes that everything he's read about vampires is 100& accurate (and, sure enough, for the purposes of this issue, it is!).
- Giordano tries to steal what Montano seems to have pioneered in the Adventure Comics Annual, inking Superman all in black aside from the symbol and cape. I suppose it's possible Byrne is the one doing the stealing here (we've certainly seen evidence of his stealing from other Superman books coming out just previous to his issues before).
- So there's an entire hospital wing of people who have been bitten by Skeeter and haven't yet died, yet there doesn't appear to be a single dead/resurrected full vampire running around in town? Did the town stake all their deceased? It makes sense but, again, this probably should have been explained clearly.
- Vampires = magic? Magic is the arcane ability to manipulate reality or, in its original incarnation, to manipulate the gods. Supernatural is not the same as magic.
- Come on! A vampire Superman would have been awesome to see. Just let him parade around for one more issue, and then stake the head vampire.
- Okay, so we've now firmly established that Skeeter and her parents were turned a century earlier. Doesn't that raise the question for anyone whether the vampire who did this to them is still around?? What's the status of vampires in the Post-Crisis DCU, anyway? Are there any out there? Doesn't Batman fight Dracula in Moench's Red Rain storyline in a few more years? Do those rules of vampirism jibe with these?
Plot synopsis in one long sentence:
The story opens with a young girl named Skeeter being chased into the swamps by a mob with torches and pitchforks, we learn that they killed her parents while she went to the city to get an education (she apparently wasn't gone long), Ms. Carson and Mr. Smith arrive jointly in a small town, Mr. Smith proves to be Batman in disguise, Ms. Caron gets killed by a vampire right away, Batman reflects on the mysterious murder in Gotham that led him here (presumably, Gotham is where Skeeter went to briefly seek her education), Batman calls in Superman for help, Batman and Superman both note how the town has militarized itself, Superman finally learns that they're seeking a vampire, Skeeter finds Batman and seeks his aid, when Skeeter realizes that Batman isn't an actual Bat-Man, she tries to kill him and decides to stop her pursuers herself, she starts to control all the people in the town she has wounded who have not yet died, Superman stops them all but is wounded by Skeeter since he is vulnerable to magic, Batman stakes Skeeter from behind, and Batman provides some back information about Skeeter and her parents.
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