Adventures of Superman #458



"I Sing the Body Elastic"
Plot: George Perez
writing and pencils: Dan Jurgens
inks: Klaus Janson
letters: Albert DeGuzman
colors: Glenn Whitmore
Jonathan Peterson: Associate Editor
editor: Mike Carlin

grade: C+


Before the new creative teams were finalized, Carlin laid out a plan in which one Superman title would focus on Superman, one would focus on the Daily Planet supporting cast, and one would focus on Clark's Kryptonian heritage. That last one never sounded like a workable premise, but the other two appear to be taking shape nicely by this point. Action Comics is Superman engaged in a lot of, well, "action," and Adventures of Superman is focusing the camera tightly on the Daily Planet supporting cast and their relationships with both Clark and Superman. It's the Superman title itself that still feels indecisive at this point. Perhaps Ordway wasn't onboard with all the new that Perez and Jurgens were bringing.

Anyway, this issue works hard both to emphasize the Daily Planet supporting cast (once again) as well as to purposefully continue a few Byrne-isms in his absence, this time borrowing a silly aspect of the Silver Age and attempting to throw it into Post-Crisis continuity with a more believable angle. I'm talking specifically about Elastic Lad, a semi-regular alterego for the Silver Age Jimmy Olsen:



A lot of effort is put into explaining how he gained these powers (an alien virus Superman gave him upon returning to Earth in Action #643), the logistics of how they work (restructuring his body at an almost molecular level, his sweat causing the clothing to change with him), how he controls it (an instinct similar to pulling one's hand away from a flame), and even the idea that it would cause tremendous blinding pain. All very convincing, and yet the idea still feels so unnecessary and alien to the continuity being developed. I never liked when Byrne would bring back these silly Silver Age tropes. In fact, I'm already dreading the next appearance of Mister Mxyzptlk.

But the development of the Daily Planet crew? Perez and Jurgens do a bangup job there, first unabashedly spending the first four pages of the issue just watching Clark, Jimmy, Cat, Lois, and Perry do aerobics at the Daily Planet as a start to their workday. No plot is imposed until the fifth page -- it's just relationships developing, and it feels so casual, real, and delightful. This was the aspect of the Superman office that drew me in even as an adolescent (I started reading eleven months from now). Everything felt so real and well developed. I cared about these people, and Jurgens clearly does here too.

I especially appreciated the effort to steer Cat Grant away from simply being a trainwreck of a human being. She really has redeemed herself, and Jurgens allows the readers and the cast to view her as something more than a weak appendage this time around:



She's a compassionate and competent mom, as well as a total a$$ kicker in aerobics, leaving everyone else in the dust.

I guess she's also back working full time at the Planet again? What has happened to Morgan Edge's media company in the wake of his arrest and ensuing medical crisis, anyway?


And, speaking of developing the supporting cast and also bringing back some of the campier beloved aspects of the franchise, I LOVE how they hearken back to the Donner film depiction of Lois being such a tireless firecracker that she adorably stumbles over the fine details in favor of the big picture, especially with spelling:



Also nice to see other editors at the Daily Planet with their own relationships to the folks we know so well there. At a real major metropolitan newspaper, the Editor in Chief would not be personally overseeing most things his/her reporters were working on.


So yeah, I can't say I'm a fan of the plot, but a valiant effort is made to make it work believably, and I really appreciated Jurgens working to further develop the Daily Planet team.



Minor Details:

- The creative teams all seem like a mess at this point, with plots and assists coming from different people than the assigned creative teams each issue, possibly as a result of all the intense collaboration being done. In all this mess, I'm not sure I'm clear what Roger Stern's responsibilities in the Superman office are anymore. Is he gradually backing off to make room for Perez?

- For the second issue in a row, Jurgens gives a lot of time to Jimmy's unrequited romantic interest in Cat Grant, and yet there's been absolutely no mention of Lucy Lane. I guess she and Jimmy are no longer dating (last shown in Superman #4), or Jurgens isn't aware that they ever were.

- Just as Superman will soon be crossing over with Starman because Roger Stern was involved with both, we get a nice little shout-out to Jurgens' Booster Gold, with a subtle hint of future tension between him and The Man of Steel as Superman goes on to say "I never really cared for this guy anyway!" as he hurls the billboard out of the way.



It's tempting to dismiss this as a shameless plug, but Superman was still a central character to the DCU (if not their #1 property anymore), so it makes sense that he should cross paths with the other heroes in that universe, and which better ones to visit than the ones the creative teams behind Superman knew intimately and could write accurately? It works a lot better than Byrne just taking on the characters he felt like writing and then portraying them largely out of character (see just about every damned issue of Action Comics before it went weekly).


- Maybe I missed something here. When we first met Prof. Hamilton (way back in Adventures of Superman #425), he was a penniless genius. Since then, I believe I recall Superman getting him a job with Star Labs, but since when does he have the resources to furnish his apartment "in an old warehouse district" with this kind of tech:



And really, if the Professor is such a genius as to be an expert at virtually anything Superman needs at the moment (revolutionary shields and weapons, outer space breathing apparatuses, and now cellular surgery and alien viruses) how in the heck did no one but Lexcorp know of him until Superman arrived? What University did he come out of? Didn't he publish any papers? This just doesn't make any sense. The character as originally introduced had spent a lifetime working on one crazy invention; he was not an expert on all things science as he's since been depicted.



plot synopsis in one sentence:

The Daily Planet folks are doing aerobics when Jimmy suddenly manifests Elastic Lad powers, panicking and going out of control from the pain, so Clark has to become Superman in order to subdue him and then brings him to Professer Hamilton, who determines the problem is caused by a virus Superman brought back from space, all while someone from space (Maxima?) is approaching Earth in an attempt to possess Superman.