Yeah, I'm really struggling with this, and I don't understand it either. They gave such stunning attention to detail and realism last year, and ever since the Time and Time Again event, the Office has felt rushed and sloppy. I get it -- Armageddon 2001 and Man of Steel #1 hit around the same and left this office overtaxed, but we are a month past both events now.

If Marvel snatched Gammill up, they did little with him.  I think his only Marvel credits in 1991 were pencilling part of the first two issues (but not the covers) of Deadly Foes of Spider-Man, published at about the same time as Superman For Earth.  Perhaps Gammill disliked working with Danny Fingeroth or taking second billing to Al Milgrom, as he continued to work for DC on a Hawk and Dove Annual and the New Titans.

Deadly Foes of Spider-Man was said to have been commissioned as a Marvel Comics Presents serial about two and a half years before it saw print as a limited series. Gammill's portions of the first two issues may pre-date his work on Superman, with Al Milgrom's portions being drawn later.

I've been giving this comment a lot more thought. In hindsight, all of my absolute favorite Gammill covers have a sense of horror attached to them, or at least feel inspired by the horror genre:










And I may have solved the mystery of where Gammill disappeared to in 1991, since he does return to the Superman titles in 1993. His daughter, Kathryn, was born in 1992, so perhaps Gammill was giving his full attention to raising his two other children while his spouse was pregnant and (eventually) caring for a newborn, just working on the occasional DC annual instead of being attached to a regular deadline.


Meanwhile, I checked out Monster Kid, and I am so disappointed to see there are no Kerry Gammill comics within. The discussion forum attached to it looks pretty inviting, though. I happen to LOVE classic horror.

Adventures of Superman #481 (August 1991)



"The Big Drain!"
Script: Jerry Ordway
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Doug Hazlewood
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Albert DeGuzman

Grade: B+


I swear, I've seen this cover somewhere before. I think I read a backstory about a ghost train that visually resembled this in Haunt of Horror back in the day, but I also feel like there was a Wrightson or Wrightson-esq cover that looked like this, maybe for House of Mystery or House of Secrets?


Anyway, Tom Grummett's first solo pencilling gig for this office does not disappoint:



Perhaps more importantly, the Superman Office has now spent 8 months and 25 issues struggling to find a worthwhile villain for Superman now that Luthor is "dead". We've tried Mr. Z, Terra Man, The Toy Man, Thaddeus Killgrave, Silver Banshee, The Linear Man, Baron Sunday, Cerberus, and The Eradicator, but Killgrave and The Toyman have been the only ones that proved at all memorable.

Finally, finally, we've got new hope with Parasite, a classic Superman villain that hasn't wandered into this Post-Crisis office until now. Not only are his powers a significant threat to Superman, but his characterization is rich and memorable, whether he's being deliciously creepy:






a disturbed (if somewhat endearing) simpleton:






or just plain gross:




This character has serious potential as a regular Superman nemesis. I hope Stern and Jurgens can use him as well as Ordway does here.



This issue also seeks to repair the poor inter-title alignment that we've been seeing as of late, acknowledging the devastation that Cerberus has caused for Metropolis (Cerberus has never been acknowledged outside of the Man of Steel title until now!) while acknowledging the recent toll The Eradicator has taken on Metropolis as well.



It's a much needed complete picture of the beatings Metropolis has been taking in the past two months, all while crime is up and employment is down in the wake of Luthor's death. Metropolis is a scary place to be right now.

This little exchange also resolves the ridiculous coincidence of the Whites and the Kents ending up across the hall from each other on the very same cruise ship. Now, apparently, it was planned from the very start.

And, as a more minor (but important) point, we are learning how this power couple does breakfast in the age of '90s feminism. No, Lois does not cook for them both; they take breakfast together at Dooley's. I guess this also further emphasizes both how busy they are as working professionals (no time to cook) and that they are successful enough that they can afford to eat out three meals a day.


Anyway, while Metropolis grows darker, these titles themselves remain bright and full of hope. I love that Superman remains a thinking superhero more committed to the public good than vengeance and punching, as this issue gives considerable attention to Clark ensuring that his underground battle with Parasite won't hurt the structural integrity of the subway tunnels:



What other superhero title concerns itself with issues of collateral damage? Well, Damage Control, I guess...


I also continue to love the familiar, reassuring elements of the Daily Planet that keep getting inserted into these titles. The letting go of a significant portion of the Daily Planet staff has not gone forgotten a month later. Those characters are made to feel important to us; the Daily Planet staff grieves for them as any tight knit group of colleagues would. And further reinforcing this sense of closeness is the return of Dooley's Pub and its concerned/involved proprietor, Kevin Dooley:



It took me several months, but I finally figured out what Dooley's reminds me of. It's easy to draw a comparison to Cheers, the most famous fictional bar in American culture, but that was a place for middle-class drunks to waste their lives away. This is a higher class bar where upscale professionals let down their hair at the end of the day and grow closer together.

The place this reminds me of is Phil's, from the (then) hit TV show Murphy Brown, on it's fourth hit season at the time of this issue's publication:



I strongly suspect this was the inspiration for Dooley's. After all, Murphy Brown and her colleagues were the big hitters at a premiere news organization too, and while the show isn't really talked about today, it was huge in 1991.


Important Details:

- First meeting of Superman and Parasite in the Post-Crisis. Parasite has absorbed some of Superman's memories and may know his secret identity.




- Ronald Troupe, first introduced as "Ron" last issue, finally gets a full name and earns the assistant job at Newstime Magazine that Jimmy Olsen was applying for.



Strong foreshadowing that he will ultimately help the magazine's owner, Collin Thornton, in his bid for mayor. I'm still not sure why Ordway is giving him so much attention, though, and inviting us to care about what happens to him.


- I'd been noting lately that "Time and Time Again" made the overt point that Superman's costume had been turned "jet black" and yet all the artists and colorists seemed to have forgotten about this. The letter column for this issue explains that his costume just sort of reverted back to its original colors. Apparently, the edgier look they were going for, perhaps more in-line with Batman's image, while Metropolis became more Gotham-like, has been discarded.


Minor Details:

- Ordway is actually making me feel for Sam Foswell. I love it:




- Lana moves across the country for Pete Ross, but they're still living in separate apartments, Pete inviting her over for occasional dates?



Does Lana Lang have any self-respect at all? And how is she going to pay DC rent by herself? Does she even have a job lined up?



Overall a MUCH better story that feels in keeping with what this title was before everything went awry a few months back. Hopefully, this is a sign that all the titles will be finding their footing again and that it won't just be Ordway keeping the office afloat.