Post by shaxper on Sept 5, 2020 12:32:47 GMT -5
Adventures of Superman #482 (September 1991)
"The Planet Strikes!"
Script: Jerry Ordway
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Doug Hazlewood
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Albert DeGuzman
Grade: B+
Perhaps the Superman Office is still struggling to stay on schedule all these months after it clearly got side-tracked with Armageddon 2001 and the launching of Superman: The Man of Steel. Otherwise, I'm at a loss to explain the title of this story, which spends maybe six panels on the strike at the Daily Planet.
It's clear that Ordway is struggling with some of the limitations of working in a shared playground more than his peers, as he is the one most invested in building background story arcs for the supporting cast (in this case, the strike at the Daily Planet and the upcoming first dinner with the Kent and Lane families). That doesn't leave him with much space to explore an A plot (in this case, Parasite), but when he needs to tell a story over the course of two or three issues, that creates its own challenge because Superman also has to experience A plots in three other books each month. He can't be in the middle of battling Parasite and also be on a mountaintop, discussing his feelings with Lois (see the previous review), so Ordway also needs to find a way to temporarily have Superman abandon the A plot each issue and return to it again in the next one.
Often, it doesn't quite work. This time around, we're just supposed to accept that Superman stopped caring about a super-powered mass murderer running around Metropolis with some of his memories until Parasite decided to attack someone close to him.
So the A plot gets slowed down and demands a tremendous suspension of disbelief to explain its interruptions, and the intended secondary plot for this story (the strike at the Daily Planet) gets almost no space at all.
Still, for all the limitations Ordway faces this time around, he's managed to do wonderful things with the few panels he gives to Professor Hamilton, reminding us of Ham's tragic early days in this franchise:
while also giving him space to grow, first as an adorably smitten lover:
and then as the guy with both the tech and the credit with Superman to be able to lead Maggie Sawyer's Special Crimes Unit:
I truly hope this won't be a one-time thing!
As for Parasite, Ordway's characterization of the guy with earth-shattering powers but a two-bit mind remains deliciously authentic:
Whereas most super villains have contrived, under-developed ambitions about revenge and/or conquest, Parasite doesn't seem to know what he wants, but he does come up with the ridiculous ideas of having his revenge against STAR labs filmed in order to stroke his unusual ego:
Parasite may well have the highest body count of any Post-Crisis Superman villain, and yet...he's adorable.
Still, he clearly retains some of Superman's memories, and it frustrates me that this isn't explored further.
Why isn't Superman wondering if Parasite knows his secret identity? And Parasite absolutely remembered Lois last issue. Why isn't he seeking her out?
All in all, it's a solid and enjoyable outing for Ordway and Grummett, but it didn't accomplish all that it set out to do with that ambitious story title and with all the potential that Parasite holds as a serious threat to Superman's private life.
Important Details:
- Rose Forrest (of Rose and Thorn) is back. The Editorial comment at the end of the story suggests that the reader should be excited about the return of Rose and Thorn, but should they?
Rose and Thorn certainly never appeared in the pages of these titles over the past five years, and I'm not sure if/where they've appeared in the Post-Crisis DCU otherwise. I'm personally aware of the names, but know absolutely nothing about the characters. Thus, if this ending was supposed to be an exciting cliffhanger, it certainly fell flat for me.
Minor Details:
- As always, I'm a junkie for good Clark and Lois moments. This one didn't disappoint:
...and I love that Grummett draws Lois with her hair messy after just having woken up. Not enough artists and filmmakers do this.
and speaking of Lois and authentic portrayals, I positively loved this moment:
It's both cute and meaningful in its implications: Clark and Lois are a perfect couple, but that doesn't mean either one has to be a perfect person. Realistic people, striving to be their best and make the world around them better...together. That's beautiful.
- Whenever proper names get used in these titles, I always take note:
To the best of my knowledge, Peter Shoemaker is neither a DC character nor a DC staffer, but he was an abstract expressionist painter who was still active in the early 1990s. Perhaps Ordway and/or Grummett were fans.
"The Planet Strikes!"
Script: Jerry Ordway
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Doug Hazlewood
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Albert DeGuzman
Grade: B+
Perhaps the Superman Office is still struggling to stay on schedule all these months after it clearly got side-tracked with Armageddon 2001 and the launching of Superman: The Man of Steel. Otherwise, I'm at a loss to explain the title of this story, which spends maybe six panels on the strike at the Daily Planet.
It's clear that Ordway is struggling with some of the limitations of working in a shared playground more than his peers, as he is the one most invested in building background story arcs for the supporting cast (in this case, the strike at the Daily Planet and the upcoming first dinner with the Kent and Lane families). That doesn't leave him with much space to explore an A plot (in this case, Parasite), but when he needs to tell a story over the course of two or three issues, that creates its own challenge because Superman also has to experience A plots in three other books each month. He can't be in the middle of battling Parasite and also be on a mountaintop, discussing his feelings with Lois (see the previous review), so Ordway also needs to find a way to temporarily have Superman abandon the A plot each issue and return to it again in the next one.
Often, it doesn't quite work. This time around, we're just supposed to accept that Superman stopped caring about a super-powered mass murderer running around Metropolis with some of his memories until Parasite decided to attack someone close to him.
So the A plot gets slowed down and demands a tremendous suspension of disbelief to explain its interruptions, and the intended secondary plot for this story (the strike at the Daily Planet) gets almost no space at all.
Still, for all the limitations Ordway faces this time around, he's managed to do wonderful things with the few panels he gives to Professor Hamilton, reminding us of Ham's tragic early days in this franchise:
while also giving him space to grow, first as an adorably smitten lover:
and then as the guy with both the tech and the credit with Superman to be able to lead Maggie Sawyer's Special Crimes Unit:
I truly hope this won't be a one-time thing!
As for Parasite, Ordway's characterization of the guy with earth-shattering powers but a two-bit mind remains deliciously authentic:
Whereas most super villains have contrived, under-developed ambitions about revenge and/or conquest, Parasite doesn't seem to know what he wants, but he does come up with the ridiculous ideas of having his revenge against STAR labs filmed in order to stroke his unusual ego:
Parasite may well have the highest body count of any Post-Crisis Superman villain, and yet...he's adorable.
Still, he clearly retains some of Superman's memories, and it frustrates me that this isn't explored further.
Why isn't Superman wondering if Parasite knows his secret identity? And Parasite absolutely remembered Lois last issue. Why isn't he seeking her out?
All in all, it's a solid and enjoyable outing for Ordway and Grummett, but it didn't accomplish all that it set out to do with that ambitious story title and with all the potential that Parasite holds as a serious threat to Superman's private life.
Important Details:
- Rose Forrest (of Rose and Thorn) is back. The Editorial comment at the end of the story suggests that the reader should be excited about the return of Rose and Thorn, but should they?
Rose and Thorn certainly never appeared in the pages of these titles over the past five years, and I'm not sure if/where they've appeared in the Post-Crisis DCU otherwise. I'm personally aware of the names, but know absolutely nothing about the characters. Thus, if this ending was supposed to be an exciting cliffhanger, it certainly fell flat for me.
Minor Details:
- As always, I'm a junkie for good Clark and Lois moments. This one didn't disappoint:
...and I love that Grummett draws Lois with her hair messy after just having woken up. Not enough artists and filmmakers do this.
and speaking of Lois and authentic portrayals, I positively loved this moment:
It's both cute and meaningful in its implications: Clark and Lois are a perfect couple, but that doesn't mean either one has to be a perfect person. Realistic people, striving to be their best and make the world around them better...together. That's beautiful.
- Whenever proper names get used in these titles, I always take note:
To the best of my knowledge, Peter Shoemaker is neither a DC character nor a DC staffer, but he was an abstract expressionist painter who was still active in the early 1990s. Perhaps Ordway and/or Grummett were fans.
