It's possible that I may not have the world's greatest memory...

A lot of missed opportunities with that character, unfortunately.

Superman: The Man of Steel #10 (April 1992)



"Tidal Wave!"

Script: Louise Simonson
Pencils: Jon Bogdanove (layouts); Dennis Janke (finishes)
Inks: Dennis Janke
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Bill Oakley

Grade: B

Well, you've got an epic event storyline starring all the DC heroes (even if it's only happening in the Superman titles), you've got an endless hoard of bad guys, and you've got almost non-stop action, issue after issue. The Superman Office clearly wanted this to be counted among DC's biggest events, making nods to both Crisis on Infinite Earths and Invasion early on (Superman #65), and here it tries to emulate what was arguably CoIE's biggest, best-remembered moment (though I personally felt Barry Allen's death even more).

The problem is that the original story marked the death of Supergirl. I mean...it's Supergirl. Everyone knew Supergirl, so the death clearly mattered. On the other hand, who the hell cared about Draaga? It's a safe, consequence-less death for the DCU. Sure, Simonson and Bogdanove do their best to make us actually start caring about Draaga in this issue, suddenly revealing a budding romance between him and Matrix:





but we're first experiencing these moments after seeing the cover; after already knowing he was going to die. Thus, I'm not exactly shedding tears over this death:




...and neither is anyone else. The story just sort of moves on after that moment, Draaga's death/sacrifice not even getting acknowledged until three pages later. Even then, no one seems to care all that much, and Matrix has already resolved to avenge him, depriving us of any opportunity to share in her grief and...ya know...actually feel something about this death.



Wearing the body of your dead lover? It's less touching and more creepy, as far as I'm concerned.


Beyond Draaga's death, this story continues to be mindless action and little else. For one thing, Brainiac's entire goal appears to be shrinking down the cities of Earth and crushing them for fun. I mean...why?



and the logic lapses, conveniences, and other signs of lazy writing continue to be prevalent. For example, Jimmy Olsen's helicopter has to crash just to give Aquaman something to do in this issue:




A planet-wide invasion is still only taking place in Metropolis for some reason,




speedsters are still insultingly under-estimated,




and Superman is smart enough to figure out that the devices worn on people's heads is what is giving Brainiac control over them, but he's not smart enough to--I don't know--shoot them with his heat vision and free them all from a safe distance without the need for a fight?



The man has flight, super speed, and near invulnerability in addition to countless other abilities that a brilliant mind like his should be able to use creatively here, but of course he needs to be seen grunting and struggling against every adversary.


Really, the only intelligent contribution that this issue makes to an already stupid (but fun!) story is its subtle revision of Maxima. Whereas she could have easily been used as the lovesick girl villain archtype of the Silver Age who would make certain that, if she couldn't have her man, then noone could, Simonson explores Maxima's desire to marry Superman with greater complexity and sophistication:



This is not a lovesick space bimbo. This is a leader doing what she must to protect her people.



Beyond that, there isn't much to say. Sure, Panic in the Sky is proving to be a little stupid, but it's also entertaining. Had it not been confined to the Superman titles, I think it would be remembered as one of DC's better company-wide events.

Of course, that isn't saying much.

Thanks for this! I'd long suspected that the last minute decision to introduce a 4th Superman title, combined with emergency rewrites on Armageddon 2001 (which, I also suspect, was originally intended to be Time and Time Again until DC decided it wanted a major event for the annuals), resulted in serious delays and last minute scripting for the Superman office.




Yes. I actually think the delays worked out better on that one, as I was so impressed that they showed an event occurring so far down the line in those pages. It's a little less impressive if they are only showing things that would happen later that year (like Manheim trying to blow up Metropolis).



Well, Millennium was arguably a Green Lantern event, and Invasion was arguably a Hawkman event. War of the Gods was a Wonder Woman event, and I suspect its low sales were the real reason DC made this decision. I don't have sales figures for War of the Gods, but I do know that DC's overall market share declined sharply during that time, so retailers may not have been interested in ordering big for yet another DC crossover event.

I absolutely agree. It took the Post-Crisis Superman office almost five years to get Superman to the forefront of the DC heroes, and they did it just in time.



That may support my suspicion that editorial demanded Deathstroke's inclusion for sales purposes.



That's interesting.

Wait a minute.  Is Wally West left-handed?  Because if not, that is some seriously reckless grandstanding on his part.  Why doesn't he just shoot that glass out of his nose or something while he's at it?  I mean, it could be his last chance to prove he can do it.

"Minor Detail" to you, but to me, that SCU series - which I've never read - confirmed for a fact that Superman would be coming back from the dead.  You see, in February, 1993 (according to the CCD), DC released The Superman Gallery.  This was just 36 pages or so of old and recent Superman covers collected together to give fans a Superman comic to buy during the hiatus between Funeral for a Friend when the titles ended (in January of 1993) and Adventures of Superman #500 when the titles started up again (April, 1993).

Now, I was pretty sure Superman would be coming back, but not totally.  Hey, how could I know he wouldn't come back completely differently?  Anyway, included amongst those images was this cover for 
the not yet released Metropolis S.C.U. #2.



So about a month after Superman #77 was published with its 'Superman flying to Heaven' cover and its 'Next Issue' boxes on the letter page inside all reading "There is no information on Action Comics #687 at this time', 'There is no information on Superman: Man of Steel #22 at this time', 'There is no...' and six weeks before the titles started up again, DC released what was essentially a full page spoiler advertising Superman's return later that very year.

Of course, when the issue was released it had been updated to include Superman's mullet and darker colors (and was now issue three instead of two) but my point remains.

Adventures of Superman #489 (April 1992)



"Panic in the Sky Epilogue: Hail the Conquering Heroes"

Script: Jerry Ordway
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Doug Hazlewood
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: Albert DeGuzman

Grade: B-


If last issue's falling action felt awkward, that's probably because there wasn't supposed to be any. Apparently, that issue was supposed to end with the climactic moment of Brainiac getting lobotomized and unleashing that metal orb thing that hasn't gotten explained yet



and the moments afterward were supposed to be told here, in the epilogue. Thus we get this moment at the start of this issue, in which Maxima is crying for Brainiac's blood:



which absolutely does not match the final subdued moment we had last issue:



Furthermore, Brainiac has apparently destroyed Maxima's home planet now:



when Almerac was very much alive just two issues back:



It's truly frustrating to see an office once so remarkable for its coordination stumbling this badly. Clearly, the decision has been made by this point to move Maxima into Justice League, and her planet needs to be dead for that to happen (otherwise wouldn't she just return home?), except the entire reason Brainiac had been able to control her throughout this story was because she feared what he might due to her planet. If he was going to destroy it, we really needed to be shown that. Heck, it would have been a more believable reason for why Maxima suddenly turned on him late in the story.

Speaking of poor coordination, you've got to love how Superman doesn't hesitate to install a puppet government on Warworld without a second thought, instructing them to choose their leaders differently next time:



So I guess we're just going to ignore the lesson Superman learned from interfering with the regime of the terrorist nation of Qurac way back in Adventures of Superman #427? It's not like the Superman office was still exploring the repercussions of that single event three years later or anything:


from Adventures of Superman #471.

Granted, the story above was written by Bill Messner-Loebs (fill-in writer), and Marv Wolfman (long gone by this point) was the one to originally write the Qurac episode and explore its aftermath, but Roger Stern (still very much one fourth of the Superman office) certainly revisited its implications during his Action Comics Weekly stretch:


from Action Comics Weekly #639

Maybe the difference is that Warworld's leader was directly responsible for the threat against innocent people this time? Maybe the difference is that they're aliens and not an anaologue for a real-world nation, or maybe Ordway just didn't give a f**k.


Anyway, Dan Jurgens' words about this storyline weighed on me quite a bit as I read this final issue. Specifically his statement that:




Okay, so Superman is all about taking the fight to the hostile invader before he comes to Earth, and you've got Orion, Lightray, and Metron right there, so why is he installing them as puppet governers on Warworld instead of saying, "Hey, why don't we take the fight to Darkseid next? After Legends a few years back, you know it's just a matter of time before he comes for Earth again, and I clearly no longer have any qualms with disrupting the internal politics of other nations/planets."

But I suppose that if you take Superman too far down the road of bringing the fight to the enemy before the enemy brings the fight to you, we're going to end up with something out of Frank Miller or Alan Moore; a super-powered bully just kicking enemy rulers' teeth in when they refuse to sign non-aggression pacts with Earth.


Anyway, it's clear that the main reason why this epilogue was needed was because the Superman Office needed to show Superman arriving at this conclusion



in order to justify him and Maxima joining the Justice League this same month:



Incidentally, I don't intend to include those stories in my reviews unless anyone here thinks they'll matter in terms of Superman continuity.

However, I will admit that I was confused by this portion of Superman's speech:



What was going on with the League at this point? The comic was still hitting stands each month. I really should get back to my Justice League in the Post-Crisis Era review thread sooner or later.


Beyond all this, we finally return to the Superman Office's default structure of exploring multiple character arcs at one time, with Matrix deciding to remain as Supergirl:



I am REALLY glad we moved away from the creepy idea of her wearing Draaga's body as a means of somehow honoring her deceased almost-lover.

Jimmy Olsen's obnoxious story arc coming to an end with his return to the Daily Planet:



and Professor Hamilton randomly remembering that he forgot a critically important promise he made two frickin' years earlier:



Look, I get it. There was a short time in which George Perez was gone, and all the remaining writers were free to write whatever Superman stories they felt like writing, and then suddenly someone decided that they should start writing interconnected crossover after interconnected crossover. And then, when those were done, the last minute decision to create a 4th Superman title (as well as other factors that I strong suspect included the original plot for Time and Time Again becoming Armageddon 2001, requiring a whole new crossover to be planned at the last moment--but I won't get into all that again) created massive delays and last minute scrambling in 1991. So now that the big crossover for 1992 is concluded, Ordway is getting right back to that story. Fine. That makes sense, but couldn't we be shown that the professor had been working on fulfilling his promise all along and just not getting anywhere until now? It's deeply troubling to see a character we love be so absent-minded and blasé about another innocent character's fate.

Anyway, Ordway wastes no time in thrusting us into this new story arc that has nothing to do with Panic in the Sky. Parts are downright amusing in a way that only Ordway can make them



while others are so steeped in forgettable continuity from two full years (and 92 full issues!) earlier that even I barely know what the hell he's talking about:



I will say that it's a bit ironic, at the tail end of a story that so deliberately invoked both Crisis on Infinite Earths and Invasion by name, to meet a character named Flashpoint:





Important Details:

1. Matrix decides to remain as Supergirl.

2. Brainiac has been lobotomized.



Minor Details:

1. Orion and Lightray now rule Warworld, and Metron is in possession of Brainiac.


2. Stop trying to sell us on Deathstroke as a hero just because the fanboys love him:



He certainly had no qualms about repeatedly trying to kill a certain other green kid who was only a few years older than that.


3. Okay, so Luthor organizes a parade to celebrate Earth's victory against the invaders, and THEN the heroes come through the boomtube unexpectedly:



So how did Luthor know the invasion was over? How embarrassing would it have been if he organized a victory parade in the middle of a lull while Brainiac was warming up some huge death beam that was going to rip into Metropolis a few pages later?


4. the letters page is still adamantly insisting that Lex Luthor I is really and truly dead.



(as always, no spoilers on this one, please).


5. In fact, the letters page is a virtual treasure trove of minor details this time around. For example, I hadn't realized that we never ever saw Tiny Bubbles (Manheim's girlfriend)'s face:




6. And this little bit of trivia is somewhat disturbing:



So they branded her? Like, Superman owns that particular farm animal now? Why aren't they drawing an LL into his curls? Up until now, I've been really impressed with the equality these writers have given to Clark and Lois's relationship, but this little detail really bothers me.

I think the S curl was an in-joke and not an editorial dictate and not some kind of branding. You gotta have some fun when you are cranking this stuff out. It's like Wally Wood slowly enlarging Power Girl's breasts, in All-Star Comics, before the editors finally caught on to what he was doing and told him to knock it off. They even took the boob window away, for a while, until it quietly re-appeared.