Superman #2

Hey guys, it's been a little while but I'm back.

I first of all wanted to drop a shout-out to J David Weder, the host of the Superman Forever podcast. The podcast is one of the msot enjoyable and informative Superman podcasts out there. It's very much a magazine show, with great features on the history of Superman (I'm particularly enjoying the current look at Superman animation throughout the ages), moments of fun and silliness, and a strong look at the post-Infinite Crisis Superman, making the podcast an ideal companion to From Crisis To Crisis. I cannot recommend this podcast enough to you guys!

Secondly, if you have been to your comic store at any time over the past year you have probably noticed a series of reprints entitled DC Comics Presents. This series sits neatly between a single issue and a trade paperback, comprising 4 or so issues of a run that has not been reprinted before for about $7.99. One of the most recent issues was DC Comics Present Superman: Soul Survivor, which reprinted Legends of the DC Universe #1-3. I covered this some months ago (here, here and here), and as this is the first time this arc has been collected you may want to go check this story out if you haven't before. I'm a big supporter of this method of reprinting comics, especially as one of the strands being produced is a reprint of Peter David's Young Justice, which is an absolutely wonderful comic and one can't wait to cover in a couple of decades or so!

The Secret Revealed!

Script & Pencils: John Byrne

Inks: Terry Austin

Lettering: John Costanza

Editing: Andrew Helfer

Special Thanks to Keith Williams for Background Inks

Cover Art: John Byrne

Cover Date: February 1987

Release Date: 09/10/1986

Amanda McCoy’s research into Superman has revealed images of Lana Lang, who had been present at numerous Superman sightings. Luthor orders a team to find Lana, before ordering Connor to have dinner with him that night. He then moves onto Sydney Happerson’s laboratory, where Metallo is being investigated. Metallo rants and raves at Luthor, who simply plucks the kryptonite heart from his chest, apparently killing him. He orders a full examination of the kryptonite.

Meanwhile, in Smallville, Luthor’s agents who are investigating Clark Kent tranquilize Ma and Pa Kent before ransacking the house looking for clues. They find Ma’s scrapbook of Superman sightings and unexplained phenomenon, and decide to take it back to Luthor. As they leave, they are discovered by Lana Lang, and they kidnap her. That night, Luthor’s dinner date with McCoy is interrupted by news of Lana’s capture. Lex prepares to drug her with truth serum, but Dr Kelley warns that Lana has a serious allergy to drugs, meaning that she cannot be given the serum.

 Flying above Metropolis, Superman discovers that he is being followed by a small, agile, flying camera. Finding that it is too fast to grab, Superman confuses it with a bunch of helium balloons, but before he can investigate it, it self-destructs. Returning home, Clark Kent discovers bloody footprints leading past his door to a maintenance closet. Opening the door, he discovers the battered and beaten form of Lana Lang, who tells Superman that she has been kidnapped and tortured for two days. Her kidnappers wanted to know everything about Superman, but she refused to talk to them. She tells Clark that her kidnappers have also taken his parents.

 

Superman heads off to confront the kidnappers, monitored by Luthor, who orders Dr McCoy to review the gathered data on Superman and Clark Kent. Arriving at an abandoned factory, Superman confronts the kidnappers, but Luthor detonates the complex by remote, killing them and angering Superman further. Soon after, Superman bursts into Luthor’s office, threatening him with kidnapping, torture and murder charges. Luthor is not intimidated, and points out that Superman is dizzy and confused. The closer Superman gets to Luthor, the weaker he gets, the result of kryptonite radiation. Unable to proceed, Luthor throws Superman out of his office.

Superman flies Lana back to Smallville. They arrive at the Kent farm, and Superman is astonished to discover his parents, free and well. Lana’s kidnappers had ignored them and left them where they were. They report that only personal items relating to Clark had been stolen, and Superman worries about what Luthor is going to do with the information he has gained.

Luthor meets McCoy in her laboratory, where a computer is analysing all the data on Clark Kent. Suddenly, it produces its conclusion: Clark Kent is Superman. McCoy is astonished by the revelation, but Luthor refuses to believe it. To him, the power of Superman would be something to be exploited, and he cannot understand why anyone would choose to hide it and pretend to be a normal person. In his anger, he fires McCoy.

Wow, what a great issue. End of review.

What’s that? 532 words of recap followed by 5 words seems a little unbalanced? Damn you, internet, with your reasonable expectations! Damn you all to hell!

But seriously, one of the hardest reviews to write is that of something you completely love, and I completely love this comic. We’ve talked a bit about statements of what the post-Crisis Superman is, and this issue is possibly the strongest statement there is. Everything that I associate with this era is present and correct. Luthor being an absolute magnificent bastard, revelling in his power and influence? Check. A supporting cast that is as strong, if not stronger, than the title character? Check. Tremendous faith and compassion? Oh, check, absolutely check that.

Lex Luthor takes the centre stage for the first time since Man of Steel #4, and he hogs it completely. He is a predator, an unstoppable machine, devouring and spitting out not only Lana Lang but Dr McCoy as well. There are some great sexual undertones when it is implied that Amanda slept with Lex on his order, and the thought of having to physically torture Lana fills him with joy. Bear in mind that the last time Lex had a female in custody, it was a teenage Lois who was forcibly searched on camera, it can be implied that it is not only a beating Lana receives. His skills in manipulation are on fine form, sacrificing his henchmen to bring Superman to him, simply to bring the Man of Steel to his knees in the presence of his newly-acquired kryptonite ring. He also happily wrenches the artificial heart from Metallo without a second thought as to whether or not this would kill the cyborg. But it his final act, born of misunderstanding, that truly tells the reader who Lex is. Unable to comprehend that someone blessed with such power would not use it for his own benefit, he dismisses McCoy in his anger and walks away from the very truth he had been seeking. Luthor is the ultimate egoist, and anything that does not fit his view of the world is summarily dismissed.

This is the first time that the supporting cast from Smallville crosses into Clark’s Metropolis life, and for Lana Lang it’s a terrible journey. Found at the wrong place at the wrong time, a chance allergy to ‘drugs’ (what does she do when she has a headache?) sees her subjected to two days of physical torture.  Her strength shines through when she tells Clark that his identity is too important to her and to the world to give up. This moment defines Lana in the same way that this issue defines Lex. She is forever the girl next door, in love with the hero but acceptant of the fact that they will never be together. Their bond is unbreakable and their secrets too important to share. If you don’t come out of this issue loving Lana to pieces and feeling so sorry for her situation, then you probably don’t have a heart!

The other element of the Smallville cast, Ma and Pa Kent, are involved with a moment of false jeopardy that feels untrue and forced. The reader is supposed to believe that Luthor’s goons have kidnapped them along with Lana, and some attempt is made to convince us that the Kents are missing or in danger. The revelation that they were left to sleep off their tranquilizers feels as if a potentially interesting direction for the books was closed off too soon (although the missing scrapbook would provide plots for some time to come.

With all of this supporting-cast love, it could be easy to see Superman as a secondary player in his own book. Whilst it’s true that he doesn’t appear until page 10, every event in this book revolves around Superman. His presence is the instigator of the plot and its every development. When he does appear, he doesn’t disappoint. There’s a lovely little moment when Superman is trying to evade the flying camera when he stops to pay a street vendor for his bunch of balloons (apparently Superman’s belt, whilst not at Batman levels, has at least a pouch for change). We then switch into compassionate Clark, telling Lana that she should have given him up rather than take Luthor’s beating. The scene in Lex’s penthouse where Superman is blindsided by the kryptonite and is forced to retreat is painful to read, and Superman’s final utterance through gritted teeth, ‘Damn you Luthor’ is powerfully portrayed in what is possibly the thinnest panel of the year.

But what about the climax? Heavily hinted at by the cover, Lex Luthor is presented with evidence that Clark Kent is Superman and chooses to disregard it. The cover is a great exercise in creating an impossible situation and letting the reader wonder how this can be undone. Unlike certain stories involving mindwipes and scarlet pigeons, the undoing of the premise comes entirely from Luthor’s character and is all the stronger for it.

The Geeky Bits: Lex Luthor would ‘rediscover’ Superman’s identity in Superman #178. Look out for coverage of this in… ooh… about twenty years or so!

Amanda McCoy and her knowledge of Superman’s identity would culminate in the Dark Knight Over Metropolis storyline.

Coverage of this issue can be found in Episode 4 of From Crisis To Crisis.

Next on World of Superman: Magic. Blegh. Superman vs mud. Blegh.

Superman #1

Well, the December doldrums appear to have hit rather hard this year Despite my best efforts to keep to a schedule, I am almost a month behind schedule with these posts. I can only apologise and ask you to bear with me whilst the Christmas trading season runs its course and I can get back to normality in the new year.

Just a few notes on Superman-related projects that are in progress right now. From Crisis to Crisis is just about to enter the true Neverending Battle era with the launch of Superman: The Man Of Steel #1. Charlie Niemeyer has launched a podcast covering the Bronze Age of Superman, appropriately titled Superman in the Bronze Age. It's up to its third episode, and is doing a great job of presenting the final days of the Silver Age Superman, from the first issue that Julius Schwarz edited onwards. Also, the Superman Forever podcast has altered its format to include coverage of the post-Infinite Crisis Superman, starting with Up, Up and Away. They've just started this, and it makes a great jumping on point for a great podcast.

With all of this Superman attention, I can hear you asking, 'Shouldn't there be a podcast covering the Golden Age of Superman?' Well, I've heard about some plans for this that should be arriving in 2011. I know the people behind this podcast, and I've heard an excerpt from the first episode, and I'm really excited about this project.

But that's enough teasing and promoting. We have a comic to look at.

Heart of Stone


Story and Pencils: John Byrne
Guest Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Editor: Andrew Helfer
Cover Date: January 1987
Release Date: 09/10/1986

Superman bursts in on an abandoned, lead-lined laboratory. He has spent three months searching for the missing birthing matrix. Working his way through the lab he discovers a sealed room, and on entering he finds that it is full of images and data concerning himself. Realising that his suspicions of being photographed (in Man of Steel #4) were accurate, he is then surprised to discover the six-week-old body of a scientist laid on a table, along with an acid bath containing fragments of human bone. To protect the data and to preserve the crime scene, Superman burrows around the laboratory, using his heat vision to fuse the silicates in the soil into steel, before lifting the entire complex into orbit.


Superman returns to Earth and changes to Clark Kent, to allow him to keep a jogging date with Lois Lane. As the two run, they hear an alarm from a nearby bank. Moving to investigate, they discover that the metal doors have been bent out of shape. Suddenly, Lois is grabbed by the bank robber. Clark attacks him, and rolls with a punch to get out of sight so that he can change back to Superman. The robber ignores him, bragging to Lois Lane that he is Metallo, and that he is as powerful as Superman. Superman arrives to contest this, but is surprised when he is hurled clean through a wall and across the street. He shakes off a moment of dizziness and returns to Metallo.


As the two fight, Lois climbs behind the teller's desk to find a tunnel in the floor. She rationalises that Superman tunelled Clark out of the bank to get him to safety. Turning around, she sees that Superman is losing the fight. Superman feels like his powers are draining away. He asks Metallo why he is doing this, but Metallo doesn't feel like answering his questions. He is interrupted by shotgun blasts from the MCU that knock Metallo back. Superman's strength starts to return, and he deduces that Metallo is dead, as he cannot hear a heartbeat. However, Metallo is not dead, and he gets the jump on Superman, telling him that he is going to kill him. The fight continues, with Metallo the stronger fighter.


In flashback, we see the origin of Metallo. He awakes in the laboratory from the start of the issue, and sees his metallic hands. A scientist explains that he has the power to kill Superman. The scientist had witnessed Superman's arrival on Earth in the birthing matrix, and had retrieved the matrix. There he witnessed a part of Jor-El's message, and became convinced that Superman was the vanguard of an alien invasion. He reveals a chunk of kryptonite, a material deadly to Superman, and implants it in Metallo's chest cavity. Realising that the kryptonite will power him forever, Metallo decides that he doesn't need the scientist and strangles him.


Lex Luthor is alerted to the fight between Metallo and Superman. He is angered when he discovers that Metallo could kill Superman, as he had promised to kill Superman himself.


The fight continues, causing the bank to collapse. Metallo emerges from the rubble, his synthetic skin destroyed revealing his robotic body, and grasping Superman's tattered cape. Superman surfaces as well, barely able to stand, but still determined to stop Metallo. Metallo responds by opening his chest cavity, fully exposing Superman to the kryptonite within. Superman collapses in agony, and is only saved when Metallo is inexplicably taken from the scene. Quickly recovering, he asks Lois what happened, but all she can say is that a black shadow fell over Metallo and he disappeared. Superman is concerned that his weakness to kryptonite has quickly become public knowledge, and he knows that someone kidnapped Metallo to get access to kryptonite.

There's a lot to like about this issue. Metallo becomes the first member of Superman's super-powered villains to be updated for the post-Crisis era (discounting the Bizarro from Man of Steel #5, which wasn't even called Bizarro). He bursts onto the scene, posing a credible and lethal threat, bringing Superman to his knees. He is unstoppable, and the city of Metropolis reacts to his attack on Superman in a way that reminds me of when Superman fought Doomsday for the first time. The moment where the bank has collapsed on top of Metallo and Superman, with neither surfacing, is a real heart-stopper. Before the relaunch, every reader would have known that Superman would be victorious, but this early in the post-Crisis era. there is a real feeling that anything could happen. When Superman does reappear, victorious is the last thing that he is. Wracked with pain, barely able to stand, the strength of his character is that he still does not submit, even when exposed to a large chunk of kryptonite for the first time. Even at the end of the issue, all is not well with Superman, and the final panel clearly shows a beaten and bruised Superman who has not fully weathered the fight.

There is a deus ex machina element to the climax of the issue, where an unknown force abducts Metallo, inadvertently saving Superman's life. The next issue reveals this force to have been Luthor (sorry for the spoilers guys, but this comic is twenty-three years old!), and the fact that he has succeeded where Superman failed only serves to strengthen his position and power in this new continuity.

The art here is fantastic. Byrne is no longer providing his own inks, with Terry Austin coming aboard as 'Guest Inker', but in reality staying around for the next three issues until Karl Kesel arrives. The art seems a little crisper than that of The Man of Steel. There's a lovely touch where Metallo's flashbacks to his creation are tinged with green, as if filtered through his kryptonite-powered body (although, considering that the kryptonite gets implanted in his chest just before the flashbacks end, there technically isn't any reason to do so.). Metallo is an imposing presence, especially when his full robot form is revealed (deliciously, with scraps of his fake skin still in place), and the decision to show him in silhouette when he opens up his chest to unleash the kryptonite really heightens his inhumanity.


If there is a disappointment with the issue it's that the minor plot threat that has run throughout The Man of Steel is underwhelmingly resolved here. The shadowy figure, Dr Emmet Vale, dies before he gets the chance to meet Superman, and the menace his unknown presence provided throughout the miniseries is revealed to be psychotic paranoia. His work to uncover as much about Superman as possible is lost when Metallo kills him, and Metallo never shows any sign of having absorbed that information in the future. My memory is being a little faulty, but I cannot remember the laboratory, so carefully placed into orbit, ever becoming a concern again. (As an aside, considering that Vale is willing to handle kryptonite and uranium with no more protection than rubber gloves, his body is probably so wracked with radiation that he is effectively a dead man walking.).

We also have an example in this issue of a Byrne-specific element of the rebooted Superman, that would fade away once Byrne left the book. When Superman is raising the lab into orbit, he notices that the mass has lost its weight once he starts flying, as opposed to being heavy when he was lifting it out of the ground. He then notes that it is as if he is moving the mass with the force of his mind. One of the trademarks of Byrne's reinvention of Superman was to look at how Superman's powers worked, and this is an example of one of those reworkings. Basically, the idea is that if Superman is standing on the ground lifting something, then it is really heavy and he is using his strength to lift it. However, Superman can fly, and when he does so, he uses his mind to make himself fly, at the same time, reducing his weight. Thus, if he is flying something heavy, such as a stolen laboratory containing illicitly-gained research about himself, then like his body it loses its weight. This re-evaluation of Superman's powers also includes the idea that Superman emits a bio-electrical field which prevents fabric sitting close to his skin from coming to harm, although this idea would outlast the pseudo-telepathic-flight one.

The Geeky Bits: As part of the relaunch, the decision was taken to cancel the first volume of Superman, transfer its numbering to the new title Adventures of Superman, and relaunch Superman as volume 2, issue 1. The decision was a fairly simple one - a hard reboot of the Superman numbering would be a strong message to readers, and allow the new ongoings to launch with a bang, as opposed to issue 424 of a 45 year-old comic. As Dick Giordano is quoted in John Byrne's column at the end of the issue, it was "History on the drawing board."

Dr Emmet Vale is pretty much a non-figure in the Superman universe. Other than a brief flashback in 1992s Adventures of Superman #491, his only other appearance is in an alternate universe in the Zero Hour tie-in issue of Action Comics (#703) where, in the other universe, he is the owner of the farm next door to the Kents. In the 2009 Secret Origin miniseries he briefly appears as the chief scientist on the METALLO armour project that leads into the first public appearance of Superman.

Clark here acts on his statement from The Man of Steel #6, where he vows to go after Lois Lane. Here, the two share a jogging date and the animosity from the Superman article of six years previously appears to be a thing of the past.

Metallo and the kryptonite next appear in Superman #2.

Want to know more? This issue of Superman was covered on the third episode of From Crisis to Crisis. It is collected in the second volume of the Man of Steel reprint series.

Next on World of Superman: The great Marv Wolfman and the great Jerry Ordway arrive to kick off their year together on Adventures of Superman with issues #424.