“SQUATTER!”
Storyteller: John Byrne | Embellisher: Dick Giordano
Colorist: Tom Ziuko | Letterer: John Costanza | Editor: Andrew Helfer
Storyteller: John Byrne | Embellisher: Dick Giordano
Colorist: Tom Ziuko | Letterer: John Costanza | Editor: Andrew Helfer
Superman explains that he was tricked by a man named David Gundersen, who switched their bodies with a machine he had built. The same machine swaps them back to normal, and Superman lectures Gundersen on his behavior.
Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: The story takes place in a location referred to in dialogue as “…the largest city in the nation,” “renowned in song and fable,” etc., etc. The city is never referred to by name. Knowing the Titans reside in New York makes me assume this is it, though I’m unsure why Byrne is playing coy.
Cyborg notes that he’s met Superman a couple of times, supporting SUPERMAN #1’s idea that the Man of Steel has had run-ins with heroes other than Batman since his debut.
Wonder Girl somehow exists. (I’ll have more to say about this when we cover LEGENDS in a couple weeks.)
Lex Luthor wonders how Clark Kent seems to get all the exclusive Superman stories, and decides there must be a connection between the two.
My Thoughts: For the first issue of ACTION COMICS following THE MAN OF STEEL, this is an utterly inconsequential installment. It’s just a fight between Superman and the Titans with an abrupt resolution that looks like Byrne struggled to cram into a single page.
That said, Byrne draws some terrific New Teen Titans! I know he’s a fan of his contemporary, George Pérez — maybe he just wanted an excuse to draw some of Pérez’s characters.
“THE SECRET REVEALED!”
Story & Pencils: John Byrne | Inks: Terry Austin
Lettering: John Costanza | Coloring: Tom Ziuko | Editing: Andrew Helfer
Special thanks to Keith Williams for background inks
Story & Pencils: John Byrne | Inks: Terry Austin
Lettering: John Costanza | Coloring: Tom Ziuko | Editing: Andrew Helfer
Special thanks to Keith Williams for background inks
A few days later, Superman eludes a drone pursuing him for Luthor, then finds a battered Lana waiting in his apartment building. He races to the spot from which she escaped, but it’s an abandoned factory Luthor blows up upon his enemy’s arrival. Superman next confronts Luthor in his office but finds the villain now wears a Kryptonite ring that holds him at bay.
Superman returns Lana to Smallville and finds his parents alive and well, but worries over what Luthor will do with the items his men stole from their house. Meanwhile, Luthor’s computer tells him that Clark Kent is Superman, but Luthor refuses to believe anyone with Superman’s power would masquerade as a lowly human and discounts the revelation.
Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Lana apparently followed Superman all over the place, getting caught on camera everywhere, before she eventually returned to Smallville. Luthor uses this footage to determine she has some connection to Superman.
At the Kents’ home, Luthor’s men find a scrapbook Martha has kept of Superman’s exploits, which was first seen in THE MAN OF STEEL #2.
We learn here that Superman vibrates his face at super-speed when near cameras to avoid being clearly photographed.
We’re told that Superman’s fight with Metallo occurred “…the other week.”
My Thoughts: Okay, this is a nice recovery following the Titans story. SUPERMAN #2 is basically a study of the all-new, all-different Lex Luthor, and it works perfectly to make you hate the guy as much as you should. Here we have a Luthor who executes Metallo for his Kryptonite heart and soon orders two of his men executed as well for botching a mission, but ultimately spares them instead when he realizes they captured Lana — until the time comes to lure Superman into a trap, at which point the men become fodder to be blown up when Superman bursts in on them.
He learns from his doctors that Lana has a very low tolerance for narcotics, so he orders her beaten instead to learn about Superman (to her credit, Lana doesn’t crack). But perhaps the most despicable (and, coincidentally the most topical to today’s climate) thing that Luthor does is to force his head computer programmer, Amanda McCoy, to have dinner and spend the night with him — a liaison she goes along with, knowing that to do otherwise would mean the end of her career. It’s the sort of creepy scene that makes your skin crawl when you read it, especially the next morning as they both stand around in bathrobes and a jolly Luthor insists that the ashamed Amanda call him Lex.
And this abuse of Luthor’s own considerable power and influence is capped off as he berates Amanda for the information her computer provides. He can’t fathom Superman stooping to the lowly level of a human being because he, himself, could never do the same if he possessed his enemy’s abilities. Luthor fires Amanda for her “incompetence” and thus, in one issue, Byrne has told us everything we need to know about the new Lex Luthor and at the same time quickly and efficiently gotten the obligatory “Luthor tries to determine Superman’s secret identity” plot out of the way.
Next Week: Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway join the fray in ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #424 - 425, plus more Byrne in ACTION COMICS 585, guest-starring the Phantom Stranger.
Wonder Girl throwing a car of that particular color is somehow very reminiscent of the iconic cover of Action Comics #1.
ReplyDelete"You must call me Lex, now"... this is probably for all the underlings' benefit so everyone in the house can keep score. Slimy.
That's a good point, Teemu. I could totally see this sleazy Luthor doing something like that so everyone in the know would be aware of who he's "conquered".
Delete'Everyone' in the know being pretty much everyone around I would think... it's not particularly difficult code to crack if everyone is careful to call him Mr. Luthor except for a number of youngish women who seem to be in first name basis with him.
Delete-Wonder where Dick and Kory are? Well, Kory, Dick, and Joe were taken to Tamara, where Kory was told that she had to be the wife for a political marriage. Dick was unable to stop it (Blackfire helped in that one), and refusing to continue the relationship under this circumstance, left Kory and returned to Earth with Joe. Under emotional strain on this rebound, Dick has an ugly fight with Donna over her mismanagement of leading the Titans in his absence (making Donna angry...) leading to him going alone to Zandia to attempt to rescue Raven from Brother Blood. And remember what I told you about Dick and Brother Blood...?
ReplyDelete-Cyborg's comment about getting a new promethium body is based on a recent battle when a deranged Steve Dayton/Mento heavily damaged him. As for his meetings with Supes, I believe the Blackfire Saga still exists, although other associations (teaming up with the JLA to fight Braniac in a Marv-penned ACTION COMICS#546 and an adventure involving Braniac in NEW TEEN TITANS (vol.2!) ANNUAL 1) are probably non-existent because Braniac has been rebooted.
-The reference about Lana the Supes Stalker is a story for another time...I did like the bit where Superman is more concerned about Lana's life than his ID.
-The irony, Luthor seems to have won, except for his refusal to believe the data about Superman and Clark Kent. JB would write use it in a Supes/FF x-over spoof in WHAT THE---? Where Doc Doom reveals this to Lex, and we get several panels of Luthor in hysterics despite Doom's overtures of the evidence (photos of Clark changing into Supes, his parents admitting it, etc.). Previously, the explanation for Superman keeping his Secret ID was that his glasses lenses- made from the Kryptonian rocket windshield- carry a hypnotic influence that convinces everyone that Clark looks different.
Thanks for the Teen Titans update, Angmc43! I look forward to reading the post-Pérez issues someday... and I most assuredly do remember what you said about Dick and Brother Blood!
DeleteIt's interesting how certain pre-CRISIS stories were kept, others changed so they happened differently, and still more simply jettisoned entirely. My first exposure to the concept of pre- and post-CRISIS was THE BATMAN SOURCEBOOK for the DC HEROES ROLEPLAYING GAME. While I didn't read a ton of DC stuff as a kid, I still enjoyed the characters through other media, and as an avid tabletop RPGer, I picked up that game (though I liked the MARVEL SUPER HEROES ROLEPLAYING GAME more, both in terms of rules and because it was Marvel).
Anyway, the Batman book made tons of references to pre-CRISIS and post-CRISIS continuity, which stories were still considered to have happened, which weren't... I was probably thirteen or so at the time, and I found it fascinating -- though even then I recognized it as a huge headache, too!
I used to love WHAT THE--?! I wonder if I ever read that issue? I know I read at least one or two issues featuring Byrne stories, but I'm unsure if that was one of them.
Superman #2 may be my favourite issue of the run, mainly for being such a complete capsule of "new" Lex, as this review points out so well. It's great, 'cause this version of Luthor could have overlapped with Kingpin due to superficial similarities, but Byrne makes him feel very much like his own villain. He's powerful and strategic, but there's a dangerous delight in his own evil that in some ways makes him even scarier than Kingpin (although Kingpin's adventures around this time suggest he would have believed Amanda's conclusion about his foe's secret ID...and then promptly had her killed).
ReplyDeleteI held off collecting Byrne's Action Comics for a while due to budget concerns, but soon went back and starting picking them up. This debut was one of the last I read, and wasn't one of my favourites, but still good. All the Action series share the same breezy done-in-one vibe, my enjoyment tended to depend on how much I liked the guest star that issue (but since I was just getting into the DC universe, the guest stars were a big part of the fun for me). It was a memorable era of comic-collecting, to be sure.
-david p.
David, now you've got me wishing for a Marve/DC crossover teaming this version of Luthor with the Kingpin! Maybe a joint production by John Byrne and Frank Miller...? Hey, I can dream!
DeleteI've read a bit further at this point, and "breezy done in one" is just about a perfect way to describe the ACTION issues I've seen so far. Some are fun, some less so, but they're all very continuity light, one-off team-up adventures so far. The similarity to MARVEL TEAM-UP in that regard almost has to be intentional, I think.
You know, you'd think with Marv Wolfman being a big part of the relaunch of the DC Universe, and George Perez doing Wonder Woman, that they would've have realized "Uhm, what about Wonder Girl?"
ReplyDeleteThere was a certain amount of wanting to have their cake and eat it too with what Crisis had and hadn't erased, and it honestly might have been better if DC had just not given a damn about continuity and done what they thought was cool, especially given how attempts to fix the mistakes they made only made things worse.
As for the Luthor story, which was, I believe, the last issue of this run my best friend bought, which is why I know anything about it: I loved it up to the ending. It's supposed to show how Luthor's psychology works: 'I am superior and I wouldn't make myself seem lesser, so why would Superman?" But it's presented in such a way that Luthor comes off as an idiot rather than an egotist. One almost gets the sense even Byrne didn't buy it-as Angmc43 pointed out, Byrne eventually did a take down of this scene in a parody that is so precise one wonders if the sole reason this story existed was to dispose of the "secret identity" thing once and for all. It's a bum note in an otherwise brilliant story.
I can't help but like the ending. Just the delicious irony of the very obsession with using and abusing power that makes Luthor so dangerous is the very thing that denies him a great victory.
DeleteThere's no question it strains credibility, but I put it in the same big comic book longbox as the topic discussed last week of Superman flying with an ocean-liner over his head. i.e. "How can this genius be so stubborn in his worldview that he denies the evidence in front of him?" "Because he's Lex Luthor!"
-david p.
Jack, "having their cake and eating it too" is exactly how I described my impression of DC's attitude toward post-CRISIS in my review of LEGENDS, which is coming in a few weeks. I decided to dedicate the post on the first two issue of that mini-series to the problems with the reboot as I saw them (which is mainly limited to the Titans and Batman, though you've since let me know about problems with the Legion of Superheroes and Hawkman as well).
DeleteAs far as the Luthor story, I personally think the ending works. You just need to buy that this version of Luthor is so maniacally egotistical that he could never in a million years fathom the idea of Superman ever wanting to be a mere human. Secret identities are for mere mortals, not godlike beings!
As a kid, my mind was blown by the Luthor/secret identity thing in #2. As ad adult, I question it a bit more. I'm fine with Luthor rejecting it here, but it seems like, eventually, he might go back and reconsider the notion, after having it all laid out for him here. Like, after Superman dies, and Clark Kent also disappears for the exact same period of time, Luthor doesn't think back to this exercise and say, "hmm, maybe there was something to that" (then again, he was busy pretending to be Luthor Jr. in a cloned body, so who knows?)?
ReplyDeleteIt still holds up as a pretty great bit, and a nice way for Byrne to deal with the secret identity thing right off the bat. I also, in general, really like the post-Crisis approach to the secret ID, that nobody has any reason to believe Superman is ever not Superman. Yeah, Clark Kent looks a lot like Superman without glasses, but why would Superman be running around wearing glasses and pretending to be Clark Kent? He's Superman. This issue really lays the groundwork for that, and it's a great way to sidestep all the "the glasses are a stupid disguise!" criticisms.
I know pretty much nothing about the "Death of Superman" period. Was there an explanation for Clark and Superman both vanishing (and then returning) at the same time? It does seem a massive coincidence.
DeleteThough actually, even more than both of them disappearing for the exact same amount of time, if I was a denizen of this world, I'd be even more suspicious of Superman returning to life with long hair and Clark showing up for work the next day with a ponytail!
DeleteIf memory serves, they basically say that Clark was missing/presumed dead in the wake of Doomsday's attack, and shortly after Superman returns, Clark is publicly "recovered" from the rubble of a building that was collapsed during the fight, along with some explanation for how he survived that long.
DeleteAnd, presumably, the amount of time that passed while "Clark" was "missing" would account for Clark having longer hair than before.
DeleteOkay, that makes some degree of story sense, at least. I could probably buy it if I was Joe Average in the DC Universe. I might've been a little suspicious if I was Lex Luthor or Perry White, though.
DeleteI enjoyed reading both of these issues online simply for John Byrne's vision of the "Superman" universe.
ReplyDelete