SUPERMAN #3, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #426, & ACTION COMICS #586

“LEGENDS FROM THE DARKSIDE”
Writer/Penciler: John Byrne | Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Tom Ziuko | Editor: Andrew Helfer

The Plot: While Lois Lane interviews G. Gordon Godfrey at the Metropolis Grande Hotel, Clark Kent is chased around the city by twin energy beams. The beams eventually catch up with him as he attempts to elude them in the sewer, and transport him to Apokolips. There, Darkseid is confused by the beams’ grabbing a mortal instead of Superman, and he tosses his guest out a window. Clark lands in Apokolips’s slums, where he loses his civilian clothes, grabs rags to hide his costume, and explores. Soon he is attacked by a Pacifier, which grabs him and pulls them both into one of the planet’s fire pits.

“FROM THE DREGS…”
Writer : Marv Wolfman | Artist/Co-Plotter: Jerry Ordway | Co-Plotter: John Byrne
Letterer: Albert de Guzman | Colorist: Tom Ziuko | Editor: Andrew Helfer

The Plot: An addled Superman is fished out of the fire pit by a “hunger dog” named Graggin. Word spreads quickly, and the hero soon comes to the attention of a woman named Amazing Grace, who convinces the hunger dogs that Superman is the savior of the people of Apokolips. When the Man of Steel fights off a troop of Parademons sent to rout the hunger dogs, they begin to believe the hype. Soon Superman, his memories fragmented and powers reduced thanks to the fire pit, leads the hunger dogs against Darkseid’s forces, and though their battle is incredibly costly, the day is won. But as the gathered rebels celebrate, Amazing Grace and Superman reveal their true nature, allowing an even larger force of Parademons to swoop in and slaughter the hunger dogs.

“CHAMPION!”
Storyteller: John Byrne | Embellisher: Dick Giordano
Letterer: John Costanza | Colorist: Tom Ziuko | Editor: Andrew Helfer

The Plot: As Orion and Lightray of the New Gods approach Apokolips, Superman trains under Granny Goodness in Darkseid’s citadel. But when the New Gods’ approach is reported to Darkseid, he restores Superman power himself and sends the Man of Steel out to fight his enemies. When Superman declares himself the son of Darkseid, Orion removes his helmet to reveal himself as Darkseid’s actual son. With the aid of his Mother Box, Orion restores Superman’s memories and costume, and the Man of Steel flies off to confront Darkseid. Following a brief skirmish, Darkseid returns Superman to Earth and allows Orion and Lightray to depart Apokolips.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Clark Kent is a bit of a celebrity in Metropolis, with bystanders recognizing his photo from the Daily Planet as he runs away from Darkseid’s Omega beams.

As in LEGENDS, the Phantom Stranger is hanging around Apokolips, chatting with Darkseid when Clark appears before them.

Superman is familiar with Darkseid in this post-CRISIS universe, but the full nature of their history together is unrevealed — though he at least knows the full history of the New Gods of Apokolips and New Genesis, which he handily recaps for the uninitiated.

Byrne brings up the “aura” which protects Superman’s costume from harm, noting that it also keeps grime and dirt from sticking to him for very long — which I actually kind of like! I’ve never been a fan of heroes who get all scuffed up during an adventure and are forced for whatever reason to remain that way until the storyline is finished. This is a handy way for Superman to basically “reset” to his iconic appearance after every fight!

As part of her plot to win him to Darkseid’s side, Amazing Grace takes a bath (and probably does a bit more) with Superman. Later, we learn that she is the sister of Glorious Godfrey and possesses powers of suggestion like her sibling, though not as powerful.

Darkseid reveals that he knew all along Clark Kent was really Superman, but he feigned ignorance to test whether the Phantom Stranger would maintain neutrality and save the mortal when he was tossed out a window. What Darkseid didn’t realize, however, was that the Stranger knew Clark was Superman and that he would survive the fall.

In addition to restoring Superman to normal, Mother Box also suppresses his memory of his role in the deaths of the hunger dogs.

Last week I speculated about the difference between a boom tube and a star gate; here it’s notable that Orion refers to them both as basically the same thing when Darkseid returns Superman to Earth. So I guess the terms are interchangeable, though I don’t know if that dates all the way back to Jack Kirby’s time with the New Gods, or if it was a more recent invention of later creators.

My Thoughts: LEGENDS brings with it the first inter-series crossover for post-CRISIS Superman, with a Darkseid serial running across all three of the Man of Steel’s titles. Overall, this is a pretty good one, though I can’t help feeling it could’ve been more… epic? Superman brainwashed by Darkseid is something I’ve seen before, notably in the SUPERMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES finale, “Birthright”. As in this tale, Darkseid convinces Superman that he is the warlord’s son (I assume “Birthright” was at least partially based on this story, considering how much S:TAS seemed to draw on Byrne’s overall reboot for inspiration), but unlike here, in the TV version, Darkseid sends our hero out into the galaxy to conquer entire worlds in his name rather than merely setting him against the people of Apokolips.

But on the other hand, keeping the action contained entirely on Apokolips allows Byrne and Jerry Ordway to go “full Kirby” with their illustrations in terms of regalia, accessories, and scenery. Both artists do a great job of it, really selling the griminess and hopelessness of Apokolips’s slums, and generally depicting all of the characters in their Kirby prime. Even newcomer Amazing Grace looks like she could’ve sprung from Kirby’s imagination with the rest of the New Gods.

A lot of the time when you read tie-ins to company-wide crossovers, they feel forced from the perspective of the book in which you’re reading them, and extraneous from the perspective of the main event. I’m not sure what Darkseid was up to in all the other various LEGENDS crossovers, but his appearance here, at least, doesn’t feel like either of those things. Perhaps the involvement of LEGENDS penciler John Byrne is part of that, or perhaps it’s the fact that Darkseid has a long history with the Man of Steel — he did, after all, debut as a Superman villain.

In any case, this little trilogy does a very nice job avoiding the hurdles that many crossover chapters fail to clear, and at the same time it represents the first fully serialized story between all three Superman titles. And on top of both those achievements, it features -- to my eye at least -- the best Ordway artwork so far, and it gives us the first post-CRISIS issue of ACTION COMICS to feel like more than a one-off, unnecessary team-up. Not bad!