“LAST STAND!”
Story & Pencils: John Byrne | Inks: Karl Kesel
Colors: Tom Ziuko | Letters: John Costanza | Editing: Michael Carlin
Story & Pencils: John Byrne | Inks: Karl Kesel
Colors: Tom Ziuko | Letters: John Costanza | Editing: Michael Carlin
Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: This issue continues directly from the main MILLENNIUM series, with Superman and Green Lantern as the last heroes standing after all Earth’s other defenders were beaten by Highmaster. The story’s final page advises readers to follow the duo back into the pages of MILLENNIUM for the event’s conclusion.
My Thoughts: Though it’s an issue of SUPERMAN, this feels more like a typical installment of ACTION COMICS, featuring a stand-alone team-up between Superman and another hero. It’s a quick, breezy read (as are many of Byrne’s issues of ACTION), and while it’s decent on its own, one can’t help feeling it’d feel more momentous after reading the prior issues of MILLENNIUM.
But! Superman and Green Lantern use some cool teamwork to beat Highmaster — the Guardians supercharge GL’s ring while Superman zaps the villain with heat vision to change him from yellow to red, thus allowing the ring to actually work on him — and Byrne gets to throw in the Green Lantern oath, which I know I’d certainly want to do if I was featuring the character in a guest spot in my comic.
“POINT OF VIEW”
Writer/Co-Plotters/Penciler: John Byrne & Jerry Ordway | Inker: John Beatty
Colorist: Anthony Tollin | Letterer: Albert de Guzman | Editor: Michael Carlin
Writer/Co-Plotters/Penciler: John Byrne & Jerry Ordway | Inker: John Beatty
Colorist: Anthony Tollin | Letterer: Albert de Guzman | Editor: Michael Carlin
Meanwhile, Lois goes on a date with Jose Delgado, but it’s interrupted by Combattor, come to grab Lois in order to draw out Superman. Gangbuster appears and battles Combattor, and in the end Combattor is killed while Gangbuster is crippled. Later, Superman visits Luthor in his office to discuss the fate of Gangbuster.
Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: The issue is told via a pair of narratives, one running across the top of each page and one running across the bottom. The top features Luthor describing how he believes a fight between Combattor and Superman would go, as he takes special attention to spell out how callous Superman is toward humans. The bottom version, framed as an article by Lois, tells the story of what actually happened — with Superman involved in the “Millennium” event, it falls to Gangbuster to fight Combattor instead.
Gangbuster is officially unmasked as Jose this issue, though we’ve known for some time that they’re one and the same. Following his fight with the superhumanly enhanced Combattor, Jose is paralyzed. At the story’s end, Luthor makes plans to learn more about Gangbuster.
My Thoughts: I like the narrative device employed here, with the dual stories on top and bottom of each page. I first encountered this concept in CAPTAIN AMERICA #354, the June 1989 issue by Mark Gruenwald and Kieron Dwyer. Obviously this issue of ADVENTURES predates that story, though I’ve no idea if this was the first time anyone did it, or if it existed even earlier thanks to other creators.
But a cool device isn’t enough to save such an odd story. The idea of Combattor is pretty straightforward; just another of Luthor's schemes against Superman. But why does he travel to California, to the home of the Green Lanterns, and loiter in his car outside until someone comes out to see him? Was he specifically after Celia? If so, why? What’s the point of telling her a story about how a fight between Superman and Combattor might go?
More importantly, WHO IS CELIA WINDWARD? If we assume that Luthor did indeed want to meet her specifically and somehow knew she’d come out to check on him, then what’s his game? Why her? She apparently hangs out in the GL citadel. Is she their friend? Is she a supporting cast member from their series? Is she somehow related to “Millennium”? In the final scene, Superman tells Luthor that Celia went back to the citadel and told the other heroes about her dinner with him. But what was the point of the dinner?
If we assume instead that Luthor would’ve just told this tale to anybody who walked out of the citadel, then again, why? What’s his plan? Why did he travel to California? Why not just go down to the Metropolis waterfront and chat up Bibbo instead? Is there some reason the story needs him to visit GL HQ to spin his hypothetical yarn?
All I’m saying is, the Luthor half of this issue makes absolutely no sense.
Next Week: The "Challenge of the Gods" concludes in WONDER WOMAN 12 and 13.
Brilliant reviews all around for these next two issues of the John Byrne "Superman" era. Truthfully I found myself enjoying the Supes/GL team-up more, though I do take a liking in Jose Delgado/Gangbuster. ^_^
ReplyDeleteYeah, I enjoyed the Green Lantern team-up more too. So far, Gangbuster doesn't excite me very much.
DeleteCelia was one of "the Chosen", a group of humans selected by the Guardians to succeed them in protecting something and guiding its evolution or somesuch. The surviving members became the New Guardians, a team whose title only lasted a year and they've generally been forgotten since.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky that the British DC reprints of the time approached their titles slightly as magazines (even including them in the title for a period) and would sometimes add articles including explaining Millennium and the Chosen, which was handy as only a small chunk of the crossover was reprinted here (some Superman issues - for example it skipped the Green Lantern team-up, Justice League International and Secret Origins) but also compensated for writers assuming too much. Though if Luthor was hatching a scheme elsewhere in the crossover it never got mentioned.
I never realised Gangbuster's identity was ever meant to be a mystery - it's so obvious in his first appearance.
Thank you! I've actually heard of THE NEW GUARDIANS, though I had no idea it spun out of MILLENNIUM.
DeleteI agree; Gangbuster's identity seems pretty obvious from the very beginning. This just happens to be the first issue to make it 100% explicit by showing Jose under the mask. I got the impression that Marv Wolfman might have been shooting for a fakeout with the character's identity before he left ADVENTURES, because it just seemed too obvious, but I've got nothing to back that up.
FWIW Kieron Dwyer was Byrne's step-son, so it's possible he picked up the "dual narrative" trick directly from Byrne when he drew that Cap issue (then again, as you say, it may be a narrative technique far more common than either of our experiences, and the familial relationship between the artists of the two issues in question just a coincidence).
ReplyDelete