SUPERMAN #19 & ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #442

“THE POWER THAT FAILED!”
Story & Pencils: John Byrne | Coloring: Petra Scotese | Lettering: John Costanza
Assistant Editing: Renee Witterstaetter | Editing: Michael Carlin
and welcome aboard to Odd-Inker: John Beatty

“POWER PLAY”
Scripting/Penciling/Co-Plotting: John Byrne & Jerry Ordway | Inking: Andy Kubert
Lettering: Albert de Guzman | Colorist: Anthony Tollin
Assistant Editing: Renee Witterstaetter | Editing: Michael Carlin

The Plot: (SUPERMAN 19) A spacecraft lands in the river near Metropolis, boiling the water. Superman arrives at the waterfront soon after and chats with Maggie Sawyer, then heads under the sea to check out the ship, which contains empty stasis pods and is otherwise unoccupied. While investigating, Superman suddenly loses his ability to hold his breath and survive underwater for an extended period.

Superman returns to the Daily Planet for a bit, then meets with Maggie again and goes out on patrol, stopping a Professor Kilgrave from escaping prison and losing his power of flight in the process. Then, unable to fly, he attempts to leave the prison by running across water, but his super-speed cuts out as well. Superman makes it to shore with the aid of a passing steamer, then deduces that his powers are failing every time he uses one. He tests this theory with X-ray vision, which shuts off as well. Then a semi truck rams Superman, costing him his power of invulnerability. Immediately after, he’s attacked by a creature called Dreadnaught.

(ADVENTURES 442) Superman fights Dreadnaught while the alien behemoth’s partner, Syphon, brags that he’s stolen all of the Man of Steel’s powers and transferred them to Dreadnaught. Superman manages to escape, while Aquaman appears to fight Dreadnaught. The Sea King quickly loses his strength and ability to breathe underwater, but Martian Manhunter arrives to save him from drowning — until he, too, loses some of his powers.

Having found some street clothes, Clark Kent visits Professor Hamilton to borrow an invention. Meanwhile, the Elongated Man arrives to help J’onn J’onzz against Dreadnaught, and Captain Marvel soon shows up too. But they, too, lose super-abilities during the battle. Then Clark arrives, using Hamilton’s force field as an exo-skeleton, and begins beating on Dreadnaught until the creature is defeated.

Syphon then reveals that he and Dreadnaught were a vanguard sent to Earth to test it for an alien invasion, and the two vanish in a cloud of smoke. Clark deduces that they were never exacly real in the first place, and were actually probes which took on the form of two alien creatures.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Cat invites Jimmy over to play “Mrs. Robinson” with him, and Jimmy asks her if she’s been drinking, but their rendezvous is interrupted by the spaceship’s arrival. While at Cat’s apartment, Jimmy wonders how she’s able to afford it on her Daily Planet salary.

“Supergirl” leaves the arctic in SUPERMAN 19 and arrives in Smallville in ADVENTURES 442, where she bumps into Lana Lang on the street. She also hears voices in hear head which seem to be her and Lex Luthor having a conversation about finding Superman.

Lois gives Clark the cold shoulder in SUPERMAN 19, but at the end of ADVENTURES 442, she shows up in the aftermath of his fight with and admits that she cares about him.

The scene at the planet also includes a footnotepalooza as Clark wonders whether Luthor has found a way to mess with his powers again as seen in SUPERMAN #10, then reflects that Lois is chilly toward him for ducking out on her in SUPERMAN 15 and ACTION 600, and then recalls his parents’ story from ACTION 597 about him and Superman being raised together.

Jimmy and his mother show up at the planet so Mrs. Olsen can talk to Perry about Jimmy’s career, but she’s distracted when she spots a photo on the wall from Perry’s younger days. Taken overseas eighteen years earlier, it indicates that Jimmy’s father was still alive two years after his supposed death. Also, our hero nearly blows his secret by forgetting that Superman has met Mrs. Olsen, but Clark Kent hasn’t (giving us another footnote, this time to SUPERMAN 17).

Luthor’s hand has been amputated thanks to Kryptonite poisoning, and he’s fitted with a bionic prothesis. Naturally, he blames this on Superman.

In ADVENTURES 442, Lois helps Jose Delgado home, and when Jose is unable to step in and save an old woman from a mugging, Lois does so herself. In Jose’s apartment, Lois refuses to let him feel sorry for himself, and says she wants to help him, ignoring a news report about the heroes’ battle with Dreadnaught to kiss him instead.

Clark explains to everybody what just happened:

My Thoughts: So, when our story begins, we’re told that at least seven people on the waterfront were “cooked alive” thanks to the steam from the alien ship’s arrival. It’s this sort of gratuitous bystander death that I object to most of all in Byrne’s Superman stories. Is there a reason we needed to be given this gruesome detail? It adds nothing to the story; it could’ve been just as easily not mentioned, letting readers wonder for themselves whether any casualties resulted in these issues.

But with that complaint out of the way, this is a decent two-part story. The first issue is mostly all sub-plot stuff with some setup, and the second installment is where the action and resolution occur—and seeing superheroes show up, one after another, to battle Dreadnaught, is pretty fun—especially since none of them are touted on the issue’s cover! There’s no mention of Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and the others on the cover; no blurbs, not even so much as a “Wait’ll you see our special guest stars!” So all these heroes appearing is a genuine and welcome surprise, which I feel like we haven’t seen much in this run so far.

Next Week: Wonder Woman meets Circe in WONDER WOMAN 18 and 19!