Action Comics #584 (January 1987)
Action Comics #584 (January 1987)
This issue continues the time-honored tradition of making Superman look like a dick on the cover, and then revealing inside the comic that it was all a misunderstanding. In this case, a guy who looks like Stephen Hawking tricked Superman into switching bodies with him and then proceeded to cause some property damage. That was "Hawking's" brilliant plan for when he acquired the powers of a god: punching some buildings.
Luckily, the New Teen Titans happened to be around and happened to have a member with body-swapping powers (Jericho, son of Deathstroke), so, after the customary fighting, they manage to contain the Superdick long enough for the real Superman to find them and tell them where the body-switching machine is. (I like Super-Hawking's pouty face here as he's being forced to carry himself.)
As you may have noticed, there were three ongoing Superman titles at this time: Superman was the main one, Adventures of Superman was the gritty one, and Action Comics was the one where Superman is constantly running into other superheroes. For this first issue they chose the New Teen Titans to be guest stars because of the limitless narrative possibilities of Superman joining forces with superpowered teens (and also because their book was selling pretty well at the time).
Plotline-Watch:
Even though the three Superman titles would mostly have their own plotlines, there are still some connections here to the other issues: in Adventures #424 the previous week there was a short scene where Clark Kent talks with “Stephen Hawking” on the phone about contacting Superman, and this issue ends with Luthor becoming the first person ever to notice that most Superman articles are by Clark Kent, proving he truly is one of the most intelligent people on the planet, which leads to the story I’ll cover tomorrow in Superman #2.
WTF-Watch:
At one point, Super-Hawking grabs Wonder Girl and I’m pretty sure he threatens to take out his sexual frustration on her. Oh, John Byrne.
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
We start with the cover, and it's a good one. Taking a different tack than Ordway's classic homage concept from last issue, Byrne instead chooses to represent the issue within, hitting the ground running. It's a great "Huh?!" type cover, where the reader feels the need to open the issue just to see if this scene really happens, and if so, how it all unfolds. Of course the Titans are about as hot as a DC property could get at the time, so that certainly is a welcome presence, and establishes Action as the dedicated team-up book. All of it is good (next to Tom Grummett, I think Byrne draws the best rubble in the business) but a couple really cool details need mentioning. One is a tip of the hat to the colourist, who, on my cover, has a little extra flourish of adding some human rosiness to Superman and Wonder Girl's cheeks, and it's a nice touch. The other small detail I love is that Cyborg's detached arm still has motion lines around the fingers, indicating it's still moving, and possibly even fighting Superman.
Inside, we're thrown into the action via a Metropolis TV reporter, who bears a passing resemblance to the helicoptercrash reporter from Superman (1978). Byrne's stories always did a great job of making the city of Metropolis into a character unto itself. This leads up to the title page splash, and it's another good action shot, with an eerily grinning Superman in destructo mode. It's amazing how just having the facial expression be a touch off creates the understanding that this isn't the real Superman at the helm.
The next page has a great reveal of Cyborg leaping into action, and is followed by a great visual laundry list of his mechanical abilities. A couple of pages later when Cyborg gets Superman's attention, it's another great piece of drawing. We recognize that it's Superman, but his expression, and even the way he holds his jaw is pure dork--Superman is being a real Gunderson in this panel. [Max: For some reason, that panel makes me think he’s saying “Nyeeee, what’s up Doc?”]
There is a slight colouring error on page 8, where Superman's S-shield is all yellow,like on his cape. [Max: It's fixed in the TPB! Which isn't always the case.]
The battle scenes are all terrific, and seeing Byrne handle all these Titans characters really makes me wish he had a run on that title. His Wonder Girl is particularly well handled-lithe and muscular without being hulking or excessively brawny.
The sequence with Jericho commandeering Superman's body is very well handled especially the white ghost effect of Jericho's spiritwalking in, which would have been hard to pull off in 1987's printing limitations, but is done well here.
Overall this is a great launch of the new Action Comics (which feels like the spiritual successor to DC Comics Presents). And while it's astonishing that Byrne could write and draw two different books each month, getting to choose which guest stars to include every month must have been a lot of fun. What I like best about this book (which subsequent team-up books didn't always do) is that it's all in the same continuity as the main book. What happened, happened, and is mentioned in the next book.
BYRNE NOTICE:
Well, these are all over the place. We have the famed Byrne hold right on the cover, and Superman lifts Wonder Girl off the ground with a chokehold.
More weird adult looking kids, though these aren't as severe as Byrne's Fantastic Four days. How do we feel about the "Deaf Kids Ain't Dummies" tee? I think his heart is in the right place, even if it seems a bit off today. [Max: Still aged better than than the "DC COMICS AIN'T JUST FOR KIDS ANYMORE" slogan.]
Is Wonder Girl calling herself "considerably more than a child" also a pervy statement by Byrne? [Max: Yeah, it's "I think you'll agree" part that tips it over.]
I know the ‘80s were a different time, with different vernacular, but if I'm honest, I've never heard of a woman in real life refer to herself as a "liberated woman."
As Max covered, there's the gross implied threat from Super-Gunderson to Wonder Girl--with a second, bonus Byrne hold to boot.
I think Byrne is a victim of the time, with his liberal use of the now-gauche term "crippled", but it is something of a trope that the dorky disabled guy also happens to be warped and embittered emotionally.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
We see more evidence that while Byrne's Superman is new-ish to the scene, he's been around for a little while, as Cyborg seems to have met him previously, though we haven't seen that in any post-Crisis comic. [Max: Yeah, I would guess he's talking about Crisis itself or maybe some Superman guest star issue in New Teen Titans that's still in continuity.]
Cyborg's "white sound disruptor" must be one hella powerful, to be able to reduce glass and brick to powder!
What fruit do we think Jericho threw at Superman? Green tomato? My money is on ripe kiwi. [Max: I think it's Changeling in the form of a fruit.]
While the story is sometimes a bit on the nose,it is a good reminder of how diverse the Titans lineup was, especially for disabled or differently abled people at this time. It's rare that Jericho's deafness or Cyborg's amputee status is a big part of the plotline, but even so, they're pretty visible, and positive representatives of groups not often seen in superhero stories.
I get the point that Byrne was going for, but in terms of comic-book realism, would it have been that much harder for Gunderson to create a cure or treatment for his physical condition than making a machine that can switch souls at the flick of a switch? [Max: Good question. Also, now I'm wondering what would have happened if Byrne and Ordway had decided to rehabilitate Hawk– sorry, Gunderson instead of Professor Hamilton to turn him into Superman's scientist buddy.]
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