Action Comics #673 (January 1992)
Action Comics #673 (January 1992)
FEATURING HELLGRAMMITE! For literally one page! A page, I should mention, that doesn't even have Superman in it. Fortunately, the rest of this issue is about Superman's final showdown with "Ugly" Mannheim (final as in "someone dies"), and it's actually a pretty badass fight. Just not badass enough to be featured on the cover, apparently.
Mannheim, for those who missed the last, like, 200 issues, is: 1) the former leader of a now dismantled criminal organization called Intergang, 2) revealed to be an alien from Apokolips in Superman #60, and 3) ugly as hell. Now he has broken himself out of jail by using a pair of robot arms he recently scored to create a Boom Tube (fancy portal, most commonly used by space gods). The Tube transports "Ugly" to a secret Intergang hideout, where he arms himself with a rocky suit and a nuclear device powerful enough to destroy Metropolis.
(What's he doing with his other hand in panel 2? Don Sparrow says: "No comment.")
Superman manages to find Mannheim before he can turn Metropolis into a crater, and punching ensues. It turns out Mannheim can shoot lasers from his eyes, too, so the two have a good old fashioned eye laser match. Mannheim loses the competition and tries to escape again using another Boom Tube, but Superman's like "Nu-uh, you can't do that twice in the same issue, that would be shoddy writing." Superman interrupts the Tube's mechanism while Mannheim is going through the portal…
…turning Mannheim into a pile of ashes. Seriously. When Superman realizes he just killed Mannheim, he exiles himself to space for twenty issues as penance, grows a beard and becomes a space gladiator. Just kidding! He talks it over with Lois and she reassures him that it wasn't really his fault. (Where was she three years ago?)
Character-Watch:
So, who the Hellgrammite is Hellgrammite and what did he do to deserve that cover spot? According to the old Superman and Batman comics where he originally appeared, he's an entomologist who did experiments on himself, as entomologists do, and became a hideous bug monster. Now he's apparently working as a contract killer in Gotham City, because in this issue disgruntled LexCorp employee George Markham travels there specifically to hire Hellgrammite to murder Lex Luthor Jr. (for reasons explained last issue).
Entomologists/killers are pretty expensive, though, so Markham is gonna need to some weeks to gather the money to pay Hellgrammite to go ahead with the hit (meaning it won't happen for a few issues, until after "Panic in the Sky").
Plotline-Watch:
Who knows what would have happened if Mannheim had used that nuke to blow up Metropolis? We do: Lois would have died, Superman would have gone insane (and started wearing disco collars), and Batman would have eventually killed him with kryptonite – as seen in one of the Armageddon 2001 annuals. Close call there.
For the purposes of this blog Mannheim is really dead, but DC did retcon his death years later, in the 52 series. He even brought back Intergang! Then he died again.
How did Superman find Mannheim's hideout so fast? Thanks to Jimmy Olsen's homelessness. While Clark Kent is having Thanksgiving dinner with the Lane family, Lois' sister Lucy starts crying and mentions she saw Jimmy at a homeless shelter. Superman visits the shelter and they tell him that Jimmy said there was something weird going on in their basement – which turns out to be full of Intergang death machines. After Superman wrecks the whole place up, he invites Professor Hamilton to take a look at the computers and they find the location of all other Intergang bases there.
As for Jimmy, he ends up spending Thanksgiving at Bibbo's Ace O'Clubs bar, which isn't as sad as it sounds, because the Bibbster is throwing a huge party for everyone with a stomach. Then he scolds Jimmy for lying to his mom about his current situation, and pays for Jimmy to develop those photos of the robot he took last week. Bibbo is awesome.
And finally, after like a year of the Lana Lang/Pete Ross plot moving almost unbearably slowly, it's suddenly going at Wally West speed: those two hooked up for the first time ever three weeks ago in Man of Steel #7, and now they're sending out wedding invitations. The wedding will happen two years from now, which is a pretty short engagement for ‘90s Superman comics standards. Also, Don points out that, as seen on the invites, Pete has the same middle name as Clark – coincidence, or sign that Lana still isn't over her childhood crush/stalking victim?! (Coincidence.)
For more Don Sparrow observations (Donservations), click "Keep Reading"!
Art-Watch (by donsparrow):
We begin with the cover, a nice glimpse at the very mysterious Hellgrammite, obscured–as much of this issue is–by falling snow. I’ve said in the past I like that this period of Superman comics actually reflected the seasons, but I do think the falling snow effect was overdone slightly in this issue. As the story begins, we get some good action in the opening splash with Superman saving a pregnant woman from certain doom from a very mean-spirited Jack Carter lookalike (whose brother is apparently the guard from page 4? Or is that Robert Loggia?). At least, I hope that Superman determined she was pregnant from using his x-ray vision, and not just assumption, otherwise this scene might have occurred, and that would be embarrassing:
Moving along, the emotion of Lucy’s breakdown over Jimmy’s desperate situation is very well-observed. [Max: And further confirmation that Bob McLeod draws the cutest Lucy Lanes. His Lana Langs aren't bad, either.]
Our introduction on page 10 to Hellgrammite is very mysterious and moody, which is tough to pull off with a fairly goofy look for the character. The double page spread of Superman combating the mechanical room underneath the homeless shelter is very well done–take THAT, Danger Room! It also answers my questions from last week about what other weirdness might lie underneath. I like seeing a frustrated Superman in limited doses, as he echoes our questions about how “finished” Intergang was.
Thankfully, Superman really does manage to prevent the nuclear explosion we saw in a few of the Armageddon annuals (with a nice visual callback to some of the panels in those issues as Superman bursts through the wall) and as a reader it filled me with such relief, knowing what almost happened, and how it might affect Superman. Very harsh end for Mannheim, though knowing so little about Boom Tube technology, it might not be the last we see of Ugly. [Max: For this era, I think it is. Now, the rest of the Mannheim family…]
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
It sounds weird when Superman says “booty”. [Max: Maybe he was still thinking about that lady.]
A nice contrast between the warmth of the Ace of Clubs Thanksgiving Meal and that of Lexcorp’s executives (once again Bob McLeod excels at drawing diverse people in a crowd scene).
Apparently in the intervening years since this issue was published, Australia now has some form of Thanksgiving Day.
In the past we’ve mentioned how certain characters seem to stick to their own titles (Cerberus in Man of Steel being the most well known example) but I can’t say I remember Hellgrammite making a big splash outside of Action Comics, so that’s another one.
I love Bibbo’s moralizing over Jimmy lying to his mother.
Speaking of Mannheim’s bomb, and Armageddon 2001, page 16 has an ad that features Monarch in the old west. How weird did that storyline get? And Hawk still came back later! [Max: I remember buying that miniseries exclusively for the possibility that Monarch and Captain Atom might run into Superman when they visited pre-history, and being sorely disappointed.]
There’s something hilarious about Mannheim’s armour in combination with his prison grey pants. At least they’re not cargo pants. That would look completely ridiculous.
“Don’t bet the farm on that!” I genuinely love how square they write Superman in this era.
A lot of people wind up dead when they fight Superman, but at least Clark really wrings his hands about it.
Bob McLeod is the undisputed champion of drawing people frowning.
