Action Comics #684 (December 1992)
Action Comics #684 (December 1992)
Doomsday discovers professional wrestling! The DC Universe will never be the same.
After watching the entire Justice League of America get sent to the hospital by Doomsday, Superman decides he must face the creature alone. Unfortunately, Superman sort of lost track of Doomsday when a gas station exploded on both their faces and Doomsday just casually strolled away. After punching some cars around, Doomsday ends up in a Lex-Mart supermarket, where he's entranced by a wrestling commercial (for an event happening in Metropolis).
Superman eventually catches up to Doomsday, and as they continue their tussle, there's a horrifying revelation: he knows how to read.
To prevent Doomsday from going to Metropolis and piledriving everyone, Superman throws him into a nearby forest – but that ain't no forest, that's the tree city of Habitat, one of the many wacky locations surrounding Project Cadmus. A desperate (and unusually fierce) Superman ends up dropping the whole city on top of Doomsday, finally stopping this horrible creature and saving countless lives. The end.
Just kidding! Doomsday brushes off the tree city's wreckage like it's dandruff.
He then leaps away, yelling "MHH-TRR-PLSS". Guess where he's going next.
Plotline-Watch:
As Don Sparrow pointed out last time, the previous issue had four panels on all pages and this one has three. It's almost like they're counting down to something.
Another running theme of this storyline is that we see how Doomsday's destruction affects average Joes: this time, a couple of pages are devoted to a driver who has a tiny mental breakdown after Doomsday throws his car (and him) into the sky. I like the panels of Superman casually chatting with the guy while they're floating up there.
DRAAGA SHOUT OUT! Don says: "I love dialogue that reminds us of previous issues, as when Superman’s inner monologue mentions Draaga and Lobo, and it also gives some context – Draaga and Lobo are universe-class fighters, and Doomsday leaves them in the dust. Unfortunately after this storyline, writers go a little crazy with this trick, so whenever any random bozo shows up, Superman has to say to himself ‘I haven’t been hit so hard since Doomsday!’ to establish their cred."
Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen (who has changed out of his turtle costume, sadly) are following the action in a Daily Planet helicopter. All those scenes of Lois worrying over Clark over the few past months are paying off here, because her concern doesn't feel like cheap drama.
Lex Luthor Jr. re-convinces Supergirl to stay in Metropolis instead of going to help Superman. Don again: "Why is Lex Jr always in a state of either dressing or undressing when we see him? Oh, wait, I know why. Gross." I believe there might be a small hint in his last lines of dialogue here.
More from Don (including original art from him!) after the jump:
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
We begin with the cover, and yeah–it’s not great. It serves its purpose of demonstrating that the battle between Doomsday and Superman is getting ever closer to Metropolis, but beyond that, it’s a bit clunky. [Max: Whenever I see a thumbnail of this cover I think it's a Jackson Guice one… but nope, not Guice. Is this the last Art Thibert cover, for real this time?] I don’t get why there’s so much smoke around when it appear to be an uninhabited roadside–what’s burning? Are those dust clouds–why are the climbing so high? What is that clinging to the roadsign? Doomsday also seems much smaller than he’s appeared drawn by other artists thus far. Lastly Superman’s face is very intense, but his body language is pretty placid, particularly his hands, which seem just be placed on Doomsday, rather than shoving or stopping him.
Inside, things are much better, though we do run into the artistic danger of a new character like Doomsday–not all the artists are perfectly in-sync with how to draw him.
Jackson Guice’s Doomsday seems a bit taller, leaner and generally more human throughout (with his bone spurs sometimes resembling facial hair), at times the bones around Doomsday’s mouth are left out, and weirdest of all, Doomsday has body hair.
The early going is great–a rare shot of the other side of Guardian’s shield, and some nice, determined shots of Superman (those poor theatre-goers, who just wanted to watch a showing of Lethal Weapon 3 in peace!).
The battle scenes throughout the issue are great, and Guice in particular excels at drawing the details of things being smashed apart. The panel of Doomsday punching through a semi-truck on page 3, or later on page 10 when Superman is struck by a LexMart truck thrown by Doomsday, are good examples of this detail. The fight in the Habitat at Cadmus is also really cool, and reminds me of the video game around this era (though unlike the video game, there is no electronic paneling behind the bark of the trees that make up the Rivendell-like Habitat).
PANEL OF THE WEEK: Since so much of this issue is loud, destructive battle scenes, I chose a quieter moment for the panel of the week (and for my re-drawing of said panel). For me, the most powerful moment in the story comes on page 14, when Lois and Jimmy are observing Superman from the sky. As Jimmy remarks he’s never seen Superman fight so hard, Lois is deeply frightened to realize that she hasn’t either. I think this is the first moment when Lois realizes that Superman could die in this fight, and that split second of horror is emotional enough to be the PANEL OF THE WEEK! (I don’t often model my drawings after actors, but did here. A big fat Baldy for the correct guess at the actor I used here!)
It only gets worse as the story goes on, but man, it’s not easy to look at a Superman with a black eye, and other signs of a fight. It’s also striking that even this relatively early into the fight, Superman is too tired to move out of the way of the collapsing woods, and his eyes aren’t focusing properly. We’re left with an eerie, Superman-less few pages where Doomsday is free to leap, Hulk-style, all the way to Metropolis. Yikes.
[Max: Hey Don, is it me or is this issue more Denis Rodier than Jackson Guice? The credits do list them both as "artists" instead of the usual "artist/inker". I feel like Rodier has a more Kirbyesque style, which is a great fit for the story and the Cadmus location.]
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
This issue has plenty of darkly dramatic irony, with Superman saying and thinking all kinds of foreshadowing. "I’ll stop Doomsday if it’s the last thing I do!“ (page 2) ”…I may be in trouble!“ (page 10) and so on.
On page 3, we have what appears to be yet another death for beloved Autobot Optimus Prime as Doomsday levels an overpass. [Max: That guy can't catch a break.]
Who do we think these DCU wrestler analogues represent? Based on the era, my guess is Mighty Gorilla is Yokozuna, Ugly Ben Studly is Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and the Masked Crusher is Ultimate Warrior? Or was he retired by then? In either case, Major Mayhem is clearly a combination of Sgt. Slaughter and Hulk Hogan, right down to the "Whatcha Gonna Do?”-like question of “Where are ya gonna go?”
Easy with the potty-mouth, Westfield! [Max: Whatever he said, Big Words of the original Newsboy Legion was so shocked that his hair turned white!]
I had forgotten how much of these issues is taken up by Superman guessing at Doomsday’s origins. In this issue he opines that he seems like something the original Lex Luthor might have created (that sounds like something out of a movie!) and later wonders if he’s from Cadmus (not far off, given Cadmus’ penchant for cloning).
GODWATCH: So, so many! I had to be choosier about this, so I’ve left out all the ordinary people crying out to God in horror, like the frightened motorist, or LexMart shoppers, reporters etc.
Page 2, Superman : “My God… look at that!”
Page 10, Superman: “Oh, Lord–and Lois and Jimmy are on board! I hope the pilot keeps his distance!”
Page 17, Superman: “Thank God {the Habitat is} abandoned!” and “Could Cadmus research be responsible for this monster? Lord knows their genetics labs have created all manner of beings.”
[Max: Wait, didn't Superman visit Habitat only a couple of months ago on Adventures #495? Action #655 was two years ago. Have you been skipping the issues written by other people, Mr. Stern?]