Action Comics #691 (September 1993)
Action Comics #691 (September 1993)
REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN! The Superman in Black and the black Superman (Steel) infiltrate the giant mega-fortress made by the black-hearted Superman (Cyborg) over the ruins of Coast City. Steel and the Man in Black didn’t seem to get along when they first met two weeks ago, but they quickly bond as they battle of hordes of robots and alien warriors together.
Meanwhile, we find out Superboy survived last week’s missile explosion over Metropolis and landed on a dump by the bay, where he’s warmly greeted by Lex Luthor II. Lex wants to know where Supergirl is (she disappeared around the time Team Superman left for Coast/Engine City), but Superboy isn’t much help in his current condition.
Back in the robo-fortress, Steel marvels at the Man in Black’s incredible luck: whenever a robot’s about to shoot him, its gun seems to malfunction and explode. It’s like some invisible superbeing is following them around and helping out! Because that’s exactly what’s going on – Supergirl’s been tagging along the whole time in her invisible form, helping the Supermen while snooping all over the Cyborg’s fortress. Now that’s she watched enough aliens pooping, she’s ready to reveal herself.
Elsewhere in Engine City, the Cyborg’s lackey, Mongul, has grown tired of being bullied by his boss and is like “screw this, I’m out”. He plans to go back to space after prematurely activating the engine that gives Engine City its name, even if it destroys the planet. Oh, yeah, and said engine is powered by… a huge chunk of Kryptonite! Somehow! TO BE CONTINUED.
Plotline-Watch:
Hey, wasn’t this the Eradicator’s series? Where is that guy? Still recovering at the Fortress of Solitude, where the robots tell him he should be in tip-top condition in a few weeks or so. Unfortunately the Eradicator, too, goes “screw this, I’m out” and uses up all of the Fortress’ juice to heal himself early. He then emerges from the Fortress’ ruins looking like Clint Eastwood in a swimsuit.
FORTRESS DESTRUCTION COUNT: 2. The previous Fortress-destroying instance was also caused by the Eradicator (back when he looked like a space egg), but hey, he built the place, so it’s okay.
GOOF: The Man in Black claims he hasn't felt this helpless since the dashing Mr. Mxyzptlk took his powers away in Superman #49, but that didn't happen to him, that happened to Superman. Who's now dead. Duh.
As of this issue, Steel, Supergirl, Superboy, the Eradicator, and even Mongul are in the “Man in Black is the real Superman” camp. Don Sparrow says: "I like that so many characters take the time to acknowledge that there's just something about the Man in Black that makes them feel like this is the real Superman. Even villains!"FOOLS!
Gonad Face and Lil’ Lion Guy from Superman #81 are helping Mongul in his escape/sabotage plan. The Cyborg doesn’t inspire a ton of loyalty in his subordinates, it seems.
Maybe everyone should have seen the Cyborg’s heel turn coming, given that the dude talks like Doctor Doom.
Wait, holy shit, just realized something. In Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four comics it’s established that all alternate versions of Reed Richards from across the multiverse eventually go mad and turn evil, except for regular Marvel Universe Reed. And, as you know, Hank “Cyborg” Henshaw started out as a blatant Reed copycat. Damn, this Superman era is so good at pre-planning that they foreshadowed an event happening in another company decades before the fact.
More commentary and stuff I missed from Don Sparrow, after the jump!
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
We start with the cover, and it's a pretty good one, if a little busy. We get a nice central image of the man in black breaking through, with images of the other Supermen among the shards. The white teeth on the cyborg look a bit off, but otherwise a pretty good cover (note that they even fractured the title dress, which is a rare thing!)
The issue opens with a pretty cool full page splash, showing the enormous scale of Engine City I'm still confused how large expanses of flat, smooth surfaces could "grow" out of the techy little pods they showed during Coast City's destruction, but clearly I think about this too much.
This issue is mainly a lot of slugging it out with a crew of alien mercenaries, the bulk of which appear to be Gordanians, alien slavers from the pages of Teen Titans, to my eye, which is a nice in-universe touch. [Max: Ha, you're right! I thought they looked familiar but couldn't place them.]
There's a maybe visual callback to an earlier issue, where Superboy fails to fly after his confrontation with Lex Junior. It reminded me of way back in Adventures of Superman #480 when Superman couldn't remain aloft after narrowly escaping vapourization in the sun when fighting the Eradicator.
Nobody draws Cyborg Superman better than Jurgens and Breeding, but Jackson Guice does a pretty great job on page9, showing the metalhead in profile.
I love the cutaway view of the Fortress of Solitude on page 11—these blueprint-like illustrations of lairs were a lot more commonplace in old comics, so I love the effort to show how expansive the place really is. Or, was, for the next five minutes, as the Eradicator once again trashes the place to absorb more power. I suspect Eradicator's apparently blinking eyes are a colouring error on the following page, which is a shame, because it's an otherwise excellent drawing. I also like that they make the Eradicator look different from this point on, as it would be weird to have Superman, Cyborg Superman, AND Eradicator more or less all be sharing the same features (and Superboy looks more than a little like the real steel deal as well). Keeping with Eradicator's vigilante justice vibe, he looks for all the world like Clint Eastwood, circa 1994 here.
Some great colour work on page 20, when we see Superman and the Man of Steel as viewed with Cyborg Superman's infrared vision, as well as a nice in-story callback to the poster from the Cyborg's first full issue.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
Godwatch: Roger Stern is the most consistent user of Biblical imagery and quotations, and he leans into that on page 14, as Bible-sounding phrases like "power and—glory", "vengeance shall be mine" and even the narration says "Heaven help us all." Steel invokes a deity when Supergirl is revealed, on page 16.
It's a nice detail that Superman takes time to reload his weapons, as mentioned on page 17. It also adds a practical use to his badass Image-comics-y bullet belts.
I like that Supergirl helping Superman with flying and leaping explains some of his ability, but it's also exciting that we get little hints that he's slowly regaining his powers, as when he leaps the 30 feet on page 18. [Max: I just assumed she was gently carrying him down there.]
The issue is mostly Superman and Steel duking their way into Engine City, where not a lot else happens. This makes the intrigue between the Cyborg and Mongul all the more interesting.
Mongul is a big talker, but as discussed on the message boards for this very site, he does more than bow to the Cyborg when they meet again much later on.
[Max: The back of the Cyborg's hand must be worn down by now from all that smooching.]