Adventures of Superman #439 (April 1988)
Adventures of Superman #439 (April 1988)
This issue in 12 words: Superman loses his hand and also he’s a robot, but not really.
This is all Jimmy Olsen’s fault, really. The issue opens with Jimmy driving Cat Grant and little Adam to New York, because Clark was busy that day and Jimmy wants to get inside Cat’s pants. Naturally, Jimmy’s piece of shit car breaks down near a secret base where some military kooks are planning to overthrow the government… or something. It’s not really explained. Jimmy calls Superman for help with his Superman-calling watch (which is a thing he has, by the way), but the traitorous soldiers shoot Superman down.
An injured Superman has a rough landing on Metropolis, sans one hand. Superman is taken to the hospital and it’s worse than they thought: not only did he lose his hand, but he’s also been turned into a robot! Superman insists to those present (Lois Lane, Perry White, Inspector Henderson) that he’s definitely the real Superman. Then Clark Kent shows up as well, you know, to visit his “foster brother” Superman.
Superbot takes Lois and Clark to the military base just as the soldiers are starting to get creepy with Cat (they already tortured Jimmy). Jimmy, Cat and Adam are saved and the main military dude is killed, but so is Superman… because he was a robot, after all. Then the real Superman explains that he created this robot duplicate to respond to Jimmy’s signal watch if Jimmy got in trouble and he wasn’t around. Why it was necessary to convince the robot he was the real Superman, I have no idea.
Character-Watch:
Professor Emil Hamilton is briefly mentioned: last time we saw him, he was sent to jail for trying to blow up a hooker. Clark has kept in contact with him since then, and in fact we’ll find out next issue that a now reformed Professor Hamilton built the Superbot at Superman’s request. We also see Morgan Edge again (introduced in Superman #16), calling Superman a menace on TV. It’s nice to see Inspector Henderson is alive, too.
Plotline-Watch:
Jimmy’s signal watch actually goes back to the early issues, but I hadn’t mentioned it until now. In Superman #15, Superman thinks that Jimmy is becoming too dependent on the watch, so I guess he prepared the “make him think I lost a hand” prank for a George Bluth-style lesson.
The Misadventures of Jose Delgado: Lois was already in the hospital when Superbot was taken in because she was visiting Jose, who is still crippled for life. The good news for Jose is that he’s now officially dating Lois – the bad news (for both) is that his dialogue implies nothing works for him below the waist. Nothing.
See comments on Tumblr: https://superman86to99.tumblr.com/post/65550054869/adventures-of-superman-439-april-1988-this#disqus_thread
Missed an issue? Looking for an old storyline? Check out our new chronological issue index!
This newsletter is free and always will be, but if you'd like to support us with $1 a month or more, you'll get access to extra articles about non-continuity '90s Superman stuff (shows, video games, Elseworlds, etc) and cool giveaways. Click here to become a paid supporter!