Adventures of Superman #440 (May 1988)
Adventures of Superman #440 (May 1988)
Superman is all giddy because of his upcoming date with Wonder Woman (set in Superman #17), with nearly disastrous consequences: he almost crashes with an airplane while doing pirouettes in the air (seriously), and almost lets a burning truck crash into a restaurant because he’s too distracted. He even lets himself get hit by a lightning bolt. Please stop thinking with your penis, Superman. You will doom us all.
At the end of the issue the time of the date arrives and Superman immediately swoops in and kisses Wonder Woman (I’ll remind you this is the first time they talk in person). Will she slap him and kick his ass? Or jump his bones right there? Find out in Action #600!
Character-Watch:
Professor Emil Hamilton is back, having done his time for that little “trying to kill Superman” incident a while back. Listen, we all make mistakes. Superman thanks him for building the Superbot from last issue, but the experiment to create robot duplicates of himself is aborted (for now). Hamilton will be Superman’s multi-purpose science guy from now on, anyway.
Plotline-Watch:
Looooots of subplots:
The Misadventures of Jose Delgado: Jose (still paralyzed for life) is being visited in the hospital by Jerry White, when a doctor comes in and says “Jose, I have bad news… you’re paralyzed for life.” Jose is like “But we already knew that” and the doctor goes “Yes, but you’re really, really paralyzed for life.” I guess before now they thought he was only slightly paralyzed for life. That or they’re just fucking with Jose.
Superman Hates Batman: Batman returns the mysterious scrapbook Superman asked him to investigate in Action #594, having reached the conclusion that… he has no idea who sent it or why. Oh, and also, that Superman is Clark Kent. Batman assures Superman that he won’t share his secret with anyone, to which an annoyed Superman replies “Sure thing, Mr. Wayne.” Oh sssssnap. Anyway, Superman then asks Ma Kent to keep the scrapbook safe for him, and only then do they realize that it’s her scrapbook that was stolen by Luthor’s goons in Superman #2 (though obviously it wasn’t Luthor who sent it back).
The Girl in a Super costume who was found by arctic expeditioners in Superman #16 is unfrozen and it’s determined that she was stuck there for around two centuries. Then she opens her eyes and… end sequence. I think everyone (including me) forgot that according to this issue Supergirl is technically not a teenager but an extremely fit 200 year old woman.
In Superman #10 Luthor asked his people to dig some dirt on Captain Maggie Sawyer. He finally gets his dossier on her and likes what he sees (presumably there are pictures).
Creator-Watch:
Like the past few Adventures issues, both John Byrne and Jerry Ordway are credited as writers here, but I think this one is more Ordway than Byrne. The main plot (Superman’s giddiness) is only a few pages long and the rest is all subplots and character moments, Ordway’s favorite things. Also, this is the first issue that uses that trick (borrowed from Watchmen) where the last dialogue in a page continues in a caption in the next page, usually providing some contrast with the image, which will become a staple of ‘90s Superman comics – I mean literally every issue will have it. So this is like a prototype of the house style that Superman comics will have for about a decade. All that’s missing is Bibbo.
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