Adventures of Superman #442 (July 1988)
Adventures of Superman #442 (July 1988)
Continued from Superman #19! An alien named Psi-Phon has stolen Superman’s powers and transferred them to his pal Dreadnaught, who is exactly as big and scary-looking as the name suggests. After getting his ass handed to him by Dreadnaught, the powerless Superman retreats and comes up with a new plan.
First Superman calls some of his pals to help him out: Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man and Captain Marvel show up to fight Dreadnaught and all get their powers stolen, but by the time they get to Captain Marvel (who has a different power for each letter in his name, so thirteen by my count), Psi-Phon is overdosing on superpowers and begging that no more heroes show up. Then Superman, as Clark Kent, borrows Professor Hamilton’s force field-making gizmo (the same one Hamilton used to try to kill Superman back when he was psychotic) and starts punching Dreadnaught, who can’t steal this particular power because it’s science-based.
Psi-Phon and Dreadnaught are like “Alright, alright, we give up!” and self-destruct (or so we’re led to believe in this issue). It’s explained that they were testing Earth’s heroes to find out if their race had any shot at an invasion, but the answer was nope. Other races, on the other hand…
Plotline-Watch:
The Misadventures of Jose Delgado: Have I mentioned Jose is crippled for life? Because he is, but in this issue he’s finally released from the hospital. However, he’s still feeling pretty shitty about having to rely on Lois to carry him up the stairs, reach for stuff in the pantry and beat up gang members for him (seriously, she beats up three guys harassing a lady in front of Jose).
Lois Lane Can’t Make Up Her Damn Mind: The above scene confirms that Lois and Jose are officially dating and I didn’t just imagine that (there’s smooching and all). Meanwhile, she kissed Superman and hates Clark Kent, whom she thinks might be Superman, but then at the end of this issue she goes “rescue” Clark when he’s seen fighting Dreadnaught, saying she doesn’t want another man she cares for to end up crippled for life.
The Supergirl plot gets weirder. She reaches Smallville (as announced on Superman #19) but she thinks the town looks weird and starts remembering snippets of a conversation with a certain “Lex.” Then she bumps into Lana Lang, and that ends our by now traditional Supergirl page for the issue.
WTF-Watch:
Sometimes you make it very hard not to make fun of you, Aquaman.
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