Adventures of Superman #448 (December 1988)
Adventures of Superman #448 (December 1988)
How are we still in December? Well, as some of you might remember, the year of 1988 actually had three months of December due to an aberration on the Earth’s orbit, a delayed effect of the passing of Halley’s Comet. (That, or DC was adjusting the date on their covers to coincide with the actual calendar, since it was previously three months ahead. It’s one of those two.)
On to the plot recap: Last issue, Metropolis’ new crimelord Morgan Edge sent a guy to kill Lex Luthor, and then another guy to kill the guy who failed to kill Lex Luthor. The killer (the second one) was using one of the weapons that Edge’s team hijacked from a LexCorp truck a couple of issues ago as they were on their way to the dumpster. Shockingly, the discarded weapon malfunctions and spills some radioactive goo on the shooter. In this issue, the killer (now deformed and suffering from radioactive poisoning) goes up on a ledge and threatens to jump. Or kill Inspector Henderson, whom he takes hostage. Either way, he’s gonna kill someone.
Superman tries to talk the killer out of the ledge, but doesn’t do a very good job at it. Eventually he manages to convince the guy to release Henderson in exchange for Superman shutting up and going away. After Superman has left, Gangbuster comes swinging on a rope, grabs the killer and jumps off the ledge, telling him that if he wants to kill himself he should just go ahead and do it. Gangbuster drops him back on the ledge and the spooked killer finally relents, begging the authorities to take him away. So that’s Gangbuster 1, Superman 0.
Character-Watch:
Remember Amanda McCoy, the LexCorp engineer who figured out Clark Kent’s secret identity back in Superman #2? She’s been stalking both Superman and Clark Kent to confirm that her hunch is correct, and even hired a PI called Matt to help her out. Matt (who is actually quite muscular and has a big jaw) suspiciously goes absent when Gangbuster shows up. Say, I bet Matt is Gangbuster, and not just some clever misdirection.
Plotline-Watch:
Lex Luthor is feeling quite down, what with Morgan Edge’s Intergang moving in on his turf, Brainiac setting up shop in LexCorp and also that whole “losing his hand” thing. Aw, poor Lex. Someone should take him out to destroy waitresses’ lives to cheer him up.
The Misadventures of Jose Delgado: Just when Jose recuperates the use of the lower half of his body, it looks like he’s going to break up with Lois Lane because she keeps going on about how the technology that cured him comes from LexCorp, so it’s probably evil. Jose is like “Whatever, woman!”
In Superman #22, Supergirl got reduced to a mass of goo and Superman dropped her off at the Kent farm. By now her body has regrown itself back into a somewhat human form, but her mind still has a long way to go – in this issue she learns the word “tree,” and tears one from the ground.
Not that Superman’s mind is in such great shape: There’s a scene of him sitting in his couch in the dark (watching Cat Grant’s new show on TV), and we see that the mess he made when he sleep-trashed his apartment in Adventures #446 is still there.
On a lighter note, a huge fleet of alien spaceships is seen approaching the Earth to conquer it (a preview of DC’s 1989 crossover even, Invasion!). Dubbilex of Project Cadmus (introduced in Superman Annual #2) detects a scout ship coming into Metropolis and sends The Guardian to investigate…
WTF-Watch:
At one point (shortly after Gangbuster’s stunt on the ledge), Lois and Jose run into Superman on the street. Superman in a Clark Kent suit.
She has two Pulitzers.
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