Adventures of Superman #453 (April 1989)
Adventures of Superman #453 (April 1989)
Superman is tripping balls in space, hallucinating dead villains and talking to himself. Maybe that all that “grass” in the farm planet he visited in Superman #30 had a delayed effect on him? Nope: in the same issue, Superman’s breathing gizmo got damaged and started leaking air, so now Superman is drifting in space, seeing weird shit as the oxygen leaves his brain.
First, Superman sees General Zod and his cronies emerging from the ground and telling Superman they’re actually alive, but he still sucks for trying to kill them (in Superman #22). The cronies then transform into Lex Luthor and Brainiac and starting taunting Superman, but then they admit that none of them is really Superman’s greatest enemy – because that’s SUPERMAN HIMSELF. Accordingly, the villains morph into Superman’s various identities: Clark Kent, Gangbuster, and another Superman (but a meaner one). The hallucinations try to make Superman fight them, but he refuses to do it and instead accepts them as part of himself.
So, Superman has tamed his mental demons, but unfortunately he’s still drifting in space without air, about to die. At this point some sort of spaceship finds his unconscious body and abducts it, mentioning that such a remarkable specimen could be “sold for the games.” (That’s a TO BE CONTINUED, obviously.)
Bonus Story!
Part two of Lex Luthor’s “Hostile Takeover!” (which doesn’t deserve that exclamation mark at the end, because it’s not that exciting). Luthor spreads rumors that LexCorp is gonna buy out S.T.A.R. Labs, which makes the Labs’ stock price go way up. Rather than being displeased that he’s gonna have to spend more money, Luthor is like “Excellent! My plan is working!” which suggests that he either doesn’t understand how stock prices work, or he’s got an ace up his sleeve.
Beard-Watch:
I submit that Jerry Ordway draws the sweetest beards.
Plotline-Watch:
On Smallville, the thing we’ve been teased about for issues finally happens: Matrix, the child-like protoplasmic being who previously used the shape of a Supergirl, now adopts the shape of a Clark Kent. This happens just as her caretakers, Ma and Pa Kent, are wondering how to convince people in Metropolis that it wasn’t Clark who was killed by Intergang (in Superman #28), but some other guy. I smell hilarious hijinks!
The Misadventures of Jose Delgado: After the events of Adventures #451, Jose now has a fancy new robot armor that he can use to resume his work as the original Gangbuster. Everything’s coming up Jose! Except that the armor’s helmet malfunctions and nearly explodes in his head while Professor Hamilton is doing maintenance on it. Jose is more worried about another part of his anatomy, though:
At least now we know “it” is working again.
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