Adventures of Superman #462 (January 1990)
Adventures of Superman #462 (January 1990)
The Daily Planet’s intern, Alice, has been living in a storage closet for the past three years and no one noticed until now. This revelation inspires the Superman cast to reflect about the true spirit of Christmas in this very special issue. (It turns out it’s in giving and not receiving. Plot twist!)
It’s Clark Kent’s last day of work at the Planet, having resigned at the end of Superman #39 to become an editor at Newstime Magazine, and he’s feeling bummed because all his old friends at the paper are giving him the cold shoulder, for some reason. Of course, this was all just a set up to throw Clark a surprise going away/Christmas office party, which was organized by Alice the intern. Clark goes looking for Alice to thank her for the gesture, and that’s when he accidentally finds her “house.”
Alice explains that three years ago her mom died and she got kicked out of their apartment, so she’s been living in the Planet offices since then. Everyone is touched by her story: Perry White writes a poignant editorial about the plight of the homeless, while Clark, Lois and Lucy Lane, Jimmy Olsen and even Cat Grant are seen volunteering at a soup kitchen. Finally, Perry not only offers to pay Alice back for all the extra hours she did at the office while literally living there, but invites her to stay at his home until she can afford her own place. Since Perry’s wife is named Alice too, it’s decided that Alice the intern shall henceforth be known under a new name: “Bonecrusher.” Wait, no, “Allie.”
Plotline-Watch:
Although not written by Dan Jurgens, this begins the yearly tradition of the Very Special Dan Jurgens Holiday Issue, which will gift us some of the best stories in this era.
The not very subtle clues about Allie’s situation go back to Superman #16 in 1988. In Superman #20 she flat-out says she’s living in the closet, but Perry thinks it’s a joke and laughs it off. Also, in this issue Clark specifically says he’s been changing into Superman in that same closet for years. Did he never think all those female hygiene products there were weird? Of course, the biggest clue is that Allie has never, ever taken off that sweater.
Even Brainiac is infected by the holiday spirit: Brainy is still holding Lex Luthor hostage in his own lab (per the end of Action #648), and when Luthor says his employees will probably notice he’s gone, Brainiac and the mind-controlled Dr. Happersen transmit a faked video of Luthor in a Hawaiian shirt saying he’s on vacation and giving all LexCorp employees Christmas bonuses:
(Then they had him sing jingles for an hour.)
The issue ends with Superman flying to Smallville to have a Christmas dinner with Ma and Pa Kent, plus Lana Lang, who is just getting out of the hospital after she almost got crushed to death by Supergirl in Action #644. I’m pretty sure they forgot about her and left her in that hospital for four months.
WTF-Watch:
I can’t remember if it was explained later on, but it’s a little jarring that Clark was behaving all Vulcan-like in Superman #39 when he quit the Planet (he was “logic this, logic that”), but now he’s suddenly super sentimental and having group hugs with his family. It’s like the Erad– um, I mean, whatever mysterious thing is influencing Clark’s behavior couldn’t account for the power of Christmas.
Or maybe he was just touched by this heart-wrecking display of affection from Whit:
Yep, that’s probably it.
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