Adventures of Superman #465 (April 1990)
Adventures of Superman #465 (April 1990)
Day of the Krypton Man, Part 5: Krypton Man on the loose! Superman might be taking this “back to the roots” phase of his a little too far as he almost kills a bunch of people in the name of Kryptonian logic.
We start with Superman, alien gladiator Draaga, a space cabbie and half of the Statue of Liberty on the moon, for reasons explained in Superman #42 which I won’t go over again. Superman is about to flatten Draaga’s face with a big chunk of rock as the entire world watches on live TV, when he’s suddenly transported back to Earth courtesy of Professor Hamilton. Hamilton is like “you almost killed that dude!” but Superman explains that Draaga’s race sees death in combat as an honor, therefore it was only logical to murder him. Hamilton isn’t convinced by that explanation, but Supes gets bored with the conversation and Dr. Manhattans off.
Later, Lois Lane’s ex boyfriend and frequent hospital patient Jose Delgado decides to blow off some steam by putting on his Gangbuster costume again and going out to do some vigilanting. Gangbuster is fighting some bank robbers when Superman shows up and blows up their car for no reason.
The robbers are incapacitated and Gangbuster yells at Superman for stealing his thunder (though I suspect the outburst is more about the fact that Jose’s ex has the hots for Superman). Gangbuster tells Superman he’s not needed around here and Superman goes “OK” and quits his job as Metropolis’ protector, going off to his ice fortress in Antarctica to live alone forever, I guess, like in Frozen. Or not completely alone, since the last thing we see is Superman taking the Eradicator from the receptacle where it’s been since Adventures #461 and raising it dramatically in the air.
Wait. You don’t think that evil Kryptonian artifact Superman’s been storing in his house for issues could have something to do with his recent behavior, do you? We’ll find out in the last part of Day of the Krypton Man! (But yes.)
Plotline-Watch:
Meanwhile, Ma and Pa Kent finally get a hold of Clark on the phone, but he’s like “I am no longer Clark, beep beep bop” and hangs up on them. They’re so worried that Pa puts on his nice bowtie and they take a plane to Metropolis. They try to get Lana Lang to come with them, but she’s done with Clark’s friendzoning ways forever.
Also, after all the trouble Colin Thornton went through to convince Clark Kent to come work for his magazine as an editor, he finally fires him in this issue, because Clark turned out to be an asshole. Clark doesn’t seem to mind, and also doesn’t mind getting evicted from his apartment for the multiple explosions he keeps causing, because Kal-El doesn’t need no job or apartment.
The last we see of Draaga is his cabbie dragging his unconscious ass back into their vehicle and going off into space. When Draaga shows up again in two years, he’ll still be wearing that stinky Superman shirt.
Continuity nerdery: the device Professor Hamilton uses to bring Superman back to Earth is one of the same teleporting belts Hamilton once donated to Superman’s space quest (Adventures #450). Superman even says he recognizes the stomach-revolting teleporting sensation.
The crew of the NASA shuttle Excalibur, the one that’s transmitting Superman’s moon fight to Earth, consists of a scientist, his wife, a young hot head, and the grumpy pilot. Then they get hit by solar radiation and come crashing down to Earth. Wonder what’s gonna happen to them next?
Nostalgia-Watch:
This was one of the first Superman comics I ever read as a kid! I had no idea why they were recreating the ending of Planet of the Apes on the moon, why Shrek had stolen Superman’s costume or why Superman was being such a jerk, but I was hooked anyway. I did recognize the Krypton Man costume from the issues of “Reign of the Supermen” I’d read, so that probably gave me a clue.
I’m a little afraid of re-reading some of the issues I haven’t read since teenagedom and finding out they’re total crap, but this one holds up very well. I especially like this scene at the end with Ma Kent on the plane thinking about the bizarre fact that she raised an alien:
(And while I’m cribbing mycomicmemories’ style, I might as well go and link to his awesome Tumblr again: http://mycomicmemories.tumblr.com/)
See comments on Tumblr: https://superman86to99.tumblr.com/post/86442927069/adventures-of-superman-465-april-1990-day-of#disqus_thread
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