Adventures of Superman #467 (June 1990)
Adventures of Superman #467 (June 1990)
“Dark Knight Over Metropolis,” Part 2: Finally! Superman and Batman! And Gangbuster!
OK, just Superman and Batman.
Batman is visiting Metropolis to investigate the Mystery of the Dead Hobo with the Radioactive Green Ring (as seen in Part 1). Batman finds out that a dead woman in Metropolis had some of the same radiation in her body, and Superman (who doesn’t trust Bats, but agrees to work with him for this case) recognizes her as the lady who threatened to divulge his secret identity a few weeks ago. Superman also says that the radioactive ring is made of kryptonite, so he’s understandably worried about its current whereabouts, since that stuff can kill him. Batman intentionally neglects to mention that HE has the ring right now, because it might “come in handy” later… and that’s why Superman doesn’t trust you, dude.
Anyway, since the kryptonite ring was formerly owned by Lex Luthor, Superman and Batman look into LexCorp’s records (by breaking into the building) and find out that the dead woman was a former employee named Amanda McCoy. They also find out her address and decide they should check it out… some other time, because right now, they have to put on their tuxedos and PARTY.
Bruce Wayne is a guest at Lex Luthor’s Baldy Awards for journalism, where Clark Kent is nominated for his expose of Intergang, an opportunity that Bruce uses to hit on Clark’s girlfriend. Meanwhile, Intergang also uses the opportunity to try to kill Clark by crashing the party with a flying ship full of armed goons. Of course, all the goons are quickly taken down by Superman and Batman, who happened to be in the neighborhood – hey, where did Clark and Bruce suddenly go? They’re probably snorting coke in the bathroom.
So, Intergang is defeated, but it turns out that they didn’t really care about Clark: they just attacked the awards to distract Superman while they kidnapped Daily Planet columnist Cat Grant… and it worked. TO BE CONCLUDED!
Character-Watch:
Who’s up for some extremely minor character trivia? Everyone? OK, here we go!
This is technically the first appearance of WGBS reporter Steve Lombard (he’s a guest at the awards and later covers the Intergang attack), though we already saw him on a TV screen exactly 30 issues ago. In the old comics, Lombard was Clark Kent’s rival during that weird period in the ‘70s when Clark grew sideburns and became a TV news anchor. In this issue he’s a pudgy guy in a bowtie, but in more recent comics he suddenly buffed up and became a big, athletic guy. The only consistent part of Steve’s character is that he’s always been an asshole.
Plotline-Watch:
So how exactly did Cat Grant get kidnapped? That happens in another entry of The Misadventures of Jose Delgado: Jose/Gangbuster was keeping an eye on Cat, as he was hired to do, when he briefly ran into Superman and Batman (hence the panels at the top). Superman tells Jose he’s doing a good job, but as soon the big shots leave, the old Delgado luck strikes again – Intergang operatives Chiller and Shockwave attack Jose, drop and entire building on his ass, and on top of everything steal his face (in order to fool Cat):
There’s a callback to Adventures #447, when Intergang tried to kill Lex Luthor during a press conference and Clark saved him. This time, it’s Luthor who “saves” Clark by sprinting to action and getting him out of the way of a blast, but only so he could say they are even now.
Luthor’s armored Lex-Men prove very useful in this issue: they’re too slow to catch Superman and Batman when they break into LexCorp, and then they don’t even show up when the party is attacked. But hey, at least their cool armors are officially silver now!
Corrections-Watch:
On my recap for Part 1, I said Lois and Clark were seen heading to the Baldy Awards, but that was just a date. This issue (and the awards) take place in the next day. Also, for some reason I said Superman and Batman were teaming up for the first time, when they already fought a jewel thief and a vampire together. I’ve atoned for these sins by lashing my back 5 million times (which is why I haven’t posted in the last week).
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