Adventures of Superman #475 (February 1991)
Adventures of Superman #475 (February 1991)
Superman fights various of his superhero friends and MURDERS ALL OF THEM! Okay, so they were actually evil amusement park robots, but still: that’s pretty messed up.
“Wait, I’m the real Aqua- AAAAARGGGHHH!”
That’s “evil amusement park robots” as in “robots belonging to an evil amusement park,” not “evil robots belonging to normal amusment park” (at least I don’t think the robots are evil; they’re just programmed that way). The amusement park, Happyland, is of course a front for Intergang’s shady operations, which they built with the help of Toyman and Professor Killgrave. That seems like kind of a weird team up, until you consider that Toyman loves children and Killgrave kinda looks like a little kid dressed up as a mad scientist, so they should work well together.
What none of the villains know is that there’s yet another bad guy hidden in the park: Sleez. Yeah, “evil mind-controlling pornographer” Sleez. Running around in a place full of kids.
(I think those aren’t tentacles.)
Sleez kidnaps a bunch of little children, plus (or maybe “including”) Jimmy Olsen and Lucy Lane, who happened to be checking out the park that day. Superman stops by the park to investigate the kidnappings, which makes Intergang very nervous – even more so when Toyman goes nuts with grief over those missing kids and activates all the robots he hid around the park for some reason. Killgrave just seizes the moment and has all the robots attack Superman, while Intergang’s second in command, Gillespie, has an anxiety attack.
So, Superman has to fight a bunch of giant robots in addition to the superhero replicas depicted above. Toyman, bless his heart, intentionally exposes the part of the park where Sleez stashed the kids in order to lead Superman there. Sleez tries to bail in Professor Killgrave’s secret escape rocket (every single object in this park is a hidden hi-tech weapon, apparently), but Toyman rigs it to explode and BOOM, bye Sleeze.
With the kids saved and half the park in ruins, Superman asks to speak with the manager, presumably to leave an entry in the complaints book. Gillespie attempts to sweet talk Superman, saying he had no idea Toyman was a supervillain and hid all those robots… and Superman buys it. Or maybe he knew Gillespie would probably get decapitated by Intergang if they got busted, so he decided to give the guy a break. Either way, Intergang lives to fight another day.
Superman Melting a Giant Pirate’s Head With Heat Vision and Pulling Off a Giant Gorilla’s Arms-Watch:
Here’s Superman, melting a giant pirate’s head with heat vision and pulling off a giant gorilla’s arms:
Character-Watch:
Lots of returning villains and returning plot points about those villains:
This issue is the second time Toyman betrays Intergang due to his love of children, and the second time he does so in Happyland (after Action #657). Why do they keep hiring that guy, and putting him in that place?
This is also the third story where Sleez appears, and the third time he “dies” in an explosion. His supernatural depravity makes him unkillable.
Killgrave’s secret escape rocket is the same one he successfully used in Action #659 and, now that I think about it, possibly even his first “appearance” in World of Krypton #4.
And finally, among the Intergang operatives seen this issue is a very tall lady in the shadows whose face we never see: that’s the recently introduced (and permanently cloaked) Tiny Bubbles. See, why do they even need jokers like Toyman and Killgrave when they have someone so badass, she can call herself “Tiny Bubbles”?
Plotline-Watch:
Lucy points out something she probably should have realized earlier: every date she has with Jimmy ends with someone getting killed (first by Bloodsport, then by Blaze, now the Toyman).
On that note, the issue ends with Jimmy taking out his Superman-calling signal watch from the safety deposit box where he placed exactly a year ago, in Action #650. This is probably half “I’m proud to be Superman’s pal again” and half “if I don’t wear this I’ll die.”
Clark Kent still has a day job, of course, so in this issue we see him interviewing Dr. Gretchen Kelley about LexCorp’s sorry state after the tragic passing of Lex himself. She’s on a cheerful mood today:
Why, she’s talking as if Luthor’s death would set off a series of events that will culminate in Metropolis getting bombed to hell! (Which is exactly what’s gonna happen.)