Adventures of Superman #478 (May 1991)
Adventures of Superman #478 (May 1991)
“Time and Time Again!” Final Phase – Superman goes back to the future and fights a lunatic who wants to blow up the moon. All through Superman’s time-jumping expedition, the Linear Man has been trying to lead Supes to a specific point in the 30th century: the day the moon exploded. The one who’s supposed to make it go boom is a Daxamite called Dev-Em who has the same powers as Superman, except the crucial “not being a huge psychopath” one.
Anyway, the energies released by the moon’s explosion are meant to send Superman back to his own time, once and for all. The only problem: Superman is Superman, so he teams up with the (now adult) Legion of Super-Heroes to stop Dev-Em and save the moon. And they freaking do it. Dev is arrested by the Legion and taken away. The Linear Man himself is forced to step in and click the “press here to blow up moon” button himself. And then…
Superman is back in the present! Yay! And millions of future people who lived in moon cities died (as well as the Linear Man). Non-yay. THE END.
Character-Watch:
Like I said, the Legion of Super-Heroes that appears in this issue is the gritty, grown-up version that lives in a dystopic future where everyone wears leather jackets. All the characters are deeply changed: Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl are now a businessman and his pregnant wife, respectively, Shrinking Violet has a robot leg, Cosmic Boy has stubble, etc. One of their current members is Laurel Gand, Lar “Valor” Gand’s great-great-great-etc niece, who was created to replace the original (erased from continuity) Supergirl in the classic Legion stories where she appeared. That bit of information makes these panels of Superman materializing in the 30th century to save her even cooler:
As for Dev-Em, I always assumed he was a random villain they made up for this issue, but he’s actually from the old Superboy comics. Originally, he was a juvenile delinquent from Krypton who pestered Superboy, traveled to the 30th century, and eventually reformed and helped the Legion. This version replaced “Krypton” with “Daxam,” “Superboy” with “Valor” and “reformed and helped” with “went crazy and tried to kill.”
Plotline-Watch:
So ends “Time and Time Again!”! I would have liked a clearer resolution to Superman’s “Am I immortal or what?” problem, though we did sort of get an answer to that question: while catching up with the Legion, Superman learns for the first time that the Pocket Universe Superboy he met a few years ago died fighting alongside the Legionnaires. That kid was more powerful than Superman, so if he can die, that means Supes can too. Woo!
The Legion of Super-Heroes series from this era dealt with the aftermath of the moon’s explosion, which seems like a huge event until you find out they also blew up the Earth a while later, followed by the destruction of the Legion’s entire universe (during Zero Hour).
First full of appearance of Vanishing Point, the floating chunk of land outside of time from which the Linear Men watch over the sanctity of the time continuum (and mostly just screw it up more).
Like six “phases” ago, Booster Gold told Lois Lane he was gonna figure out how rescue Superman from the timestream. We see him again in this issue and he has done… nothing. Dammit, Booster.
While I’m talking about Booster, I can’t remember if it’s mentioned in an upcoming issue or not, but there’s actually an explanation for why the Linear Men let him keep living in the 20th century despite being born in the 25th: during the Millennium crossover, it was mentioned that Booster will somehow be key to the evolution of the human species. How the hell? Well, much, much later it will be revealed that he’s the father of Rip Hunter, Time Master (a future Linear Man), so that explains both his importance in our present and why the Linear Men would give him a break.
And now, the thrilling conclusions to the “Meanwhile, back in Metropolis” plots: Lois falls asleep on the couch worrying about Clark, with a (probably delighted) Elroy the cat keeping her company.
The LexCorp Lawyers finally end their late night meeting having decided that they “must take complete responsibility for LexCorp” until they find Luthor’s son. So the interim president they were talking about electing was… all of them?
Jimmy Olsen decides he has to get his own apartment after his mom ruined his date with Lucy Lane. Makes sense. After all, he has a stable job at the Daily Planet, so what could possibly go wrong?
There was another plot I skipped in my recaps: Perry and Alice White slowly (and I mean slowly) fixing their relationship and deciding to go on a cruise together, as a belated honeymoon. After all, he left good ol’ Sam Foswell in charge of the Planet, so what could possibly go wrong?
And last but not least:
After eleven beers, Bibbo’s butt ends up on the floor. This whole storyline was actually a cautionary tale about the dangers of owning your own bar.
Art-Watch (by Don Sparrow):
A while ago I said that I should give the great Don Sparrow a section in this blog because his comments are always illuminating and he knows these issues better than me. Well, he actually took me up on the offer! From now on I’ll be adding comments by Don about the art (he’s an awesome artist himself), and whatever else he wants to talk about, to issues new and old. Click “Read More” to see!
The first thing Don wanted to comment is that there’s a panel in this issue where Superman looks like Henry Gibson:
I’ll just let Don speak now: “The other note I wanted to raise was how much I love how nobly they script Superman in this era. Yelling "Back off, pal!” (page 16) is about as ‘badass’ as he gets, and I really like it. Besides, how tough would he have to talk, considering the same time he’s saying it, he’s blasting scorching laser beams from his eyes?“
"Even after what a cretin the Daxamite is, Superman shows concern for the pain he’s going through on page 17. Then when the Linear Man, who sent him on this trip that royally screwed up his life shows up, he even has concern for him (and how spooky is the way Jurgens draws his melted flesh? I can’t imagine how pungent the smoke rising off his limbs would be, with or without super-senses).”
“Lastly, Superman’s thought bubbles completely lay the groundwork for my much-demanded (by me, and you kinda) story where Superman travels through these time periods again. I would call it "Time and Time Again–AGAIN!” Also: I really miss thought bubbles.“
