Adventures of Superman #483 (October 1991)
Adventures of Superman #483 (October 1991)
PIANO PARTY AT BIBBO'S! This issue is about every minor supporting character in the Superman comics coming together in a Seinfeld-esque fashion, so you've probably already guessed that I love it.
After finding out that Superman got rid of Intergang last week in Superman #60, Blindspot (the invisible hitman who failed to kill Cat Grant during “Dark Knight Over Metropolis”) pays some young punks to break into a now-abandoned Intergang warehouse and steal the gear that gave him his invisibility powers. The punks stash the equipment inside an old piano and try to lower it to the street using a rope, because they are not very good at this whole being a criminal thing. Superman sees them, and hijinks ensue.
Blindspot manages to retrieve his stuff, while the piano itself ends up in the possession of High Pockets and Lamarr, two lovable alcoholics who frequent the Ace O'Clubs bar. Their intention is to give the piano the bar’s owner, Bibbo Bibbowski, as thanks for all the free booze. Since two drunks pushing a piano down the street looks a little conspicuous, they’re stopped by police detective Slam Bradley – a.k.a., one of the two people who defeated Blindspot during his last appearance. Blindspot starts beating the crap out of Bradley while invisible, thus making him look even drunker than the Ace O'Club’s clientele.
That's when Bradley is saved by the runaway piano (Metropolis has some very steep streets), which is now mounted by Jose Delgado – a.k.a. Gangbuster, a.k.a. Cat Grant’s boyfriend, a.k.a the other of the two people who defeated Blindspot last time. As Jose contemplates the staggering coincidence, Blindspot recovers from nearly being ran over and resumes punching everyone.
Bibbo joins the fight too, thinking that someone is trying to steal his new piano. At this point Superman flies by, sees the situation (Bradley, Jose and Bibbo fighting an invisible person) and nopes the hell out of there, but at least he quickly fries Blindspot’s invisibility gear before leaving. In the end it’s Jose who knocks out Blindspot while making a corny pun about “everyone having a blind spot,” fully proving that he’s ready to be a superhero again.
And so, the piano is finally brought into the Ace O'Clubs, only for Bibbo to realize that no one there knows how to play it. That’s when Professor Hamilton comes to the rescue by revealing that he’s a musical genius in addition to a scientific one. Just in case someone thinks I'm making that up, here's the last page of the comic:
Character-Watch:
Don Sparrow talks about what this issue represents for Bibbo, no doubt one of the most complex characters in modern literature: “At first a couple things about Bibbo bothered me in this issue, but the more I thought about it, the more I actually liked it. I like that it’s a progression for Bibbo, to go from waterfront tough to good guy. He doesn’t always know the right thing to do, as much as he’s trying. The first example is when we learn that Bibbo keeps High Pockets and Lamarr in free booze. Probably not a very helpful thing to do for two chronic alcoholics, but it’s what a guy like him would do, having won the lottery. Later in the comic he’s about ready to brain Blindspot with a 2” x 4" until Jose talks him out of it.“
Don continues: "So as wrong as these actions can seem to us, this is a guy who wasn’t raised by the Kents – it’ll take some time before he knows ‘what Superman would do' in a situation.” Agreed. Jerry Ordway has mentioned how he planned Bibbo’s transformation from the beginning (he was based on someone who worked on the bar Ordway’s mom owned when he was a kid), and this issue is sort of a transition point between the Bibbo who tried to fight Superman in his first appearance and the one who will be helping orphaned kids in a few issues.
Plotline-Watch:
Hey, why wasn’t Blindspot arrested along with the rest of Intergang in Superman #60? Because he was fired from the organization months ago after botching the Cat Grant hit. His severance packaged consisted on getting lashed by Dr. Moon, and that's why he hates the chumps who defeated him so much.
There’s a whole subplot about Professor Hamilton feeling nervous about his hot date with waitress Mildred Krantz (introduced last issue), which is how they end up at the Ace O'Clubs. Hamilton getting exasperated at Superman remains one of my favorite things in comics.
The reason Jose was near the Ace O'Clubs is that he and Cat wanted to thank Bibbo personally for babysitting Cat’s son Adam when he went missing during the Eradicator saga (Action #667). I guess now they’re even for that time Bibbo cost Jose $14 million dollars.
There’s a scene with Hamilton and other people at S.T.A.R. Labs, prompting Don to ask: “What exactly were that laboratory dude and ‘Mr. Martin’ going to do in that lab that Ham was occupying? Should we know them? Is this a reference to another DC book going at the time? He has a 'Tivoli’ software shirt on – would that make him a computer guy? Judging from the stethoscope, I’d say the older guy is an MD. Who are these guys?”
Why, Don, I’m shocked that you wouldn’t recognize such an iconic Superman villain! Sure, he’s got more skin on his face than we’re used to seeing, but that’ll change soon…
More from Don (and more art) under the cut!
Art-Watch (by donsparrow):
This is one I remember very well from when I was a kid. We start with a great cover from Jerry Ordway, with perfect perspective leading the eye down to our favourite two rummies about to get Wile E. Coyote’d by the falling piano. It might not seem like the most exciting cover at first glance, but from an artist’s perspective, this is a masterwork. He draws every darn brick in the wall, and, as usual for Ordway, the textures of the wood, and the newsprint and the shiny piano are all perfect. Just amazing. Plus, he manages to nail the “invisible” Blindspot really well thanks to some well-places shading. Really cool stuff.
Interiors for this issue are by guest artist Jim Fern, which I was really excited about at the time (and now) as he had just done a phenomenal job on one of the Batman Armageddon 2001 annuals, and I got a taste for his work. His long, thin figures with squarish features have a pleasing consistency, and his backgrounds are excellent throughout the issue. The main thing that jumps out for me, though, is how consistently he draws the Superman shield on the uniform. Throughout the issue, he really takes care to keep it on-model, but without just dropping in a photostat as has become popular these days. And it just doesn’t look the same.
Page 3 gives us more of my favourite generic 90s bad guys–punks, in this case named Flint and Garth (who Jim Fern wisely resists the temptation of making look like Garth Algar). You can tell they’re punks because of the spiked hair and vests. But even these guys Fern seems to be able to make distinctive, even if it’s just with gap teeth and a pretty unique punk haircut.
Same as the crowd scene on page 4 – the onlookers each have distinct, real-person appearances, but not so unique that they distract from the intended focus of the panel, Blindspot himself.
Page 5 has a great panel of Superman coming out of the shadows in a Batman-like way, which would be pretty intimidating–and certainly enough to doom Pockets and Lamarr. On page 8, Fern captures STAR labs well, and a scene that could be a little boring–Hamilton sitting and thinking is staged as interestingly as possible, as again the details of his hair, and shirt wrinkles, and state of the art lab equipment really make it all seem real–particularly good facial expression work on that second last panel.
More good stuff on the next page [Max: See Plotline-Watch above!], where Fern once again is very consistent, this time with Superman’s unique hairstyle, which looks more real than it often can in the hands of a lesser artist, as well as a very Chris Reeve-y crooked smile in the fourth panel. Not sure why Professor Hamilton is getting so defensive–Superman does seem pleased for the lovelorn old professor.
The Slam Bradley scenes are pretty interesting–he often looks pleasingly out of place in these pages. Even the way he’s coloured on page 13 looks like it’s out of an old film, which works well for the character (who would later become a staple in the Catwoman books, looking in these pages a lot less like Robert Mitchum than the great Darwyn Cooke would draw him).
The fight scenes and wacky runaway piano stuff is all well done–and pretty funny. Must be some excellent wheels on that thing. My wife and I own a piano, and even on a hill, I doubt its wheels could pick up much speed. More likely, it would just tumble top over bottom. I wasn’t sure if Jose would be able to take Blindspot without the air of his secret weapon–popcorn–but he does fine in this issue, and shows off some of his rarely mentioned boxing ability. Speaking of revenge, why doesn’t Blindspot bear any ill will toward the popcorn that led to his defeat last time?
Page 17 continues with cranky Hamilton (not a good sign for his date, I think) and I love the gallant way Fern draws Superman exiting through the window. Nice little moment there.
Lastly, the bar scenes at Ace o’ Clubs really make it seem like a real place, as the layout and paneling looks very consistent and well observed, especially on that last page splash.
Stray Observations:
Does it get more 90s than Superman himself making a “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” joke? Looking back, it’s sort of weird that that commercial became a “thing”–it’s probably a great product that helped people in serious trouble, but who am I to argue with the taste of standup comedians of the early 90s?
Like Foswell of the Daily Planet, Emil Hamilton knows there’s only one place to get the best price on purple pants.
Heyyy, is that a reference to the old Looney Tunes cartoon on page 6? A falling piano is one thing, but a barrel from the ACME company? Hmmm…
What’s the deal with the lady on page 13? Epileptics drive down property values? What a horrible human being!
Before he was a mob enforcer, Blindspot was a failed insult comedian. His act petered out when the most creative insults he came up with was to call people “knucklehead”(page 15) “blockhead” (page 18) and also “chowderhead” (page 19) alternately.
Am I completely nuts, or does Superman look like a male Courteney Cox on the panel above?
Slam Bradley must think Superman just sucks. Anytime there’s trouble, he leaves everything to Jose Delgado.
After this issue “Whups” became a personal catchphrase of mine.
In the letter pages, there’s a reference to Marty Short’s hilarious SCTV (and later SNL) character Irving Cohen, which blew my Canadian mind as a youngster!