Adventures of Superman #490 (May 1992)
Adventures of Superman #490 (May 1992)
THE DRAMATIC RETURN OF JAWAD AL GURDAN! Yes, Clark Kent's "good friend" from… somewhere in the Middle East who appeared once four years ago! I told you he'd be back one day. Clark, Jimmy Olsen, Professor Hamilton and Husque the outerdimensional Egyptian-looking bodybuilder have traveled to Jordan to look for Husque's missing sister (who also hasn't appeared for exactly as long as Jawad). Thanks to Jawad's inestimable help, Clark and the others find Tehra in the ancient ruins of Petra, but Husque's sis doesn't want to be found and attacks them by causing a sandstorm. Superman has no choice but to take out Tehra with a power loogie:
Tehra explains what she's been doing for the past 47 issues: after she and other inhabitants from Husque's dimension (the Exiles) arrived in our planet, they were captured by mad scientists from Qurac who wanted to experiment on them. One of Tehra's friends betrayed them to help the scientists, then betrayed the scientists to experiment on them and his own people, seeking to create human/Exile hybrids. Also, he put a device on Tehra's head to control her mind, which is why she was being such a jerk to Superman.
Naturally, by this point Jimmy and Professor Hamilton have gotten themselves captured by Tehra's former friend, who wants to "merge" with Jimbo. Superman arrives just in time to stop that (but probably wishes he hadn't, considering the treatment they give him).
The evil Exile tries to detonate the device on Tehra's head, but she's already removed it at this point (with Superman's help) and manages to stick it on the guy's forehead, causing him to blow up himself. With the Exiles liberated and the siblings reunited, Husque and Tehra decide to go live in peace away from all humans (except Jimmy, because Tehra has terrible taste in men). Meanwhile, Professor Hamilton is like "I don't know what the hell happened in this issue."
Plotline-Watch:
And that's the last time we ever saw Husque, Tehra or any of the Exiles. But wait, what happened to that whole thing about how the Exile dimension is now ruled by Simyan and Mokkari? You'll have to wait until their next appearance in like six years to find out! (Because I don't remember.)
While he's in the Middle East, Superman takes a detour to indulge in his favorite hobby: breaking shit up in Qurac. He finds a group of Sons of Liberty mercenaries hiding there and interrogates them about the Qurac's burgeoning mad scientist industry. Don Sparrow notes: “The Sons of Liberty sure have a lot of blonde dudes in their employ. On page 2, they could almost all be clones of each other!” Maybe they are, Don.
Speaking of those dirty SOLs, the top Sons of Liberty dudes are very disappointed in Congressman Pete Ross for voting in favor of a gun control law after they went through all the trouble of killing Pete's predecessor and getting Pete's fiancee a job. Well, if you'd actually told him you did those things Pete might have been more receptive to your evil plans. Anyway, they say they'll have to deal with him now…
There's an interesting scene with Ron Troupe and his family: his sister thinks Ron was only hired at Newstime Magazine to fill up a "black people" quota (you know, kinda like all the secondary characters in Seinfeld), but Ron is like "Nu-uh! I'm essential over there!" Meanwhile, we see that Newstime owner Colin Thornton is having money problems and is probably gonna have to fire people. I wouldn't be surprised if he started with the minorities: that guy is a devil.
POOPWATCH! Don points out that "Emil Hamilton’s favourite exclamation makes a bold return as he laments that his rescue by Superman and teleportation to safety by Tehra might result in a skinned knee." You know, I was joking when I said "oh, poop" should be Ham's catchphrase. I didn't realize it already was. Bless you, Jerry Ordway.
Much more from Don below the cut!
Art-Watch (by donsparrow):
Another great Grummett and Ordway combination on this week’s cover–there are more of these than I remember. The lines of sand really convey the motion as Hamilton slips away from Superman (apparently Ham recently used Just for Men before posing for this cover, as that’s a pretty dark beard on my copy).
Inside the issue, the first page has a real contender for panel of the week, with Superman smashing his way through the reinforced concrete of the Sons of Liberty hideout,and Superman coming through a wall is just one of those classic images that I never tire of. It’s an interesting flip of past stories when Superman has traveled to Qurac, this time going there to gather up American baddies rather than attack the nation’s army as in the past.
As the story continues, it’s neat to see Clark Kent (and Jimmy and the rest) in travel clothes but I am amused at Husque’s idea of “fitting in”. Luckily the hotel doesn’t have a “no shoes, no service” policy. [Max: Note that Clark and Jawad are such close friends that Clark didn't even specifically mention that he's engaged, he just "casually dropped it." That's true friendship.]
As our intrepid team continues, the drawing of the Ruins of Petra is very cool, in an Alexandretta way on page 10, and the rocks closing in on them in a spiral is a great visual on page 11. Page 12 gives us our PANEL OF THE WEEK–the image of Superman floating in the sandstorm is just terrific. I love the detail of his cape whipping in different directions along with the wind, and also how the other panels on the page are laid out around and on top of this main image. Great, great stuff.
The fight that ensues with Superman and Tehra is well choreographed, and the motion lines really give a good sense of the direction of the wind. Superman’s rescue of the team on page 19 has a cool angle we don’t often see (and I love the rare sighting of zipatone in the shadows on that large middle panel).
Overall, this wasn’t a favourite issue of mine–I’ve never found the Circle characters from early in Wolfman’s run terribly interesting, but I do appreciate the dangling plot threads from those issues being wrapped up, even if I can’t make heads or tails of the Exiles and Matrixes and Hybrids. Still, it’s interesting to see Superman in locations other than Metropolis. [Max: You're getting the Exiles and the Cirlce mixed up, Don! It's specifically mentioned in the Circle's last appearance that they'll never be seen again, so they can't be the same as the Exiles. I think it would have been a pretty cool idea to connect them, though.]
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
The interlude with Ron’s family is pretty interesting, and comes as close as they ever do to giving Ron Troupe a personality. These arguments about race and hiring policies at the Daily Planet are great because they have no real resolution–Roberta’s stance isn’t wrong, exactly, any more than Ron’s is–it’s not a simple issue, and so no simple answer can be provided. I also like the mention of LA Law as cultural touchstone.
I love the way Jerry writes Professor Hamilton as so fussy! It’s such a fully-formed, real seeming character, and the detail about the squabble over the air conditioner on page 10 is really funny, as is his aversion to crunching on the exo-skeletons of beetles and insects on page 14.
GODWATCH! Superman thanks God that his (pointless) fight with Tehra didn’t cost Emil, Jimmy or Husque’s life. All that happened was that Husque was briefly tortured,so, no big.