Adventures of Superman #496 (November 1992)
Adventures of Superman #496 (November 1992)
In this bizarre tale, Clark Kent is reading up about the Mxyzptlk administration (1969-1974) when he notices something peculiar is going on in the Daily Planet offices:
That's right – for some reason, Clark is wearing some strange blue blazer instead of the usual orange suit everyone in Mxytopolis always wears!
Clark changes into his Mxyman clothes and flies off to see if anything else weird is going on. Just outside the MxyCorp building, Clark/Mxyman runs into the powerful, sexy and beloved Mr. Mxyzptlk himself, who reveals a shocking truth: he used his 5th dimensional powers to change reality so that he's the most important person in Metropo… er, Mxytopolis, leaving Lex Luthor as a poor chump. A fat one, too, since Mxyzptlk reverted him back to his old, bald body.
Since they're the only two who can remember the previous reality, Superman ends up joining forces with Luthor (who he believes to be Lex Luthor II transformed into his father – because that's the simplest explanation). Mxyzptlk prides himself on being a top liar and has been going around the city turning lies into reality, but Superman points out that, in that case, Mxy isn't technically lying. So, they make a deal: Mxy will go back to his dimension if Superman catches him in a lie. Unfortunately for Luthor, Mxy presents his next statement in the form of a riddle involving Lex being executed in an electric chair.
Oh yeah, and Superman and Luthor are now in their underwear, and Mxy is suddenly three people, only one of which is telling the truth. Forgot a few details there.
Anyway, Superman correctly solves the riddle (Mxy #3 was telling the truth) and everything goes back to normal, including Luthor's younger body and sexy hair. THE END! Except for one thing…
Whoever that is has been knocking on that wall for weeks! Someone should go open the door for him already.
Plotline-Watch:
This is the culmination of what's probably one of the longest running plots in this era: back in Superman #31 (1989), Luthor got Mxyzptlk to go back to his dimension by lying to him, thus introducing him to concept of lies (Mxy's dimension is apparently the world from that Ricky Gervais movie). In his next appearance, Mxy said he wanted to thank Lex for teaching him how to lie, which he eventually did by taking away Superman's powers in “Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite” (1990) – but, in all those comics, Mxy never actually used his new ability. So, this whole issue is about him finally telling his first lies, possibly because Jerry Ordway wanted to close that damn plotline before leaving the books in Adventures #500. Comic creators were so considerate back in the ‘90s.
The rhino gag in this comic always cracks me up. At one point, Mxy impersonates a health inspector visiting Dooley's (a Metropolis bar manned by DC editor Kevin Dooley) due to a complaint that there's a rhinoceros in the kitchen. Dooley says that can't be true, and of course a rhino comes out, chasing the cook. Later in the issue, out of the blue:
I like how Superman decides he's just not dealing with that. Dooley's rhino should have become a recurring character (or edited some DC comics). Another cool, somewhat inexplicable running gag are all the Watchmen references in this issue… but I'll let Don Sparrow talk about that in his section:
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
We start with a great cover from the rarely seen combination of Tom Grummett and Dennis Janke. While it’s a typically fun and wacky Mxyzptlk cover (with the red paints pattering the smiley already setting up the Watchmen gag inside), it is a little misleading, and I can still remember a slight pang of disappointment from when I brought this comic home. Though I now am a regular comic store shopping, back in the day when I was reading these comics the first time around, I bought them exclusively from a drugstore a block from my house. We’d get a dollar a week allowance, which meant that at least three weeks out of the month (four, once SMOS started up) I’d get a new Superman comic. When I first started buying, at age 6, all I really cared about was the character, Superman, and getting to read about his adventure that week. But as time went on, I started to like specific artists over others, and look for their names on the cover. When I bought a comic that said “Byrne & Kesel” on the front, I knew I was getting something I liked (I even remember being bummed seeing “Byrne & Mignola”, as my artistic tastes hadn’t yet developed a liking for Mignola’s more idiosyncratic style–I’ve since really come to love his work). And with respect to the other Super-team artists, all of whom I love, there was no name I’d rather see on a cover during this era than “Ordway & Janke” (unfortunately I only started writing for this blog after their last issue together was done!).
So I remember being thrilled as I saw this cover on the newsstand, buying it quickly as possible (and not looking through it, as I wanted to savour it once I got home). It was only then that I realized that while this was indeed an Ordway and Janke comic, it wasn’t in the sense that I had hoped–that Jerry Ordway was writing and drawing, and Dennis Janke was inking, and all was right with the world. Instead, this is the very rare occurrence where inker extraordinaire Dennis Janke was also handling penciling duties, drawing Ordway’s script.
Not sure of the reasons behind it–maybe Tom Grummett needed a break, especially given how demanding the next few issues would be, and what scrutiny they’d face from a larger than usual audience. Maybe Dennis had always wanted to get into penciling, and this fun, throwaway-before-a-big-storyline type issue was the perfect training ground. Whatever the reason, the art is pretty OK. Janke leans more closely to Jon Bogdanove’s looser, large framed cartoony style than I might have thought, but the results work well for the goofiness of the story.
At the newsstand on page 5, we get our second Watchmen reference, with the kid silently reading junk, just like at the newsstand in Watchmen. [Max: Lex's sign is a reference to Rorschach, too.]
As the story progresses, the slapstick is pretty consistent. I’m not sure the scene of the Aborigines around the boiling pot would really fly in these more culturally sensitive times, but then again, in the Mxyzptlk world depicted here, they may not be a depiction of any group from our world anyway.
Aided by the limited colour palette, this issue goes into full Watchmen parody mode by page 11, as Luthor receives the Comedian treatment, at least until Superman rescues him.
The super-team’s near-obsession with old-timey comedy legends continues, as Laurel and Hardy make another appearance on page 15. Some of these gags confused me, as things like wacky health code violations and cheating boyfriends seems so small-time for someone as powerful as Mxy.
Finally, after Superman figures out Mxy’s trick, there’s more dark irony, as Superman specifically mentioned the duration of his crime-fighting career, just one panel before we see those famous (and in this interpretation–oddly hairy) hands that will try to end it.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
Godwatch: faced with a reality where Mxy was America’s most beloved President, Clark invokes God, on page 2.
Hey, is that a little nod to Streaky and Krypto on that same page?
Even in the Mxy garb, Lois kinda pulls off her look.
Are the Luthor goons a reference of some kind? They kinda look like Alex’s gang from “A Clockwork Orange”, kinda look like mechanical versions of “Cabaret” cast members.
In case we forgot for even a moment that this is an early 90s comic, Mxy uses the verb “diss” on page 14.
On that same page, the boozer at Dooley’s bar looks disturbingly like Uncle Dudley from the Shazam family. Apparently his recurring “Shazambago” has driven the poor man to drink.
A nice, sort of paraphrase of Superman II on page 22, where Superman says he "never was good at these things back in school", just as he did when the Kryptonians started playing their weird appearing and disappearing game in the fortress.
I love a Superman that drinks soder cola.
