Adventures of Superman #498 (January 1993)
Adventures of Superman #498 (January 1993)
FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND, PART 1! That's a weird storyline name to type in all caps, because it sounds like I'm excited that someone died. Let me try that again: Funeral for a Friend… Part 1. :(
Anyway, this is the "holy crap, Superman really is dead" issue. The story starts immediately after the end of Superman #75, with the recently deceased Supes still on the arms of an inconsolable Lois Lane. Meanwhile, the Guardian approaches like "Hey guys, just got here to help out with Doomsday, how's… oh, whoops."
(Fun fact: as a kid, I thought the word "compatriot" meant Bloodwynd and Ice were from the same country.)
The bulk of the issue consists of heartbreakingly unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate Superman. Dubbilex of Project Cadmus uses his mind powers to confirm both Superman and Doomsday have no brain activity, but Superman's pals won't give up that easily – the Guardian tries to give him mouth to mouth, but he says his lungs are like steel tanks. The paramedics can't do squat. Professor Hamilton then comes up with a gizmo that will collect the energy from the Cadmus soldiers' shock cannons and route it through the medics' defibrillator, which will be applied to Superman by Bibbo (protected by one of Hamilton's trusty force field-generating belts). The result:
Bibbo and Ham do that over and over, but there's no result (beyond further messing up the street). Finally, they just have to accept it: Superman died and ain't ever, ever coming back. Ever.
Plotline-Watch:
Lois is (understandably) a weepy mess throughout the issue, and it doesn't help that people keep asking where Clark is. I like that Cat Grant is the one who gives Lois some tough love and basically tells her to get her shit together and report the news – a few years ago, Cat was the one weeping messily, but she's really evolved as a character since then.
Bloodwynd and Ice teleport away to Justice League America #70, which happens roughly at the same time as this issue, so we'll cover it soon!
One of the saddest/creepiest (on many levels) scenes is when Dan Turpin of the Special Crimes Unit wanders away from the rest of the group and comes across a human-shaped lump of goo laying on the rubble – it’s Supergirl, who is still in protoplasmic form after that punch Doomsday gave her. Turns out she tried to crawl all the way to the place of the fight in this sorry state. Lex Luthor Jr. comes along to collect her, and later talks her into morphing back into her usual hot body… even though it hurts her horribly to change shape. I tell ya, that guy's bad news.
Speaking of which: the second most epic fight to take place in the Superman comics this year so far is Dan "Terrible" Turpin vs. Paul "Jerkface" Westfield, director of Project Cadmus, after Westfield disses Maggie Sawyer and puts her femininity in doubt. (Maggie could have probably knocked him out herself, though.) Anyway, Westfield had come to collect Doomsday's corpse, and he's got his eye on Superman's too…
When they're all trying to think of someone who could help Superman, Jimmy Olsen, the big nerd, points out that he had a favorite doctor: Dr. Sanchez, who treated Superman when he got shot with kryptonite bullets (Superman #4) and when he was poisoned by the Four-Armed Terror (Superman #40). You asshole, it's my job to look up that stuff!
The Misadventures of Jose Delgado: Did you miss this section? I did. Jose "Gangbuster" Delgado turns so pale after learning of Superman's death on the news that he becomes Caucasian! He also snaps at Cat Grant's son Adam, who was being an insufferable little jerk (he switched the channel to a cartoon, because Superman "was a weenie anyways"). This situation inspires Jose to dig his old Gangbuster suit out of the closet, presumably so he can go out and pretend some drug dealers are Adam.
There's also a very short but very effective scene with Ma and Pa Kent, which I'll let Don Sparrow cover in his section…
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
We begin with the cover, which is an all-time classic. Next to last week’s Superman #75, this is probably the defining image of the death of Superman, and it’s just so terrific. The off-centre framing, and the lines of perspective from the jagged, cracked cement that lead the eye to the fallen Superman. Even the fact that he’s upside-down works very well, as we see an image like that so rarely, it immediately tells us something is terribly, terribly wrong.
We pick up the action inside the very moment after Superman #75 ended, with Lois in total shock and horror. This week’s PANEL OF THE WEEK panel recreation once again comes between the panels, and is the moment where Ice collapses as she sees Superman lying dead.
(I know this scene actually takes place in JLA #70, but when I was drawing it, I forgot that, so then I picked a different moment from that issue. So this panel doesn’t really fit perfectly anywhere else. There was some internal debate between Max and me about which issue should feature next in our coverage of this storyline. While the caption at the bottom of page 1 tells us to read JLA #70 before this issue, they cover events happening at virtually the same time, though focusing on different characters–all we really missed that relates to this story is Ice collapsing and Superman’s cape being laid over his body).
The double page splash on page 2-3 is a great one, and you have to give it up to Messrs Grummett and Hazlewood for having such a variety of different building materials among the rubble in Doomsday’s wake. Not just pavement, but brick, wood, glass, rebar–it’s amazing.
I also love the fear in the eyes of the SCU members who shudder in fear as Doomsday’s lifeless body settles. The anguish Lois feels is well-drawn throughout, and the writing in these scenes is strong, as it is throughout the issue (more on that later). Matrix/Supergirl’s melted-candle-looking protoplasmic state looks sad and painful–I can see why Turpin would stumble back in surprise on page 6. Her painful transformation back into her Supergirl form is well drawn (Kirby-dots and all!) and is also a great character moment for Lex II, who can’t wait even a second longer to have a badly battle-scarred ‘loved’ one painfully change into a form he prefers. Despite the exertion it takes her (which he dismisses as less difficult than moving mountains) he then seems to complain even about the bruises that DO remain. What a creep.
The image of the dead Doomsday being carried onto the Cadmus vehicle is still frightening, and Doomsday seems large than ever. Turpin belting Westfield is satisfying, and the high-tech attempts to revive Superman are well-drawn. In particular the panels of Maggie Sawyer and Dan Turpin’s disappointment that nothing is working have a quiet power.
Finally, Lois clutching Clark’s cape, is the emotional epicenter of the story. Her early thoughts about missing his voice, and his gentleness are so sad. We as readers also “get” that her words apply both to Superman and Clark, who she know to be one and the same. But in a sad bit of dramatic irony, her staffers think she’s only talking about Clark Kent, and try to encourage her that he may turn up yet. Lois, and the reader know that these hopes are false ones.
This issue is more or less a series of differing reactions to the death of Superman, and as anyone who has dealt with the passing of a loved one knows, the irritation that can come from these intense and emotional situations is very real. To writer Jerry Ordway’s credit, the reactions to Superman’s death aren’t uniform; Lois is in full denial, Jimmy has a swell of guilt over his careless attitude in the past few issues. Less invested observers like the EMT on page 8, and the happy-taking news-anchor (page 11) display a callous detachment, which irritates Turpin and Jose Delgado. We even see Adam Grant non-chalantly dismiss Superman–a man who has saved his and his mother’s life countless times as nothing more than a “weenie”. In this scene in particular, I wonder if this isn’t some meta-commentary about how Superman was viewed in the grim & gritty, Image-era 90s. Somewhat ironic now, when so many of the “hot” Image books of the day have failed to retain their value, while these pages continue to be dissected (albeit, by weirdoes like us) and imitated on the big screen.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
More colouring differences, comic to comic. I’ve often found Superman’s uniform looks like a slightly lighter shade of blue in Adventures of Superman (which I like) but in my copy, Lois Lane’s dark green suit from last week has shifted to a teal-tinted navy (aside from the first page, where it’s green). Not a complaint, merely an observation.
I wonder if Doomsday shifting, and spooking the SCU guys (Champley is completely convinced he saw Doomsday move) is a subtle hint of what’s to come in a few months?
GODWATCH! This section gets pretty interesting in the next few weeks, starting with this issue. Besides frightened onlookers praying, fearful of Doomsday reviving, Lois asks God whether the poor Kents had to see their son die on television (they did) and the Kents themselves “keep on praying to the Good Lord” for their boy when presented with the unthinkable.
Jose’s going to have a lot to explain once Cat gets home. He more or less physically strikes her son, Adam, and then also shatters her TV–with a helmet from the costume he promised he’d not wear anymore.
I wonder if that cartoon Adam likes is a real world reference. Looks a little like Ren & Stimpy, which was big at the time.
Bibbo’s willingness to sacrifice himself in an attempt to revive Superman is very moving, and another sign of the long process of redemption this character. "No one’s gonna miss a pug like me if things go bad.“ So sweet.
Interesting that Jimmy mentions the Death of Superman saving media from a "slow news day”. In several interviews, Mike Carlin has posited that a slow news cycle was part of why the Death of Superman gained such widespread media fascination, stating “maybe if a war had broken out that day we wouldn't have had the success we had. It was just that the timing was right and we were lucky that people cared about it.” [Max: Jimmy's annoyance with Cat in this scene is interesting, too. She's not the most insensitive person in the issue, though…]
