Superman saves Lois (also very original, Supes) and demands to know what's going on with the lookalike corpse that appeared in his tomb at the start of this storyline. Brainiac explains that he manifested the Super-corpse while he was in a coma because seeing Superman dead was his "deepest desire" (imagine if they'd opened the tomb and it was Claudia Schiffer laying there instead). So, yeah, his whole master plan to drive Superman insane started by accident, but now he's fully in control of the situation, which he demonstrates by animating the corpse and having it fight the real Superman.

Fake Undead Superman must have liked Real Superman's new long-haired look, because as the fight progresses, he decides to copy it and we get a "which one do I shoot?!" situation.

"I'm seeing double! Four Supermen!"

Everyone's stumped, but Lois says she's got a way to find out which is the real Superman. She asks them: "Brainiac's about to destroy the world. You only have time to save one person. Who is it?" One Superman says he'd never let it come to that, while the other says "I'd save you, Lois" -- giving himself away as the fake, because that's just Brainiac making her hear what she wants to hear (the real Superman wouldn't say that to another man's fiancée in public).

In response, Brainiac merges himself with the fake Superman, becoming... Superbraniac! Who looks exactly like regular Brainiac, but with a glowing force field around him (as seen on the cover). He boasts that he's "smarter... stronger... more powerful than ever before!" as he manhandles Superman and the already battered street around them. Superman fights back by, well, fighting back, but also by just being super mean to Brainiac.

Superman keeps calling him "Milton," the name of the small-time circus mentalist whose body Brainiac possessed way back in his first appearance. Despite being "smarter than ever," Brainiac can't handle a little name-calling and eventually breaks down and collapses. When he wakes up, he says he's Fine -- Milton Fine, that is. Superman bullied Brainiac so hard that he convinced him he's a timid circus worker, and gave him a body image disorder to boot.

Professor Hamilton, himself a big brainiac, explains that Brainiac must have taken on Milton's personality because he couldn't deal with being defeated by Superman yet again. "Milton" is taken by the Special Crimes Unit to be contained before he snaps out of it, and we learn that all the photos of the fake corpse now look empty (including the one that was recently on the front page of the Daily Planet).

Even the data S.T.A.R. Labs got from their extensive tests of the body is gone -- unlike the data they got from the real Superman. S.T.A.R.'s Dr. Faulkner decides to keep it all, in case they ever need that information to help Superman in a medical emergency... or to stop him. Like, by causing a medical emergency, I guess. We end with an ominous "END?"

So, uh, END?

Plotline-Watch:

• And that concludes "Dead Again!," a cool idea undermined by the fact that it required Superman to act out of character, since the whole point was making people think he might not be himself. It could have been saved by a strong ending, but I think Brainiac ends up looking like kind of a chump here. I've also mentioned that I think ruling him out as the mastermind and then going "psyche!" felt like cheating. I still think a Professor Hamilton temporarily possessed by Brainiac (like Milton Fine was) would have been a better villain, but I also agree with Adam Mallinger's take that the Mr. Mxyzptlk fake-out was more interesting than the actual reveal. A big finale with Mxy trying to make Superman go insane would have been a lot of fun, and totally in-character. I've been pretty critical of this storyline, but I did like the "tour of Superman's villains" aspect of it, and the issue where Keith gets adopted by the Whites is a highlight of this period.

• The "Janet" that Brainiac mentions is Milton Fine's wife, who was introduced in his first appearance, dumped him in his second, and then got ran over by a car, precipitating Milton's Brainiac-fication. If only she'd been more understanding about his "medicinal" drinking habit, several storylines could have been avoided...

• It was very considerate of Brainiac to explain his evil plan in front of the authorities while demonstrating his ability to make people see things that aren't there, thus exculpating Superman for his actions over the past issues. This reminds me of the time he was nice enough to let Superman know he was about to invade Earth with Warworld, giving him ample time to put together a group of superheroes to stop him. Maybe Milton was still in there all these years, sabotaging Brainiac's plans from within...

• While fighting Brainiac, Superman says he's "getting tired of everyone trying to do their version of 'The Death of Superman!'" Buddy, they're just getting started.

• Hey, I just checked my copy of Man of Steel #38 and the fake Superman corpse is still on the cover. This is bullshit!

Shout Outs-Watch:

Non-bullshit shout outs to our SUPporters Aaron, Chris "Ace" Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Dave Blosser, and Adam Mallinger! Join them (and get extra articles! new one coming this month! promise! exclamation marks!!) via Patreon or our newsletter’s "pay what you want" mode! Both of those also have free tiers, if you just wanna get posts like this one in your inbox.

You know what else isn't bullshit? Don Sparrow's comments on this issue, coming next...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We begin with the cover, and if ever there were a kinda boring one, it’s this. The projected larger body on Brainiac is kind cool, but mostly this is a pretty stiff, static cover.   

Inside we get a decently menacing splash image of Brainiac lifting Lois by her shirt, but it’s undercut slightly by something I dislike, using typography for lettering.  I suppose this doubles as the title of the issue, but it’s looking a little clip-arty to me.

The image of Superman tackling Brainiac so his psi-bolts don’t hit Lois is pretty well drawn, but it’s interesting that a mental power like that can “miss” directionally.  The battle scenes between the real Superman and the imposter in the tomb (particularly the heat vision attack) has a great sense of motion to it.  But again, it begs the question of what’s really happening here.  Is Brainiac’s mind creating an actual physical manifestation that is walking around and has heat vision, or is there nothing there, and Brainiac is using his mind to make Superman feel burnt where the heat vision hit him?

The effect for Brainiac’s mental exo-skeleton is well done, and an interesting physical use of his mental abilities.  While the whole Milton Fine angle feels very much like a copout after a storyline this long, the visual of that projected force-field cracking as Superman creates doubt in Brainiac’s mind is a good visual. The final big punchout has real powerful appeal, and I always love a hilarious sound effect—this one predating the Mike Myers animated vehicle by a good five years or so.

[Max: I thought it was gonna say "AUSTIN POWERS!" until I remembered that's not animated.]

SPEEDING BULLETS:

• Given how effective Lois’ dropkick is against Brainiac, I’m wondering how all of the New Gods could manage to be taken out so easily when Brainiac escaped. [Max: Dropkicko, the New Gods' dropkick master, was out sick that day.]

• Interesting note that the body in Superman’s tomb started out unintentionally.  But I can’t help thinking Brainiac revealing that it was indeed all a hoax only helps Superman.  

• This is such a weird story.  This is the same Brainiac who, in "Panic in the Sky!", took out Almerac on his own, took the fight to the entire Justice League.  We’re to believe that he’s even more powerful now, and we’re still seeing scenes with Dan Turpin having a gun trained on him and there being talk of him going down to the station house to sort this all out.  It just seems so rinky-dink in scale.  They do offer the excuse that Brainiac is enjoying the game, I suppose, but it just feels so odd.

• Superman complaining that everyone is “trying to do their version of ‘The Death of Superman’” is an interesting meta-joke.  And this is even before the Zack Snyder film series, or two abominable animation adaptations. [Max: I took it more as commentary on stuff like "Knightfall" (even though that was more a case of parallel thinking), "Emerald Twilight," and such, though what it actually reminded me of is, well, this storyline and "Death of Clark Kent"...]

• While I maintain that this is an incredibly disappointing ending to a long build-up, I suppose it does make a sort of sense—Brainiac’s body is indeed a re-engineered version of Milton Fine, certainly his brain, so there’s at least something to the idea it might revert to that persona in a time of defeat. So that, along with Emil Hamilton’s hand-waving almost works.  But man, this is a weird one.

• Still one more use of the pejorative “vegetable” to refer to someone in a coma, this time from Lois Lane. [Max: Which is especially dickish of Lois, considering her mom was comatose for a while...]

Missed an issue? Looking for an old storyline? Check out our chronological issue index!

This newsletter is free and always will be, but if you'd like to support us with $1 a month or more, you'll get access to extra articles about non-continuity '90s Superman stuff (shows, video games, Elseworlds, etc) and cool giveaways. Click here to become a paid SUPporter!