Adventures of Superman Annual #2 (1990)
Adventures of Superman Annual #2 (1990)
SUPERMAN VS. BRAINIAC… Junior. Brainiac’s son. Or Vril Dox II, as he calls himself. Vril inherited his father’s charming personality (he’s an asshole), but he’s actually a good guy, more or less: he’s the leader of L.E.G.I.O.N., an inter-planetary police force tasked with keeping the peace in the universe. And now he’s come to Earth to murder his dad.
Vril and another L.E.G.I.O.N. member, Lar Gand (from planet Daxam, kind of like distant cousins of the Kryptonians), crash into Earth in their spaceship and conveniently end up going through the ocean floor, thus coming across the secret subterranean base of Project Cadmus – a place Brainiac Sr. visited telepathically a while back. As a result, Cadmus’ resident telepath, Dubbilex, recognizes Vril’s thought patterns and thinks Brainiac is invading Cadmus again. Meanwhile, Superman comes across other L.E.G.I.O.N. members coming to Earth… including his old pal Lobo, who was so shitfaced the last time he fought Superman that he doesn’t even remember meeting him. After a fierce battle on Cadmus, Superman takes out L.E.G.I.O.N.’s two most powerful members (Lobo and Lar) by borrowing a move from Moe of the Three Stooges.
Now that the battle’s gone on for enough pages, the heroes clear up the confusion and Superman realizes Vril isn’t Brainiac. Just then, the real Brainiac (who was escaping Earth in his giant skull ship the last time we saw him) remotely takes over Dubbilex’s mind from space and makes him try to kill everyone on Cadmus, first by nearly causing a nuclear explosion and then by releasing the deformed Underworld mutants who live in the sewers around the Project. Once Superman and the L.E.G.I.O.N. have taken care of both threats, Brainiac taunts them (through Dubbilex) into coming to fight him in person at his and Vril’s home planet, Colu.
The story continues in L.E.G.I.O.N. ‘90 Annual #1, where Superman follows Vril and his pals to Colu just to make sure he doesn’t kill Brainiac, because of the sanctity of life and all that. Turns out Brainy had conquered the whole planet, but L.E.G.I.O.N. manages to overthrow him. Vril is about to publicly execute his dad when his own teammates stop him – as everyone argues, Brainiac once again sneaks away in his skull ship, and Superman doesn’t have time to stop him because Lobo decides this would be a great time for a rematch. So, a clusterfuck all around, then.
Character-Watch:
Vril is sort of like a middle point between his supervillain dad and his heroic 30th century descendant, Brainiac 5, whom Superman met a while ago. Vril first appeared during the Invasion! crossover: it’s explained that when Brainiac lived in Colu and worked for the machine overlords who ruled the planet, he cloned an adult son for himself but only so he could force him to work as his lab assistant. Then the machine overlords got bored of Brainiac and disintegrated his body (but not his mind, which traveled to Earth and took over a circus magician), and sent his “son” away to an alien prison. That’s where Vril hooked up with other prisoners from various space races and organized a break out, then stayed together as a team of unlikely space heroes who will guard the gala… hey, wait a fraggin’ minute.
Huh.
Plotline-Watch:
First appearance of the Underworlders! They are the result of Dabney Donovan’s deranged genetic experiments before he resigned from Cadmus (via faking his death). They barely spoke in this issue, but they’ll become more important later: you might even remember those ugly freaks from the first level of the Death and Return of Superman SNES game (which is the only level I saw, because I sucked at that game).
It’s mentioned in this issue that Superman had previously fought other people from planet Daxam, including Lar Gand’s dad, during the Invasion! series – the Daxamites later realized they were being jerks by helping invade the Earth, and Lar’s dad sacrificed himself to save the planet. Also, in the old continuity Lar was called Mon-El because Superboy once mistook him for his older brother. Then Lar/Mon got lead poisoning and Superboy trapped him in the Phantom Zone for a thousand years to cure him. The old continuity was silly.
There’s a short scene with Lois Lane at the Planet which seems specifically designed to let us know that this story is chronologically set before the “Dark Knight Over Metropolis” storyline: she has her old hairdo, the relationship with Clark appears less advanced, and she even mentions she’s covering Morgan Edge’s trial. The only problem is that Jimmy Olsen also shows up and seems friendly with Clark: weren’t they on non-speaking terms at that point? Dammit, Jimmy. You always have to ruin everything.
Creator-Watch:
This issue is a historical rarity, since it includes the only collaboration between the best known Superman artists of three eras: it’s written by Dan Jurgens ('90s) and one of the three chapters is drawn by Curt Swan ('50s-'60s) and inked by John Byrne ('80s). The result isn’t all that impressive to my taste, but still, historic!
WTF-Watch:
Here’s Lobo drinking alone in his room and reciting a poem he wrote for his dolphins.
You’re welcome.