Justice League America #66 & Annual #6 (September 1992)
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Justice League America #66 & Annual #6 (September 1992)
Superman is forced to fight other superheroes in two unconnected stories that came out within a month of each other! What is this, Marvel Comics?
JLA Annual #6 is part of the "Eclipso: The Darkness Within" crossover that invaded all of DC's annuals in 1992 (we'll see the Superman ones soon). The premise is that a formerly C-list villain, Eclipso, realizes he could have been taking over the bodies of superheroes this whole time, so he starts doing that. Since this is a big cosmic crisis and all, the League gets some help from other heavy hitters, like Wonder Woman and, uh, Metamorpho. Naturally, the female members of the League are jealous when they see Superman hanging out with his old flame (Wondy, not ‘Morpho).
Maxima hates Wonder Woman so much that she actually storms off, allowing Eclipso to find her and take over her body (causing a big moon tattoo to appear on her face). The eclipsed Maxima, in turn, uses her psychic powers to take control of Wonder Woman and Booster Gold, so everyone just starts punching each other. Oh, and it turns out Metamorpho was possessed all along and no one noticed because his face is already ugly. Meanwhile, Fire's butt.
Fig. 2: Fire's butt.
Blue Beetle singlehandedly manages to defeat Eclipsmorpho while it somehow takes the entire rest of the League to contain Maxiclipso, but the baddies still escape, because there are still like 20 annuals left in this crossover.
Meanwhile, in JLA #66, Guy Gardner (who quit on #63 and got fired from the Green Lantern Corps) comes back to show off his new look/powers, and of course it all degenerates into a big fight scene. Batman, who happens to be visiting the JL headquarters that day, tells Superman he should just punch Gardner to keep him in line (hey, worked out for him), but Supes refuses to sink to Guy's level – even when Guy literally pushes him to that level, which is underwater. Eventually, Superman's method works out and Guy peacefully rejoins the League, at which point Batman tries to pretend it was all his idea.
Who the Heck is Bloodwynd-Watch:
In these issues, the mysterious Bloodwynd manages to "sense" that there's something off about Metamorpho, as if he could read minds, and then he "senses" an intruder in the JL headquarters, as if he could… uh, read minds, again. WHO ARE YOU, DAMMIT?!
Romance-Watch:
OK, at this point, it's painfully obvious that Superman knows Ice has a huge crush on him but he's just messing with her. That's cold, man.
Also, Booster Gold tries to hit on Wonder Woman, but she Perfectly Shut Him Down And You Won't Believe What Happened Next!
(He pooped himself, probably.)
Plotline-Watch:
What happened with that whole thing about Superman arresting Maxima for murdering someone in her "first appearance"? In this issue he actually accompanies her to a courthouse to help her explain that it wasn't her who killed that guy: it was a duplicate controlled by her three-eyed servant, Sazu! Everyone agrees that this is a good explanation that makes sense and the matter shouldn't be brought up again.
Guy's dramatic return to the League is somewhat diminished by the fact that he’d just shown up in the annual, even though he wasn't a League member or even a Green Lantern at that point (it's explained that he was temporarily re-recruited because the other GL, Hal Jordan, had been eclipsed). It's a weird choice, because he's not essential to the plot of the annual or anything. I have a theory that the artist just drew him there and Dan Jurgens had to improvise an explanation.
The guy who snuck into the JL HQ in past issues is revealed to be The Atom, who was a member of the original team and wanted to check out this new League. His generally impression of the team is "what a bunch of bozos," which is actually gonna fuel a huge storyline later on.
Speaking of huge storylines later on…
I haven't read that story in a while, but yes, I believe that's exactly how it happens.