Super Titles Round-Up (June 1994)
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Super Titles Round-Up (June 1994)
This month: Superboy fights Silver Sword (and the Clone Plague)! Steel fights his nephew! Brimstone fights alcoholism!
Superboy #5 (June 1994)
Introducing Silver “Don’t Call Me Surfer” Sword. Superboy #4 ended with the Kid collapsing in his kitchen from the deadly virus that’s running through the Superman books. In this issue, his friends take him to a Navy base so he can be transported to Project Cadmus in Metropolis, where they’ll hopefully cure him. It’s there that Dubbilex informs them there is no cure. Which sucks, but hey, at least the Kid gets his first consensual kiss out of it (courtesy of Tana Moon).
Rex Leech’s tactful reaction is “There goes the best meal ticket we ever had, Roxy,” but Roxy herself seems genuinely heartbroken about Superboy’s likely death (and/or that kiss).
Anyway, the Navy can’t send Superboy to Cadmus right away because they’re bombing an island as part of some tests, but the tests are interrupted by a flying guy covered in silver metal. This is actually Dr. Kaua, the guy who got mad at Superboy for misplacing a magical spear in Superboy #3 because he wanted to use it to become Hawaii’s first native superhero. Kaua later got his wish when he stumbled upon a mysterious receptacle that blew up on his face and bonded him with some sort of alien metal that gave him powers. He’s now using those powers to get back at the Navy for bombing his beloved islands and the goats who live there.
Dubbilex thinks Superboy should sit this one out, given the whole “You’re currently dying” thing, but of course he doesn’t listen.
After a fierce fight, Superboy manages to knock Kaua out right before collapsing (again). Kaua, or Silver Sword as the Navy nicknames him, is locked up in a secret government base full of scientists who can’t wait to cut him open, but Superboy’s example inspires him to keep resisting them. The issue ends with Superboy and Dubbilex finally reaching Metropolis, only to find the city turned into a war zone, which leads right into Man of Steel #34.
Steel #5 (June 1994)
Steel’s nephew Jemahl finds out that his gang members “friends” were the ones who shot a little kid, ran over his sister Natasha (she’s okay, other than her leg), mugged his mom in an alley, and now plan to take out his grandma. Jem takes some of that Tar drug the gangsters have been using to become superhumanly jacked and intends to kill the leader of the gang, but he ends up fighting his disappointed uncle instead.
(Side note: This issue’s cover should have been a remake of the Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 one, but with a muscular Jemahl instead of Speedy the smackhead.)
Steel has to contain Mega-Jemahl until the drug wears off and the kid collapses. During the fight, John Henry learns that all the hits on his family aren’t just an unfortunate coincidence: they were actually orchestrated by his old boss/mentor, the Colonel. As he holds Jemahl’s body in a Pieta-like pose (lots of that going around these days), John swears that he’s taking the Colonel down. Permanently.
This issue also features a seemingly non-sequitur appearance by Fred Bentson, that weird mailman guy we met in Man of Steel #34. Fred is dutifully driving his mail truck across war-torn Metropolis when a bomb goes off and causes him to hit head on the wheel. Suddenly, he finds himself in a completely different city called Dakota, where he’s immediately hit by a truck and grabbed by some sort of shadow demon. Just as suddenly, Fred is back on Metropolis, getting saved from that explosion by Superman… who looks weirdly cheerful for someone who is currently watching the city he loves get blown to pieces (see Superman #90).
Incidentally, someone who looks just like Bentson also shows up in Milestone Comics’ Hardware #16, which came out this same month and is set in a city called Dakota. What a curious coincidence.
The Ray #2 (June 1994)
Part 2 of the Superboy team-up, this time featuring some actual teaming up. Last issue, we left Superboy unconscious and Ray about to be smashed by that burning mountain man called Brimstone. Luckily, Brimstone suddenly decides to ditch the fight and go for a beer; apparently, a “defect” in his programming has turned him into a gigantic frat bro. Once he’s alone, Ray feels bad about apparently killing Superboy and buries him under some rocks, but as we’ve established by now, nothing can keep that kid down.
At this point, DC’s most prominent jacket-wearing, earring-sporting superheroes actually bond for a bit…
…before going off to prevent Brimstone from emptying every brewery in Hawaii. They come up with a plan to turn Brimstone off by dumping liquid nitrogen on him, but Superboy gets confused and accidentally douses the villain with a truck-load of orange juice, leading to the moment depicted in the cover in which Brimstone eats Ray. Superboy gets it right on his second attempt and Brimstone is neutralized before his fiery insides can digest Ray, but by now the teen heroes are back to arguing like a couple of, well, teens.
Gotta admit Superboy and Ray are a pretty fun pair in this issue. Can’t wait for them to meet again in like 8 years, when Ray joins Young Justice!
Showcase ‘94 #6 (June 1994)
One of the stories in this issue is written by Karl Kesel and stars Sparx, the girl with lightning powers from Superboy’s “Bloodlines” annual. Sparx’s family disapproves of her decision to become a superhero, so she left them and went looking for an aunt who is also estranged from the clan. The most interesting parts of the issue are: 1) Sparx continuing to display powers that Superman will eventually gain when Kesel turns him electric (like intangibility), and 2) Captain Boomerang referring to the Flash as a “red wanker”.
At one point, Boomerang manages to knock Sparx out, causing her to revert to her girl form. Upon noticing that she’s “a young one,” Boomerang creepily says: “Could be ol’ Boomer’ll get some pleasure out of the evenin’ yet–!” The aunt then turns into a spider-like creature and almost kills Boomerang, but Sparx zaps her with energy to stop her. Sparx is like “Wait, you tried to kill that pervert who attacked me? This must mean you really are evil like the family says and also killed your husbands!”, so they part ways. Sparx and her family will appear again in the future, but I don’t think the aunt ever will. Good for her, they don’t deserve her.