Superman #16 (April 1988)
Superman #16 (April 1988)
Superman versus The Prankster, a villain whose modus operandi is attacking people with practical jokes. I’m not sure why we needed this guy when we already had the actual Joker a few issues ago, but whatever.
The Prankster (Oswald Loomis) is a famous kids show host, like Mr. Rogers but more psychotic (or Pee-Wee Herman but less psychotic). When his show is about to be cancelled to make way for Smurfs and He-Man knockoff cartoons, he goes crazy and kidnaps Lois Lane, because that’s what everyone does in Metropolis when they get fired. The Prankster creates chaos in Metropolis by raining soap onto the streets, filling the subway tunnels with pop corn and other unlikely gags, until Superman tracks him down to his TV studio and… he gives in. The whole thing was a publicity stunt to increase his popularity. He still gets thrown in jail, of course.
Character-Watch:
The Prankster is actually the least interesting character introduced in this issue. We also have:
Morgan Edge, the president of Galaxy Broadcasting System (GBS), the network that fires Loomis. At first he looks like a normal TV executive who thinks Superman is a super-menace, but then we see him casually shooting the shit with his satanic lord and master, Darkseid, and talking about a plan. Yeah, we’re gonna hear more about this guy soon.
Pete Shoemaker, a hobo friend of Jimmy Olsen who seems surprisingly upbeat despite the whole being a hobo thing. His will be a tragic but long reaching story.
And on the very last page, a team of researchers in the arctic comes across a chunk of ice containing a certain blonde lady dressed in a Superman costume. Yep, this is the first appearance of the modern age Supergirl, who isn’t what she looks like but will become an important character nonetheless.
Plotline-Watch:
We see Jimmy Olsen’s mysterious mother again, and this time we actually catch a glimpse of the side of her face! Jimmy thinks about finding her a boyfriend, since his dad is no longer around (we’ll get the full story eventually). And speaking of minor characters only I care about, Alice the intern is the only person at the Daily Planet offices after one of The Prankster’s pranks disrupts everyone’s alarm clocks. Why wasn’t she affected? What, does she live there? Yes she does (but we’ll find that out much later).
WTF-Watch:
At the end of the issue The Prankster breaks out of jail, and…
I hope he did that with his mouth.
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