Superman #23 (November 1988)
Superman #23 (November 1988)
MIKE MIGNOLA IS BACK! Oh, and so is Silver Banshee. The tug of war in this cover never actually happens in the issue, but that’s fine. I forgive you, Mike Mignola. C-Can I smell your hair? Just for a while.
Back in Superman #21, Jimmy convinced Perry White to let him go to Ireland to investigate the case of the skull-faced lady with the death-scream, Silver Banshee. Perry forces Lois to come with Jimmy, just to mess with her. Lois and Jimmy arrive at the millennary McDougal Castle and learn Banshee’s origin from her shady relatives: She was once Siobhan McDougal, the rightful leader of the clan, a title that he family denied her due to the fact that she has boobs and a vagina. Siobhan tried to perform the leadership ritual anyway, but her knucklehead brother Bevan interrupted her and as a result the girl got sucked up into hell. Or something. Ireland’s version of hell, I guess.
Siobhan then got a chance to return to the land of the living, but as Silver Banshee and with the mission to retrieve a mystical book if she ever wanted to break her curse (that’s the book she was looking for in Action #595 and Superman #17). The book ends up in Superman’s hands and by reading it he finds out Lois and Jimmy have been trapped by the McDougals – yes, the magical book is updated with new events every minute, like Justin Bieber’s Wikipedia page. So, Superman goes to the castle, fights Silver Banshee for a while, and then an ancient spirit shows up to banish Banshee and her family to Irish hell for all eternity. Another happy ending!
Character-Watch:
“For all eternity” in Silver Banshee’s case meant until the Legends of the World’s Finest Superman/Batman miniseries in the mid-90’s. She still pops up in Superman and Supergirl comics from time to time.
Plotline-Watch;
Superman Hates Batman: Speaking of Batman, Superman got ahold of that magic book because Batman found it Gotham and gave it to him. Does this mean they’ll get along now? Nope: Superman thinks the whole thing is a ruse by Batman at first, and Batman gets kinda jumpy with him, too. Oh, those two. Just make out already.
The Irish spirit (who looks like an old lady) makes references to the growing darkness in Superman’s soul after he killed those Kryptonian criminals last issue. I’m sure that’ll go away on its own if you eat right and exercise, Supes.
Creator-Watch:
This is Roger Stern’s first issue as regular Superman writer, though he’s in “clean up Byrne’s loose plotlines” mode right now. Unfortunately, Mike Mignola won’t stick around as main artist, but I’m a big fan of the guy who replaced him, too.
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