Superman #25 (December 1988)
Superman #25 (December 1988)
SUPERMAN MURDERS LOIS LANE in a dream sequence caused by Brainiac. So he doesn’t really murder anyone in this issue, sorry. I just really like using cheap ways to get your attention.
In Adventures #447 Lex Luthor had his doctors remove that pesky tumor in Brainiac’s brain, thus saving his life and expanding his mind powers, but also putting some devices in Brainiac’s head that will force him to obey Luthor’s orders or burn to death. Luthor’s first order for Brainiac, naturally, is “let’s fuck with Superman.” Next we see Clark Kent waking up from a little desk nap at the Daily Planet, at which point Luthor shows up and exposes Clark as Superman. Clark goes berserk and murders Luthor and his goons… and then wakes up in his desk again. Clark is like “Man, what a crazy dream” but then his co-workers start turning into Brainiac. Superman tries to kill Brainiac not once but twice, and in the process murders Alice the Intern and Lois. Then he wakes up in his desk again. You get the idea.
Bored of the dream cycle, Superman flies off into space yelling “NOOOOO!” only to realize he’s not dreaming this time, and has just exhausted his air. After falling back into Earth in the form of a meteorite, Superman finally realizes Brainiac must be behind all of this and goes after him. A big fight scene follows, which ends with Brainiac apparently triggering the device Luthor put in his head and burning himself alive (while Luthor watches in a monitor and yells “No! That shit was really expensive!”). Some weeks later, Luthor walks into his office and finds Brainiac sitting in his chair, very much alive. He faked his death via his mind powers and has since removed all the crap Luthor put in his brain, so now Brainiac has the upper hand. He tells Luthor not to worry, though, because they have the same objective (killing the Batman, presumably).
Character-Watch:
This is the debut of the all-new Luthor/Brainiac team, which is like 200 pounds heavier than the classic Luthor/Brainiac team. Seriously, it’s interesting to me that both of Superman’s biggest enemies have been rebooted into chubby middle-aged men in this new continuity:
Neither of them will keep the weight on for too long, though. Speaking of chubbiness, Alice the Intern graduates to cover status in this issue! She’s the one above who looks like an Alice the Intern. You can also see Whit the Possible Serial Killer peeking from behind Perry White, possibly brandishing a knife just out of sight.
Plotline-Watch:
What with all the killing going on in Superman’s dreams, accidental or otherwise, it’s pretty clear he’s still hung up on that “murdering Zod” thing from three issues ago. This is also the second issue that references the fact that Clark hasn’t been getting much sleep, and a co-worker asks him whether he’s leading a double life. #Foreshadowing!
I’m pretty sure that the whole “Luthor puts stuff in Brainiac’s brain” plot is just an excuse to get Brainy to sport those metal thingies in his head that the old version had. That’s the beginning of Brainiac’s slow evolution into his ultimate Poke-form.
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