Superman #34 (August 1989)
Superman #34 (August 1989)
Skyhook, the only Superman villain who is a hideous flying child abductor, is back! Finally.
Remember like twenty issues ago when Superman rescued Maggie Sawyer’s daughter Jamie from being turned into a winged freak by Skyhook, but then at the end of the issue we saw something weird growing on the girl’s arm? Well, apparently Jamie’s dad waited a little too long before he took her to a dermatologist, and as a result Jamie is now being studied in Project Cadmus along with all those other kids Skyhook transformed.
The nerds at Cadmus want to examine Jamie to see if they can find a cure for the winged kids, but Maggie won’t allow it. While Maggie is distracted arguing with her ex-husband, Jamie and another kid sneak out of Cadmus – they’ve been telepathically summoned by Skyhook, who’s been licking his wounds in the sewers since his defeat (all the pervs in Metropolis live in the sewers) but now he’s ready to make his child-abducting comeback.
Maggie and her ex try to follow the kids but end up losing track of them. Fortunately, Skyhook is pretty predictable and just ends up taking Jamie and the other boy to the same desecrated church where he had his hideout last time. Superman flies in to the rescue, but Skyhook actually gives him a pretty hard time, since he’s a supernatural being and Superman is allergic to magic. Eventually it’s Maggie’s ex who defeats Skyhook by tricking him into impaling himself on a convenient statue of St. Christopher holding a pointy cross.
Skyhook’s last thought was “Hmm, should have brought my glasses.”
As soon as Skyhook dies, all the winged kids revert back to normal and everyone’s happy and hugs.
Character-Watch:
In this issue we learn Skyhook’s origin: he was a Victorian-era doctor called Aleister Hook who kidnapped children because he just wanted to rid them from poverty and disease, but perhaps didn’t go about the best way to do that. When he was found out, the villagers chased him into an abandoned church where Hook prayed to God for help, somehow missing the big pentagram on the floor. As a result, Hook did get some help but not exactly from God: while the villagers burned down the church with him inside, a satanic voice turned him into Skyhook.
(We’ll later find out that the satanic voice didn’t belong to Satan himself, but to someone considerably sexier.)
Plotline-Watch:
Action #643 ended with Superman walking into his apartment to find “Clark Kent” in the middle of some debris. That was just that pesky shapeshifter Matrix, though, who accidentally caused an explosion by touching the Kryptonian relic Superman brought from space. In this issue Superman doesn’t seem majorly alarmed by what happened, but he tells Matrix to please go back to 1) Smallville, and 2) looking like a girl. Matrix is like “What? No. I’m Clark Kent.”
Meanwhile, Jimmy Olsen comments that he’s been feeling tired lately and hopes it’s not “a virus or something.” Spoilers: It’s an “or something.”
Maggie and her ex take a cab to the old church and the fare is $6.50, continuing the tradition. I forgot to mention that Lois Lane was coming out of a cab when she was attacked by Turmoil in Adventures #456, and it was also $6.50. I’ve failed you. Please accept my apologies.
WTF-Watch:
A while ago I got a message from reader cmwich where he commented that Maggie comes off like a terrible person in this issue. I thought it wasn’t that bad, but the characterization is definitely a bit off (no one had a grasp on writing Maggie like John Byrne). I’m sure she would have eventually let the Cadmus guys study Jamie to cure the other kids (right?), but it was weird to see her getting all flirty with her ex at the end of the issue after the whole, you know, “not letting her see her daughter for years on account of her lesbianism” thing.
I’m choosing to believe that “rose” comment was just a covert dig at him.
See comments on Tumblr: https://superman86to99.tumblr.com/post/78580558350/superman-34-august-1989-skyhook-the-only#disqus_thread
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