Superman #35 (September 1989)
Superman #35 (September 1989)
Two stories for the price of one! Neither of them features Superman, though: one is about Brainiac and the other about Morgan Edge, and they both spend the entire issue laying on their backs with their eyes closed. That is what you might call an experimental issue.
The Brainiac Story:
Brainy is still plugged to that new LexCorp lab in the mountains (as seen in Superman #33), where Luthor’s doctors are keeping him sedated in order to explore his mind powers with computers. Doctors Happersen and Kelley note that Brainiac’s brain activity is increasing, and then we see the crazy shit he’s dreaming: First, Brainiac finds himself in a Tron-like landscape where a giant metallic head with tentacles (whom Brainiac instantly recognizes as Luthor) grabs him and eats him.
How does that even remotely resemble Luthor? Besides the appetite. Other wacky stuff Brainiac dreams about:
Running into Superman, turning him tiny and trapping him in a bird cage.
Tearing away his own skin and revealing his real green face underneath (also, his blond ponytail).
Growing giant and putting the entire city of Metropolis inside a glass bottle, then tossing that bottle all the way to Antarctica.
This dream is so intense that it actually pushes Brainiac’s mind out of his body (or the human body he stole twenty issues ago, to be more precise), which makes Happersen and Kelley freak out thinking that he’s dead. Brainiac returns to his body, but has now gained the ability to wander psychically through the lab completely undetected, a power he will presumably be using to watch Happersen poop.
The Morgan Edge Story:
After being exposed as the leader of Intergang and having a heart attack in Adventures #456, Edge ended up in the hospital and in critical condition. Two doctors watch over him, but one of them is secretly a hitman sent by Intergang’s second in command, “Ugly” Mannheim, to kill Edge before he can be interrogated by the cops. Meanwhile, Edge has an out-of-body experience where he meets several cosmic deities: Metron of the New Gods, the ski-riding death incarnation known as The Black Racer, and finally, Edge’s lifelong master, Darkseid. Of course, as we found out on his last appearance, that’s not the real Darkseid but a mere imitation created by Darkseid’s sadistic lackey Desaad, who has been manipulating Edge for decades just to create random chaos.
Edge’s disappointed spirit returns to his body just as the hitman is about to kill him, but then The Black Racer swoops by and kills the hitman. Close call, Morgan.
Character-Watch:
Lots of minor characters running around, just in case you’d forgotten this comic is written by Jerry Ordway. Among them:
Dr. Gretchen Kelley, Luthor’s physician. Kelly reminds her colleague Dr. Happersen that he ended up in this shit job (someone has to change Brainiac’s bedpan) because of his part in the Jose Delgado fiasco that cost Luthor a million-dollar armor. As for Kelley herself, she mysteriously says she also “knows why she’s here” – we’ll find out more about her backstory with Luthor in the future.
Vinnie Edge, Morgan’s dad, technically has his first appearance here (he was mentioned in Adventures #450). Desaad tortures Morgan by making him relive the day when he was a kid and his dad “accidentally” pushed his mom under a bus. Morgan grew up to take over Vinnie’s broadcasting company and the first thing he did was kick the old guy out. Vinnie and his fresh hands will be back.
And here’s an ultra-obscure connection: at the end of the issue, the Black Racer returns to his human body, a paraplegic man named Willie Johnson who lives in Metropolis’ Suicide Slum (as seen in Jack Kirby’s Fourth World comics in the ‘70s). Just at that moment, Willie is visited by his cousin Tammy Brown – who happens to be Jerry White’s girlfriend, and thus Superman’s editor’s daughter-in-law. (She had previously appeared for like one panel, which is why I hadn’t mentioned her.)
WTF-Watch:
Did I mention the Black Racer is a ski-riding death incarnation? Because he is.
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