Superman #43 (May 1990)
Superman #43 (May 1990)
After having a metaphorical confrontation against himself in the recently ended “Day of the Krypton Man” storyline, Superman must now do the same thing but in a literal sense. What I mean is he fights a guy who looks just like him… only green, and with less clothes. I don’t understand how they didn’t call this story “Day of the KRYPTONITE Man.”
It goes without saying that this is all freakin’ Jimmy Olsen’s fault. Back in Superman #40, Superman fought a villain called the Four-Armed Terror (who is exactly what he sounds like) that was sent to collect samples of Superman’s blood. Now we find out why: the guys at The Evil Factory (which is exactly what it sounds like) want to make a clone of Superman. So they do, but due to the radiation given off by a nearby kryptonite meteor, the clone’s skin turns green. The Evil Factory’s owners, Simyan and Mokkari, aren’t majorly bothered by this and send the Kryptonite Man to Metropolis to kill his “daddy” (that’s Superman).
Meanwhile, Jimmy Olsen and the Guardian are closing in on the Evil Factory, where Jimmy’s mom happens to be a hostage. Mokkari and Simyan try to use their winged lions, killer cavemen and a giant sea snake called Trevor (as seen in the cover) to ward off the Guardian’s flying, missile-shooting vehicle, but none of those things seem to be working. So, in a panic, they teleport the Kryptonite Man back to the Evil Factory to sic him on Jimmy and Guardian… only to end up bringing Superman instead and disintegrating poor K-Man in the process.
Just when it looks like things couldn’t get worse for Mokkari and Simyan, Jimmy’s mom breaks out of her prison, and it turns out she’s a giant.
…a giant relative to Simyan and Mokkari, anyway, because they were fun-sized all along and we didn’t realize it until now. Mrs. Olsen uses a disintegrator ray on her captors, and then Jimmy manages to take her out of the Evil Factory right before the whole place explodes.
The last thing we see is Mokkari and Simyan in the white void where all the crap they disintegrated ends up (as seen in Superman #39). They’re about to be attacked by some of their failed experiments, but then a familiar figure comes to the rescue:
Character-Watch:
Mokkari and Simyan will be back in a couple of years in a plot connected to the limbo dimension they ended up in, but, to the best of my recollection, the Kryptonite Man doesn’t appear again. That makes sense, since according to past and future issues, Superman’s kryptonian DNA can’t be replicated without the clone eventually turning into a hideous Bizarro and then dying. Hey, maybe he wasn’t green because of the kryptonite: he was just defective.
Speaking of which, what was up with all that kryptonite near the Evil Factory? Why did it suddenly stop working on Superman? We’ll find out in future issues! (And I’m including myself there, because I don’t remember.)
Plotline-Watch:
That’s the end of the saga of Jimmy’s missing parents, which began exactly 24 issues ago, in Superman #19, when Mrs. Olsen saw a photo of her supposedly dead husband and went off to look for him. It turned out the guy on the photo was a clone of Jimmy’s dad created by the Evil Factory, who are obsessed with the Olsen family for some unfathomable reason. But now she’s back home again, and we know the truth about what Jimmy’s dad is: he’s dead.
This is, however, NOT the end of the “Jimmy hates Superman” plot: he even tells Supes to “butt out” when he shows up to help.
Oh, right, almost forgot to mention: the issue opens with Superman fixing the Statue of Liberty, which he accidentally split in half and left on the moon. It’s a long story.
The Misadventures of Jose Delgado: Jerry White stops by Jose’s apartment to complain about his girlfriend, only to find out Jose doesn’t have an apartment anymore. All his stuff is literally on the street. Thankfully, he just got a job offer to work as the bodyguard of a certain gossip columnist and her brat son. I’m sure that won’t lead to more trouble for Jose!
And I’ve saved the single biggest development in this issue for last: Clark Kent is back at the Daily Planet (as a freelancer, for now), which leads to an awkward encounter with Lois Lane, since Clark was a huge jerk to her (while being mind-controlled by the Eradicator). Lois is mad, of course. Here we go again, brace yourselves for another 20-issue plot until Lois forgi-
Huh. How about that.
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