Superman #44 (June 1990)
Superman #44 (June 1990)
“Dark Knight Over Metropolis,” Part 1! Superman and Batman work together for the first time ever! Except for all those other times they worked together which don’t count anymore.
As mentioned over and over in previous issues, Intergang (the “international” crime organization that seems to exist only in Metropolis) hates Daily Planet columnist Cat Grant for sleeping and then subsequently betraying their former boss, Morgan Edge. Rather than just killing her, though, they decide it would be smarter to brainwash Cat before she can testify against Edge at his trial… and then they’ll kill her, probably. The issue starts with Cat, her son Adam and new bodyguard Jose “Gangbuster” Delgado coming out of a movie theater and cutting through a dark alley, always a smart choice in a comic book featuring Batman. Cat is almost kidnapped by an Intergang operative called Blindspot (who is invisible), but Jose defeats him using pop corn.
Superman watched the whole situation from the shadows, by the way, but let Jose deal with it because he felt bad about stealing Jose’s thunder the other day (so, uh, good thing no one died, I guess).
Meanwhile, in Gotham City, Batman finds a radioactive ring while going through the belongings of a hobo who just died, which is apparently a thing Batman does.
Since the hobo was just in Metropolis, and Bruce Wayne was invited to an awards dinner sponsored by Lex Luthor in the same city, Batman/Bruce decides to attend so he can find out where the radioactive ring came from. Out of professional courtesy, he also decides to let Superman know he’ll be in his city. So, we see Batman hanging around Clark Kent’s apartment and… TO BE CONTINUED!
(Yes, Supes and Batman don’t actually appear together in this issue. The cover is a LIE.)
Character-Watch:
A few character curiosities: Blindspot, despite being defeated by a bag of pop corn, will actually appear again, though I can’t remember if he somehow got Intergang to re-hire him or if he was on his own. The last time we see him in this issue he’s being arrested by a police detective named Slam Bradley, who is actually an old DC Comics character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (you may have heard of them). And I mean old – Slam predates Superman by a year and Batman by two, having appeared in Detective Comics #1. Looks great for his age, though.
After Blindspot screws up, Intergang’s Mannheim and Gillespie hire two more superpowered goons called Chiller and Shockwave to kidnap Cat. These aren’t just generic villains made up for this issue: they’re both old Booster Gold enemies who previously worked for another Metropolis-only criminal organization called The 1000. We’ll see Chiller and Shockwave in action in the next issue of Adventures, by Booster’s creator Dan Jurgens.
Plotline-Watch:
Batman knows Clark Kent is Superman because he deduced it by using his tremendous intellect back in Adventures #440. Superman then deduced Batman is Bruce Wayne by using his X-Ray vision.
The dinner Wayne was invited to is the Zenith Awards Banquet for Integrity in Journalism, best known as “The Baldy Awards” because Luthor hosts it. Cat Grant is invited, so naturally that’s when Intergang is planning to snatch her up.
Speaking of Lex, he only now realizes his kryptonite ring has been stolen, as we saw in Action #653. And a green radioactive ring just showed up in a hobo’s possession? Hmmm.
And speaking of k-metal, Professor Hamilton shows up in this issue just to explain what was up with that non-radioactive kryptonite from Superman #43: it’s a byproduct of that time the Eradicator tried to turn the Earth into Krypton 2.0 a few months ago. After the Eradicator was defeated, the kryptonite reverted into normal rocks. I promise this is the last time I say “Eradicator” for a while.
I lied! All this Eradicator talk makes Superman remember his Fortress of Solitude, which was half-destroyed during the final Eradicator showdown in Action #652. He fixes the statue of his Kryptonian parents holding a planet, but probably shouldn’t have bothered since that thing is just gonna keep falling over and over in the coming years. In fact, I should keep track of that. Fortress Destruction Count: 1.
And finally, the Clark Kent/Lois Lane relationship is getting hot and heavy. They’re attending the Baldy awards dinner together, so we see Lois arriving at Clark’s apartment (the cab is $6.50) and the doorman recognizes her, though it’s not clear if that’s because he reads her column or because she’s been spending a lot of nights there. I think it’s the latter, since we then get a scene where Lois is talking about taking showers together:
Meanwhile, Batman watches them from a rooftop and thinks about that one time he almost made out with Catwoman.
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