Superman #45 (July 1990)
Superman #45 (July 1990)
Superman versus a giant fire dog coming out of an old man’s hair! Don’t worry, though: the old man summoned it, so his hair is impervious to fire. He’ll be fine.
Said old man is a Shaman of the Oto Tribe performing a ritual near Smallville, where Superman happens to be visiting his parents. Since Superman was behaving like some sort of, well, alien from planet Krypton the last time Ma and Pa Kent saw him (in Action #652), they’re glad to see that’s back to his old jokester self.
Meanwhile, a bunch of young Oto tribe members have kidnapped Smallville’s county agent (Superman’s childhood friend, Pete Ross) because their reservation is about to be turned into a mining operation. Superman eventually arrives to save Pete, but the Otos have a superpowered being on their side too: the old Shaman with the fire dog-creating powers. Naturally, Superman must fight the fire dog for a while (because otherwise anyone who bought the comic on account of the cover would feel cheated), but soon enough the Shaman says his fight isn’t with Superman, whom he sends away with a Jedi mind trick.
Now unopposed, the Shaman (turns out his name is Firewolf, which sounds like a Tom Cruise movie) goes into Pete’s office to tell him to leave the reservation alone, only to find out that’s exactly what Pete was trying to do. Turns out the young Otos didn’t want to stop the mine, they wanted to get a piece of the profits. One of them even tries to shoot Firewolf, but the bullet magically goes through him and hits the shooter’s friend. The Shaman cures the guy’s bullet wound with some leaves, and upon being informed that the Otos have actually voted to allow the mining operation (as long as they’re treated fairly), he’s like “OK, screw you then” and disappears in a puff of fire, never to be seen again.
Aw, poor Shaman Firewolf. With a name like that, he deserved his own series.
Bonus Story!
This issue includes 8 extra pages for no extra price, which is pretty awesome, but made slightly less awesome because it’s 8 pages of Jimmy Olsen (more specifically, from his diary). Jimmy covers events like Superman’s first public appearance (Man of Steel #1), the time Jimmy saved a classmate by turning his watch into a Superman-calling device (World of Metropolis #4), or the time he saved Superman himself by almost singlehandedly defeating Bloodsport (Superman #4). Unfortunately, the awesome Jimmy who did those things gets replaced in the last pages of the diary by whiny Superman-hating Jimmy, who simply recounts what’s been happening to him in recent issues.
Plotline-Watch:
The real reason Superman came to Smallville was to tell his parents that he’s getting serious with Lois Lane, but they insist that he also tell his best friend/stalker Lana Lang (whom he was a big jerk to in Superman #41). That goes well.
At the end of the issue they both apologize and Lana says she’s finally over him. And she means it! We get a little hint of where her life is heading when she kisses Pete Ross on the cheek after seeing that he didn’t get murdered by magic Indians. Other plots.
Jimmy’s mom seemed fine (if you know what I mean) when he rescued her from the Evil Factory in Superman #43, but now she’s suddenly gone catatonic as a delayed reaction to the utter insanity that was that plotline. Predictably, this makes Jimmy even more angsty than he’s been lately.
As Jimmy leaves the hospital he runs into Jerry White arguing with his girlfriend Tammy, because Jerry is working at a satanic night club made from an old desecrated church (sound familiar?). Jimmy’s like “hey, that sounds cool” and gets some free tickets for the club from Jerry. The place is called “Blaze’s”. Nothing ominous here.
As he flies over Smallville, Superman thinks about the “old Simonson quarry” where he used to play as a kid. This blog is the foremost authority on the Internet about Smallville’s Simonson Limestone Quarry, since we’re the first ones to point out that Superman fights people there in both Superman #8 and Action #644… and that it’s mentioned in this issue. You should feel honored to be reading these lines.
And finally, an important moment in Superman history: Lois Lane gets a new haircut! The new hairstyle actually debuts next issue (we only see Lois being indecisive at the hair salon in this one), but it will be the way she wears her hair for the rest of the ‘90s.
WTF-Watch:
I’ve always loved the interaction between Superman and his parents in this issue (especially the part where Superman hides in the barn because he’s sad that Lana slapped him and Pa Kent talks to him), but I never noticed this: Ma Kent apparently isn’t a big fan of Lois Lane.
Look at the contempt in her face. She’s like “Her? Meh. That’ll never last.”