Superman #51 (January 1991)
Superman #51 (January 1991)
Superman gets trapped inside a diamond in his rematch against Mr. Z! What’s that? You can’t remember Superman’s first fight with Mr. Z? Well, neither can Superman, because it hasn’t happened yet.
This mysterious Z guy is shown arriving on Metropolis’ airport and using a Jedi Mind Trick to get out of having his bag inspected (I’m assuming the thing is just filled with pornography). Z then takes a nice stroll down Metropolis, where some hoodlums try to steal his pimpin’ gem-encrusted cane. Z deals with them by using a Darth Vader Force choke, like so:
(Poor Jerry White, he keeps getting killed.)
So far everything indicates that Mr. Z is either a Sith or, based on his name, Mr. Mxyzptlk’s younger brother, but no: he’s just immortal, and I guess you learn strange tricks when you’re super old. Later, Z mentally contacts Superman to tell him he’ll be at the Museum of Modern History, in case he’s interested in “meeting again.” Superman has no idea who the guy is (“Did Brainiac gain all that weight back already?”), but he goes anyway. Z has hypnotized the Museum’s guard and had him kick everyone out so that Superman and him could have some privacy.
Superman ends up in a dark auditorium, where Z projects images from World War II and insists they met there – which is impossible, since Superman was just a sperm cell swimming inside his dad’s test tube back then. Z insists it’s true, then sucks Superman into his cane jewel. FOREVER.
Turns out there’s a whole bunch of people from different eras living inside Z’s soul gem, all wearing period-specific clothes. Superman’s new roommates for all eternity seem nice enough, except a xenophobic Russian who starts yelling at Superman for being an alien. Superman admits he’s from planet Krypton, and when he says that word the entire gem-world starts trembling. Julius Ceasar (or maybe a guy who played Julius Ceasar in a TV miniseries that Z was a big fan of) points out that perhaps the gem’s magic on works on Earthlings. Superman tests out that theory by speaking on Kryptonese, which causes the gem to break, freeing all the trapped souls.
The gem’s explosion pushes Z into a mannequin of a WWI soldier holding a bayonet, which stabs Z through the chest, killing him. Superman goes “Huh, guess he wasn’t immortal after all,” collects the broken gem pieces and flies away. Obviously, the issue ends with Z letting himself out of the morgue and going back to the airport, very much alive.
Character-Watch:
Despite Mr. Z’s claims, this actually is his first appearance. We’ll find out how he could know Superman soon enough. By the way, I was only half-joking with the Brainiac reference, since he does remind me a lot of the original 1950’s Brainiac: besides the mind powers, there’s the fact that they both collect miniaturized people behind glass (Brainiac in his bottled cities, Z in his magic gem). Also, they’re both jerks.
I have a soft spot for this guy, not just because this was one of the first comics I read but because of where his character arc leads him in the upcoming “Blackout!” storyline. They didn’t do anything with the character after that, but they didn’t need to because “Blackout!” is awesome. (Yeah, I guess I’ll be hyping the hell out of that story for a while.)
Plotline-Watch:
Important developments at the Daily Planet: Perry White announces he’ll be stepping down as Editor for a while to deal with his recent personal problems. He leaves long-time staff member Sam Foswell (who apparently works in another floor because we’d never seen him before) as his replacement. Jimmy Olsen manages to make a good impression on his new boss right off the bat.
The triangle numbers are here! The triangle numbers are a triangle (and a number) in every cover that lets people know in which order to read the various Superman titles, something that will become even more useful when they add a fourth series to keep track of. Now it really feels like the ‘90s.
The issue starts with Superman preventing a meltdown at a poorly supervised nuclear facility, which turns out to be inside the LexCorp tower. Luthor’s company is already going to the dogs only one week after his shocking death, and it almost sent all of downtown Metropolis to the dogs with it.
At the airport, Mr. Z steals a driver from a bearded guy called Perez. I’m pretty sure his first name is George.
And finally, the Ultimate Jose Delgado Misadventure! Jose is feeling crappy that his girlfriend, Cat Grant, is a TV star while he’s an unemployed schmuck, so he buys a lottery ticket to see if his luck improves (I think it’s the same lotto store Barrage hit up a couple of issues ago). Then good ol’ Jose stops to help those hoodlums who got schooled by Mr. Z, and this happens:
Yep, you know where this is going. You’ll get more than one beer out of that, Bibbo.
Nostalgia-Watch:
As I mentioned, this was one of the first issues I ever read, and something on the first page confused me:
As a dumb kid I thought that yellow box was a reference to another comic, like there was a DC series called Decon Bay and the main characters were nuclear reactor technicians. I always wondered exactly what wacky hijinks led Fabrio and Tobin to end up in this situation. Alas, my searches for Decon Bay #2 on eBay have been fruitless.