Superman #57 (July 1991)
Superman #57 (July 1991)
In this issue: the Eradicator eradicates some zits on Superman’s face. Or at least that’s what I think every time I see this cover (in reality, he’s merely burning Superman’s face). As seen in last week’s Superman: The Man of Steel #1, the legacy of Krypton’s xenophobic past is back, this time in human form, and the first thing he does is kill a guy. Superman goes “hey, uh, you can’t do that,” so the Eradicator (or “Krypton Man” as he’s intermittently referred to) blasts his ass and floats away.
The Eradicator resumes his old plan to turn Earth into Krypton 2.0, which results in weird weather and sudden earthquakes hitting the whole planet (since Krypton 1.0 was mainly known for blowing up, I’d say his plan is going well so far). Also, he’s making our sun go red, just because Krypton’s was. He’s so obsessed with accuracy that he even destroys an old housing complex and rebuilds it as some of those fancy Kryptonian towers. For free!
Oh, yeah, he also brainwashes the building’s owner into not being mad at him. This is one way of addressing the economic problems in post-Luthor’s death Metropolis, I guess. Mayor Berkowitz should consider adding the Eradicator to his staff.
When Superman once again shows up and goes “no, seriously, you can’t do that,” the aforementioned face-burning scene happens. Not content with simply leaving Superman blind and deformed, the Eradicator decides to give him a taste of his own medicine by flying him into space and dropping Superman in the sun. Karma’s a bitch. CONTINUED!
Rain-Watch:
If there’s something more dramatic-looking than a Dan Jurgens shot of the Eradicator floating in the rain with a thunderbolt behind him, the comic book medium hasn’t found it yet.
Plotline-Watch:
I wonder if the scene with the Eradicator tearing down that old building is a tribute to the time Golden Age Superman did pretty much the same thing, except with a whole poor neighborhood. Oh, and minus the “rebuilding it himself” part.
Superman takes Professor Hamilton to visit his Fortress of Solitude, as he promised him in SMOS #1, and Hamilton basically creams his pants. He also rewires Superman’s monitors to get free cable.
Jimmy Olsen finds out he’s been fired from the Daily Planet by the new editor, Sam Foswell – and just after he spent his life savings updating his wardrobe to make it as 1991 as humanly possible:
Lana Lang and Pete Ross are visiting the Lincoln Memorial when it’s destroyed by an Eradicator-caused earthquake (yep, in Washington). The interesting thing is that Pete, a nobody at this point, mentions his presidential aspirations, which will eventually come true… albeit as President Luthor’s VP. And outside the scope of this blog. So I should stop bringing it up.
For Ma and Pa Kent’s anniversary, Clark has bought them tickets to a cruise. In there, the Kents become friends with another old couple: some big shot from Metropolis called Perry and his wife, Alice.
I just hope this isn’t one of those swingers things.