Superman #58 (August 1991)
Superman #58 (August 1991)
THE BLOODHOUNDS come to arrest Superman for being crazy! Wait, who the hell are the Bloodhounds? They are a guy with a whip called Mac, a big dumb guy called Blood, and a robot guy with a fedora whose name I don’t recall, so let’s call him… Gerald. The ‘Hounds have tracked Superman’s “aura” to the Daily Planet building, so now all they have to do is bring him out and subdue him. Which they do pretty easily, actually.
(Gerald’s fedora mysteriously disappeared right before these panels.)
Aaaaaand, that’s about it for the Bloodhounds. Superman wakes up in Project Cadmus, where director Paul Westfield tells him they’re going to forcibly scan his mind to make sure he doesn’t go crazy – which is bullshit, because it’s been whole months since the last time Superman developed a split personality and tried to kill someone. Cadmus’ telepath, Dubbilex, reluctantly reads Superman’s mind and transfers all his memories (including the ones where he has his Clark Kent glasses on) into a computer. Superman’s in a real pickle: short of a mountain with wheels crashing through the lab’s wall, nothing could save him now. Luckily for him, that’s exactly what happens next.
Out of the Mountain of Judgment come a bunch of super-smart hippies who live there, the Hairies (reminder: Cadmus and everything around it were created by Jack Kirby, who was even crazier than Superman). The Hairies help Superman escape, but won’t director Westfield just send the Bloodhounds to catch him again? Nope, because good ol’ Dubbilex blackmails Westfield by threatening to reveal what he did back in 'Nam:
“Oh, I thought you were talking about the blow and the hookers.”
Another happy ending!
Character-Watch:
The Bloodhounds will join the large gallery of Guys Who Never Showed Up Again, but Director Westfield will actually become a recurring character. Up till now we’ve been given the impression that the adult Newsboy Legion (Newsadult Legion) were the top dogs at Project Cadmus, so I’m pretty sure Westfield was created exclusively to let Superman fight Cadmus in this story without making the Newsadults look like jerks. However, Westfield will stick around and eventually make a huge contribution to the Superman mythos (until Geoff Johns retcons it).
Plotline-Watch:
The Guardian also appears a whole lot in this issue, and in fact this entire mess is his fault: Project Bloodhound was created after that time Guardian found out “Gangbuster” was actually a semi-amnesiac Superman, who had been slipping into a trance and beating up criminals without knowing it (Superman #27). The Guardian told that to his bosses at Cadmus and they started working on a plan for what to do if Superman ever goes insane – unaware that Supes himself already has a plan of his own, which is called “Batman.”
Anyway, the issue ends with the Guardian destroying the computer where Superman’s thoughts were stored and asking Supes to meet him in the same alley where the “Gangbuster” fight took place – not for a rematch, though. He just wanted to let Superman know that he was the one who called the Hairies and orchestrated his breakout, along with Dubbilex.
Wait, if they were planning to blackmail Westfield from the beginning, why didn’t they do that earlier and spare Superman a beating? And what happened to Dubbilex’s “no reading minds without consent” code? AND WHERE IS GERALD’S FEDORA?! Cue Twilight Zone theme song.
WTF-Watch:
Gerald can only track (ohhhh, his name is Tracker! Too late, I’m still calling him Gerald) Superman when he’s using his powers, so the only reason the Bloodhounds were able to know he was at the Daily Planet is because Clark Kent decided to use his super-speed to perform a public display of affection with Lois Lane:
At least he remained clothed the entire time.