Superman #63 (January 1992)
Superman #63 (January 1992)
Superman reunites with his most valued underwater ally: Lori Lemaris, his mermaid ex-girlfriend! And I just spoiled this issue's twist ending just to make Aquaman feel bad about himself, because I'm very edgy. Anyway, wasn't Lori supposed to be dead? Yup: as seen way back in Superman #12, Clark Kent dated Lori in college and they met again as adults, but then a (presumably extremely hungry) fisherman stabbed her. Several convoluted plot twists later, Clark found out from Lori's new boyfriend, a merdude called Ronal, that she was dead.
In this issue, Superman is reminded of this sad tale again when he's rescuing the crew of a capsized ship and notices that the captain is the same mermaidphobic asshole who stabbed Lori. Superman is so wrapped up in his flashback sequence that he nearly lets the guy drown.
After resisting the temptation to feed the guy to some sharks, Superman saves him and runs into Aquaman, who is in the middle of a war between his city, Atlantis, and a country called Oumland (Clark Kent and Cat Grant were covering the war from the stabber's ship, somehow). The Oumlanders fire a torpedo at Atlantis and Superman manages to redirect it, but it still blows up on his face. Superman ends up unconscious and buried in rocks… until a mysterious figure rescues him. One with luscious curves and a fish tail.
As I already ruined for you, the mystery woman is Lori, who faked her death years ago because she knew Superman and her were too different to be together. She makes Aquaman promise never to tell Superman that she's still alive, and then leaves his body on the surface for the people on the boat to find (after, uh, changing him into his Clark Kent clothes).
Clark is like "Whelp, I must have changed clothes while sleeping" and never suspects that it was all Lori. Coincidentally, he thinks he's been lucky to find someone else he loves "just as much" as Lori (and has the same initials, to boot). Lori overhears this with her fishwoman telepathy and sheds a single tear for their love that cannot be.
Plotline-Watch:
I left out perhaps the craziest part: Why did the ship capsize? Because it ran into one of the dinosaurs from the "Blackout" storyline – specifically, one that the Guardian had to hurt while approaching the dinosaur island in Superman #62. Aquaman helps Superman subdue it and then everyone sorta forgets about it, what with the war and all.
Speaking of Aquaman, he's currently in that awkward period between his clean cut look and his hairy, hook-hand-having one. The Oumland war was a storyline in the Aquaman series of this era, whose most lasting contribution was proving that classic DC superheroes look cool with long hair (or at least that's what Superman seemed to think).
Back in Metropolis, Lois Lane goes Christmas shopping for Clark and thinks about how their relationship has never been stronger, unaware that he's getting mouth-to-mouth from his ex. Also, she's still being stalked by Jolt and Blockhouse from Man of Steel #7, and Blockhouse still looks like a nine year old in the Hulk's body.
The return of Jimmy Olsen's piece of shit car (a long-running character), which now serves as his house as well, since he got kicked out of his apartment. Then he almost gets run over by a snow plower. This is just the bad karma from the "Jimmy hates Superman" storyline coming back to you, Jimbo.
Oh, right: after months of the "Berkowitz vs. Thornton" storyline building up steam, we unceremoniously find out in the above panel that Frank Berkowitz won, and that's it. Personally, I think it would have been way more interesting if Colin Thornton had become mayor of Metropolis, considering upcoming revelations about the character. Metropolis would turn into a hell of a place with that guy on charge.
That's not it for this post, though, because there's more from the great Don Sparrow (including an essay on Aquaman's eating habits) after the cut:
Art-Watch (by donsparrow):
We start with the cover, and it’s a solid effort from Jurgens and Breeding. They charitably give Aquaman the foreground and I love how his form is shaded with the scales. There’s a tendency among today’s artists to draw every scale on the textured costumes of characters like Aquaman or Captain America, but this more suggestive approach works really well. What really sets this cover apart is the great colour work, which I assume is by Glenn Whitmore. The skintones are subtly cool, suggesting these figures are being seen through water, and I love both the light from the surface behind them in beams, and the very subtle rim lighting on the left sides of the figures. As usual, Jurgens and Breeding do a great job suggesting motion with the bubbles, too. And I almost missed the very very subtle clue that there’s a mystery character within these pages, just over Aquaman’s shoulder. The silhouette makes her appear more Medusa-like and fearsome than who she is revealed to be, but it definitely makes me want to read the issue, and gives an element of danger to an otherwise static cover. [Max: Huh. I don't think I ever consciously noted that figure. I mean, it's right freaking there, but I never thought about it.]
Inside the issue, the atmosphere is handled very well, as we can fill the wet chill and the high winds coming off the sea in the early going. From a story standpoint, this is another great example about what I so love about this era of comics–they never forget about anything! The mysterious dinosaur island from "Blackout" could have been a self contained arc, but this team of writers and editors remembered, “oh yeah,what about that sea serpent that Guardian fought on the way into the island?”and made a whole issue about it.
In the art department, Jurgens is the king of just plain cool panels of this era, and the drawing on page 3 of a determined Superman is pretty great. I also like seeing the mechanics, on the same page, of things we’ve heard about like Superman’s cape pouch. I always pictured it slightly different than the slit we see–I thought it might be the backing of the Yellow S on the back, like a zipper pouch or something. (DC editorial: I miss the yellow S on the cape). Page 5 & 6 features a very Jurgens flashback page, with not only a person’s face as background (a real Jurgens staple) but also the rounded rectangle panels to denote that it’s in the past. I also like seeing the longer-haired college Clark, as this period was pretty rarely seen in comics of this–or any–period. I also love the bubbles as panel edge on page6. Really good layout there.
Page 8 we see a glimpse of the mermaid kingdom, which I guess (?) is different than Atlantis (I’m a bit fuzzy on why there are mermaids and mermen, and also completely biped underwater humans like Aquaman) and it looks cool and ancient, right down to their roman looking garb (their oversized pendants predate the New 52’sAquaman look, which he abandoned as soon as Jim Lee stopped drawing the character).
Page 9 brings us a slightly more realistic depiction of the villains from MOS #7, as well as a cute Lois Lane in relaxation mode. My love of Lois in stretch pants is well documented, so I won’t belabour the point, but she looks beautiful here, as usual.
Page 10 is a great angle on poor Jimmy Olsen (whose socks almost to lend some credence to my weird over-identification between Jimmy and Peter Parker). I also like seeing snowfall in Metropolis. Living in Canada, it’s nice to see actual season represented in these pages.
The actual team-up portion of the comic is pretty thrilling (page 13) and it’s a very dynamic pose Superman takes as he grapples with the plesiosaur. That page also features an interesting contrast between King Aquaman and boy scout Superman, as Aquaman, pained though he was, was willing to kill the creature to save his people. Superman, ever the defender of life in all its forms, chooses to find another way.
This brings me to a bit of a side tangent/theory on the subject of Aquaman, which I hope you’ll permit me:
WHY I THINK AQUAMAN EATS FISH
On the surface, it would seem like Aquaman would be a vegetarian, as he is the protector of the seven seas, and therefore would cherish sea life more than we likely would. But, since his kingdom has its own order and hierarchy, he would also be aware of that, and adhere to it. Aquaman wouldn’t fault a shark for eating another sea creature, because that is the established, designed order of life in the oceans. Maybe it’s even a Treebeard-like thing, that certain sea creatures are more intelligent than others (with “voices of their own”), and therefore Aquaman would have more or less compunction about them losing their lives depending on that. For instance, piranhas are so feral, Aquaman is unable to influence or control them. So while Aquaman may rap about his problems to pals like Topo the Octopus (that friendship being the main reason my wife thinks that Aquaman is a silly character), I think he has a certain detachment when it comes to the circle of life in the waters. Which is why I think he doesn’t get bent out of shape when people eat fish (and why he himself ordered fish and chips in a recent Geoff Johns issue of Aquaman). He has even been known to bring a shrimpring to a funeral in what might be my favourite SNL skit ever…
Tangent over!
Back to the artwork, Jurgens does a great job of showing the claustrophobic feeling of Superman holding his breath, particularly on page 17. That underwater detonation is also a great visual (man I miss the days of sound effects!)
And the big reveal on page 20 is an amazing visual. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a Lois Lane man, but there’s just something cool about a mermaid! We can see, from her selflessness–and beauty– in this issue, why Clark remains haunted by that old love. But, tellingly, the telepathic Lori Lemaris knows, as we all do, that there’s no greater love for Superman or Clark Kent than his Lois Lane.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
Speaking of SNL, am I nuts, or does Hand Schmidt bear a more than passing resemblance to the great Phil Hartman’s Captain Carl?
Nice storytelling detail that Superman mentions to the reader that even he requires a big gulp of breath to spend time underwater.
In the off-chance that my wife reads this entry: "See, honey, Superman thinks that Aquaman is “quite a guy all right” (page 7). So could you please stop making fun of him all the time?“ [Max: Sorry, Don, I can't find that panel. Are you sure it's this page?]
In a testament to the decency of Clark Kent, even back in college, it’s astounding to me that he never took an x-ray peek under her blanket to get a look at his crush’s gams, thereby discovering her mermaid tail. But one would assume that he’d trained himself to respect the privacy of others, which is why he only found out about it once she revealed it to him.
Hans Schmidt’s a pretty famous name. It’s a pretty rotten thing to just go around throwing knives at people(!), but one would think there are other reasons Clark would have tried to throw him in jail.
Since when is Pete Ross so ripped? Go, Pete! [Max: All these years, all he had to do to win over Lana was show her his pecs.]
"I’m calling off the search. It’s been nearly 8 minutes, after all.”
I’d forgotten that the members of the Justice League don’t know each other’s identities in this era! Very thoughtful of Lori to keep up the Clark Kent identity with even Aquaman.
Sucks to be Ronal. It would be cool to bring him back as an adversary for Superman, embittered after a lifetime of being passed over by Lori for his memory. [Max: Especially since merpeople are telepathic, so there's a chance he can literally her Lori's unhappiness.]
