Superman #66 (April 1992)
Superman #66 (April 1992)
PANIC IN THE SKY, Part 6 – It's the grand finale of this cosmic saga, and Superman and his allies have been holding that exact same pose for so long that they've all starved to death, unfortunately. THE END.
Haha, just kidding, Dan Jurgens would never kill Superman. Anyway, last issue ended with Lady Maxima, Brainiac's right hand woman during his invasion of Earth, defecting to the side of Superman and the other heroes. It's a touching moment. This one begins with Superman going, "Nope, sorry, you can't join us. Bye." Apparently, Maxima isn't up to the heroic standards of other members of Superman's team, like Guy Gardner and Deathstroke.
Superman leaves Maxima under the custody of Gardner and the Metal Men, and splits the rest of the heroes into strike teams so they can head toward Brainiac's lair at the center of Warworld. However, only Flash makes it through – the others are stopped when Brainiac uses Warworld's circuits to amplify his mental powers and unleash a deadly psychic attack (depicted in the form of a funky psychedelic effect). No one can get close to Brainiac with those disco lights of death on.
Meanwhile, Maxima convinces Guy Gardner to disobey Superman and let her go by basically just saying, "What are you, Superman's boyfriend?" So, through the combination of the Metal Men's powers, Guy's Green Lantern ring and her own psychic abilities, Maxima manages to bypass Brainiac's defenses and reach Warworld's center… and immediately gets her butt kicked by Brainiac, since he's still more powerful than her thanks to those cables on his head.
That's when Flash remember he's in this comic too and saves the day throwing a shard of glass at the bad guy's head:
“Do this at home, kids!"
Without Warworld's machines juicing up his powers, Brainiac gets thoroughly mind-screwed (to put it in PG-13 terms) by the extremely pissed off Maxima. Superman shows up just in time to stop her from killing Brainiac, but she does have time to fully lobotomize him. And so, it's finally over.
NEXT ISSUE: It's not over! There's still the epilogue.
Plotline-Watch:
While all that stuff is going on in Warworld, Batman and the other non-space-ready heroes who stayed back on Earth are dealing with some weird discs that start surrounding Metropolis… in order to "shrink it to table-top size." Like, you know, a city in a bottle. Eventually the yes-space-ready heroes come down and punch all the discs to death.
Professor Hamilton and good ol' Lex Luthor II team up to help the heroes… with science. Meanwhile, Jimmy Olsen is useless and Colin Thornton is there too, for some reason.
Right before getting finished off by Maxima, Brainiac manages to release a "failsafe device" – a metallic ball that is later seen ominously floating toward Earth at the end of the issue. (Don Sparrow reminded me that this specific moment was hinted at in one of the future visions during the Armageddon 2001 annuals.) Those two panels caused this issue to become a hot collector's item after "Death of Superman," because people theorized that Doomsday came out of that ball… but nope, we'll see what's actually in it next month.
After Brainiac's defeat, Maxima says that Superman turned out to be a natural leader and he modestly agrees, which is all setup for his upcoming role as head of the Justice League. Now, you might say that it was actually Maxima herself who defeated Brainy (by going against Superman's orders), but think about it: Why would he leave her under the care of the most contrarian of all superheroes (Gardner) and a group of living robots whose powers just happened to counteract Brainiac's defenses? And why did he send Flash ahead of the group into hostile territory, unprotected? Clearly, Superman planned this whole situation down to the last detail. Brilliant.
More commentary from the also brilliant Don Sparrow below the cut!
Art-Watch (by donsparrow):
We start off with a very spooky cover, with our familiar heroes from last month’s stellar Superman #65 cover being decimated by radiation. Definitely an eye-grabber, and a cover that really makes you want to see what’s happening inside. Extra spooky points for Deathstroke’s bo-staff being warped beyond recognition–very eerie.
PANEL OF THE WEEK: Comes very early this issue–the opening splash page (1) is an even better image than the excellent cover, as Earth’s heroes take the fight to the Warworld invaders in a number of permutations, each befitting their characters abilities and personalities. Batman looks so cool here, I can overlook the disconnect between his shouting, and his apparently closed mouth.
As the story continues, larger than usual panels are needed to accommodate all these different characters, and I like the image of Superman wrapped up in his cape, if for no other reason than novelty.
There’s so much to like about the art on this issue, so it’s tough not to comment on EVERYTHING, but the middle panel of page 7 is particularly exciting as the heroes advance in a band on Brainiac’s forces (even with Deathstroke leading the charge, it’s such a clean, cool image, it could be used for licensing, if not for the b-listers like Rocket Red in there). [Max: Hey, what's the Four-Armed Terror doing there? Never noticed him before.]
The buffeting effect of Brainiac’s weird psychic radiation is well done, as are its effects–page 10’s Elongated Man melting under the strain is a pretty striking image, and I can’t get enough of Captain Marvel’s earnestness in these pages.
The aliens reduced to skeletons are a good reminder of how consistent Jurgens is with these different creatures and races–some of these same races we’ll see in issues to come, and in other future appearances related to Warworld, ahem.
I love seeing a semi-scientific way of bringing back a silver-age nugget–Brainiac shrinking cities. It’s handled very well, in that Brainiac doesn’t outright say it–we only learn it through Dubbilex’s psychic scan.
Overall this is an issue so packed, the ending feels a little abrupt–which is actually a good thing, so that the next issue isn’t just denouement–there’s some major things still yet to happen. But it succeeds in setting up for Superman’s increased role in the DCU, and finally placed Brainiac into the big leagues in terms of threat level. And there’s still one more issue!
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
I think Jose’s bad luck has gone to his head–that’s a pretty defeatist attitude for a fella with nunchucks.
GODWATCH: Man of science, man of faith? Page 3 has Professor Hamilton encouraging Jimmy to pray!
Page 4: Sure, Draaga/Supergirl, your hand gestures indicate you want Maxima around for her "muscle”. Man, when Matrix takes on someone’s form, she takes a little piece of their personality too!
Superman glaring at Maxima on page 5 looks pretty Tom Welling-y.
I know that the plan was to have Maxima at the fore, to get her ready for her role in JLA, but even so, doesn’t it seem like Wonder Woman really sat on the bench in this storyline? For someone with her power set, and general profile in the DCU, she really didn’t have a huge impact in Panic…
Between the structure seen in page 11, and Green Lantern’s battering ram on page 16, we get a real sense of the layout of Warworld, and it really makes it seem all the more like a real place for it.
Luthor II: "Every conqueror wants ‘is booty!“ Don’t I know it!
Aquaman: "Nightwing, could you cool it with the reminders that all our big guns are up on warworld? It’s becoming a thing.”
“Right button… first time.” Maxima and Guy are a pretty hilarious pair, and one of the best elements of the next version of JLA. [Max: That's a pretty cool shot of Guy, too.]
Even though it does against the grain of the character–Batman aiming that ray gun looks pretty awesome.
Same page: "They’re as useful as boomerangs!“ We get it, Junior, you’re from Australia.
While I love the leadership role that Superman takes in this issue, I also appreciate the novelty of having Maxima, and particularly Flash be the real heroes of the issue (even if Maxie gets pretty carried away–imagine a headache so bad your moustache falls out!). [Max: As a lifelong Flash fan, his role in the finale was unexpected but welcome. I don't think he has a single line of dialogue in the previous issues.]
Even Superman seems a little handsy on that last page, stopping Maxima from killing Brainiac.
I love you, Captain Marvel, but hearing "Holey Moley! It takes my mightiest punch to destroy these discs!” makes me wish Guy Gardner were nearby.
