Superman #68 (June 1992)
Superman #68 (June 1992)
Superman is very disappointed to find out that his friend Deathstroke, The Terminator is a bad guy. Deathstroke returns to Metropolis (the city he helped save from alien invaders a few weeks ago) and is ambushed at the airport by the Special Crimes Unit. Because he's, you know, a special criminal. A random stewardess gets blasted by a police laser cannon during the confrontation and, in an astonishing coincidence, that stewardess turns out to be Superman's sister-in-law, Lucy Lane. In another astonishing coincidence, it also turns out that Deathstroke knows Lucy's dad, because they were buddies back in ‘Nam.
In fact, they spent several days alone together in the jungle, and who knows what happened between them during those humid Asian nights (they probably played a lot of Parcheesi).
At Lois' request, Superman goes off to find Deathstroke and whoop his ass. After using his badass acrobatic abilities to evade Superman throughout the city, Deathstroke gets caught and reveals that he just wanted to go to the hospital to say sorry to Lucy's dad. Superman agrees to take him there, but Mr. Lane just smacks Deathstroke in the face and asks Superman to get him off his sight. Deathstroke takes the punch without telling Lane who he really is, because he wants his friend to remember him as he used to be. A phenomenal Parcheesi player.
Awww. See, the guy does have honor after all.
Plotline-Watch:
Of course, on the next issue of his solo series, Deathstroke simply broke himself free and struck Green Lantern in the nuts. To be fair, there was a whole thing going on in his comic about crooked CIA agents trying to murder him, so Deathstroke had good reason to distrust the authorities.
While it's kinda fishy that she doesn't take responsibility for one of her own guys shooting a civilian (more on that in Don Sparrow's section below), it's been a while since we've seen Maggie Sawyer kicking ass, so I was glad to see some of that in this issue. Or kicking face, anyway.
"Get to the Pete Ross subplot!" I can hear you clamoring. Fine, fine. Senator Pete meets with the Sons of Liberty again, but he still doesn't know they're trying to blackmail him. Don says: "Harriman and Kramer are the worst lobbyists ever. They’re willing to kill people to advance their plots, but are apparently too shy to even raise them with Pete. Is timidity the reason Harriman only has one outfit? Is he too socially anxious to shop for himself?" Well, at least he changed his color (as did Kramer).
Speaking of color: after defending Newstime Magazine's minority hiring practices the other week, Ron Troupe is fired by Newstime's owner Colin Thornton in this issue, because the magazine is going througn financial troubles. Recently laid off Daily Planet employee Sam Foswell picks this moment to ask for a job at Newstime, but Thornton basically tells him to go to hell.
Click "read more" to see more from our pal Don Sparrow! Come on, you know this by now.
Art-Watch (by donsparrow):
It’s weeks like this that make writing for this blog a real pleasure. Top to bottom, this issue is full of amazing art. Beginning with the cover, which features a favourite technique of mine for backgrounds, the linear glowing circular ray. This one is more pronounced than some others, but it works great at bringing your eye right to Superman, taking the blow from Deathstroke’s staff. I also love the inclusion of the airplane, foreshadowing events within the book.
Once the story starts, Jurgens and Breeding do a lot of little things well. All the airport details, from the plane interior, to the unique tarmac vehicles are very well researched. The claustrophobic interior scenes give way nicely to the open space action of page 4 (even if it’s corny for Deathstroke to refer to himself by name, Terminator nickname and all).
The acrobatics throughout the issue are amazing and really convince the reader of Slade’s enhanced abilities, a good example coming on page 5 as he disentangles himself from SCU agents on that second panel. Maggie’s heroic takedown attempt is also super exciting on page 7, and I like that her tenacity impresses even a hardened veteran like Deathstroke.
Lois and Clark’s date is nicely framed and intimate, and Lois looks va-va-va-voom throughout, and Jurgens & Breeding capture Sam and Ella Lane’s grief well in the hospital scenes. [Max: And as if they hadn't been through enough already, Jimmy is there.]
The flashback to the “hot zone” conflict (not clear if it’s Vietnam, or Korea, but I’m betting ‘Nam) is also well done, though it’s weird that Slade had white hair even then.
There are so many cool shots of Superman in this book that it’s tough to single only a few out, but Superman descending from the sky on page 13 is a nice look at a moment we don’t always see–him landing. The last panel on that same page is a Jurgens classic, and puts me in the mind of another panel in the upcoming Superman #75 (and that’s all I have to say about that).
PANEL OF THE WEEK! Panel of the week is unsurprisingly the astonishing full page animated splash on page 17, where an acrobatic Deathstroke evades Superman and flips into the path of an oncoming moving truck, with Jurgens giving us every frame of Slade’s motion in one panel, and it is awesome.
Slade’s avoiding detection by remaining under the cars is also great subterfuge, but part of me is glad that, even if he’s as enhanced as Captain America, Wilson can only put off Superman so long, and he snags him on page 20. Sometimes DC has a habit of making a cool character suddenly nigh-unstoppable mainly because of their coolness, so it’s nice to see logic prevail–Deathstroke wouldn’t stand a chance against Superman for long.
The final page splash, of Deathstroke in chains is a striking image (though seriously, that chain is pretty long, especially for a guy so deadly that both “death” and “Terminator” are in his name). Even though this issue mostly served internal plotlines over in Deathstroke’s own book, I loved this issue. For one thing, it put Superman and Deathstroke on opposite sides, as they should have been, but also showcased why Jurgens and Breeding were the team to beat on this era of books. There’s not a bad panel in the whole thing, and the story isn’t as simplistic as we’d like it to be–even a villain as well established as Slade Wilson is a person, who once had friends and did noble things, along with the really rotten ones that followed.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
The image of Lucy on the gurney is pretty harrowing, especially the angle.
GODWATCH: Clark gets some bad news on page 9, and invokes the Almighty in his shock.
I kind of like 'weekend Clark’, with his hoodie and runners.
I know I already went on about it before, but in that splash page on 17, I forgot to point out how awesome the sky is. I really like the borderless, colour sky for the outdoor scenes.
At the beginning of the story I had wondered how Maggie’s SCU team could get the jump on Slade. Now I know it’s because he reads articles mentioning him aloud in fleabag hotels, and his annoyed neighbours tip off police.
Very interesting how little resemblance Maggie’s account of the siege at the airport differs from what actually happened. True, Slade did run, but both he and Maggie were shouting at her team not to fire on the plane. None of that makes her report to Superman on page 13.
Tough times for Ron Troupe, and even tougher for sad sack Foswell, whose voice I am now imagining to be like Droopy Dog’s. Somehow I think Thornton could have phrased Ron’s termination a bit better…
Maggie couldn’t memorize the Miranda warning?
Somebody should do a crossover with all the character who once had their origins in Vietnam. Punisher could run into Slade, and they could bump into The Comedian. As I type this I realize they’re all virtually the same character. Didn’t Iron Man once fight there too? [Max: I think with Marvel's sliding timeline, Iron Man currently fought in the 2022 Trumpmerica/North Korchina war.]