Superman #69 and Adventures of Superman #492 (July 1992)
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Superman #69 and Adventures of Superman #492 (July 1992)
SUPERMAN VERSUS AGENT LIBERTY! The winner gets… America. Actually, there isn't a whole lot of superhero fighting in this two-issue storyline: it's more about Superman's final confrontation with the Sons of Liberty (who are Agent Liberty's corrupt politician bosses, not his children as the name suggests).
Those dirty SOLs want to murder their previous leader, Major Holcraft, before he can spill all their secrets at his trial. They've decided that the simplest way to do that is to: 1) explode a congressman, 2) kidnap the fiancee of the congressman's replacement, and 3) blackmail the guy into shooting Holcraft. Truly, a foolproof plan. Despite the fact that Superman is checking everyone at the trial with his X-ray vision, the congressman manages to sneak a gun inside… because he's Superman's friend Pete Ross (meaning the kidnapped woman is Lana Lang), and friends don't X-ray friends.
(Even if it'd just take, like, two seconds.)
Pete gets cold feet before shooting Holcraft, but the Sons had placed an agent at the court in case that happened. Agent Liberty, to be more specific – the "Captain America with a jetpack" guy who has recently helped Superman defeat aliens, gangsters, and power outages. Liberty murders Holcraft with Pete's gun, because he believes this is necessary for the good of America, but as soon as he escapes and returns to the Sons of Liberty Action Barnyard Headquarters, he's like "wait, no, this is bullshit."
Liberty is given the order to kill Pete next, but now he gets cold feet and decides to rebel against his bosses. He has a brief run-in with Superman (who is very disappointed that all his pals are turning out to be killers), but soon they each go their own way: as Superman rescues Lana and tears apart the SOL base, Liberty tracks down and kills the leaders in cold blood.
In the end, Pete is cleared of all responsibility for helping murder a dude, and the actual murderer (Agent Liberty) rides off into the sunset to have more adventures. Justice is served!
Plotline-Watch:
Will we ever see the Sons of Liberty again? I'll let Agent Liberty answer that:
Incidentally, I think Superman is kinda soft on Liberty in this issue given that he's, you know, a murderer. Oh, well, it's not like the guy is gonna join the Justice Lea– wait, crap.
Major Holcraft must be pleased that the Sons of Liberty finally managed to kill someone before they could testify at their trial, since he was in prison for trying to do just that to President Marlo of Qurac (over a year ago). Irony is served!
Lucy Lane is released from the hospital (after almost becoming a casualty of the Deathstroke crossover), but we still get hints that there's something sinister going on with her doctor. For starters, he was a dude with long curly hair last week, but now he's a middle-aged bald guy. Clearly, there's something supernatural going on here.
Don't worry, just because the Congressman Ross plotline is over doesn't mean we won't see more exciting political action in these pages! There's a brief scene with Metropolis' Mayor Berkowitz and Lex Luthor II trying to decide who should be in charge of a "rebuild Metropolis" committee, and finally settling on Colin Thornton. Seems like a damn good choice to me.
Superman appears a little uncomfortable to see his two best childhood friends making out. Dude, you had your shot. Move on. Pete's an engaged man now.
"…crying."