Superman #71 (September 1992)
Superman #71 (September 1992)
THE BLAZE/SATANUS WAR: FINALE! The final confrontation between the Satanic Siblings, with Superman awkwardly stuck in the middle. Literally stuck, with goo. Through a convoluted series of events, Superman has ended up in a situation where he must kill his acquaintance Sam Foswell, or let his actual friends (Lois, Jimmy, Perry) die inside a floating church in a trippy hell dimension. Oh, and also, Sam is a gargoyle now. Superman's decision: he'll just punch some demons for a while and hope for the best.
While Superman and Lord Satanus fight over the fate of Foswell, Blaze combines her demonic forces into a giant mega-demon that starts redecorating the church's ceiling with its giant fists. In order to save the people trapped inside, Superman has no choice but to re-ally himself with Satanus (who seems to have forgotten about the “killing Foswell” thing). Satanus instructs Superman to ring the bell on top of the church so that he can turn the sound into power blasts to shoot at the mega-demon (makes sense), but Blaze's eye lasers prevent that.
Luckily, a physically and psychologically roughed up Perry White steps the hell up and rings that damn bell in Superman's place.
Thanks to Perry, Satanus destroys the mega-demon and the resulting explosions tears a hole in this dimension, opening a portal that will allow the trapped people (and buildings) to return to Metropolis. Superman does something useful for the first time in the issue and flies Blaze into the depths of the crazy hell dimension to allow his friends to escape.
Now everyone (except Superman) is safe at home… but what about Foswell? He materializes back at the Newstime building with Satanus, who tells him he'll keep working there as his slave – because Satanus is secretly Newstime Magazine owner/former Metropolis mayoral candidate Colin Thornton!
Bet you never saw that coming!
Character-Watch:
OK, you probably did see that coming, because I flat-out spoiled this plot twist for you back in Thornton's first appearance three years ago (Adventures #460). Still, I like that they went with an established character instead of just introducing a new guy called Lordell Satanusberg or something, and this explains the weird amount of protagonism this guy had been getting in recent storylines. Also, perhaps the satanic interference explains why the writers can't decide if his name is spelled Colin or Collin.
Plotline-Watch:
As for Foswell: Thornton says he might use Sam as an agent in the future, but according to the DC Wiki this is his last ever appearance, so I guess it was the end of him. That's kind of an anticlimactic end to his plotline. I like the version in my memory better: I was sure Foswell sacrificed himself to save the others and gained a place in heaven, but maybe that was too similar to what happened to Jerry White at the end of the first Blaze saga.
Speaking of Jerry, Blaze actually takes the time to torture Perry White and his wife about their dead son, and even teases Perry about the fact that Lex Luthor was the biological father. Worst of all, she calls him chubs. That makes Perry's role in her defeat pretty satisfying, and learning that Jerry is actually in heaven gives some closure to that old storyline.
Hey, what about Superman? The last time we see him, he's choke slamming Blaze into oblivion. Is… is he dead? Nah, Superman would never die. We'll find out where he ended up next week.
In the meantime, find out what Don Sparrow has to say about this issue (and enjoy some Supergirl panels I couldn't fit here) after the cut:
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
We open with a weirdly eye-catching cover of Superman trapped in goo, plus a weird, mystical landscape–all in all a pretty good summary of the action within. Kudos to Jurgens and Breeding for managing to make the webbing Superman’s caught in NOT look like it’s Spider-Man’s webs. Oddly, due to the body language, LS looks much more like he’s coming to rescue Superman than threaten him.
Inside the issue, another full page splash, with the trademarked Jurgens and Breeding “bad things are happening” scratchy border.
It’s also a cool look at LS, who seems scarier with his face entirely in shadow than when we saw him in all his Metallica-drummer-esque glory in the last issue of Action Comics. Then a real treat of a double page splash, with Superman duking it out with some demons. At the risk of foreshadowing, I can’t help but notice how many storytelling techniques we see in these pages (the large panel splashes, and the hatchy scribble edges) we later see again in a certain, huge storyline later this year. Rightdown to the torn uniform–which is always a jarring image.
The art throughout this issue is pretty excellent, more than making up for the fill-in last week. Again, it’s fairly demanding–going form the weird, zero gravity mystical realm outside, to conventional architecture inside Blaze’s (with all sorts of different faces and body types) but this team does it all really well.
I continue to love the way Jurgens and Breeding handle Supergirl–making her slight, but powerful (kudos also tot he colourist on Superman, who always makes her uniform a nice, pale shade of blue), exemplified by her diving into flight on page 7.
The scenes with Blaze torturing the Whites emotionally is really well-drawn, as you really feel their pain as Blaze toys with them, and mocks their family strife. Kudos to Perry for lashing out at Blaze, and not at Alice, as I’m sure was her intention.
The shot of Blaze zapping Superman with her–what, hell-beams?–on page 18 is another great spread, and a real challenger for panel of the week. Instead, just because it’s so awesome and action-movie-esque, I’m picking the panel where Superman leaps at Blaze saying “think again,witch!” on page 19 as our PANEL OF THE WEEK!
I’m sure in today’s New 52 universe Superman would be using another term, which rhymes with the line he used here, but in this by-gone era, I like his restraint. I should also mention the three panels of Perry slowly rising to his feet to save the day on that same page–very heroic.
Another great panel of Supergirl on the top left of page 21 and lastly, LS’s transformation back into his earthly self is a great visual–though he somehow looks all the more threatening as Collin Thornton than he did in his full demon outfit.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
I’ve long nursed some theories about who the super-team will sometimes base their interpretations of characters on–for instance, Jerry Ordway’s Lois Lane always reminded me of Julia Roberts. But in this issue, Lois is a dead ringer forearly-90s hottie Rachel Hunter.
More great young-person speak from Jimmy this issue, “This place is caving in big-time!” That dude’s been spending too much time with Robin.
This is a pretty memorable storyline, as Superman really doesn’t have a good choice here, between Blaze and LS. I still feel a bit weird about him not finding a third way, but what’s a hero to do? And at least the loved ones he saved are numerous, and in the prime of their lives. I can’t imagine a noble,goodhearted superhero making a deal with a demon to save a single elderly character… oh,wait. Never mind.
On page 14, LS says to Superman that“better men than {him} have tried” to take him down. Like who? Genuinely curious who would be considered a better man than Superman! [Max: This seems really random, but what about the Wizard Shazam? Just a crazy idea.]
GODWATCH: The conceit that ringing the Church bells will defeat a demon puts me in the mind of the Dylan song “Ring Them Bells”. TANGENT: Then as I was looking up the lyrics,I saw they mention a “Martha” with a “poor man’s son”. While Dylan was probably referring to Martha of Bethany (though maybe not) Martha Kent’s son Clark grew up poor, too!
GODWATCH 2: Perry’s heroism in the bell-tower was pretty stirring, and his mentioning of “all that’s holy” felt significant in these pages, too.
I want to interpret the officer’s expression on page 21 as annoyance at Jimmy Olsen.
I feel skeezy even pointing this out, but in her celebration on the second panel of page 21, Supergirl is pretty, uh, perky?
I really appreciated the clarification when it comes to the Whites and their son Jerry on page 22-we should have known that Blaze was lying since it’s virtually all that she does, but it’s nice to know that while she had him killed, Jerry’s soul isn’t subject to her dimension.
Hey, Thornton–if you’re so concerned about protecting what you call “the greatest secret of all” maybe don’t instantly beam right to your place of work upon your return to the city.