Superman: The Man of Steel #10 (April 1992)
Superman: The Man of Steel #10 (April 1992)
PANIC IN THE SKY, Part 5 – A hero dies! Who could it possibly be?! You'll just have to read on to find out. (Or look at the cover above, which provides a small hint. See if you can spot it.)
In Part 4 of this cosmic saga, Superman and friends were trying to prevent Brainiac's invasion of Earth (via Warworld) when Brainy hijacked their minds and turned them to his side. So, now Superman's getting piled on by like a dozen of Earth's greatest champions (and Guy Gardner).
Dubbilex (the real star of this storyline) senses Superman's troubles and telepathically asks all the non-mind controlled heroes to go to his rescue. They're making some headway when Brainiac sends over his "doomsday weapon": a big, flying lump of goo that farts out anti-matter (I'm sorry, they even look like fart clouds). Superman goes "Oh, not one of those!" and orders the heroes to fall back, but Supergirl has other ideas – she's willing to jump into the flying goo and jam it from the inside to save Superman and the others from being eaten by anti-matter (it's sort of what Supergirls do).
Enter Draaga, the grumpy alien gladiator who was obsessed with getting killed by Superman's hand until like two weeks ago. Over the course of this storyline he's grown quite fond of Supergirl, so Draaga decides to jump into the anti-matter butthole instead of her, fulfilling two purposes: 1) saving the one he secretly loves, and 2) going out in a blaze of glory like he always wanted to.
The doomsday weapon explodes, and a bereaved Supergirl decides to honor Draaga by finishing this battle while cosplaying as him (remember, this Supergirl is a shapeshifter). Meanwhile, Brainiac is like "Meh, that wasn't even my best weapon. Wait till you see what I've been saying…"
NEXT ISSUE: The stunning climax! Nothing will ever be the same again!
Character-Watch:
With the exception of Supergirl's brief phase playing him, this is it for Draaga. The revelation that he's got the hots for Supergirl may seem abrupt in my recap (because it's a recap), but it feels natural in the comic. Don Sparrow says: "He may have been a murderous gladiator with a Flintstone beach towel wrapped around his neck, but darn it if we didn’t come to love Draaga over this storyline, particular in his noble, and even romantic death. It was interesting, too, how Draaga’s path to redemption didn’t come directly from Superman, but rather, from his love of someone who was inspired by Superman, in the person of Supergirl. His selfless battle (against what appears to be inky fingerprints) really had some punch."
I agree with Don (except about the doomsday device; it's flying, farting goo, man!). Draaga's evolution from hired muscle to disgraced warrior to hero is one of the most surprisingly moving character arcs of this era. Rest in peace, you ugly bastard.
Plotline-Watch:
What about all those mind-controlled heroes? In the end, they get turned back to normal by the greatest hero this universe has known: Dubbilex! With some help from Metron of the New Gods and Kilowog, the crafty Green Lantern. But it's mainly Dubbilex. My sweet Dubbilex.
Besides Draaga, another villain has a Supergirl-inspired change of heart in this issue: Maxima captures Supergirl early in the issue, but S-girl makes her see that partnering with a psycho like Brainiac to protect her homeworld isn't very smart. After seeing Brainiac's doomsday weapon kill thousands of Warworlders (and witnessing Draaga's sacrifice), Maxima realizes Supergirl had a point and switches over to Team Earth.
Yes, yes, but what's Jimmy Olsen doing during all of this?! He's taking photos of the battle between Brainiac's ground forces and the Batman-led heroes when his helicopter gets shot down and falls into the bay. Hey, gotta give Aquaman something to do in this crossover.
More commentary from noted Aquafan (and… Jimmy Olfan?) Don Sparrow below the cut! Including more Captain Marvel/Infinity Man love…
Art-Watch (by donsparrow):
We begin one of the best drawn issues of the Bogdanove era with a painstakingly accurate homage of the now-legendary 7th issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths where (30 year old spoiler alert!) Supergirl is held aloft by a weeping Superman, as Kara sacrificed her own life in battle against the Anti-Monitor (whose name is still terrible,all these years later). Though the cover spoils a pretty major event within the book, it also serves to let us know the scale of the issue is more important than your average book, since Brainiac is indeed a lethal threat to our team of allies. I love the attention to detail of Batman, Wonder Woman and a Dr Fate (in this era, a female one) all in their familiar place on the right side of the cover.
Inside, as mentioned, it’s one of Bogdanove’s tour de force issues, as he juggles action, alien worlds and beings and about a million guest stars. Not only does he not buckle under the pressure, but he flat out shows off, drawing some near-definitive versions of the guest heroes.
Almost immediately we’re treated to a gorgeous Maxima, whose body is perfect, but a different, more amazonian perfect than Bogdanove’s equally gorgeous (if wispy) Supergirl.
On top of that we have familiar heroes, all attacking the Man of Steel on page 4,showing how formidable even seemingly less useful powers like stretching and freezing can be–they really give a battle-worn Superman a run for his money.
Moving on, some great texture work by Bogdanove and Janke on the pages where Dubbilex rescues the proper owner of his beloved Mobius chair, and Kirby dots abound, appropriately.
As good as Bog is with the New Gods, it’s when we get to Captain Marvel, fighting alongside Infinity Man (page 7) that we get what is probably the perfect marriage of character and artist we see in this storyline, as Bogdanove’s Captain Marvel looks torn right from the old 40s comics–and yet, not at all out of place. He even lacks the shadows or rendering other characters get, which makes him pop all the more, in a pleasing way. While Jerry Ordway defined Cap for a generation (and even beyond, as the reliably excellent Geoff Johns sourced much of Jerry’s Power of Shazam! in his handling of the Marvels in JSA) these pages really make a guy wish Bogdanove had a longer run with Billy.
PANEL OF THE WEEK: If I hadn’t JUST picked a Billy panel for panel of the week, the above might have gotten it, because it’s just so awesome. But this week it goes to the two-panel exchange in the middle of page 9, with the hardened, sultry Maxima being reasoned to by the innocent and coltish Supergirl. It’s a great look at both women, and what makes them different. Plus, zip-a-tone,which I always love seeing.
Another excellent interpretation of a non-Superman character comes on page 12, when Batman and Nightwing plunge into battle against some of Brainiac’s cannon fodder. Much later in the Zero Hour days, Bogdanove has a field day drawing Batman, but here he looks extremely comfortable with a unique, moody looking Batman (kudos also to the colourist on that page–really dig the dark grays against the muted navy on Batman’s costume).
As the story progresses, page 15 has one of the famed panels that know-nothings thought was the pre-cursor to the "Death of Superman" storyline (the other one comes in another issue very soon) where Brainiac pushes a button to release a “Doomsday” weapon. In this case, it is, apparently, a cattle skull. [Max: Fart shooter! FART SHOOTER, I SAY!]
Storywise, this issue really has a lot going on–the possessed heroes, the home front, Brainiac’s secret weapon, a sacrifice, and then another villain turning coat and joining our allies. Phew! Can’t wait for next week!
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
Page 1–Is that all-red middle panel a visual homage to the end of the Alan Moore classic (and one of his rare rape-free stories) “For the Man Who Has Everything” when the lineup of different aliens all bow before Mongul’s warworld? Sort of puts me in that mind, somehow.
Page 5–A bald guy in a chair commanding heroes wearing X’s to fight? Is that a wink at the top-selling x-books of the day?
Pretty major colouring error on Dubbilex’s horns on page 7 (the Cap/Infinity panels above).
Mr Miracle’s shifty eye darting back at Barda makes me wonder if he isn’t getting something out of “saving” the curvy new Dr. Fate.
A small detail, but I really appreciated the lack of a nose on Mr Miracle on page 11. So often his mask is drawn as essentially a plastic coating over a normal face, but, of all people, the cartoonish Mr. Bogdanove grounds that character in some reality with this panel. [Max: And I appreciate how creeped out everyone is to hear Metron laugh. Apparently Dubbilex is a bad influence.]
Whoaaaa! Talk about prescient–Bogdanove draws Supergirl looking exactly like Laura Vandervoort of Smallville fame on page 14. Like, exactly!
Flash running in place like a Bugs Bunny character is pretty awesome.
This is a super weird art thing to comment on, but I have to say, Jon Bogdanove does a great job of drawing Supergirl’s chest area. I’m not saying this in a pervy way, but (especially in the 90s) artists really struggled with this challenge, either making human breasts look like bowling balls, or the dreaded uni-boob, or, more often, like the costumes are painted on. But Bogdamove manages to make Supergirl’s physicality realistic, unexaggerated, and also affected by the fabric she wears. As an artist, it’s a tricky feat, and Bog does it well all issue.
The redheads in this story get some goooofy panels this time out.
I knew he borrowed the eye design from his mask, but it appears on the last page as though Deathstroke also has Spider sense.
Oh boy. Brainiac is so mad he turned orange. [Max: Not on the collected TPB! Yet another reason to buy it.]
