Superman: The Man of Steel #31 (March 1994)
Superman: The Man of Steel #31 (March 1994)
The plague hits Metropolis! The clone plague, that is. Not as in "man, there are a lot of clones in this comic all of a sudden" (there are, but I don't mind), but as in "clones are dying for some mysterious reason." The first tragic victim is a giant frog called Bubble-Up, one of the Underworlders who helped Lois Lane retrieve Superman's corpse from Project Cadmus back in "Funeral for a Friend." (As a reminder, "Underworlders" are failed cloning experiments created by Cadmus who ended up living in the sewers under Metropolis, so they're mostly clones down there, along with some random homeless people and the occasional alien.)
The Underworlders are convinced that Cadmus created this plague to kill them off and want to hit them back. Some, like Lois' long-time homeless informant Charlie, think that attacking Cadmus would only give them an excuse to wipe out the Underworlders, but the others brush him off and are like "Wake up, sheeple!" (Literally, since at least one of them has the head of a ram.) So, Charlie and the less beligerent Underworlders come up with a brilliant plan to prevent a war: they kidnap Cadmus' Director Westfield to persuade him to stop using "germ warfare" against the clones. Yeah, that'll calm everyone down.
The nastiest Underworlders (Clawster and Rambeau from Death and Return of Superman video game fame) want a war with Cadmus at all costs, even if it means killing Charlie. Now that Superman's back on Earth after his little space tour, Clawster and pals orchestrate several acts of sabotage around Metropolis to keep him occupied while the conflict rages on. Superman figures out what's going on just a second too late to save Charlie from sacrificing his life to save Westfield.
Superman stops the fight and vows to find out if the plague was made by Cadmus, but the Underworlders aren't willing to wait for that because, well, they'll die any moment now. Westfield doesn't seem too convinced that the Underworlders are a peaceful bunch, either. There's a big battle in the horizon – a Battle for Metropolis™, you might say!
Character-Watch:
Rest in piece Bubble-Up, Teletype (the seal with psychic powers), and Charlie, whom I unfairly dubbed "Charlie the Ungrateful Hobo" in his first appearance (Man of Steel #17) because he seemed to repay Lois' continued kindness by joining a violent Underworld revolution to overthrow the surface world. However, on the next issue we found out that Charlie only joined up to spy on the revolutionaries for Lois, so I apologized for my assumption. He'd remained a voice of reason among the Underworlders since then, so he'll be missed.
Plotline-Watch:
So, are all the clones in Metropolis affected by the plague? Guardian seems to be fine, but we hear that the Newsboy Legion isn't doing so well, and on the last page we see that Lex Luthor Jr. is losing his hair – and reacts so badly that he fires his hairstylist, the same one who did his hair for Superman's funeral (he won't be needing one pretty soon, anyway). Don Sparrow says: "Getting a real Meshach Taylor as Hollywood Montrose vibe from Lex's now-former hairstylist."
The first hint that Lex isn't doing well was actually in last month's Supergirl #1, when Dr. Kelley notices he looks off and he says he's just "a bit tired." It's only once his beloved hair starts going that Lex takes his illness seriously, which seems pretty in character for him.
The first thing Superman does upon returning to Earth is help a couple whose car is snowed in by melting the ice with his heat vision. Don says:"Living in frigid Canada, I can appreciate the idea of Superman's assist with melting the snow on page 8, but that car would be untouchably hot for a long time after, wouldn't it?" Not to mention that Superman's powers are currently out of whack, so they’re lucky he didn’t end up melting the entire car.
Right after that, the owner of a flower shop throws Superman a bouquet of flowers as thanks for saving his brother's hot dog stand from alien invaders at some point. This gives him some extra points with the fiancée once he stops by her place in a sappy (but deserved, because they've even away for a while) scene.
The clone plague is so strong that it even changes your skin color! Charlie's friend Grub has always been white but he's black in this issue (that's him on the first image on this post). Also, note that Charlie started dying his hair brown at some point.
Patreon-Watch:
This post was made possible by the Superman ‘86 to ‘99 Patreon’s pals, Aaron, Murray Qualie, Chris "Ace" Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Hank Curry, and our new friend Bol, who got to read Don Sparrow's section two weeks ago (because Don finished it before me; he's the second fastest typist I've ever seen). Here it is for everyone else:
Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):
I have a few guesses as to why there are so many fill-ins within a short period. The likely scenario is that the Super-team has fairly recently completed the huge “Return of Superman” storyline, and are taking a well-deserved break. And the Superman/Doomsday: Hunter Prey mini-series is being created more or less at the same time as these issues, requiring a helping hand for an issue or two. But my real theory is that these fill-ins are unofficial auditions for a more permanent spot on the creative team. We saw this back when Tom Grummett seemingly randomly did an issue or two of Action Comics, before he got the permanent gig. In the coming weeks, we'll see a "fill-in" from Stuart Immonen, who will eventually be the full-time guy. So this issue, drawn by Green Lantern's Mark Bright (sometimes credited as MD Bright) is an interesting look at what might have been. Bright would have been a natural fit for Man of Steel in particular, as Louise Simonson's scripts have always focused on the black community of Metropolis to a degree not seen in the other titles. To have a black artist working regularly on these stories would have been an interesting partnership.
Anyway, about the actual artwork--Bogdanove, the regular penciler does do cover honours, and while the concept is very in keeping with Bog's typical Shuster/Fleischer type posture, as Superman straining under the weight of something massive is a very golden age look, modernized with the laser battle behind him. I will admit this one looks a tad rushed for a cover, but it's still good to keep Bog's artwork streak alive for another issue.
Inside, on the first page Bright gives the Underworlders a realism we don't always see from Bogdanove's looser, more pleasantly cartoony style. It's used to good effect as there's nothing funny about the dying of the giant frog--in fact it's quite poignant--despite the potential silliness of that sentence on its face.
A page later we get a pretty great double page splash of Superman plowing through a meteor on his way back to Earth, and while I generally don't love motion lines, this one does really convey some speed and power.
I gotta say, I've never been a fan of the Underworlders, so their sequence doesn't hold a ton of my interest, but I really love the way Bright draws the shine on Guardian's helmet. Back to above ground, I always like it when cold weather is shown in Metropolis, and that image of Superman flying through the snowfall is a great one.
The rocky texture on Clawster's face is well rendered on page 11, and I do love a good superfeats montage, like we see on page 12-13. Not having been a fan of Clawster, ever, I did appreciate seeing him get uppercut by Superman, though it's otherwise a pretty action-less ending for the story.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS
We don't get a ton of hints about Superman's growing power level in this issue, unless we're supposed to read it that way when Superman zaps the Wolfman from Star Wars when trying to prevent the dynamite sabotage.
Charlie's death was the big moment from this issue, but part of me couldn't help but wonder if he was expendable because they realized how much he looks like Professor Hamilton. [Max: Hmm, dunno, he looks more like George Carlin to me in this issue. RIP, either way.]
