Superman: The Man of Steel #9 (March 1992)
Superman: The Man of Steel #9 (March 1992)
PANIC IN THE SKY, Part 1 – Brainiac's skullship does Metropolis! This story has the awesome title of "POWER BREAKFAST" and absolutely earns it. Clark Kent is having breakfast with Lois Lane when a spaceship shaped like Brainiac's head invades the city and starts shooting shit up. While Lois shoplifts a disposable camera to take pictures of the carnage, Clark strips down to his monkey suit and flies off to tussle with the ship (and its giant tentacles, which I guess represent Brainiac's mustache).
Superman breaks into the ship and goes looking for Brainiac, but there's only clunky retro-style robots in there. The thing is on autopilot, apparently. Superman receives a psychic assault from Brainiac, who (as we saw the previous week) doesn't need this spaceship anymore because he's got a planet-sized one now – and it's coming to invade Earth. At the same time, some of Superman's friends across Metropolis are trying to tell him about the space invasion, in case he missed the flying skull destroying all those buildings:
In Project Cadmus, Dubbilex the telepath sensed Brainiac's proximity (they go way back) and mentally warns Superman that the Earth is in danger.
At Professor Hamilton's lab, Ham is trying to reach Superman through a sonic device that sends frequencies only he can hear, but Bibbo happens to be there and tries a less subtle approach:
All that mental noise actually helps Superman overcome Brainiac's psychic attack and he escapes the ship, then drops it on the bay. And, since Brainiac was considerate enough to tell Superman he's coming to invade the Earth, Supes realizes he's gonna need a little help to beat him this time…
NEXT ISSUE: A SHITLOAD OF GUEST STARS!
Plotline-Watch:
Here's a panel of Bibbo, Jimmy Olsen and Professor Hamilton eating donuts (courtesy of Hamilton's beloved Mildred Krantz):
That yellow envelope Jimmy is carrying contains the robot photos he got developed last week. He was on his way to sell them to the Daily Planet when the invasion started and he decided he'd better go make sure his mom's building wasn't pulverized by Brainiac. On the way there Jimmy bumps into Colin Thornton, Newstime Magazine owner and failed politician (among other things), who sees the photos and offers to buy them on the spot. Jimmy's so excited, he even forgets his mom might be in mortal danger for a minute there.
Perry White is negotiating his new contract with the Planet's owner, Mr. Ling, when the fancy elevated restaurant they're in gets zapped by a death ray. Perry (once again) organizes the panicked crowd and some guy (the waiter?) tells Mr. Ling, "Oh boy, you should pay that man a lot of money!" Judging by Ling's face, he's not buying it. I bet he thinks Perry organized the whole stunt.
The world's unluckiest orphanage (the one that got a drunken Bibbo instead of Santa for Christmas) also gets hit by a ray, but they get help from the world's unluckiest superhero: Gangbuster saves Myra the orphanage lady from getting crushed by a wall. Yep, as long as Gangbuster lives in Metropolis, Myra shall forever remain safe from falling walls.
More commentary from our pal Don Sparrow (including the awesome Fleischer cartoon tribute in this issue that I completely missed) below the cut!
Art-Watch (by donsparrow):
One of my favourite storylines in the whole run of Superman continues here, with a real eye-grabber of a cover. Bogdanove and Janke create an amazing, realistic city-scape, and also bring back one of the coolest designs from any era, Brainiac’s skull ship. You know at a glance this is a serious, big deal storyline. The one detail I really want to highlight about this cover is the pencil-like shading on the ‘face" of Brainiac’s ship–it really gives it a dull, metallic finish that, like the background, really sells the reality of this amazing visual. My guess is that it was done with grease-pencil, but I don’t know for sure.
As the issue opens, we get a Yoda-like Dubbilex sensing a disturbance in the force (great psychedelic background on that first panel!) and we’re off and running with city-shaking damage. I never get tired of the visual of Clark tearing his shirt to reveal the Superman crest, and it’s done well here (page 2–in the first of many homages, the Maxwell & Luber camera shop is a reference to Robert Maxwell and Bernard Luber, producers of the Reeves “Adventures of Superman” Mole Man film and series–though I guess the first homage is actually the Panic in the Sky title).
Page 3’s full page splash leaps off the page (almost literally) and looks great. Page 6’s elevated train is a great, accurate piece of the city, as well. The issue is pretty much wall-to-wall action, and it’s a real change of pace from the quiet Christmas issues that came before this week’s book. The effect on the first panel of page 9 (see the first image on this post) is another neat visual, especially given the print limitations of the time. I love that the art teams push the envelope of what was possible with 4 colour pulp coloring (ditto page 15’s psychic attack).
Speaking of psychic attacks, the warped look as Brainiac tortures Superman mentally is spooky as heck, as is the Vincent Price looking Brainiac permeating behind him. The eyeballs recall a by-gone Ghostbusters toy, and the pain is very palpable with Superman’s baroque twisted physique.
Finally, the shot of Superman crashing out of Brainac’s ship is an awesome visual on page 19, and while pop culture stuff is always touchy with a timeless character like Superman (I remember a particularly tone-deaf issue in the late 90s when Clark claimed to be a Beastie Boys fan).
I kinda like the idea of Clark listening to Beatles records. And that last page splash reveal of Brainiac’s team(Maxima, Matrix/Supergirl and Draaga) is pretty intimidating. Man, this is an awesome storyline.
PANEL OF THE WEEK: Panel 2, page 7: In the most direct homage of the week, Superman fighting the particle beam from Brainiac’s ship recalls the Fleischer cartoon “The Mad Scientist” where Superman punches a laser beam back into its barrel, and it’s a great update.
I love keeping the rim lighting and seeing the physical strain as Superman inches his way toward the source of the beam. The homage to the Fleischer cartoons continues as Superman battles the robots on page 11-13, but among some amazing panels, #2 of page 7 is this week’s champ.
STRAY OBSERVATIONS:
A minor quibble, especially considering the great colouring effects throughout the issue, but in my copy, Lois’ jacket goes from brown on page 3 to burgundy on page 4. [Max: And then back to brown on the next panel! You deserve another non-Baldy Award, Don.]
Man, what’s with all the product placement for Sugar Floops? (See the Dubbilex panel above.) And does Raof get a cut?
“Look at Perry White! It’s worth any salary to retain a man who so instantly assumes it’s his place to bark orders at other people!”
Speaking of any salary, the letterer deserves a raise with all these awesome sound effects on page 12 alone: “Gatoom!” “Ktkrazh!: "Krassumf!” That last one sounds like an international translation of “Smurf” to me. [Max: I like the multiple instances of "ZOT!" throughout the issue, too. The letterer must be a Scott McCloud fan.]
His style may be more fluid than Jurgens’, Ordway’s, or Grummett’s, but man, I love how Bogdanove excels at differing body types. Superman looks different than Gangbuster, who looks different from David Ling; Myra looks different from Maxima, who looks different from Supergirl–it’s a real feat to pull it all off, and Bog always seems to.
How many times is Jimmy going to crash, limbs akimbo as he walks into someone else? [Max: Not nearly enough.]
