World of Metropolis #1 (August 1988)
World of Metropolis #1 (August 1988)
Perry White’s secret origin! And also the secret origin of his son Jerry, who is not actually his son Jerry. I mean, he’s still Jerry, but he’s not really Perry’s son. They got rhyming names for nothing.
This issue is the first time we ever learn that Perry White was best friends with Lex Luthor when they were kids. Not just pals or acquaintances: the comic specifically says “BEST FRIENDS.” Then Perry became a daring action reporter at the Daily Planet and went to Southeast Asia for a while, and when he came back he found that Lex, now a millionaire, was about to buy the Planet just to close it. Oh, and also, he’s been sleeping with Perry’s girlfriend (first Ma Kent and now Alice White – what’s with women sleeping with other dudes while their boyfriends are in war zones in these World of… comics?).
Perry manages to get a bunch of investors to buy the Daily Planet before Lex can do it, on the condition that he stop chasing stories and settle down to be the newspaper’s editor. Perry then reconciles with Alice and they get married. Soon afterwards Alice tells Perry she’s pregnant and they’re super excited… but then she wistfully looks at the LexCorp tower, implying Lex is the dad. Gotta love the symbolism there.
Character-Watch:
Future comics will confirm that Jerry White is in fact Lex’s son. So now we know why the kid is such a hooligan: he’s a Luthor. Evil runs in his blood, as well as alopecia.
Also, there’s a seriously amazing scene where Perry comes out of his editor’s office cursing and screaming at everyone, when he notices there’s a group of third graders being given a tour of the offices. One of them, a little girl named Lois, says “You tell ‘em Mr. White!” The idea that Lois Lane would be a fan of a random newspaper reporter at age eight is patently ridiculous, but I like it. She also knows more about the Planet’s history than the guy doing the tour, which probably means she didn’t have any friends growing up.
Plotline-Watch:
Lex will follow through his promise to buy and close the Planet in like ten years (during the sarcastically named “Save the Planet!” storyline), but at that point no one will remember that him and Perry were pals. Mainly because Lex will be way younger than Perry by then, because comics.
WTF-Watch:
This issue starts with Superman punching Shrek, for no particular reason.
You can’t tell me that’s not Shrek. That’s freaking Shrek.
See comments on Tumblr: https://superman86to99.tumblr.com/post/70005820167/world-of-metropolis-1-august-1988-perry#disqus_thread
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