Superman #41 (March 1990)
Superman #41 (March 1990) Day of the Krypton Man, Part 1! Superman’s growing assholeness from the past issues reaches a boiling point. That’s seriously what...
Action Comics #650 (February 1990)
Action Comics #650 (February 1990) ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Several short stories, loosely connected by the running theme of how others see Superman: In space,...
Adventures of Superman #463 (February 1990)
Adventures of Superman #463 (February 1990) Mr. Mxyzptlk forces Superman and Flash to race around the world to find out who’s faster. WHO COULD IT BE?!...
Superman #40 (February 1990)
Superman #40 (February 1990) Superman vs. the Four-Armed Terror, who has a pretty self-explanatory name: he has four arms and is scary. More villains should...
Action Comics #649 (January 1990)
Action Comics #649 (January 1990) The Brainiac Trilogy, Last Part! Brainiac debuts a sexy new body, and a sexy new spaceship shaped like his head. As seen in...
Adventures of Superman #462 (January 1990)
Adventures of Superman #462 (January 1990) The Daily Planet’s intern, Alice, has been living in a storage closet for the past three years and no one noticed...
Superman #39 (January 1990)
Superman #39 (January 1990) The ‘90s are here! You probably thought a mullet would instantly appear on the back of Superman’s head as soon as we reached...
Action Comics #648 (December 1989)
Action Comics #648 (December 1989) The Brainiac Trilogy, Part 2: Superman vs. Metallo! And Metallo, and Metallo, and Metallo, and Metallo, and Metallo. They...
Adventures of Superman #461 (December 1989)
Adventures of Superman #461 (December 1989) Superman (maybe?) travels back in time and meets his birth parents. Unfortunately, they can’t catch up properly...
Metropolis Mailbag: Anon likes us?
Anonymous asked: Keep the good work! Thanks! Have a Baldy Award.
Superman #38 (December 1989)
Superman #38 (December 1989) Remember that time Metropolis got hit by a tsunami? I didn’t! It’s weird that when Metropolis had another type of disaster in...
Action Comics #647 (November 1989)
Action Comics #647 (November 1989) Yes! Finally! “The Brainiac Trilogy,” part one of three! Or part one of seven, if you count all the parts in between that...
Adventures of Superman #460 (November 1989)
Adventures of Superman #460 (November 1989) It’s Superman vs. the cosmic egg his grandpa’s grandpa made: Round Two! And this time, the egg wins. So, last...
Superman #37 (November 1989)
Superman #37 (November 1989) Jimmy Olsen hates Superman, and punches him with a flying car. Unfortunately other kids happen to be in the car at the time,...
Action Comics #646 (October 1989)
Action Comics #646 (October 1989) Continuing Superman’s brief antarctic excursion: now he gets swallowed by a giant bug. You know, one of those pesky giant...
Adventures of Superman #459 (October 1989)
Adventures of Superman #459 (October 1989) Superman finally realizes that the Eradicator gizmo he found in space might be evil, so he decides to toss it in a...
Superman #36 (October 1989)
Superman #36 (October 1989) I don’t even need to do a recap for this one because it’s all right there in the cover (but I’ll do it anyway): The Prankster...
Action Comics #645 (September 1989)
Action Comics #645 (September 1989) Introducing Maxima, the space lady who wants to get inside Superman’s pants! Or underpants, technically, I guess. She...
Adventures of Superman #458 (September 1989)
Adventures of Superman #458 (September 1989) This cover with Jimmy Olsen stretching his arms unnaturally isn’t symbolic of his inner struggles or something....
Metropolis Mailbag: Deathurge?
thebibliomancer asked: Do you suppose Deathurge from Great Lakes Avengers is a reference to Black Racer? It would be kind of weird for both Marvel and DC to...
Superman #35 (September 1989)
Superman #35 (September 1989) Two stories for the price of one! Neither of them features Superman, though: one is about Brainiac and the other about Morgan...
Action Comics #644 (August 1989)
Action Comics #644 (August 1989) Superman vs. Supergirl, who is looking quite… different now. That’s her up there on the cover, with the grey costume, red...
Adventures of Superman #457 (August 1989)
Adventures of Superman #457 (August 1989) Apparently, those goofballs at Intergang are still mad at some Daily Planet reporters for blowing the lid off their...
Superman #34 (August 1989)
Superman #34 (August 1989) Skyhook, the only Superman villain who is a hideous flying child abductor, is back! Finally. Remember like twenty issues ago when...
Superman '86 to '99 on Twitter!
Hey! Here’s your monthly reminder that this blog now has a Twitter account:https://twitter.com/superman86to99 (It’s just an automatic thing set up to notify...
Action Comics #643 (July 1989)
Action Comics #643 (July 1989) Superman is back on Earth! In fact, he’s so happy to be back home after his long exile in space, that the he could hug Jimmy...
Adventures of Superman #456 (July 1989)
Adventures of Superman #456 (July 1989) Last chapter of Superman’s Exile in Space! While wandering around in other galaxies, Superman came across an artifact...
Superman #33 (July 1989)
Superman #33 (July 1989) Superman’s exile in space takes him to the Korean War. Yes, I know Korea isn’t in space (despite what their splendid propaganda...
Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography (1989)
Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography (1989) Lex Luthor’s secret origin! This is a heavy one. We start with Lex Luthor getting cozy to watch a tape with a...
Adventures of Superman #455 (June 1989)
Adventures of Superman #455 (June 1989) Superman meets the Eradicator, an ancient relic from Krypton’s past! And he’s so excited that he forgets to close his...
Metropolis Mailbag: Why '99?
smilergroganthings asked: Hey, whats up? I like this blog, but I can't help but wonder why you want to stop at 1999. To me, that's when Superman actually got...
Superman #32 (June 1989)
Superman #32 (June 1989) In this issue: Mongul punches Gladiator Superman right in the beard! Big mistake, Mongul. Never mess with the beard. After the...
Action Comics Annual #2 (1989)
Action Comics Annual #2 (1989) Superman: SPACE GLADIATOR! Also, we learn a dark secret of Krypton’s past! I’m not sure, but this might be the greatest...
Adventures of Superman #454 (May 1989)
Adventures of Superman #454 (May 1989) Superman is sold into slavery… in space! Space slavery! Spacevery! I’ll shut up now. When we last saw Superman in...
Superman #31 (May 1989)
Superman #31 (May 1989) Superman doesn’t appear at all in this issue, but they made up for it by featuring an extra large one in the cover. Very nice of...
Adventures of Superman #453 (April 1989)
Adventures of Superman #453 (April 1989) Superman is tripping balls in space, hallucinating dead villains and talking to himself. Maybe that all that “grass”...
Superman #30 (April 1989)
Superman #30 (April 1989) In this issue, Superman becomes a space farmer. Not in the “someone who farms actual space” sense, but in the more mundane “someone...
Adventures of Superman #452 (March 1989)
Adventures of Superman #452 (March 1989) Part two of the two-part Hfuhruhurr story, and part three of the 23385267-part “Superman in Space!” saga (it might...
Superman #29 (March 1989)
Superman #29 (March 1989) Everyone’s favorite villain is back: yes, Hfuhruhurr, the alien who turned an entire city in South Dakota into a gelatinous monster...
Adventures of Superman #451 (February 1989)
Adventures of Superman #451 (February 1989) SUPERMAN IS MISSING! In completely unrelated news, a reporter who looks exactly likes Superman is presumed dead....
Superman #28 (February 1989)
Superman #28 (February 1989) Superman’s in space. Superman’s in spa-a-ace. Whatcha doin’ out there man? Anyway, um, in Adventures #450 Superman decided to...
Metropolis Mailbag: Loeb era?
sideshowcris asked: What is your opinion of the era that came right after this one, when Loeb/Kelly/Casey took over but before Birthright? You've been fairly...
Adventures of Superman #450 (January 1989)
Adventures of Superman #450 (January 1989) ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! To mark this special occasion, in this issue Superman realizes he’s crazy and goes to live in...
Metropolis Mailbag: Why not Birthright?
Anonymous asked: Why is '99 the continuity cutoff date? Wasn't "Birthright" (2003) the first major post-Crisis recon? The first reason is that from ‘86 to...
Superman #27 (January 1989)
Superman #27 (January 1989) Guardian vs. Gangbuster! Fun fact: At first sight this looks like the rare Superman cover that doesn’t feature Superman in it,...
Adventures of Superman #449 (December 1988)
Adventures of Superman #449 (December 1988) Superman is missing! Will he ever turn up? Of course he will, because the cover image spoiled that part for us....
Metropolis Mailbag: Pa lives?
mediocreartisan asked: The thing I've really come to appreciate about this era is, Jonathan Kent doesn't die. In most other iterations, Clark "matures" into...
Metropolis Mailbag: Flash blog?
justerino asked: I discovered this your tumblr through the recent Cracked article you wrote, and I love both of them dearly. My question is: would it be ok...
Superman #26 (December 1988)
Superman #26 (December 1988) Superman versus a voodoo killer, and also aliens, and also himself! (So, more aliens.) Since Superman #20, Maggie Sawyer and her...
Adventures of Superman #448 (December 1988)
Adventures of Superman #448 (December 1988) How are we still in December? Well, as some of you might remember, the year of 1988 actually had three months of...