Meet Diode, The Invincible as well as the most evil bad guys evahr!

[paultmd]

I got into comics in the 90s largely because of The Death of Superman. As the decade ended, my interest in comics waned and I left for a while. Before I gave up the hobby, though, I picked up a few sporadic books and one of them was Action Comics #756. I recently came across the book again and thought I'd share some of it with you guys, as it's really pretty fun.



The book starts with a previously-unknown supervillain, Diode, recounting his brush with fame, as he had beaten down Superman with his energy-blasting trident weapon, called his Power Fork. In a moment of distraction(a meta groupie hits on him), Superman breaks his Power Fork and explains he was playing possum. We then see that he's in a retirement home and trading stories with other ex-supervillains, none of whom were ever remarkably successful



We then are introduced to Doc Omega and the Doomslayers, who are rampaging across the Midwest, killing anybody and everybody they can, just because they're evil like that.



Completely ignorant of this rampage, Diode goes to work on rebuilding his suit and Power Fork to prove to his housemates that he can succeed where they all failed.



Diode arrives in Bloomfield coincidentally as the Doomslayers arrive in a different part of town. When he gets to the bank to rob it, they assume he's one of them and run in fear, assuming he's there to slaughter them. Superman arrives and, not recognizing him from before, also assumes he's one of them, while the real Doomslayers kill Bloomfield's local hero, Emerald Don.

Meanwhile, Diode is having trouble with his new "and improved" suit and accidentally destroys part of a nearby building, endangering everybody inside. Diode panics, not wanting to kill anybody, and tries to flee, when he sees the damage the Doomslayers are doing not far away.



Diode joins Superman in taking down the Doomslayers when Doc Omega pulls his trump card.



So what IS he going to do next? Retire Peacefully, with his housemates gruffly upset that he finally outshone them.

Comments

[sevarem]

LOL forever at the awesome 90s X-TREME armor.

[auggie18]

...I am beyond glad that "grrl" fell out of use. Words should have vowels, damnnit.

Doc Omega and the Doomslayers are so 90s and over the top that they actually become fairly awesome. It's kinda cute, in a weird way.

A thought

[equinox216]

Given the nature of her... frontispiece, could one non-objectifyingly compliment Bitter Ruth on her 'nice rack'?

[silverzeo]

WHo isn't Big McLarge Huge?

[arilou_skiff]

D'aw

[glprime]

"There are more responsible ways to go out with dignity. Find one."

This may just be me, but I like how many ways this can read. 1) Supes is giving genuine, folksy wisdom, 2) Supes is a being a callous dick, not caring about lesser beings and their grappling with mortality/weakness 3) Supes is more than a little irritated and would rather take care of the problems he can handle than try and fix things people can work out on their own (my personal favorite; thus why I hated Grounded so much).

[aaron_bourque]

Oh, they're trying to get me to take this seriously. It's almost cute how they think this isn't generic and bland 90s drek.