Re-Week: Action Comics #687

[skjam]

It's time for another Re-Week post (looking forward to seeing everyone else's!)

This time we look at Re-ign of the Supermen and the re-turn of...well, you'll see.



7 & 1/3 pages of 22.



Okay, so back in 1993, DC Comics killed off Superman. Huge event, made all the papers. But of course everyone knew perfectly well that there was no way in the multiverse that Superman was going to *stay* dead. So the next big plotline in the Superman-related comics was dedicated to just how exactly Superman was going to come back. Or was he?

It's Tuesday, and some researchers in Antarctica as observing an unusually intense aurora australias and out of season lightning storm. This is the most interesting weather they've had in ten years. It might be the hole in the ozone layer, but the region it's centered in is known for unusual electromagnetic phenomena already.

In the Fortress of Solitude, the Kryptonese robots are using an energy globe to regather the essence of a fallen being. They've only gathered 98% of this essence, but it gives decent odds of recorporation.

In side the globe, a vaguely humanoid energy being snaps into self-awareness. Its memories are vague, but it recalls a battle and needs to get ourside.



The figure is immaterial, but can affect energy-run gadgets, like the monitor Professor Hamilton modified to record satellite transmissions. The playback gives a quick recap of the whole Doomsday event, and Superman's death. The figure is upset by this, then realizes the true power of Superman must still be in the body.

At Centennial Park, 4:27 AM, the crowds around the Superman Memorial have thinned down to a cop, a religious fellow, and a homeless woman. The cop is called away by crime, the religious fellow wraps up his prayer, and the homeless woman is so pleased to be borrowing one of the pretty flowers mourners left behind that she doesn't notice the glowing energy being.



The figure is now solid and has blue-black hair. It takes the cape, then discovers a secret passage outside the tomb. The passage is lit, and the figure is gravely concerned when that light hurts its eyes. After all, "I have stared into the sun!" It decides to head back to the Fortress to investigate.

Meanwhile, Bibbo is talking to Superman up in Heaven. He's still haunted by his failure to restart Superman's heart. As he opens a box of Superman merchandise, Bibbo recalls how his favorite superhero decided to give all the money from it to charity. Violent crime and clinical depression are rising in Metropolis, and no matter how hard Supergirl and Gangbuster try, it doesn't seem to be enough.



You go, Bibbo.

The mysterious figure praises Krypton and the House of El. Despite his newfound inability to absorb solar radiation, the Fortress' regeneration matrix keeps him powered up. He's found a visor to protect his no longer supernormal eyes, Instead of heat vision, he now has energy blasts, and can thankfully still fly. He needs to be a bit more careful exactly what he's blasting though; damaged the Fortress.

The news from Metropolis is grim. Violent crime, suicide, out of control fires, nutty cultists worshiping Superman's corpse... If only Superman would return!



Back in Metropolis, a ski-masked thug is assaulting a woman, and apparently about to rape her. Superman bursts in through the wall, and proves to be immune to bullets.



"I mean, it's not like there's going to be this huge event where anyone who's died in the DC Universe comes back as a superpowered zombie, right?"

A carjacker gets third-degree burns and several broken bones. A boat smuggling heroin is sunk with all hands. A cat burglar gets off lucky with just being tied to a seventh-story flagpole.

And Superman's body is missing! Could it be that the more violent and judgemental Superman we're seeing is the real resurrected deal? Lex Luthor, Jr. (secretly Lex Luthor Sr. in a cloned body) sure wants to know. Especially as his spy cameras have a twenty-four hour blank space where the robbing of Superman's tomb should be. Supergirl (Matrix) storms into the office despite the best efforts of Lexcorp guards.



A plane is about to crash, but Superman is able to bring it down gently. Less gentle is his assessment of the pilot--"He cannot be revived." People surround Superman looking for answers, but only Lois Lane gets flown away with.




In hindsight, of course, we know this is actually the Eradicator, a Kryptonian artificial intelligence who grows into something closer to a genuine hero.

And a special treat, the poster that came with the issue:





Your thoughts and comments?

Comments

[richardak]

Ah, a stroll down memory lane. I remember thinking at the time that, of the four Superman titles then being published, Action had the best writing but the worst art. It's funny, because I've seen other things that Guice has drawn since then that I thought were fine, but I did not, and do not, like his work on this title, although my reaction isn't as visceral looking at it now. But like I said, I thought Stern was doing the best writing of the four.

Which was a shame, because I also thought that the Eradicator-Superman, a.k.a. the Last Son of Krypton, had the best design of the four. In fact, if it were up to me to modernize Superman's costume, this would be the direction I'd go (definitely not those idiotic-looking armored booties).

This era of Superman comics also had by far my favorite version of Supergirl. I really miss the Matrix-Supergirl. She had a great origin story, a pretty unique power set (shape-shifting and psychokinesis), and she was simultaneously Clark's little sister and Lex' lover. Her having a foot in both camps made it possible to tell some really interesting and unique stories about her, and I have always thought that DC never fully realized the character's potential.

For that matter, they also more or less got rid of the Eradicator after this story-line. He basically died at the end, but then his body came back with an entirely new personality, which kind of missed the point of the character. He/it was a fascinating character as well. Of course, he really had a second life, so to speak, as Brainiac, because the versions of Brainiac used in Superman: The Animated Series and in Smallville were really much more closely based on the Eradicator than on any version of Brainiac that had ever appeared in the comics to that point.

Anyway, sorry for the long and rambling comment. What can I say? (Too much, I know.) You really triggered my nostalgia. Thanks for posting this.