Adventures of Superman #545 (April 1997)

The 1990s are often the butt of jokes from comic book fans. I understand why, personally. There was a lot of rough stuff in comics at time. *cough*Liefeld*cough* Not to mention the comic book industry nearly collapsed. But there were some hidden gems during that time. One of them was Superman's titles.

At the time, the Man of Steel had multiple books, and if you've read this blog, you may know I'm a bit of a fan of this era of his books. Every ten months, the creatives of these titles would hold a "Super-Summit" to discuss and plan out new adventures for the Metropolis Marvel.

Colorist Glenn Whitmore was a fan of Superman #162 (July 1963), which contained the classic Silver Age tale "The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue!". In these Super-Summits, he would always pitch to the Superman team the idea of doing a modernized take on that tale. But it would always get laughed off. There was talk of giving Superman a new costume after The Death of Superman, but it ended up not amounting to much. Just the temporary black "recovery" costume Supeman wore during that storyline. It was felt that his classic suit should be kept to firmly establish he was back.

The idea to change up Superman's powers came from Karl Kesel. He felt that it would make some interesting new challenges and stories for the Man of Steel. Superman's powers have been raised and lowered over the years, but never outright changed. Giving him new powers would also have been a great excuse to give him a new outfit. All the Superman artists at the time took cracks at Supes' new look, but it was Ron Frenz's design that would win out, as it was felt his design best reflected Superman's new energy-based power set.

At the time, the storylines these "Super-Summits" would conceive would last about six to ten weeks. This new status quo would last quite a bit longer than that, as the creatives wanted to maximize the potential of Superman dealing with these brand-spanking new powers. Glenn Whitmore would get his wish the next year as Superman's transformation into an energy being would later cause him to split into a pair of Supermen, but that's another tale.

And with that out of the way, let's take a look at Adventures of Superman #545!

The cover is pretty neat. It's a Stuart Immonen piece. You got Superman having an electrical headache "THIS BIG", heh heh. It's not something you expect to see on a Superman cover. I also like the narration on the cover. It's like the narrator is thinking as they narrate: "...new powers?! Wait, what?!" It just amuses me.

"Power Crisis!"
Writer: Karl Kesel
Penciler: Scot Eaton
Inker: Jose Marzan, Jr.
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Letterer: Albert Deguzman
Editors: Joey Cavalieri, Mike McAvennie

The story begins with Superman making a call to his then-friend Emil Hamilton.

The Man of Steel's powers have been going a bit wonky lately, and he understandably wants to get checked out. He hopes his new wife Lois can hold the fort without him for a bit. She isn't worried, though. She's holding a dinner party, nothing she can't handle. She's invited Perry White and another man named Dirk Armstrong to attend. But before Supes goes, she wants some makeout action. It's stopped by some static electricity.

"I really oughta stop staring at the St. Elmo's Fire..."

Superman's powers are going wonky again... The Metropolis Marvel suddenly feels light-headed and falls...right through the wall of his and Lois's apartment. He tries to fly back, but he can't. His flight power's been shut off! He slams into the ground, crackling with electrical power.

"That didn't hurt!"

His body is crackling with electricity. Superman finds it's affecting his vision powers, causing him to see various wavelengths he couldn't before. A man named Dirk Armstrong emerges from a taxi and sees Superman in the state he's in. This guy was the last person Superman needed around right now. You see, Armstrong's been writing some anti-Superman columns recently, and the Man of Steel's power problems would make great fuel for them. Superman tries to get it under control, but ends up making a car explode. And then a bus come towards him.

"Oh Rao hates me..."

I bet this was what Superman was thinking right now.

Luckily for him (and the bus's passengers), Superman becomes immaterial and falls through the sidewalk. He somehow ends up wrecking an underground power line, causing a blackout. Lois Lane runs outside, and finds that Perry White has arrived. She's apologetic about this, but Perry's not bothered. He's not afraid of the dark. After all, he's busy dealing with cancer at the moment. Dirk Armstrong tells them that his contact at Metropolis's power company has lost a big chunk of the city.

Unfortunately, the blackout has also hit Stryker's Island...a metahuman prison. They had a back-up generator, but it's been down since the escape of a supervillain named Barrage. As a result, another supervillain is taking the opportunity to do a bit of breaking out.

"Heeeeeeeere's Skully!"

Say hello to Joseph Martin, the Atomic Skull. A bit delusional, he thinks he's the main superhero of an old serial and Superman is his serial arch-nemesis Dr. Electron. He sees the darkened city, and believes Superman is behind it. Meanwhile, in the sewers, Superman is trying to make himself solid. He recalls some mental training he got from some monks in a temple located in the fictional country of Bhutran. Using it, he's able to grab a ladder under a manhole. Elsewhere, a meeting is going down.

"Now, if ya wanna join the gang, you gotta wear 30s and 40s clothes, see..."

Boss Moxie, the Godfather of Metropolis, is looking to gather all the organized criminal gangs of the city under one organization. You see, a lot of those gangs' heads have caught a bad case of The Death recently, and Moxie figures that joining together can cure that issue. He's throwing his pitch to two of these leaders: Raoul and Polo. Raoul is rather intrigued. After all, Boss Maxie Mannheim is a legendary gangster. What criminal would not want to work for this guy? But Polo is unsure. You see, Polo thinks that Moxie himself is the reason why many of these gang leaders have been catching The Death. As such, he decides to give Moxie a case of it himself.

However, Moxie was vaccinated against The Death. This is why you vaccinate your kids, people. The Death is not good. It's revealed that he has extra bodies, and he's not alone. He brought a nice lady dressed in red 40s clothing with pyrokinetic powers named Torcher. Moxie tells them that under him, they would have been big-time gangsters, but chose otherwise.

Raoul exclaims that he's all in with Moxie, but it's not up to the crime boss. He introduces Raoul to Dabney Donovan. Donovan was a mad scientist, specializing in cloning and genetics. He used to work for Uncle Sam before they discovered his tendency to...be creative. Donovan asks Raoul if he likes cats, as Raoul's name makes him think of a jungle cat's roar. Raoul tries to explain that he is allergic to cats, but ends up getting some blood drawn. Donovan has all he needs from the crime boss, so Moxie and Torcher can dispose of him now. Which is done.

"I'm giving you a hand! Get it?!"

Meet Mike "The Machine" Gunn. Like Moxie and Torcher, he's also a superpowered gangster. He can turn his hands into guns. Reminds me of this Marvel character called Bushwacker. He can turn his hands into guns, too. I wonder if Mr. Gunn needs to eat ammo to load his "handguns" like Mr. Carl Burbank does.

The dying Raoul is furious, as he thinks Moxie lied. Moxie's like, "Nah, I was telling the truth. You will work for me. Well, your clone at least." He leaves while Torcher and Machine Gunn have their fun. Heh, I'm a poet and I didn't know it. In case what you're wondering what this was all about, well...Moxie, Torcher, and Machine Gunn were gangsters from the 1940s who got cloned into younger superpowered bodies by Dabney Donovan. I love comics.

Back with Lois Lane! She's found by the Atomic Skull, who thinks she's his main squeeze Zelda Wentworth. Remember, the Atomic Skull thinks he's the hero of an old serial. Zelda Wentworth was a character in the serial, the fictional Skull's girlfriend. Dirk Armstrong tries to point out to the Skull that he's out of his mind, but Perry White tells him to shut up, or this could happen.

Yeah. Atomic Kablooie. Atomic Skull is confused by Lois Lane's wedding ring. Lois tries to spin a story that Dr. Electron tricked her. Superman emerges from the manhole, his body crackling with electrical power. Still trapped in his delusions, Atomic Skull prepares to vaporize Lois. Understandably, Superman is furious. Dirk is able to save Lois Lane. Something happens with Superman, and he's sent flying into a bridge. I'm not too sure.

Atomic Skull marches menacingly towards Dirk and Lois, but Perry White tires to distract him by playing into his delusions. White pretends to be a new villain, drawing upon his struggle with his cancer. Before he can he harmed, Superman returns, his body glowing blue with power, like the embodiment of a thunderbolt thrown by an enraged Zeus.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT JUST FLOATED PAST ME?!"

Atomic Skull engages the Man of Energy, their powers causing an explosion. Dirk, Lois, and Perry are okay. Perry was in an alley, and Lois and Dirk were behind a parked car. So much for it being a quiet dinner party, huh? The story ends with the Atomic Skull standing triumphantly, Superman seemingly vaporized.

I have said in the past that in my opinion, the late-80s and 90s were pretty good times for the Man of Steel comic-wise. And this was a good comic. I like the Atomic Skull. What I like about him is that he's mentally trapped in this idea that he's a superhero. There's a tragic element to it, as he's completely unaware that he's being the bad guy.

I also really liked seeing Superman deal with his powers changing. I know there are some that think that Superman is boring because he's very powerful. I disagree. Stuff like this shows that Superman can be interesting. This is a challenge for him. I can imagine he had grown comfortable with his powers at this point. But now, he's suddenly evolving into an energy being. He has to deal with his old powers fading and new ones coming in. He has to adapt. That's interesting stuff. Yeah, he eventually would get his old powers back, but the ride will be an enjoyable one.

I also liked the art. It's better to look at than many comics of the era, even though a bit of the battle against Superman and Atomic Skull was hard to follow.

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2018 trade paperback Superman: Blue Vol. 1. It contains an afterword by Dan Jurgens that I used as a source for the introduction I used for this review. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! See you next time, when we look at the first issue of a late 1980s series starring a certain Masked Marvel...