Superman: The Man of Steel #18 (December 1992)

In the early 1990s, DC Comics had a bit of a problem. Sales of comics starring their flagship character, Superman, were dwindling. One of the main factors was, despite the quality of the stories (I have talked in the past about how this era of Superman was rather underrated), the rising popularity of darker, more anti-heroic characters like Spawn, as well as Marvel finding more popularity with 1970s-era characters like Punisher and Wolverine. 

At the time, the four books focusing on Superman (Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, Superman, Superman: The Man of Steel) were more interconnected, and the creative teams regularly held "Superman Summits" to plot out the next year of stories. One of the stories planned was the marriage of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. However, when the TV show Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was going to do a similar story, it was decided that the comic story be postponed so it can coincide with the show. At one of these summits, replacement stories were debated. One of the attendees of these summits was Jerry Ordway, who was the writer/artist of Adventures of Superman at the time. He jokingly suggested that they kill off Superman for a while. And the rest was history. Superman #75 (), the comic in which Superman mat his end, would sell six million copies, and gain the honor of being the highest-selling comic of 1992. The event would also get unprecedented media coverage. Yeah, newscasters were talking about it at the time. I don't think that had ever happened for a comic series before. 

In the decades since, the death and return of the Metropolis Marvel would be looked at with a rather mixed reaction. Some view it as an epic tale, others view it as a cynical publicity stunt. But on this blog, even though I admit, I lean more on the former, I want to look at a part of this tale on its own merits. So, how did the supposed last adventure of Superman start? Let's find out in Superman: The Man of Steel #18!

 

The cover is a Jon Bogdanove and Dennis Janke piece. It depicts Doomsday busting his way out of some form of containment. I like that even the masthead logo is busted up in the process. Helps show the power of this monster. It's a cool cover. 

"Doomsday! Part One"
Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciler: Jon Bogdanove
Inker: Dennis Janke
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore 

Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editors: Mike Carlin, Jennifer Frank
Executive Editor: Dick Giordano

The story begins with an unknown being pounding at a steel wall.

"WHERE IS THE LIGHT SWITCH?!"

The being's fist keeps trying to break the wall. The glove shreds as rock-like spikes grow out of the monster's knuckles. The beast's punches are unrelenting, unstoppable, and endless. It just keeps punching, like it presumably has nothing better to do. Wires on the creature's arm imply that it has been restrained, like it was never meant to be released. It keeps punching and punching and punching and punching and punching and punching...

Right, right. It eventually manages to punch its way out of the wall and though the ground.

Doomsday takes playing in the sandbox VERY seriously.

Doomsday is free. Meanwhile, in Metropolis, the titular Man of Steel is flying by, presumably on a patrol. A young boy named Keith Parks witnesses this and is in awe. His thoughts reveal Superman saved his life twice before, and as a result of that, he considers the Metropolis Marvel. The boy buys some glow in the dark spray paint from a hardware store. The owner asks suspiciously if he plans to use it to do a little...street art on the walls of the subway, if you know what I mean. Parks assures that he is not. After all, he's not planning to do some pointless graffitiing...

Young Mr. Parks is understandably wracked with nerves. One couldn't blame him for this. After all, you would be too...if you were going after monsters.

That may sound outright mad to you or I, but remember, this is the DC Universe. Monsters exist here. They are very real. And a group of said monsters are seemingly taking over a power station.

"Now dance like a chicken!"

Parks's home is an orphanage. He packs up some things in his backpack. His thoughts allow us readers to learn of why he is doing this. You see, the boy's mother is missing, and he believes she's a captive of the monsters at the power station. He's hoping to save her. As he makes his way to the sewers, Keith uses his spray paint to paint some arrows on the walls, so he doesn't get lost. That's actually pretty clever. 

We next go to the Daily Planet. Lois Lane is getting some mail, when she finds a note.

She sends an e-mail to Clark about the note, as naturally, she herself is going to investigate it.  Elsewhere, the creature looks around, taking in the sights, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. The creature spots a bird flying towards it. It extends its hand and lets the bird land on it...only to crush the bird and laugh.

Superman lands at the Daily Planet. His thoughts reveal that he had been looking for some Underworlders. Yeah, this requires a bit of explanation.

Ask, and ye shall receive. First appearing in Superman: The Man of Steel #12 (June 1992), the Underworlders are basically failed genetic experiments created by a mad geneticist named Dabney Donovan. Donovan was a mad geneticist who was one of the founders of the Cadmus Project. You may be familiar with Cadmus if you watched Justice League Unlimited.

Anyway, Clark gets informed about the e-mail Lois sent him. Our man goes to check it out, but then the power goes out. 

The blackout was caused by the Underworlders' takeover, which has them cheering. 

Lois manages to use the blackout to sneak into the power plant, but gets caught by Clawster, one of the Underworlders. She tries to send him to dreamland with a Mighty Kick, but it only gets Lois an injured foot as Clawster is invulnerable.

One of his cohorts, a homeless man named Charlie, convinces the superhuman that she is more useful as a hostage. Clawster points out that the boss doesn't want prisoners. Unknown to them, Keith Parks was watching this, and he breaks into tears. He realizes the monsters lied to him. 

He so wanted to believe that they had his mother, as he hoped that if he rescued her from them, she would love him. As Doomsday rampages elsewhere, Keith makes his way out of the sewers. He notices the city is having a blackout, and he needs to call Superman. And he has an idea of how to do it.

He once read about how in Gotham, they use the Bat-Signal to summon Batman. So, he decides to create a Super-Signal. How? By using his glow-in-the-dark spray paint, he draws Superman's emblem on a basketball court. The Man of Steel spots it, much to Keith's delight.

As Keith fills the Metropolis Marvel in on the situation, the Underworlders use a powerful drilling device to make their way into Metropolis. Superman busts in like the Kool-Aid Man and wrecks the borer. 

One Underworlder prepares a grenade to throw at Superman, but he grabs it and in a rather funny moment, shoves it in Clawster's mouth. 

"Hey, this isn't candy!"

I wanted to show that panel because I think it's funny. Superman realizes that the weapons that the Underworlders are using come from War World. You may be familiar with the Pre-Crisis version of Warworld if read my review of DC Comics Presents #27 (November 1980). He realizes that the Underworlders are being led on by escapees from there. Superman spots one of said escapees and catches him, demanding to know where Lois is. The War Worlder tells him she's likely dead, as he had one of the Underworlders, a homeless man named Charlie, basically give her the Old Yeller treatment: Take her out back and shoot her. 

Elsewhere, the creature makes its way to a tunnel and collapses it, laughing all the way. Meanwhile, Superman finds Charlie and Lois. Lois is just fine, and it turns out Charlie was her informant. 

He's how Lois found out about the Underworlders' attack. He wanted to help stop the attack due to his being a pacifist, and he wanted to pay back Lois for all the donuts he had bought him. He convinced the attacking Underworlders (not an easy task) to let him be the one to plug her, presumably as a cover for getting her to safety as he didn't expect her to be there. With the crisis abated, Lois offers Charlie a job at the Daily Planet, as he has a knack for finding information, but Charlie has found a home with the Underworlders. As a compromise, she offers him a job as Underworld correspondent. Charlie's like "it's a deal", and they shake on it.

Elsewhere, the creature encounters an Optimus Prime-looking truck. But this is not the Autobots' legendary leader. It's just a regular truck. Which the creature is easily able to topple over, still laughing. Another trucker sees this and calls for help. Over at the Justice League's headquarters, Oberon hears the transmission. The story ends with him declaring this is a job for the Justice League. 

I've said before that I am fond of the Death of Superman, and I think this is a good start to the story. The main story itself is rather self-contained, Superman stopping an invasion. It's a nice way of building a false sense of security. I also liked was the scenes showing the future Doomsday doing his thing. It really helps build up this strange new threat. That this monster is not going to be the pushover the otherworlders are. It's a straight-up superhero story with something darker on the horizon.