Adventures of Superman #424
“Man O’War!”
Released September 25, 1986
Marv Wolfman – Writer
Jerry Ordway – Pencils
Mike Machlan – Inker
Tom Ziuko – Colorist
John Costanza – Letterer
Andy Helfer – Editor
How about that cover? That Jerry Ordway piece is about as iconic as they come. It’s the perfect image for a first issue.
Before we start this review… I haven’t reread these early ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN issues in a very long time, but going by my memory, I’m probably going to be pretty critical of several of them.
With that in mind, I want to make sure I say that I think Jerry Ordway is the best cover artist of this era and is in contention for best of all time. His composition is immediately distinguishable from the other artists of the day. So many of his covers have an interesting use of depth and are so striking as images that tell a story. As we work through this title, we’re going to see several covers that don’t just feel like an action pose.
In a rarity for issues published within the first year and a half of the relaunch, I actually read this one more or less when it first came out. It was a gift from the same aunt who gave me THE MAN OF STEEL miniseries and I have a very clear memory of my reaction to this issue.
I hated it.
Okay, that’s a mite dramatic. It’s probably more accurate to say I was confused by it. The motives of the villains weren’t really explained in a way I could process, Superman doesn’t appear until page 12, and there was a lot of personal drama that wasn’t appealing to me at age six.
This was an issue that just got off on the wrong foot with me back then. It happened so severely that as soon as I started page 1 in my reread, I was struck with all the feelings that led me to go to my aunt back then and say, “I don’t get it.”
I give you the literal first page of what is the first issue of a new Superman title:
This wasn’t my first experience with a story beginning in media res. Heck, Byrne himself used it in THE MAN OF STEEL, but everything about this page made me feel like I was already behind. I figured out that woman with the bad short haircut was Lois, but… was I supposed to know who her mom was? Or what happened to her?
I remember telling my aunt that she’d accidentally gotten me the second part of the story. She read this page and agreed that yes it did seem that there was an issue that came before this. But how is that possible when the cover trumpeted “PREMIERE ISSUE — THE ADVENTURES BEGIN?” And how can a comic numbered 424 be the premiere of anything?
I can still hear my aunt Betty’s voice as we tried to puzzle it out and she said, “Who would want Part 2 of a story? You don’t know how it began and you don’t know how it’s gonna end!” It might also be the only time in my life someone apologized for giving me a Superman comic.
I remember extremely little from my first grade year, but this is burned into my memory. For me, that’s going to be part of the fun of revisiting these issues – the memories attached to them.
Oh, and it was only much later how I understood why a first issue was numbered #424. They wanted to start SUPERMAN off with an new #1, but felt an obligation to continue the numbering of the original title that reached back almost 50 years at this point. So ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN inherited the numbers that had belonged to SUPERMAN up to that point.
The antagonist of this story is group of terrorists called the Freedom League who attack Metropolis using a sci-fi kind of tank . They destroy one building, then threaten City Hall as they issue a statement that “America, The Freedom League is sick of your war-mongering imperialism. We now bring the battle to your country.” Though it takes too long to get Superman in the cape, Jerry Ordway delivers a gorgeous splash page when he finally swings into action.
Superman battles the tank for a few pages until it knocks him out and gradually gets away while also somehow leaving no clues to its destination. It’s a pretty unsatisfying outcome, but at least Superman saves a man buried in the rubble.
After that we get the first appearance of Inspector Henderson. Henderson has appeared in the comics before, and his character first appeared in the 1940s radio show. However, his inclusion here likely owes to his stint on the George Reeves TV show THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, where he was played by Robert Shayne. A lot of the creators of this era are of the right age to have been big fans of that TV show growing up. From time to time you’ll see them slip in some references to the show.
Anyway, Henderson has a cup of exposition waiting for Superman about how the State Department thinks Qurac is the nation behind these terrorists. Qurac is the DC stand-in for Iraq during the 80s and 90s, and to drive home the point, Superman says, “Qurac. They seem to be competing with Libya and Syria for the world’s most crazed terrorist nation.” This kinda reminds me of THE SIMPSONS where Homer introduces a boxing promoter with a flamboyant look and hair that stands on end by saying, “He’s exactly as rich as Don King. And he looks just like him too!”
Superman goes off to deal with another attack, this time at the Daily Planet and with no fewer than five advanced vehicles. Once Superman shows up, the five vehicles combine into one, and that story ends before we see the outcome, but also without feeling like it builds to a cliffhanger. It just stops. You could be forgiven for expecting to turn the page and see what happens next.
As you may pick up, I wasn’t much more a fan of this than I was in 1986. However, what did age better for me was all the work with the supporting cast that Wolfman does here. Part of what delays Superman’s entrance into the story so long is a segment at the Daily Planet where we meet their newest hire, Catherine Grant.
Cat is into Clark at first sight and Lois hates her, complaining to Perry White she’s a “scandal monger.” Cat spends a good portion of this issue – and much of her first year if memory serves – basically acting like a cartoon skunk who sees Clark as a cat with a white stripe painted on his back.
Cat eventually gains a lot of unexpected depth. Then loses it again after a reboot. Such is the way of things.
Perry assigns Cat and Clark to work together on a story involving Professor Emil Hamilton, also making his first appearance here. He’s developed a magnetic forcefield for the government that he thinks would be invaluable for protecting our troops, but they’ve cut off his funding and fear his tech uses magnetic currents in a dangerous way.
Like the other subplots, this is unresolved further in this issue. It makes for a frustrating read in isolation, but it shows Marv Wolfman understands the key to an effective long run on Superman. You’ve gotta develop the supporting cast. Metropolis has to feel lived in. It never works if you’re writing just Clark, Lois, Jimmy, Perry and a city full of NPCs.
Before coming over to SUPERMAN and before writing CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, Marv was probably best known for co-creating THE NEW TEEN TITANS with George Perez. It was one of DC’s top selling books for several years, due in no small part to Marv recognizing that the best comic books are essentially soap operas with capes.
If you keep that in mind with a lot of 80s and 90s comics, they really start to make more sense.
The last subplot is the one that kicked off the issue – Lois’s mother’s illness. It goes to an unexpected place when Lex Luthor summons Lois (unwillingly) to his private jet and reveals with apparent guilt that he owns the company where her mother’s accident took place. He assembled his best minds and worked with them to find a cure for her condition, the results of which are a “terribly expensive” serum he offers her. She’ll need to take it every month, but it will save her life.
Lois recognizes that these kinds of gifts don’t come without strings attached and cuts right to demanding to know what sort of indecent proposal he has in mind. He insists that he won’t take any payment. He just wants her to know his feelings for her are real. With that, she begrudgingly agrees to have dinner with him.
Later, after Lois departs, Lex tells his underling Lilya that “Miss Lane needs time alone to accept her defeat…. Every month, Lois Lane will be forced to realize how much she owes me. Hence my victory.” She’s indebted to him and he arrogantly thinks he can slowly turn that into love.
Lex gloats she never even suspected he could have “caused her mother’s accident in the first place… or that I could have created a single-use serum instead.”
“Month in and month out, Lois Lane will be forced to gratefully accept my helping hand. And that is why I’ve already won.”
Now THAT is a villain monologue. I had criticisms of how Wolfman started this issue, but you can’t go wrong making Lex Luthor the scummiest rat bastard possible, especially if he’s gloating about it.
I really hate the concept of Lois being compromised by Lex, but my recollection is that this isn’t addressed much in the immediate future and then basically is swept away about 4 years from now with the assertion that Luthor never really collected on his deal. So knowing that this isn’t going to tarnish Lois allows me just to appreciate how utterly irredeemable Lex is here.
Not my favorite issue, but the art and the villain monologue help salvage it. It’s biggest weakness is that it’s pretty much impossible to appreciate it on its own.
Next week: a story with some elements that don’t quite age that well…
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