Under Fire
Credits:
Jerry Ordway (writer), Tom Grummett (penciler), Doug Hazelwood
(inker), Albert de Guzman (letterer), Glenn Whitmore (colorist)
Summary:
Superman plows Doomsday into the bottom of a lake, then returns and
rescues Mitch’s family, with the aid of Bloodwynd. Doomsday leaps out
of the water and attacks a nearby helicopter. Superman returns to
fight Doomsday and their battle takes them to rural Kirby County.
Maxima arrives to help, but inadvertently causes an explosion when she
pulls up a
light pole. Superman regains consciousness as Guardian arrives on a
motorcycle. Meanwhile, as Luthor and Supergirl watch the news
coverage, Jimmy Olsen is given orders to accompany Lois Lane on the
Doomsday story.
Irrelevant Continuity: Bloodwynd refuses to be treated by paramedics and instead teleports away, arousing Superman’s suspicions.
Total N00B:
- There’s no explanation of who Guardian is, although in fairness, he only appears on the final page.
- Jimmy Olsen is apparently working part-time as a kids’ TV character called Turtle Boy (an homage to an old Silver Age story).
- Lex Luthor is…a redheaded Australian? And he’s dating Supergirl? Luthor warns her not to get involved like she did in “that Satanus business” (a footnote points to Action Comics #680) and to stay in Metropolis with him.
Review:
Superman cursing himself for continuing the fight against Doomsday
while a family is trapped in a burning building is the greatest moment
of angst the story has seen so far…and then the rest of the issue
reverts back to mindless violence. Superman also gets off easy, as
he’s able to bury Doomsday in the lake’s silt just long enough to go
back into the town and effortlessly save the family. Actually letting
the young single mother and her baby die would’ve surely been too dark,
but I think more time could’ve been spent dealing with the repercussions
of Superman’s decision. Every second Superman spends rescuing people
left in Doomsday’s wake is a second that isn’t spent actually stopping
the monster from hurting anyone else. It’s like the flight
attendant’s instruction to secure your own oxygen mask before helping
someone else. It might seem cruel, but it’s for the best. Yet, how
could Superman live with himself if he knowingly let someone die,
regardless of the reason?
Ordway
rushes past the dilemma and gets back to the action as soon as
possible. So, Superman and warrior-woman Maxima fight and fight and fight while some subplot pages touch base with the rest of cast, doing
very little to explain whatever the current status quo of the Superman
titles is supposed to be. The saving grace for much of this issue is
Tom Grummett’s art, which is very loyal to the look established during
the John Byrne years while also managing to work in a Russ Heath
influence. Grummett’s great with fight scenes, and he’s so skilled
with panel layouts that it’s almost impossible to notice that every
page this issue has four panels. This begins the countdown to the
final installment, as each chapter has one fewer panel each page,
culminating in the all-splash page Superman
#75. A remit of four panels per page could’ve easily produced a
staid, repetitive pace throughout the issue, but Grummett’s pages are
genuinely exciting from beginning to end.
2 comments:
this was actually the chapter after superman #75 that i enjoyed the most. there isn't much storywise you can do with a seven part slugfest, but at least ordway and grummett attempted to put a little more into this issue.
Ah the era where lex luthor cloned himself and pretended to be his own illegitimate son from austrailia....
good times
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