Superman #10

From the random stack of unread comics.

Title: Superman
Issue: #10
Date: October, 1987
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: Karl Kesel
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Letterer: John Costanza
Editor: Michael Carlin

From John Byrne's run on the rebooted Superman in the 1980s. This issue is actually from right around the time I started seriously collecting comics, although Superman wasn't one of the books I followed regularly back then.

Considering how "rebooted" this version of Superman was supposed to be, this issue had a surprisingly Silver Age vibe to it.

Clark Kent's powers go out of control one by one, while Lex Luthor watches on from afar, and Clark fears he's become a danger to Metropolis. And of course that's just the moment when a big robotic monster names Klaash attacks.

The story starts out looking like it is going to be the beginning of serious long-term problems for Clark, but then the whole thing gets resolved and wrapped up in a few pages, bringing everything back to status quo.

This makes this a fairly good self-contained issue, one that isn't going to lose new readers in a maze of continuity. But it also feels a bit anticlimactic when all is said and done.

Luthor has some good moments here, and Maggie Sawyer is excellent. Maggie is also the only character who really gets any plot action that extends beyond this story.

And there are a couple bits of fun comic relief early on when it's Clark's x-ray vision that's out of control.

Not a lot of depth, but a fun Superman story with an "old school" feel.

Rating: 6/10

The Adventures of Superman #510

Some stores and vendors sweeten the Free Comic Book Day pot by adding a few free picks from their stock of "quarter books". It's a good way to add some more choices to the freebies available and it gets rid of some of the low end books that every dealer seems to have boxes and boxes of. This was one such book that I picked up at this year's FCBD.

Title: The Adventures of Superman
Issue: #510
Date: March 1994
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Karl Kesel
Penciler: Barry Kitson
Inker: Ray McCarthy
Letterer: Albert DeGuzman
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Editor: Frank Pittarese, Chris Duffy, Mike Carlin

This is part of a reboot of the Bizarro character. Bizarro has abducted Lois Lane and constructed a model of Metropolis out of scrap lumber in a warehouse. Bizarro intends to keep Lois on hand in his Bizarro-world, where he can be her Superman, constantly saving her from peril that he creates himself.

Lois keeps her cool and eventually manages to distract Bizarro (not too difficult) and give herself a chance to escape (a bit more easily said than done).

There's some other stuff going on, including even a brief appearance by Superman, but most of the rest is all setup for ongoing plot points in the continuity. The one other really significant plot point is Cat Grant finally standing up to sexually harassing boss Morgan Edge, which is a pretty well handled scene.

Lois starts out as the hapless-if-feisty victim, having her early attempts to escape pretty handily foiled, but she gets better as this goes on, and I thought most of the handling of her character was quite good. Bizarro is also pretty well handled. He is, well, bizarre, but in a way that plays to his motivation to truly be Superman.

Rating: 7/10