Part 1: Man of Steel 18 – No one’s worked it out, look at the size of him?

Credits: Written by Louise Simonson, pencilled by Jon Bogdanove, inked by Dennis Janke and edited by Mike Carlin.

Cast: Clark ‘Superman’ Kent, Loise Lane, Keith Parks, Charlie Dawson, Clawster, several other Underworlders and Doomsday.

Plot: Somewhere in the US, a green garbed creature breaks through the ground and into the air above. In Metropolis, Keith Parks is buying luminous yellow paint to help him find the Underworlders (aliens and other beings who lived on Warworld and have taken refuge under Metropolis along with the homeless there) who told him that his long lost mother is their prisoner and if he talks, she dies.

In the Daily Planet building, Lois Lane is checking the mailbox for her fiance Clark, knowing that since as Superman he often arrives at work via the roof, he’ll miss again. She finds a note asking Clark to send Superman to the tunnels under the West Side power station as there will be trouble. Trouble in this case being Underworlders who want to black out the city and raze it in the dark. With Clark nowhere to be found, Lois checks it out herself and is almost immediately captured by the human Charlie and the alien Clawster, they talk about not taking prisoners, which is overheard by Keith, who realises that they didn’t have his mother, she’s still gone and didn’t come back for him. Despondent, but wanting to help, he goes to the nearest roof and using the spray paint paints a crude S-shield on the roof. Lois is taken to another section of the tunnel to be killed by Charlie.

Back at the Planet, Clark arrives in his office clothes and heads for his desk, looking for a message left there by Lois, but there’s a blackout and he decides to head out and see what the problem is, where after taking to the skies as Superman, he finds Keith, who tells him that Lois went underground and is in danger. Elsewhere, the green clad figure begins his rampage.

The Underworlders use a huge machine to start digging through the ground up towards Metropolis, only to be opposed by Superman, who takes no messing and reduces the machine to rubble before demanding to know where their surface prisoner is. He then finds Charlie and is about to put him on the floor when Lois stops him, informing him that Charlie is a sort of CI for the Underworlders’ society. He warned them that this was happening and set the whole stopping of the threat in action. Superman restrains the ring-leaders and the rest of the Underworlders take them away as Superman flies Lois home. Charlie and another human who lives with the Underworlders talk about whether to ask for Superman’s help with their other problem, but Charlie is told that Blood-Thirst is an Underworlder problem at the moment.

Elsewhere (just not clear whether this is one area or several ones miles from one another, it isn’t really stated) a truck is levelled by the thing wearing green and in the cab, the trucker calls for help on his CB radio and that calls finds it’s way to the Justice League.

Notes: Man of Steel was the 4th series in what is known as the ‘Post-Crisis’ era and was relatively new and had a consistent creative team of the distinctive Jon Bogdanove on pencils and Louise Simonson fresh from her falling out over at Marvel. It had it’s own look and characters that only really appeared there, despite how tied in this book was to the other. It’s also worth noting that Superman only appears on 9 pages of his eponymous 22 page book and really the action is downplayed. But the thing is, it never feels like that. The Underworlder plot is given room to breathe, characters are given depth and we’re shown the ever increasing threat of the as-yet-unnamed monster. Superman isn’t in this much, but his world is made even more real. The only thing is how BIG Superman is. I know he’s a big fella, but Bogdanove makes him so big that there’s no way that he wouldn’t be compared to Clark. But outside of that, this was a great introductory issue, getting you into the world of Superman before it all hits the fan.

Verdict: Writing 4 out of 5 – Good characterisation, clear storytelling and excellent pacing. Not a surprise when it comes to Simonson.

Art: 3 out of 5 – When I first read this, it would have been lower, but Bogdanove’s work grows on you. He has his own style and while it didn’t match everyone else’s in the Super-titles, it was good in emotional expression and clarity of story-telling and I can see how much value he adds.

Overall: 7 out of 10 – A good start and a nice reminder of this era in the character’s history. I am definitely in for this and can’t wait to revisit this whole thing.

Next Time: We go 3rd party candidate on this and head over to Image for Fire From Heaven