Credits: Written by Jerry Ordway, pencilled by Tom Grummett, inked by Doug Hazelwood and edited by Mike Carlin.
Cast: Superman, Lois Lane, Bloodwynd, Tora ‘Ice’ Olafsdotter, Jimmy Olsen, Jim ‘Guardian’ Harper, Lt Dan ‘Terrible’ Turpin, Maggie Sawyer, Dubbilex, Catherine ‘Cat’ Grant, Matrix/Supergirl, Lex Luthor II, Adam Grant, Jose ‘Gangbuster’ Delgado, Bibbo, Jon & Martha Kent, Director Westfield of Cadmus, Professor Emil Hamilton, Ron Troupe and Perry White.
Plot: He’s dead. Bloodwynd and Ice have their moment from Justice League America 70 and vanish from the rest of the issue. Members of Cadmus and the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit as well as local paramedics arrive to try and resuscitate Superman and deal with the dead body of Doomsday. Guardian tries first, but can’t lift Superman’s chest with his breath. They have to go straight to defibrillators. Problem is, he’s too tough for them to do anything either. Nearby Dan ‘Terrible’ Turpin finds the beaten body of Supergirl, who has reverted to her Matrix form. He’s interrupted by Lex Luthor II, who covers her in his jacket and scoops her up to take her home. Everyone’s becoming a little desperate as no one really understands Superman’s physiology. Cat Grant mentions to Jimmy Olsen that they should call Clark up, horrifying Lois, who knows Superman is Clark and that his mum and dad may have watched it all on TV. Also watching on TV is Jose Delgado, babysitting Cat’s son Adam who doesn’t care that the city’s hero has just died. Jose yells at the kid who runs off and he looks at his old Gangbuster uniform (an identity that Superman has also used in the past) and wonders whether he is needed once more. In Kansas, Jon & Martha Kent turn the TV off, unable to watch more coverage of their son’s death.
Back at Lexcorp, Matrix is able to transform back into Supergirl, but she looks beaten and bruised after her encounter with Doomsday. Speaking off, his dead body is claimed by Cadmus who are running roughshod over the SCU people, this earns Director Westfield a gut punch from Turpin, who is not really concerned about how this will come back on him.
Finally Emil Hamilton and Bibbo arrive with apparatus to convert a Cadmus shock cannon’s energy into something that can power a super-defibrillator. It does better than the regular one did, but Dubbilex confirms that there is no change, Superman is still dead.
Back at the Daily Planet building, the paper is being put together, the staff are working hard including Lois, who it’s noted is grieving harder than the other. Someone puts two and two together, realising that many people are missing, including Clark Kent, her fiance. Now she has to mourn alone, while everyone hopes that Clark may be alive, she knows he’s gone.
Notes: This was a more poignant aftermath issue that the Justice League one. This dealt with the immediate aftermath as people are still trying to save their hero. CPR doesn’t work, defibrillators don’t work (although I don’t think that’s how they work anyway?) and everyone is dealing with the shock of seeing this invincible hero dead.
In another comic I read once, the other half of a super hero compared this experience to being a mistress. Lois can’t vocalise how she feels as the man she loves is killed in front of her, because she can’t admit to anyone that he’s also her fiance. This love for him extends to protecting his secret, even as he has died. His parents are in the same boat watching their son died on live TV and unable to say anything as they mourn an almost fictitious version of him. In only a few pages, the emotional weight is clearly expressed.
Verdict – Writing 4 out of 5: It’s hard to do this kind of story, to convey real emotion about fictional characters. Jerry Ordway is mostly considered a penciller/inker, so this shows how deep his talent goes because he does display pathos in an issue devoid of action and super-heroics. The final scene where people finally recognise that one of the staff is missing adds heartbreak and elevates this issue a little bit higher.
Art 3 out of 5: The biggest problem isn’t that Tom Grummett isn’t great, because he is, its more that he isn’t really given a lot to do. The main character lies on the floor the whole time and we get the little vignettes and that’s it. But despite having little to do, he does it beautifully and lets you know that this era of Superman was full of top-tier talent.
Overall 7 out of 10: Considering how lack-lustre the Justice League issue was, this was a masterclass in how to do an aftermath issue and does the difficult job of proving that although the man of steel has fallen, the never ending battle, is still never ending and the story isn’t over by a long chalk.
Next Time: Back to WildStorm and the mystery that is Sigma.
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