Blackout

This month starts a 5-part story line called "Blackout" in which Superman gets amnesia.  The concept of Superman losing his memory goes back to the Adventures of Superman TV show episode, Panic in the Sky.  Not to be confused with the Panic in the Sky story line that will come a few months later in the comics.

Superman: The Man of Steel #5

Superman fights the Atomic Skull in a special sideways issue with two concurrent stories on the same page.  In the film strip on the left, you can see the movie that the Atomic Skull thinks he's in, while on the right side you can see what's actually happening in the real world.  The Atomic Skull kidnaps Lois Lane and they bump into Jimmy Olsen (working undercover to try to get a story to pay the rent), but once Jimmy figures out that the Skull thinks he's living in an old serial, Superman is able to use the fictional plot against the villain and return him to normal.  Still delusional, the Atomic Skull thinks his movie ends happily too.

Superman #61

Time traveler Waverider (formerly Matt Ryder), from Armageddon 2001, comes to present-day Metropolis where he finds Superman and the Metal Men cleaning up the wreckage of S.T.A.R. Labs.  NewsTime editor Collin Thornton tries to use the destruction to his advantage in his campaign for mayor.  The heroes are trying to move a quantum field generator when time suddenly freezes.  The Linear Men take Superman and the device to Vanishing Point and Waverider follows.  The Linear Men, led by Rip Hunter, explain that they were just investigating a temporal disturbance, after which they plan to return the quantum field generator to Metropolis, where it will explode and kill everyone around it.  Liri Lee tries to explain to Superman why the Linear Men can't change history from happening, and she also shows him how she stopped time to give Superman and Lois their moment on Mount Fuji a few issues ago.  Waverider disagrees with the Linear Men and stops the explosion anyway, which prevents himself as a child from seeing his parents die that day.  The Mysterious 3rd member of the Linear Men reveals that he is also Matt Ryder, but from another timeline where he saw his parents die instead.

To me Waverider always seemed like a conceptual rip-off of Marvel's Silver Surfer, who had his own popular series at this same time.  Although at odds in this story, Waverider would eventually work alongside the Linear Men.

Elsewhere, Mr. Z returns to Metropolis and is trying to find his stone.

Adventures of Superman #484

Blackout Part 1

Lois tries to cook dinner for Clark at his place but ends up burning the pot roast and finds out the hard way that Clark has never had any need to buy oven mitts.  The scene is an interesting glimpse into the challenges of married life with Superman that Lois or the reader probably had never considered before.

Mr. Z finds Professor Hamilton's lab and takes control of his mind. When Superman comes to the lab to try out the professor's newest invention, he puts on the helmet and then Mr. Z is able to control the Man of Steel too.  Mr. Z has Superman take him to the Fortress of Solitude to retrieve his stone.  Meanwhile, Lois goes to the professor's lab and he awakens from the mind control.  The Professor tries to hack into the helmet to contact Superman, but it takes so much power it causes a blackout in Metropolis and the helmet blows up, severely injuring Superman's mind and causing him to crash in the Arctic along with Mr. Z.

Action Comics

Blackout Part 2

Superman carries the unconscious Mr. Z to a French science outpost in the Arctic.  The scientists recognize the Man of Steel, but it becomes apparent that Superman doesn't know who he is.  Not believing that he can fly, the scientists are forced to fly the amnesiac Superman back to civilization in their plane, however it crashes in a storm and Superman and Mr. Z end up stranded on a life raft together.  Finding themselves on a mysterious island with dinosaurs, Superman starts to discover that he really can fly.

During the blackout in Metropolis, Rose teams up with Gangbuster to stop the rise of crime and looting.  Finally, Lex Luthor II makes his dramatic entrance to Metropolis to take control of Lexcorp, vowing to use the company to fix the city's problems.