Intergang No More

This month Superman shuts down the crime syndicate known as Intergang.  But an old villain emerges for the first time in the post-Crisis era, and a new character appears who we'll later see is the return of his greatest foe.

Superman: The Man of Steel #4

The Parasite is taken to S.T.A.R. Labs to be studied while incarcerated.  He drains some electricity from a hanging electrical wire and nearly escapes, but the power outage caused by his attempted breakout allows another prisoner to escape.  We learn the fugitive was a failed military experiment on a soldier calling himself Angstrom who is looking for Lois Lane's father to get revenge for his deformity and unjust imprisonment.  Superman defeats Angstrom and he's taken back to S.T.A.R. Labs where the Parasite gets too close to him.  But rather than draining his life, the Parasite absorbs the radiation that mutated Angstrom, turning him back into a normal human.  The military predictably covers up Lois Lane's exclusive story.

The Daily Planet is still on strike and Lois is upset that Clark is unfairly using his powers to scoop her, so she challenges him to get his Intergang story without using his powers.

Superman #60

Clark Kent manages to steal a briefcase of evidence from Gillespie, the 2nd in command of Intergang.  He tries not to use his powers but nearly loses the challenge when he has a gun pointed at his face.  He's saved by a mysterious vigilante, Agent Liberty in his first appearance.  Clark Kent takes his story to NewsTime editor Collin Thornton, the next day the story is all over the news and Intergang is operations are being shutdown worldwide.  Agent Liberty breaks into Clark's apartment to investigate the contents of the briefcase himself, and figures he'll be able to find Intergang meeting a drug shipment arriving that night.  Sure enough, he finds Intergang at the pier just as Superman shows up to stop them too.  Intergang desperately uses all the Apokalyptian technology at their disposal to try to stop the Man of Steel.  Gillespie opens a boom tube to summon Parademons while Mannheim encapsulates himself in bio-armor to fight Superman directly.  Superman takes Mannheim to prison, and this really is the last we'll see of Intergang for more than 5 years.

Bibbo Bibbowksi stops at a Lexgas station to fill up his motorcycle and finds Jimmy Olsen is the attendant.  Jimmy saves Bibbo from an explosion when a cigarette butt is is carelessly tossed into the gasoline by a passing driver.

Adventures of Superman #483

One of the Intergang villains who tried to kidnap Cat Grant back in Superman #44 hires some punks to break into an Intergang warehouse to steal a device for him.  Superman tries stops them but the punks successfully sneak the device outside in a piano.  The villain gets his things and gives the piano to a pair of passing drunks, who decide to push the piano to Bibbo's bar.  The villain now calls himself Blindspot (although everybody in the book seems to inexplicably recognize him by his new name already) and can turn himself invisible with a special full-body suit.  Blindspot wants to get revenge on Slam Bradly, but Jose Delgado accidentally runs into him instead.  Watching the fight from a distance, Superman uses his heat vision to destroy the cloaking circuitry in Blindspot's suit so Slam and Jose can fight him fairly.  Always classy, Professor Hamilton takes his new date to the Ace O' Clubs in Suicide Slum, and he turns out to the only person in the establishment who knows how to play the piano.

Action Comics #670

Professor Hamilton develops a cylinder to keep the Parasite imprisoned at S.T.A.R. Labs.  At the same time, a patient named Joe consults an expert at S.T.A.R. Labs who discovers Joe has the meta-gene and possibly super powers.  Unfortunately, due to events in Armageddon 2001, S.T.A.R. Labs is suddenly destroyed in an explosion.  Joe climbs out of the rubble and staggers home with amnesia, where he collapses in a chair with some of his favorite movie posters in the background, including one called Curse of the Atomic Skull.  The Justice League helps Superman dig through the wreckage for survivors, but Deadman possesses Professor Hamilton to let them know there aren't any more to be found alive.  Joe wakes up and is horrified when his hair falls out in the shower.  He tries to call S.T.A.R. Labs and can't believe the number is out of service.  Joe decides to ride his bike to a classic film festival that he's been looking forward to, when he finds three intruders in the basement trying to steal his bike.  The three attack him and start to beat him, but Joe suddenly starts to burn them with his touch.  Superman follows his trail of destruction, to a creepy scene where Joe is watching the Atomic Skull in an empty theater and reciting the lines from it:  "Now I am the Atomic Skull!  And to your everlasting horror, you shall feel my power!"

While technically the cover doesn't say "2001", this would be the only Armageddon 2001 tie-in outside of DC's annuals.  This is the first appearance of the post-Crisis Atomic Skull, who resembles the original in name and appearance but nothing else.  The pre-Crisis Atomic Skull was a mad scientist who led a criminal organization called SKULL (mostly) in the late 70's.  While I actually preferred the original version, I guess they decided a secret organization with secret labs hidden all over the world wasn't realistic enough.  In this age, writers felt a need to explain where supervillain costumes come from, which is now Joe's spandex cycling kit.  Today's villains apparently needed more motivation than simply being a mad scientist, so the new Atomic Skull has his cinematic delusion that we'll see more of next month.

Meanwhile in Australia, Happersen and Dr. Kelley meet a tall, bearded, red-headed man who calls himself Lex Luthor the second!