Panic in the Sky!
This is turning into the most ambitious Superman crossover since the reboot. While contained to the Superman books, most of DC's heroes from all over the universe guest-star. The assortment includes some of the newer characters recently introduced in the Superman books like Agent Liberty and Thorn, several of the New Gods, and members from several of the Justice League books of this period. In fact, this is almost the first post-Crisis assembly of the traditional "big 7" JLA, but unfortunately Martian Manhunter is mentioned as off-world at this time. Deathstroke is also featured prominently leading a team in outer space, for probably no other reason than it's the 90's and he had his own popular series.
Panic in the Sky! First Strike
Braniac's skull ship returns and starts to attack Metropolis. Superman breaks inside to try to find Braniac, but the ship is empty except for some robots. The Man of Steel stops the ship from crashing into the city and throws it into the bay. But he gets a telepathic message from Braniac that the ship was just a distraction and Warworld is quickly approaching Earth.
The rest of the cast scrambles into action in the chaos. Lois Lane grabs a camera and covers the story, Gangbuster saves the kids at the children's shelter, and Jimmy Olsen bumps into NewsTime editor Colin Thornton who notices his photographs and gives him his card.
Panic in the Sky! Second Strike
Metron of the New Gods assess the destruction of Almerac, when he's suddenly hit by a psychic attack from Braniac. Before he's captured, Metron teleports his Mobius chair to Earth to warn Superman. Superman is helping Cadmus clean up the damage from the attack on Metropolis when the Mobius chair appears. Dubbilex senses that the chair was sent by Metron as a warning, but before they can react to the news more new gods burst onto the scene: Orion and Lightray. Too impatient to wait or listen, the two gods rush off to Warworld to rescue Metron but they're taken prisoner as well.
Superman consults Professor Hamilton, who advises they'll both need to trust the new Lex Luthor to assist in defeating Warworld. The Man of Steel gathers an army of Earth's superheroes who meet at Lexcorp. He finds Deathstroke recovering from the death of his son Jericho in last month's The New Titans #83, and asks him to lead his team. On his way through the bay to join them, Aquaman is attacked by Braniac's ship, which then appears outside the windows of Lexcorp with sea king dangling unconscious from its tentacles.
Superman tells the heroes they face a crisis, and this story is certainly the formula for a cosmic crisis. Going back to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's "The Coming of Galactus" in Marvel's the Fantastic Four, cosmic-level stories have identifiable roles for interchangeable characters to fill like deities in a pantheon. A cosmic story generally has a watcher (a helpless or passive observer), a herald, and a nearly-omnipotent galactic villain. In the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, for example, these roles were filled by the Monitor, Harbinger, and the Anti-monitor respectively. Here, Metron briefly fills the role of both watcher and herald, before passing his chair on to Dubbilex. Cosmic characters tend to have unconventional modes of transportation, like surfboards or floating chairs. As with most cosmic villains, Braniac's ambitions are so universal in scale that the insignificant destruction of the Earth hardly registers as deserving any consideration in his overall plan.
Panic in the Sky! Third Strike
The heroes take down Braniac's skull ship again, and this time with the aid of Dubbilex in the Mobius chair they're able to control the ship without Braniac's awareness. Superman's team of super-powered heroes plus Deathstroke uses Braniac's ship to travel to Warworld. At the same time, Braniac teleports soldiers from Warworld to attack Earth, who are engaged by Batman's team of not-so-powerful heroes. Although they take Braniac by surprise, he teleports Superman into Warworld's arena where Draaga, Maxima, and Supergirl all gang up on the Man of Steel. Unfortunately for Braniac, Maxima and Draaga are so determined to kill Superman that Braniac starts to lose his mental control. Supergirl breaks free from his mind control, Maxima teleports out of the arena, and Superman negotiates an uneasy alliance with Draaga in exchange for a re-match once Braniac is defeated.
From Braniac's control station, Maxima and Braniac watch all the battles being fought by Superman's team all over Warworld. The Mother Boxes that Braniac confiscated from Orion and Lightray mysteriously teleport away when he tries to analyze them, and they re-appear inside the skull ship next to Dubbilex. Mother Box helps Dubbilex teleport the ship deeper within the artificial planet and shuts down Warworld's teleporters. But Braniac sends out tiny devices that allow him to mentally control the
heroes he captures, and one by one he takes control of nearly all of
them. Maxima grows increasingly irritated by Braniac humiliation of her and, thinking to herself in thoughts that Braniac can't read, she vows she will die before she becomes one of his mind slaves.
Back on Earth, Jimmy Olsen wanders into the partially destroyed NewsTime building where Colin Thornton gives him a job and a camera to cover the chaos in Metropolis.
Superman: The Man of Steel #9
Braniac's skull ship returns and starts to attack Metropolis. Superman breaks inside to try to find Braniac, but the ship is empty except for some robots. The Man of Steel stops the ship from crashing into the city and throws it into the bay. But he gets a telepathic message from Braniac that the ship was just a distraction and Warworld is quickly approaching Earth.
The rest of the cast scrambles into action in the chaos. Lois Lane grabs a camera and covers the story, Gangbuster saves the kids at the children's shelter, and Jimmy Olsen bumps into NewsTime editor Colin Thornton who notices his photographs and gives him his card.
Superman #65
Metron of the New Gods assess the destruction of Almerac, when he's suddenly hit by a psychic attack from Braniac. Before he's captured, Metron teleports his Mobius chair to Earth to warn Superman. Superman is helping Cadmus clean up the damage from the attack on Metropolis when the Mobius chair appears. Dubbilex senses that the chair was sent by Metron as a warning, but before they can react to the news more new gods burst onto the scene: Orion and Lightray. Too impatient to wait or listen, the two gods rush off to Warworld to rescue Metron but they're taken prisoner as well.
Superman consults Professor Hamilton, who advises they'll both need to trust the new Lex Luthor to assist in defeating Warworld. The Man of Steel gathers an army of Earth's superheroes who meet at Lexcorp. He finds Deathstroke recovering from the death of his son Jericho in last month's The New Titans #83, and asks him to lead his team. On his way through the bay to join them, Aquaman is attacked by Braniac's ship, which then appears outside the windows of Lexcorp with sea king dangling unconscious from its tentacles.
Superman tells the heroes they face a crisis, and this story is certainly the formula for a cosmic crisis. Going back to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's "The Coming of Galactus" in Marvel's the Fantastic Four, cosmic-level stories have identifiable roles for interchangeable characters to fill like deities in a pantheon. A cosmic story generally has a watcher (a helpless or passive observer), a herald, and a nearly-omnipotent galactic villain. In the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, for example, these roles were filled by the Monitor, Harbinger, and the Anti-monitor respectively. Here, Metron briefly fills the role of both watcher and herald, before passing his chair on to Dubbilex. Cosmic characters tend to have unconventional modes of transportation, like surfboards or floating chairs. As with most cosmic villains, Braniac's ambitions are so universal in scale that the insignificant destruction of the Earth hardly registers as deserving any consideration in his overall plan.
Adventures of Superman #488
The heroes take down Braniac's skull ship again, and this time with the aid of Dubbilex in the Mobius chair they're able to control the ship without Braniac's awareness. Superman's team of super-powered heroes plus Deathstroke uses Braniac's ship to travel to Warworld. At the same time, Braniac teleports soldiers from Warworld to attack Earth, who are engaged by Batman's team of not-so-powerful heroes. Although they take Braniac by surprise, he teleports Superman into Warworld's arena where Draaga, Maxima, and Supergirl all gang up on the Man of Steel. Unfortunately for Braniac, Maxima and Draaga are so determined to kill Superman that Braniac starts to lose his mental control. Supergirl breaks free from his mind control, Maxima teleports out of the arena, and Superman negotiates an uneasy alliance with Draaga in exchange for a re-match once Braniac is defeated.
Action Comics #675
Panic in the Sky! Fourth Strike
Back on Earth, Jimmy Olsen wanders into the partially destroyed NewsTime building where Colin Thornton gives him a job and a camera to cover the chaos in Metropolis.
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