The Terminator Too
It's 1992 and both Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Deathstroke the Terminator were all the rage. Plus, we learn the secret of Lex Luthor II.
Warworld refugees are hiding out in the sewers of Metropolis and stealing advanced technology wherever they can find it. Professor Hamilton goes to check on his lady friend Mildred who suffered a mild heart attack last month when he switched places with the alien Husque. While he's away, the Warworlders rob his lab. Following their trail into the sewer, he discovers an old friend from prison who's also living down there with some escaped monsters from Cadmus. They find the Warworlders are building a bomb big enough to destroy Metropolis. The Professor tries to send a message to Superman, but the high-pitched sound draws a giant earthworm-like Cadmus creature called the Cruiser, that swallows the bomb and then heads to the surface. Alerted to the bomb, Superman carries the Cruiser into space where it detonates.
While there's no mention of the protest last month, the Daily Planet has become visibly more diverse in a single page depiction of the newsroom.
Elsewhere, the damaged body of Metallo is being transported to Stryker's Island prison in an armored car, when suddenly the top is ripped open and Metallo's head is stolen.
Slade Wilson (formerly known as just "Terminator" in the early 80's, now "Deathstroke the Terminator" and later to be known as just "Deathstroke) is trying to fly incognito in a civilian disguise when he senses Maggie Sawyer and the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit are trying to trap him while the plane is still at the gate. Deathstroke bursts out of the plane in costume and the police irresponsibly fire away (despite Maggie's orders), injuring a stewardess who happens to be Lucy Lane. At the hospital, the Lane family learns Deathstroke was responsible for the incident and Lois asks her fiance to bring him in. Deathstroke reads in the papers that his old army buddy Sam Lane's daughter was injured in the attack and he decides to risk venturing in public to see them in the hospital. Superman finds Deathstroke, who knows it's nearly impossible for him to get away, but once Superman finds out he was going to the hospital he takes him there himself. Deathstroke apologizes to Sam Lane, but when he sees how upset he is he decides not to reveal who he is under the mask. He wants him to remember the Slade Wilson that was, not the man he came to be. Captain Sawyer reads Deathstroke his rights.
At NewsTime, Colin Thronton lays off Ronald Troupe who leaves just as Foswell arrives and unsuccessfully begs for a job.
In Washington, D.C., Judge Kramer and the lobbyist for the Liberty Rifle Association conspire a plot that they believe will make Senator Ross do their bidding.
Things have gone from bad to worse for Deathstroke since he killed his son Jericho. Although Superman picked him to lead a team of heroes in Panic in the Sky, he's since become a wanted man in his own series. Continuing from the pages of Superman, Deathstroke arrives at Metropolis City Jail and then not much really happens. His ex-wife Adeline, the new Vigilante (and Slade's new love interest) Pat, his former butler Wintergreen, and others all learn about Deathstroke's incarceration and have flashbacks about him. While some of them may want to help, Wintergreen determines the only man who might have been able to break him out of prison is Slade Wilson himself. The peerless Michael Golden illustrates the 4 pages of Deathstroke in prison so the book is worth reading just for that, even though this issue really does nothing to advance the story.
Cat Grant, her son Adam, and her boyfriend Jose Delgado are watching a movie that looks suspiciously like Terminator 2 when for seemingly no reason Metallo bursts through the screen in a brand new body. Metallo appears to paralyze Jose again and nearly kills him when he's stopped just in time by Dan Turpin of the S.C.U., who's then rescued just in time by Superman. No longer powered by Kryptonite, Superman is able to fight Metallo directly. While hitting him, Superman seems to short circuit something and Metallo internally flashes back to the creation of his new body, and accidentally reveals that it came from Cerberus. The S.C.U. coats Metallo in a goo to prevent any radio signals from deactivating him like Cerberus had previously done.
Ronald Troupe arrives at the Daily Planet to apply for a job again.
Superman helps the S.C.U. take in Metallo's head where they interrogate
him, convinced he's their best chance to find out who or what Cerberus
is. Metallo finally agrees to cooperate when they show him the other
villains Cerberus left in a catatonic state.
Lex Luthor II tries to eat out an Australian restaurant with a mysterious new Lexcorp employee when an assassin in the crowd tries to shoot him. His mystery date changes shape and blocks the bullets as Supergirl, which ricochet back at the shooter. Supergirl flies her boss away from the scene, but Lex caught a brief glimpse of the assassin's face and believes it looked like Dabney Donovan.
Dabney Donovan was a behind-the-scenes mad scientist first introduced by name in Jack Kirby's run on Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen in the early 70's, but who was never actually seen until a Newsboy Legion back-up story a year ago in Superman #55. Dabney wakes up in the hospital with bandages covering his eyes and two Metropolis police questioning him, or so he thinks. He tells them the fantastic story of how he helped Lex Luthor fake his death and transplanted his brain into a new and improved cloned body before he died of Kryptonite poisoning. Lex Luthor II was the original Lex Luthor all along! After his confession, the shadowy figures reveal that they are really Lex Luthor II and his loyal henchman Sydney Happersen in disguise. But this Dabney reveals to them that he's rally just a clone of the original, and triggers self-destruction with flammable pyrogranulate (a substance also created during Kirby's run) that was implanted in him. The real Dabney hears about his clone's death in the news and decides he must hide further underground, while Lex Luthor ponders that his secret would be in jeopardy if the real Dabney is ever found.
They saved Luthor's brain. For months the writers teased that something wasn't quite right about Lex Luthor's heir, but readers probably didn't expect it to go in this direction. While it may have seemed like a far-fetched plot development at the time, cloning (and Dabney Donovan) were going to become much bigger parts of post-Crisis Superman in the next act, after Superman's death.
Superman: The Man of Steel #12
While there's no mention of the protest last month, the Daily Planet has become visibly more diverse in a single page depiction of the newsroom.
Elsewhere, the damaged body of Metallo is being transported to Stryker's Island prison in an armored car, when suddenly the top is ripped open and Metallo's head is stolen.
Superman #68
At NewsTime, Colin Thronton lays off Ronald Troupe who leaves just as Foswell arrives and unsuccessfully begs for a job.
In Washington, D.C., Judge Kramer and the lobbyist for the Liberty Rifle Association conspire a plot that they believe will make Senator Ross do their bidding.
Deathstroke: The Terminator #12
Adventures of Superman #491
Ronald Troupe arrives at the Daily Planet to apply for a job again.
Action Comics #678
Lex Luthor II tries to eat out an Australian restaurant with a mysterious new Lexcorp employee when an assassin in the crowd tries to shoot him. His mystery date changes shape and blocks the bullets as Supergirl, which ricochet back at the shooter. Supergirl flies her boss away from the scene, but Lex caught a brief glimpse of the assassin's face and believes it looked like Dabney Donovan.
Dabney Donovan was a behind-the-scenes mad scientist first introduced by name in Jack Kirby's run on Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen in the early 70's, but who was never actually seen until a Newsboy Legion back-up story a year ago in Superman #55. Dabney wakes up in the hospital with bandages covering his eyes and two Metropolis police questioning him, or so he thinks. He tells them the fantastic story of how he helped Lex Luthor fake his death and transplanted his brain into a new and improved cloned body before he died of Kryptonite poisoning. Lex Luthor II was the original Lex Luthor all along! After his confession, the shadowy figures reveal that they are really Lex Luthor II and his loyal henchman Sydney Happersen in disguise. But this Dabney reveals to them that he's rally just a clone of the original, and triggers self-destruction with flammable pyrogranulate (a substance also created during Kirby's run) that was implanted in him. The real Dabney hears about his clone's death in the news and decides he must hide further underground, while Lex Luthor ponders that his secret would be in jeopardy if the real Dabney is ever found.
They saved Luthor's brain. For months the writers teased that something wasn't quite right about Lex Luthor's heir, but readers probably didn't expect it to go in this direction. While it may have seemed like a far-fetched plot development at the time, cloning (and Dabney Donovan) were going to become much bigger parts of post-Crisis Superman in the next act, after Superman's death.
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