The Fall of Coast City
What could be more world-shaking than the death of Superman? This month we learn one of the Superman imposters is a deadly villain when an entire city of seven million people is obliterated!
The Man of Steel and the Last Son of Krypton land in a crater in (Green Lantern Hal Jordan's home town) Coast City, California. The Man of Steel (literally) knocks some sense into the Last Son, who then flies away to question why his own violent actions lack Superman's compassion and heart. Lex Luthor II offers the Man of Steel a ride back to Metropolis on one of his jets, but then he secretly meets with the White Rabbit to tell her where to ambush John Henry when he returns. The Man of Steel beats the White Rabbit and destroys her secret munitions factory. Lex isn't happy that the White Rabbit is defeated, but at least he gains one of her prototypes to copy and the knowledge of John Henry's secret identity.
At the Daily Planet, Lois gets depressed when Ron Troupe takes over Clark's old desk and his mail slot. Jeb knows Lois may be on the rebound, but doesn't mind trying to take advantage of that.
Outside of orbit, the mysterious space ship arrives undetected, and Earth will never be the same.
Luthor's satellite is the first to detect the invading space ship descending on Coast City. The Last Son of Krypton already happens to be there, and the White House calls Cyborg Superman to the scene too. On command, the ship drops thousands of what its shadowy general calls Carnage Globes on the city. Cyborg Superman unexpectedly attacks the other Superman, telling him that he'll be the one blamed for the deaths of millions. The globes detonate, instantly destroying Coast City and everyone in it except for the two Supermen.
In his own series at this time, Green Lantern Hal Jordan is in outer space in a crossover with the L.E.G.I.O.N and the Darkstars. Hal Jordan's occasional girlfriend and adversary Carol Ferris luckily happens to be out of town and in the middle of a phone call with somebody in Coast City at the time of the explosion.
After the detonation, the Last Son of Krypton collects his energy form and goes back to the Arctic to try to regenerate. In the Fortress of Solitude, we see somebody activate a Kryptonian battle suit. Cyborg Superman pretends to be reporting back to the White House, but in reality he goes to the ship to oversee the building of a new structure in the city's place. On board, his mysterious general steps out of the shadows and we see Mongul kneeling in Cyborg Superman's service.
Cyborg Superman patrols the devastation in California, pretending to report no survivors back to the White House while really killing any survivors he finds. GBS sends Superboy to Coast City to help Cyborg Superman, but Vinnie Edge won't let Tana go with him. Lois starts to suspect something is not right with Cyborg Superman when she hears him on TV saying he wishes he had Superboy's confidence in his powers when he was that age.
When Superboy arrives on the scene, Cyborg Superman reports back that they're under attack, but he destroys their military escort with his heat vision. Superboy struggles to fight the Cyborg and we begin to notice that he's not invulnerable and seems to have different powers we haven't seen before. Superboy wonders if he really is a clone of Superman before the Cyborg knocks him unconscious with a powerful blow.
In Antarctica, the Kryptonian battle suit climbs out of the ice and starts to walk across the bottom of the ocean floor.
At Superman's memorial in Metropolis, the Superman cult is split over which of the Supermen is their savior and Maggie Sawyer has to disperse them before they turn violent. Lois finds Maggie and tells her she doesn't trust the Cyborg because the real Superman didn't have powers when he was a teenager.
Superboy regains consciousness and finds himself helplessly restrained inside the Engine City that Cyborg Superman has built in place of Coast City. The Cyborg creates a fake video of himself and Superboy that he uses to trick the Justice League into leaving Earth on a wild goose chase to find the Last Son of Krytpon, who is now being blamed for the destruction of the city.
The Last Son of Krypton returns to the Fortress of Solitude to regenerate, but discovers that his power source in the energy matrix is now gone. The robots put their master in a nutrient bath as a substitute, and reveal to him that he is not Kal El, but rather the Eradicator returned to Earth. Beneath the Atlantic ocean, we learn that the figure inside dressed in all black is the real Superman!
Like the death of Superman, nothing on this scale had ever really happened in comics before with such lasting impact. However, destroying entire cities would become a 90's trend whenever it seemed writers wanted to increase the importance of a story. In less than a year, we would see a similar destruction of Metropolis, followed by an earthquake in Gotham a few years after that. The non-fictional city of Montevideo, Uruguay would be annihilated in DC One Million. Like deaths and resurrections, there would be diminishing returns the more cities were destroyed and rebuilt. But reading these books again after 9/11, none of the excitement and anxiety seems to have been lost over the years. The effects of Coast City would shake up Green Lantern for the next decade and lead into DC's biggest and perhaps most important crossover of the 90's.
Superman: The Man of Steel #24
At the Daily Planet, Lois gets depressed when Ron Troupe takes over Clark's old desk and his mail slot. Jeb knows Lois may be on the rebound, but doesn't mind trying to take advantage of that.
Outside of orbit, the mysterious space ship arrives undetected, and Earth will never be the same.
Superman #80
In his own series at this time, Green Lantern Hal Jordan is in outer space in a crossover with the L.E.G.I.O.N and the Darkstars. Hal Jordan's occasional girlfriend and adversary Carol Ferris luckily happens to be out of town and in the middle of a phone call with somebody in Coast City at the time of the explosion.
After the detonation, the Last Son of Krypton collects his energy form and goes back to the Arctic to try to regenerate. In the Fortress of Solitude, we see somebody activate a Kryptonian battle suit. Cyborg Superman pretends to be reporting back to the White House, but in reality he goes to the ship to oversee the building of a new structure in the city's place. On board, his mysterious general steps out of the shadows and we see Mongul kneeling in Cyborg Superman's service.
Adventures of Superman #503
When Superboy arrives on the scene, Cyborg Superman reports back that they're under attack, but he destroys their military escort with his heat vision. Superboy struggles to fight the Cyborg and we begin to notice that he's not invulnerable and seems to have different powers we haven't seen before. Superboy wonders if he really is a clone of Superman before the Cyborg knocks him unconscious with a powerful blow.
In Antarctica, the Kryptonian battle suit climbs out of the ice and starts to walk across the bottom of the ocean floor.
Action Comics #690
Superboy regains consciousness and finds himself helplessly restrained inside the Engine City that Cyborg Superman has built in place of Coast City. The Cyborg creates a fake video of himself and Superboy that he uses to trick the Justice League into leaving Earth on a wild goose chase to find the Last Son of Krytpon, who is now being blamed for the destruction of the city.
The Last Son of Krypton returns to the Fortress of Solitude to regenerate, but discovers that his power source in the energy matrix is now gone. The robots put their master in a nutrient bath as a substitute, and reveal to him that he is not Kal El, but rather the Eradicator returned to Earth. Beneath the Atlantic ocean, we learn that the figure inside dressed in all black is the real Superman!
Like the death of Superman, nothing on this scale had ever really happened in comics before with such lasting impact. However, destroying entire cities would become a 90's trend whenever it seemed writers wanted to increase the importance of a story. In less than a year, we would see a similar destruction of Metropolis, followed by an earthquake in Gotham a few years after that. The non-fictional city of Montevideo, Uruguay would be annihilated in DC One Million. Like deaths and resurrections, there would be diminishing returns the more cities were destroyed and rebuilt. But reading these books again after 9/11, none of the excitement and anxiety seems to have been lost over the years. The effects of Coast City would shake up Green Lantern for the next decade and lead into DC's biggest and perhaps most important crossover of the 90's.
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