Three years after the Fall of Metropolis, Lex Luthor finally goes to trial for his crimes. And Jimmy Olsen struggles with the ethics of revealing Superman's secret identity to the world. Plus, we finally learn the identity of the villain who assembled the new Superman Revenge Squad.
Superman: The Man of Steel #71
A new energy-based villain named Baud has a brief confrontation with Superman and is then recruited to join the Revenge Squad, whose leader is at least revealed to be not Lex Luthor, but Morgan Edge.
While Superman battles the new Revenge Squad of Baud, Rock, Barrage, and the Parasite, Bibbo Bibowski gets back in the boxing ring and wins the world championship. But Bibbo regrets punching Jimmy last month and surrenders the belt and title. While the staff at GBS watches both stories unfold, wondering which one will draw the greatest audience, Jimmy ponders what to do with his recent discovery of Superman's secret identity.
Superman #127
Rather than being drained of power by the Parasite, Superman discovers that he can now drain energy from the Parasite too. He defeats Morgan Edge's new Revenge Squad leaves his headquarters at the Metropolis pier by a boom tube before Superman can find him. Morgan Edge leaves behind a thumbprint scanner with Lex Luthor's fingerprints to pin the crimes on Luthor.
Back at the Ace 'O Clubs, Bibbo gets into a brawl with Yango, the leader of the motorcycle gang the Outsiders, over him relinquishing the title of world champion. Yango and the gang leave, threatening not to patronize Bibbo's bar again.
Jimmy pays an unexpected visit to Lois and Clark at their apartment to get their advice on journalistic ethics. Not knowing that he plans to reveal Superman's identity to the world, Lois and Clark encourage Jimmy to go forward with his story.
Adventures of Superman #550
Jimmy invites Lois and Clark to be guests on his TV special, but only when they arrive on the set do they find out that Jimmy plans to expose Superman's identity. When they find out, Lois gets furious and storms off on live TV. Curious to see where Jimmy is going, Clark remains calm and lets Jimmy interview him. Clark gives Jimmy an inspiring speech about how Superman doesn't use his powers for personal gain and always tries to avoid harming innocent people. Jimmy immediately regrets what he was about to do and when it comes time for the reveal, he tells the audience that Superman doesn't have a secret identity. After the show, Jimmy is fired from GBS, but he takes the video of Collin Thornton rescuing Clark Kent with him.
With the world distracted by Jimmy's announcement, Lex Luthor arrives to his first day of court with little news coverage, just as he'd planned. Although this is a double-sized anniversary issue, it feels like nothing really happens, just like Jimmy's disappointing announcement. This issue doesn't feature an enhanced cover or a gimmicky change to the status quo, but it does deliver on the character development that the Superman comics were known for in this period.
In a back-up story, the Guardian hunts down the new Intergang. When Boss Moxie and Intergang see Jimmy pretend not to know Superman's secret identity on TV, they can immediately tell he's lying and decide to get the truth from him.
Action Comics #737
Intergang comes to Jimmy's apartment to make him talk. He gets away from them and manages to get himself arrested to get police protection, but Intergang bails him out. Jimmy seeks help from the one person he thinks can save him, Collin Thornton, who we find out he mistakenly believed was Superman's alter ego. Tragically, Jimmy Learns that Collin Thornton is not Superman when Intergang shoots him and his driver in his car. With no one else to turn to, Jimmy goes to Bibbo who loans him a motorcycle to leave town.
Lex Luthor triggers a volcano on a tropical island to errupt to keep Superman away from Metropolis while his trial is in session. Lex Luthor's defense argues that Luthor's clone was responsible for the destruction of Metropolis and they dramatically bring a raving Luthor clone into the courtroom to confess to his crimes. After he's falsely exonerated, Luthor confidently reveals to his naive attorney the truth of how his current body was really the clone. With conflicting versions of the truth, this story would be a little difficult for readers who haven't been following the saga of Lex Luthor since the post-Crisis era began. What makes Luthor such a despicable villain during this period is his ability to always get away with his crimes.
Superman: The Man of Tomorrow #9
While Superman saves people from a flood in Ohio, Ma and Pa Kent reminisce about their son from the day they found him through his many costume changes up to the present. This issue reads like a clip show on a 90's TV series, but after 11 years into the post-Crisis reboot, a recap like this was definitely necessary. As a teenager myself at the time, I was largely unaware of most of the stories that had come before the death of Superman. I felt this issue worked to bring newer readers like me up to speed, as well as appease longtime readers who missed seeing Superman's old costume. It really is remarkable how changing creative teams back then were so respectful of continuity to maintain it year after year. It seems these days the comics industry doesn't have as high a regard of long-term continuity, treating it more like unwanted baggage. Now that titles and universes reboot more often, I wonder if this is one reason why comic companies struggle to keep long-term readers. This month alone, we saw Lex Luthor stand trial for crimes that happened several years before in the comics, I can't even imagine that happening in today's market. There certainly isn't that kind of payoff for following a series that long anymore.
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