The Millennium Giants crossover comes to a close, and this also marks the end of the Superman Red/Superman Blue period.
Adventures of Superman #557
Steel recruits Superboy in the fight against the giants. Following the Earth's ley lines, two of the giants converge on the nation of Markovia, home to Geo-Force and his sister Terra (it's complicated). Superman Red and the other heroes attack the two giants, while Superman Blue helps Aquaman and Lori Lemaris save the underwater city Tritonis from the other giant. The heroes save the people of Markovia, but the giants remove a chunk of land from the heart of Markovia. The other giant resurfaces from the ocean outside of the harbor of Metropolis.Steel #50
Steel, Supergirl, and Superboy fight the giants together, a team-up that would later become known as Team Superman. As a new member of the JLA, Steel teleports to the Watchtower where the Martian Manhunter gives him a gun that belonged to L-Ron. Writer Christopher Priest references his prior run on Justice League Task Force more than current events in the JLA's own series. The gun is so powerful that it physically hurts the Martian Manhunter when he tries to shoot it. Superboy's tactile telekenesis enables him to fire the weapon and keep it pointed at the giant, but he overheats it and the gun explodes, failing to finish destroying the giant.
Action Comics #744
As the giant approaches Metropolis, Lex Luthor prepares to evacuate with his daughter into space. Both Supermen arrive to save the city from the creature, but after their first failure Superman Red blasts Superman Blue and decides to try to save Metropolis himself. Superman Red absorbs energy from a hydroelectric cable and grows to gigantic size to be able to fight the giant on his own scale. Superman Red pulls the giant into space, where the monster starts to break apart, but so does Superman Red. Superman Red watches as the fragments of the giant fall to earth as a meteor shower and re-form in Australia. In the North Atlantic, one of the other giants cuts a triangle into the ocean and removes not only another chunk of land from the ocean's bed, but also the layer of water that was above it. On top of all the other weirdness, the Challengers of the Unknown are obsessed with evading a Mayan prophecy.
Superman: The Man of Steel #79
Superman Blue rockets into space to save Superman Red from being torn apart by giving him part of his own containment suit. Reluctantly, the two Supermen join forces and break inside the giant's body to try to destroy it from within. Inside the giant they encounter a cryptic figure who calls himself the Keep of the Flame, and reminds me of the crusader at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The Keeper shows them how to kill the giant but warns them it will cost the both their lives. The Supermen enter the fire inside the giant and all three giants fall to the Earth in ruins. Contrary to the Keeper's prediction, both Supermen survive the fight. However, when they get back outside the giant's body, they discover Earth is now undergoing the same cataclysmic transformation that destroyed Krypton.
The reveal on the last page is another gatefold like the end of Superman #75 and Superman: The Man of Steel #75. This was a distinct Superman gimmick of the 90's that I don't recall being done in any other series. It's since fallen out of fashion because the effect is lost when reprinted in trade or in digital formats.
Superman #135
The two Supermen go back inside the dead giant's body, although if you hadn't read the previous issue this issue reads like it's their first time. This time they encounter a fire-breathing dragon, who it turns out was really just the Keeper of the Flame in disguise, who didn't want to reveal his presence to the Supermen even though he apparently forgot he already did last issue. In a scene similar to Superman reversing time in the first Superman movie, Superman Red circles the Earth while Superman Blue spins inside its core. Somehow this magically saves the Earth, even though the logic is just as incomprehensible. The Earth goes back to normal, but both Supermen disappear and the Martian Manhunter cannot detect either of them telepathically.
The Millennium Giants are never seen again, and that's probably for the better. The ending of the story in particular was a continuity mess that didn't even make sense from issue to issue. How the story happened really didn't even matter, it only served to set up the pieces for the next era. Both Supermen are presumed dead, but the story continues next week in Superman Forever, a special issue celebrating Superman's 60th anniversary.
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