Superman: King of the World

The Dominus saga comes to its finale this month, in a special one-shot that pays homage to a Silver Age story from Action Comics #311-312, Superman: King of Earth.  This 2-part story stood out in 1964 because at the time stories didn't continue from issue to issue like they did in the 90's.  In the original version, Superman declares himself king and conquers the world, but that turns out to be a distraction while he discretely saves the planet from an alien invasion.

Superman: The Man of Steel #89

Superman breaks out of the Phantom Zone and takes Dominus by surprise.  The inhabitants of his former planet who Dominus banished to the Phantom Zone try to hold him there, but he breaks free from their control.

Wonder Woman escorts Lex Luthor and Outburst down to Earth and back to Metropolis, while Lex silently plans his next move.

Superman takes the malfunctioning robot that was protecting Lois Lane to Professor Hamilton's lab to see if he can repair it.  Then Superman goes to the wilderness, puts on a red headband, and practices Kryptonian meditation techniques while he waits for Dominus to return.  When Dominus returns, he tricks superman with an illusion of Lois Lane in trouble (just like on the cover).  Dominus takes the Man of Steel to the U.N. building for dramatic effect, and their fight with the other Superman robots ends in an explosion.

Superman: King of the World #1

This month there's a special 54-page story issue with a gold foil embossed cover.  While it was still cool at the time to get these periodic extra-sized specials with enhanced covers, gold foil had been done to death at this point and this was one of the weaker examples in the 90's.

Superman emerges victorious from the fight with no sign of Dominus, and now with the support of the Justice League he asks the world for temporary measures so he can hunt down his foe.  Superman constructs a command center over the ruins of the destroyed U.N. building, and uncharacteristically seats himself on a throne.

Superman's robots become even more intrusive than ever, spying on Lex Luthor after he breaks a glass in his office.  Lex gets a mysterious phone call telling him to go down to one of his labs, where once inside the oxygen is sucked out of the room forcing him into a space suit.  Lois Lane appears in another space suit, explaining that she tricked him there so they could communicate in a vacuum where Superman or his robots couldn't listen.  Lois doesn't trust what Superman is doing and she needs Luthor's help to stop him, so they go to Professor Hamilton's lab and reactive the broken Superman robot.  The robot takes the pair to Superman's command center as prisoners, but it was really just a ruse to get through security.  In a holding cell in the basement, they find Dominus has been trapped in a stasis field all along, but when Superman catches them we discover the Superman who has been acting like a king is really Dominus and the imprisoned Dominus is really Superman.  

In a reality-shattering battle, we get glimpses of Silver Age Bizarros and Superman's Kingdom Come and DC One Million costumes.  Re-creating reality from Superman's thoughts, Dominus takes them to Krypton right before its destruction.  Although it's a false reality, Superman uses Jor El's Phantom Zone projector to send Dominus to the zone for good.  Reality is restored to normal and Superman goes home to sleep for the first time in months.

Superman #145

Everywhere Superman goes now he hears a mix of opinions about himself.  Having neglected his annual tradition of reading his fan mail over the holidays, Superman goes to the post office to see what the people think of him now.  Unfortunately, most of the letters he reads are negative, but he's motivated by one from a fighter pilot who was paralyzed because of Superman's attempted nuclear disarmament.

Clark Kent goes to the hospital to interview this wounded veteran who doesn't hold a grudge, but rather wishes Superman had succeeded in making war unnecessary.  Clark hopes this man's story will mean the rest of the world can forgive Superman for his overreach too.  Superman thinks about finding a neurosurgeon who might be able to help the wounded warrior walk again, but like Superman's promises to enlarge the Bottle City of Kandor this is as far as it ever goes.

Adventures of Superman #568 

Louise Simonson guest writes another series before her ultimate departure from the Superman books.  Lex Luthor asks Lois Lane to arrange a televised interview with Superman.  Lois and Clark are suspicious of Luthor's intentions, but Lois sees this as an opportunity to get out of her job at LexCom and Clark sees it as a chance to explain his recent behavior in his own words.

Superman arrives at LexCom the night of the interview, but Lois figures out that Luthor plans to have Metallo attack the airport and have his hired hero Outburst save the day while Superman is kept busy.  Superman decides to stop Metallo and misses the interview.  Though Luthor had cameras ready to cover Outburst, he refuses to let his crew cover Superman.  As soon as she's off camera, Lois gives Cat Grant at GBS a call, tipping her off to the fight at the airport.  With her prime time interview a bust, Lois' hopes of changing jobs are dashed.  But the viewers largely acknowledge Superman's heroism and that he was more concerned with doing good than sounding good, so at least Superman's reputation was salvaged even without the interview.