Smallville

Metropolis just go an upgrade last month, but Superman spends the following month in his hometown of Smallville, Kansas.  Keep in mind this was almost two years before Smallville the TV series would air its first episode.  Just in time for Valentine's Day, Lois and Clark's marriage starts to show signs of trouble.  As a strong supporter of their marriage, the next few months were difficult to read, but I'm glad I stuck through it to the end.

Superman #155

Clark Kent arrives at the Kent farm in Smallville but is shocked when he finds Superboy is there with Ma and Pa Kent.  Superboy, who now also goes by a Kryptonian name Kon El, explains that he had met the Kents a while ago (back during Zero Hour in his own series) and they invited him to stop by anytime.  Kon El drops hints that he knows Clark's secret identity, but he really just seems to want to bond with Clark.  Clark teaches Kon El to milk a cow and imparts some wisdom with him, but when Kon El is ready to leave he's greeted by Superman on the way back to Metropolis.  A few years later, Kon El would assume another identity, as Conner Kent, and move in with Ma and Pa Kent on their farm.

At the Daily Planet, Lois asks for some time off and Perry White starts to wonder if their marriage is okay.  Clark gets home with some flowers for Valentine's Day, but finds Lois dressed to go out in a little black dress.  She tells Clark she made plans and not to wait up.

Adventures of Superman #577

Clark goes back to Smallville, telling his parents he wanted to spend more quality time now that Superboy is gone, but really he's avoiding the changes in Metropolis and his wife's strange behavior.  While there, as Superman he solves a mystery when the owner of a chemical plant burns it down to blame it on environmentalists.  Superman notes that the plant is too far away from any significant body of water to be able to put out the fire like he did in Sueprman III.  Clark realizes that his small town is starting to resemble a the big city that he tried to get away from.

Meanwhile in Metropolis, Lex Luthor takes a tour of Metropolis in an aircraft to survey the layout of the new city.  He spots Lois on the street going into a phone/ATM booth and withdrawing a large sum of money.

Superman: The Man of Steel #99

Superman saves Lana Lang and Pete Ross from a car accident when they drive off a bridge into the river.  While rescuing Pete from the bottom of the river, he has an eerie encounter with an ugly water witch who warns him that Pete is evil and saving him will cause innocent people to suffer.  Afterward, Lana and Clark meet at Clark's old tree house, his original fortress of solitude.

In a separate story, Steel and Natasha stop some cybernetic terrorists in Suicide Slum and accidentally open a black hole in the Steel Works which creates a tesseract, infinite space contained within finite space.  Tesseracts had been a popular concept in the DC Universe since Grant Morrison's JLA.  Back in Metropolis again, Superman asks Steel to help him rebuild the Fortress of Solitude.

Action Comics #764

Superman rescues an elderly woman from a burning building in Smallville, but she's inexplicably distraught over the loss of her babies even though Superman can see the building was completely empty.  Talking with Lana, he finds out the woman had a practice of blessing all the babies in town and the people would give her their baby's first empty jar of baby food.  Lana also reveals the reason she and Pete got in an accident was because they were having a fight at the time.  Superman goes back to the site of the fire and meticulously pieces together all the broken jars, then in a touching scene brings those along with the real children they represent to visit the woman in the hospital.

In Metropolis, Lex Luthor seals off the former nursery at Lex Tower, erasing every last trace of his daughter Lena's existence.

Clark finally asks his parents for advice on difficult times in marriage, and Pa Kent tells him to work on the little things.  Pa says when that didn't work, he'd go out back and break things while waiting for his wife to fix their problems.  Superman races back to Metropolis and unexpectedly sweeps Lois up for an impromptu date on top of the Constitution (where they first met) now at the Metropolis Air Space Museum.  As a gift he gives her her old tape recorder that he fixed, telling her that whatever is wrong they can fix.  But she speaks into the recorder and says she needs to be away from him for a while.  Later, the Martian Manhunter finds Superman angrily punching the ground on the moon, but when Superman starts to cough he realizes more is wrong than he thinks.