Superman Vs. Dracula

The King of Vampires faces off against the Man of Steel for the first and only time in the post-Crisis era.  Though the character Count Dracula is in the public domain, he's more associated with the Marvel universe and appears in DC comics less frequently.

Superman #180

Lois, Clark, and Jimmy are called to an eastern European country on the border of Pokolistan and on the brink of war.  Their creepy host turns out to be none other than Count Dracula, who invited them there to lure the Man of Steel to use in his upcoming war against Zod.  Jimmy tags along for comedy relief, flirting with Dracula's assistant Elizabeth who just want to drink his blood.  Lois and Clark make some uncomfortable confessions about their marriage to each other while they're under Dracula's spell.  Clark senses something is wrong with his wife's behavior and his suspicions are confirmed when he discovers all the wine in the cellar is really human blood.  As Dracula expected, Superman arrives to save Lois, but the count's plan fails when he bite's into the Man of Steel's neck and realizes too late that every cell in Superman's body is infused with sunlight.  Dracula evaporates into smoke, and on their way back home Clark is concerned about the power vacuum this leaves for General Zod.  Lois reassures him that even Zod couldn't hold his own against the Creature Commandos who live there.

Ian Churchill fills in as a guest artist, delivering his usual cheesecake fan service.  Geoff Johns assists on the writing, and a few years later he would bring back the Creature Commandos during his "New Krypton" story arc.  This issue had the perfect mix of action and comedy, and it was one of my personal favorite stories from this period.

Adventures of Superman #602

Cult of Persuasion part 2 of 2

Superman stops the Persuader from destroying the Daily Planet.  As they fight, Persuader's atomic axe tears open a dimensional rift that Superman thinks looks similar to the familiar post-Crisis version of Krypton from before Return to Krypton.  The Persuader disappears in a flash of light, leaving only his axe and more questions than answers.

Two weeks later, Lois and Clark have a talk on their balcony and work out some of the recent stress on their marriage.  Lois decides she wants a real life marriage and not a fairy tale, and she promises that they'll work out whatever problems they may have because that's what a marriage is all about.

Joe Casey's writing style focuses more on action than dialogue, and with no narrator or even sound effects his stories tend to read as eerily quiet even when there are plenty of punches and explosions.  The choice not to use sound effects seems to be an attempt to modernize, but then this book also seems a little old-fashioned because it still uses thought balloons which have since become passé.

Superman: The Man of Steel #124

Gangs of Metropolis part 2 of 3

With Superman defeated and taken prisoner by the Overmind, Steel recruits the help of former-Cybermoth queen Luna, and also gets convicts Shrewface and Mr. Bloat on work release.  Talia Head enlists the aid of a convict of her own in LexCorp custody: Metallo.  Steel's niece Natasha has become the Cybermoth's unwilling new queen, but she figures out how to use this new power to make a virtual duplicate of herself to free the Man of Steel.  Before he can escape, Superman is attacked by the Overmind, and then Steel and Metallo arrive to join the fight.  Steel wishes he had brought the Entropy Aegis armor with him, but then is disturbed when the armor arrives to help as if summoned by him.  Too late, Steel remembers who killed him and discovers the identity of the Overmind, but that surprise will have to wait till next issue.  The Overmind reveals his master plan all along has been to reboot Brainiac 13.

Action Comics #789

Man & Beast part 1 of 2

The villain Kancer has been meeting with an unknown figure in the Gorge of Pokolistan, unbeknownst to General Zod who has sent all his minions in search of this place that seems to open and close in different places.  In Metropolis, Lois and Clark play with Krypto in the park when suddenly Kancer finds them.  Kancer is enraged that his "Father" Superman has replaced him with a dog.  He reveals that he betrayed General Zod to locate Superman in his civilian identity, and threatens to kill Krypto.  Krypto frees himself from Kancer's grasp with a supersonic bark, but Kancer hurries back to Pokolistan to tell his master that he's found Superman secret identity.  Krypto helps Superman track Kancer back to the Gorge, where he discovers the figure hiding in that hellish pit is Guy Gardner.  Guy was killed in Our Worlds at War but would turn out to be one of the many resurrections less than a year later.