Guest Writers

It seemed like the creative teams on the Superman books were in a flux after Jeph Loeb left.  The remaining regular series writers took this month off, but it would still be several months until the sense of regular creators was restored.  These guest writers each give us a one-shot story in between the crossovers last month and next month.  All of these stories have a "very special issue" feel to them, in many places like they're trying too hard to deliver a moral lesson.

Superman #185

The regular writers take the month off, but interim regular writer Geoff Johns stays on for this issue, assisted by artist Brent Anderson.

A kid's baseball game is interrupted when Superman falls from the sky and lands in the baseball diamond.  Shortly after, the villain Major Force lands to finish his fight with the Man of Steel, endangering the baseball players.  Major Force calls Superman a boy scout, thinking he's too polite to fight dirty like him.  To his surprise, Superman melts his body with heat vision but leaving him alive.  Amanda Waller of the Suicide Squad shows up to collect Major Force but tries to make Superman think that the villain is not in the employ of the government.  After everybody is gone, Superman stays to play a game of baseball with the kids.  The image is reminiscent of a Golden Age story from the 40's.

Adventures of Superman #607

Guest-writer Jay Faerber returns for his second and final issue on this series.  Carlos Pacheco returns to draw another cover, while guest penciller Brandon Badeaux draws the interior with inker Mar Morales.

Argent of the current Titans team comes to Metropolis to have a talk with Superman, because he's an alien and she's part alien.  She tags along while Superman patrols the city, and they talk about odd subjects such as the fear of becoming freaks as their powers developed.  Superman puts out a fire at a burning building and Argent catches the two teenage arsonists, who started the fire just to try to kill a disfigured burn victim who looked different from them.  She gives the criminals a lecture about respecting everybody no matter how they look, and then Superman tells her she's not going to learn any more about herself by talking to him because she already knows what is right.  She flies away, and the ending sort of feels like Dorothy who could've gone back to Kansas anytime she wanted.

Superman: The Man of Steel #129

Controversial writer Chuck Austen fills in this issue, he would return to the Superman books for a year-long run on Action Comics in 2004.  If these fill-in issues were auditions, Chuck Austen seems to be the only one who made the cut.

Superman makes friends with a Metropolis police officer, and the issue is narrated from the officer's diary.  The two meet to talk at a diner regularly until people start to notice and eventually their meeting place becomes too crowded with onlookers.  The officer is saddened that he's no longer has a close relationship to Superman because of this, although it doesn't really make sense why they couldn't have just found another place to meet.  Later, the officer is tragically killed in the line of duty while Superman is away in Indonesia.  The Man of Steel speaks at his funeral to deliver a message that everybody is important, but it seems like he's really doing it out of guilt.

Action Comics #794

Guest-writer Chuck Kim is joined by former regular series artist Kano, who returns for this one issue after a year and would come back again for a final issue a year after this. 

The Quintessence, the congress of deities and demigods from Kingdom Come, convened years ago to discuss the future of last Kryptonian living on the planet Earth.  In Smallville, Clark Kent watches a movie about the JSA with his girlfriend at the time, Lana Lang.  With his powers developing, Clark can't help but feel the movie's anti-alien sentiment is direct at him.  He returns home to find out everybody who knows about his alien heritage, Lana Lang and the Kents, have been abducted, and he's attacked by the JSA.  Clark wakes up in his bed and the whole thing turns out to be a dream planted by the Quintessence to test him.

This is another story designed to capitalize on the popularity of the Smallville series at the time, years before any JSA members were introduced on that show.  It was interesting to see the JSA depicted on film during Clark's childhood (apparently with Lynda Carter playing Wonder Woman), but most readers would have known the JSA was no longer active at this time so the story comes across as anachronistic and out of character.