Lost Hearts
Lost Hearts takes Superman undercover into the streets of Washington, DC, where he meets the sorceress legacy hero, Traci 13, in her debut. John Van Fleet draws a set of eye-catching covers for each issue of this story arc. This was the last multi-series story arc for a full year, as there will be major changes to the creative teams and publishing schedule next month.
Superman #189
Lost Hearts part 1
A girl with a lizard on her back sends a letter from Hell's Heart, a fictional slum of Washington, DC, to Second Lady Lana Lang. Lana tries to appeal to her husband, Vice President Pete Ross, to do something about the situation in the slum, but he declines. Lana angrily decides to go there on her own, ditching her Secret Service detail, and then she mysteriously disappears. Pete isn't sure if Lana is in trouble or if she abandoned him, so he calls Clark Kent to help him find her, not as his secret identity Superman but undercover. Clark agrees to help, even though Batman is concerned that Clark's street niavete and inability to lie may put Lana in further danger.
Geoff Johns returns for another issue before this series finally gets a a regular creative team again, and he also writes this month's issue of Superman: The Man of Steel.
In a fight unrelated to the rest of the story, Power Girl helps Superman against an elemental villain named Mr. 104, and for the first time she's strangely affected by Kryptonite just like Superman. They acknowledge Power Girl's origin has been a mess since Crisis, but she and Superman see themselves as almost relatives. This was the first hint that Power Girl might return to her pre-Crisis origin as Earth 2 Superman's cousin, which would be restored a few years later with Infinite Crisis.
Adventures of Superman #610
Clark Kent arrives in the slum of DC and starts asking people on the street if they've seen the missing Lana Lang. Of course, as Second Lady, she would be world-famous and particularly known in the city of DC. The story strangely tries to overlook this fact when a suspicious man finds a disheveled Lana on the streets and says she could pass for the VP's old lady if she were cleaned up. He asks her name and she hesitates, then tells him her name is Lois. He takes her back to his studio and tries to coax her into shooting some pornographic photos.
Clark Kent gets into a fight with the neighborhood gang, and throughout the issue he strangely tells people intimate ailments he can detect about them with his powers, such as they have AIDS or cancer. He buys Traci 13, the girl with the iguana on her shoulder, a meal to get her to talk and she reveals she's a witch who can see there's more to Clark. Traci can see parasitic magical creatures attached to people's chest, which resemble the facehuggers from the Alien movies. She calls them Heartbreakers, and they attach themselves to despair and make it worse, conveniently explaining why the ghetto is so bad. By the end of the issue, not only can Clark see the Heartbreakers too, but he's also infected by them.
Superman: The Man of Steel #133
Lana Lang decides she doesn't want to take any dirty pictures and runs from the studio, but the photographer and his men chase her up the stairs to the roof. As she climbs the steps, she says the famous catchphrase, "Look. Up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane." She jumps off the roof saying "It's Superman." and "Make the world safe, Superman" as she falls. Clark snaps out of his Hearbreaker-induced depression and catches Lana before she hits the pavement.
Her pursuers catch up to her and try to attack Clark, but then he shockingly holds up their leader and encourages Lana to beat the man with a loose 2x4. Traci 13 intervenes with her magic to stop them before they kill him. An unseen man in the shadows grabs Traci from behind and pulls her inside a doorway. Lana and Clark run into a building to rest, and then they passionately kiss.
Action Comics #798
Lana and Clark have a colorful Smallville flashback that stands out against the bleak color scheme of the rest of this story arc. Revisiting the memory of their first kiss, the Heartbreakers attached to their bodies fall off as if repelled by joy. Inside the building, Traci 13 is reunited with her father, Dr. Thirteen, a paranormal "ghost breaker" character who goes back to the 50's. Clark decides to show the denizens of the slum his powers, giving them hope that severs the bonds with the Heartbreakers. Clark promises to return, and on Christmas delivers a Christmas tree to Hell's Heart. Lana returns to her duties in the White House and starts to use her position to help the slum.
Lost Hearts was an oddity that tried to put the Man of Steel in a street-level situation, but also tried to have a supernatural explanation for poverty at the same time. It did try to be socially aware, like pointing out HIV infection rates among black men which was ahead of its time. Lois Lane doesn't appear at all this month, and it felt awkward to suggest a romantic relationship between Lana and Clark now that the're both married to other people. It had a conflicted message since Superman's solution to crime and poverty doesn't really work in the real world. Nothing in the story would be seen or mentioned again other than Traci 13.
Comments
Post a Comment