The 10-Cent Adventure

It's the end and beginning of an era.  The main Superman title skips an issue this month, replaced by a specially priced 10-cent one-shot.  In the days before Free Comic Book Day, both Marvel and DC experimented with cheap issues from 9 to 25 cents to try to draw in new readers.  Sadly, this month is also the final issue of the youngest Superman series, Superman: The Man of Steel. 

For me, this month signaled a slow decline for the Superman books.  First, it introduced an unpopular new Supergirl, which forced the cancellation of Peter David's beloved Supergirl series, as well as the total erasure of that version of the character.  Until this point, writers had been acknowledging everything that came before in the post-Crisis era as canon, even when they tried to change things.  Now things weren't so much retconned, just never really mentioned again.  Fortunately, this new Supergirl wouldn't last longer than a year, and she too would never be mentioned again after she is replaced by the original Supergirl, Kara Zor El.

Second, it started a trend of the Superman books imitating the Batman books.  Batman had kicked off the Bruce Wayne: Murderer story line the year before with a 10-cent special, and former Batman artist Scott McDaniel takes over as the regular artist Superman artist here.  At this time, Jim Lee was just starting the year-long epic, Hush, in Batman, and after finishing that he would do a less-memorable year on Superman.  Whereas Superman was the standard in the 90's that the rest of the DC Universe revolved around, it seemed now that he was getting Batman's hand-me-downs.

Lastly, the cancellation of Superman: The Man of Steel continues a trend of cancelling the newest Superman titles, which started with the end of Superman: The Man of Tomorrow in 1999.  The main Superman series would be the next to go in about 3 years, veritably marking an end of the continuity that started with Man of Steel 20 years earlier.

Superman: The 10-Cent Adventure #1

A new villain named Amok attacks Metropolis in its new "Plaza of the Two Truths."  Using futuristic weapons, Amok is capable of hurling Superman to the moon.  Iceland's "Most Dangerous Villain," Amok had apparently been easily defeated in an encounter so forgettable Superman can't even recall it.  However, Amok has now been given advanced weaponry by mysterious allies called the Futuresmiths.  In return, Amok gives the Futuresmiths a strand of Superman's hair, but after that they don't care when he's destroyed by his own weapons in battle.  The Futuresmiths open a chamber in their secret headquarters and a new Supergirl named Cir-El emerges.

While McDaniel's art was suited for Nightwing and Batman, his shadowy style didn't always fit the tone of a Superman story, and sometimes his drawings were just incomprehensible.  New writer Steven T. Seagle wastes no time introducing new concepts that would stay with the series throughout his run, but wouldn't be seen again after that.

Adventures of Superman #612

A new champion of justice who resembles the Golden Age Superman is spotted performing deeds from Superman's Golden Age stories.  He stays an execution by dragging both the governor and the actual killer with a signed confession to the prison.  

Clark Kent attends a speech by fiction author Benjamin Conrad, and starts to visit the writer more frequently as it becomes apparent his upcoming novel, Champion of the Oppressed, seems to be coming to life in this alternate version of Superman.  Conrad insists his version of a superhero is more grounded and relatable than the real Superman.  Clark encourages his friend to do the right thing, and Conrad deletes the novel from his computer, which causes the mysterious Golden Age Superman to fade away.  In its place he publishes another book, the Hollow Men, who we'll be seeing more of soon.

Unlike Joe Casey's usually quiet books, this one is full of sound effects.

Superman: The Man of Steel #134

While taking a discreet walk with Perry White through snow-covered Metropolis, Clark tells his secret employer how he was followed by his wife who's starting to suspect he's not really looking for a new job.  Lois is disturbed to discover that Clark has been keeping a hidden room of evidence against Lex Luthor, but it's so disorganized it looks like a scene from the movie A Beautiful Mind.  Alone at their apartment later that day, Lois calls Martha Kent to discuss her concerns about Clark.

John Henry Irons learns that due to nerve damage caused by Manchester Black, he'll never be able to wear his Steel armor again without it killing him.  The armor seems to be driving him insane, and it takes the might of Superman to remove him from it.  John Henry more or less retires at the end of the book where he first appeared a decade earlier.  His niece Natasha would would appear occasionally as his replacement, before he eventually returned as Steel right before the New 52 reboot.

Long-time series artist Jon Bogdanove returns to draw the cover and the last 5 pages of this over-sized issue.  This was one of the only comics I can recall having a $2.75 cover price.  Steel's story concludes in a double-sized special next month, but that book was priced at $2.95.

Action Comics #799

Still haunted by Zod and dreading their next encounter, Clark Kent wakes up from a bad dream and goes for a "walk" above the city to think.  He hears a report that Gorilla Grodd is in Chicago, but he finds another giant, psychic gorilla there instead.  Superman is taken on a journey through the beast's mind, where he finds out it was all a distress call from the paralyzed Green Lantern villain, Hector Hammond, where his prison therapist has been slowly trying to poison him.  Though readers were probably expecting the big fight between Superman and Zod to happen in the milestone issue next month, they would have to wait until after that.

Artist Carlos Meglia returns for another issue, he would return one more time on Adventures of Superman and then a special called Infinite City a few years later.  Though he only drew a handful of issues, most of his DC work has been on Superman.