#paul westfield

[superman86to99]

Superman: The Man of Steel #34 (June 1994)

"THE BATTLE FOR METROPOLIS," Part 2! Lex-Men vs. Dubbilex-Men! I know it's not true, but part of me feels like they introduced Lex Luthor's armored security force a few years ago and Project Cadmus' Dubbilex back in the '70s just so they could make that pun in this cover. I don't think anyone has ever referred to Cadmus' security force as "Dubbilex-Men" before this issue, but you have to admit that's a snappier name than "Cadmus' security force."

Anyway, last issue ended with all hell breaking loose in the middle of Metropolis, and in this one... it continues to break loose. Team Luthor fights Cadmus while the Special Crimes Unit tries to stop the Underworld clones and the Underworld clones try to kill everyone, with Superman quite literally stuck in the middle.

The Underworlders, as we've recapped a million times by now, are furiously attacking the surface world because they blame Cadmus for the plague that's killing them. At one point, the Underworlders seem to run away from the fight -- but that's only because they've been leading the humans to a bomb they planted, causing a huge explosion in the middle of the city.

Lex Luthor Jr., who secretly supplied the bomb, is watching the action through hidden cameras and doesn't seem terribly concerned about the fact that his bomb killed a bunch of his employees, too. What's even more disturbing is that the Clone Plague is rapidly turning into the Cryptkeeper (to think he looked like red-haired Fabio a few weeks ago...).

Meanwhile, Lois Lane gets a message from her mysterious source inside LexCorp offering her new evidence of Lex's crimes (which is good, because Lois lost the old evidence when her apartment blew up). Lois sneaks into LexCorp following her source's instructions, and finds a secret office where she retrieves two important items: a VHS tape showing Lex strangling his personal trainer, and a big map of Metropolis showing that Lex has a lot more bombs hidden all over the city. Uh-oh.

Back in the battle zone, some Cadmus troopers led by Guardian, a.k.a. Cadmus' very own Captain America, find themselves surrounded by an army of pissed-off Underworlders (who are apparently much better at strategy than the humans). Dubbilex, freshly arrived from Hawaii, flies in to the rescue with some Cadmus paratroopers, but some Lex-Men get in their way and try to kill them. Dubbilex and Guardian are the only clones who aren't dying, which the Underworlders see as confirmation that Cadmus intentionally caused the plague. (The fact that the Newsboy Legion kids are dying doesn't prove much, since they're pretty annoying and I could see Director Westfield deeming them acceptable losses.)

Dubbilex is actually feeling pretty conflicted about having to fight other ugly clones like himself, until he sees that Clawster (the big, rocky, supposedly invulnerable Underworlder players of the Death and Return of Superman video game mistook for Doomsday's kid brother) is about to kill Guardian. Dubbilex launches a psychic blast that takes away Clawster's invulnerability, allowing the paratroopers to blast the hell out of him. It looks like Clawster is down for the count, but in his final moments he rages at Guardian and breaks his shield (another thing that was supposed to be unbreakable) as he makes some pretty good points about Cadmus' Director Westfield.

Superman remembers this comic is about him and arrives just in time to see Clawster dying and Guardian being left badly injured. The other Underworlders scatter, and just as Superman is saying there must be some way to stop the senseless killing, Lex remotely detonates another bomb right in his face. TO BE CONTINUED!

Character-Watch:

That's it for Clawster, who had the misfortune of being introduced in Man of Steel #17 and ending up being seen as a lamer and (barely) more articulate version of Doomsday. I'll admit I was still kinda fond of this knucklehead, and I think he could have ended up being a more memorable villain if he'd had better timing. Sadly, there will be no Clawster/Prey miniseries where he comes back. His only other appearances after this were 2011's Retroactive issue, which is set before this one, and an unexplained cameo in a montage of Steel fighting various villains in 2010's Superman #697, though you only see his back. Maybe it WAS Doomsday's kid brother that time.

(Unrelated: Is that Professor Hamilton's building in the background?)

Plotline-Watch:

Dubbilex arrives in Metropolis halfway through the issue along with his young ward, Superboy, who is in pretty poor shape, not just due to the Clone Plague but also the events of Superboy #5 (which we haven't covered yet). Superboy tries to go help Superman anyway, but he instantly collapses in the middle of the infirmary. THAT'S how brave Superboy is. Or maybe he didn't want to be stuck with the Newsboy Legion in the infirmary.

Despite not currently working for the Daily Planet, Lois still calls Perry White to tell him about the first explosion and tip him off about where the Underworlders are headed next, so that Perry can send Jimmy Olsen and Ron Troupe there. THAT'S how professional Lois is. Or maybe she's just trying to get Jimmy killed, which I understand (sorry, Ron).

Speaking of Jimmy and Ron, as we saw last issue, Bibbo is helping them follow the action in his bike, until they find out some Underworlders are trashing the Ace O'Clubs. Big mistake: Bibbo produces a big shotgun from somewhere (does he have Bloodsport technology?) and goes in to deal with the looters. The scene ends there, because this is an all-ages comic.

Professor Hamilton feels responsible for triggering this war because he's the one who told the Underworlders that the Clone Plague was probably caused by the time Westfield flooded Metropolis' tunnels. In the middle of all the fighting, Clawster drops by to tell Hambone that they'll spare him and reassure him that he didn't cause the war: the truth caused the war. The truth that he told them. Yeah, that'll make him feel better.

There's a short scene with Myra the Orphanage Lady saving Keith the Unlucky Orphan from being eaten by Kathana, the same hypnotic lizard lady Keith once mistook for his mom (it was dark). Kathana actually tried to turn Keith into a stew in the aforementioned Man of Steel #17, and apparently she's been biding her time waiting for another opportunity since then. Keith is very lucky to have Myra in his life.... for now, anyway.

In this issue we meet Lois' exceptionally dedicated mailman, Fred Bentson, who tracks her down in the middle of an active war zone to give her the mail she hasn't gotten since her apartment blew up (including that note from her LexCorp source). Then, Fred says something about how he'd rather "stay in Dakota" but he keeps waking up in Metropolis. This is a little teaser for a crossover that will happen within this storyline and right before another, bigger crossover, just in case you'd forgotten this is a '90s comic.

Apparently, Lex is a huge fan of the film Metropolis -- so much so that he hides tapes with incriminating evidence under a statue of the lady robot from that movie.

Patreon-Watch:

Last month in the Superman '86 to '99 Patreon, we covered an Elseworlds annual in which Superman snaps a villain's neck, skins him, and wears his fur like a suit. Fun stuff! Join our patrons Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Gaetano Barreca at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99

And now, join the great Don Sparrow for more commentary, after the jump!

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We start with the cover, and it’s a pretty dramatic one.  Superman and the Guardian in a pieta-like pose.  Bogdanove skirts the comics code authority by making all that blood black, which to me is somehow more upsetting than if it were red.  Kudos for the letter design on the battling Lex-Men and Dubbilex-Men.

Inside we start with a pretty arresting image of a group of five underworlders grappling with Superman, followed by a double page spread of Superman hurling them off in different directions.

The rumpled texture on the bulletproof vests of the Special Crimes Unit is particularly well rendered. The combination of colours and metallic helmet made me think for a moment that DC’s Peacemaker was fighting alongside Maggie Sawyer in that last panel on page 3.  As always, Dennis Janke’s inks are masterful at differentiating texture, and that’s never clearer than on Clawster’s bark-like skin.

Later on we get our first look at Lex, and there’s a little dissonance between how he looked last issue, which took place only a few minutes before this one, and how he looks in this one.  [Max: I wonder exactly what type of drugs Dr. Kelley is giving him...] His deteriorated body and unblinking eyes are pretty intense. 

A page later we get a look at a character who will become important in a future story, Fred Bentson, mail carrier of two worlds.  In these pages he looks like Austin Pendelton by way of The Real Ghostbusters’ Egon Spengler.

The issue’s frenetic pace continues, as Superboy arrives by marine helicopter (both the chopper and Cadmus’ tank are great vehicle design).  Superboy is kind of tossed into the middle of the story without so much as an asterisk informing us where we can learn what has left him so injured. [Max: Yeah, the lack of a plug for the Superboy series is very uncharacteristic. Not even in the lettercol!]

Fairly suddenly, Jimmy Olsen, like both Superman and Clark Kent, has long hair.  [Max: I distinctly remember Jimmy having long hair since the issue when Clark moves in with him because the panel of him saying "Let's crank some Van Halen to celebrate!" is burned into my brain, but it's less consistent than Superman's.] The same page also has a great drawing of Bibbo racking a shotgun, and the pose and the expression are both great cartooning.  There’s plenty of fight choreography throughout the book, but my favourite look is Lois Lane’s Rockette-like takedown of the LexCorp security guard. 

Later on, Myra from the orphanage does battle with maybe the most terrifying mutant of the book, Kathana, who looking like a combination of a baphomet statue and a Jim Henson creation, will haunt my dreams for all time.  The character of “Fancy Feet” is just such a Bogdanove looking creation (and I gotta love those kicks he wears!).  [Max: They DO look quite fancy!]

The issue’s most dramatic moment is when Clawster splits Guardian’s up-until-now unbreakable shield.  I know Max and I don’t always see eye to eye on the Underworlders, so I imagine as a reader I’m supposed to be a lot more choked up about Clawster’s death than I am.  My feeling from this scene was more that Clawster was an unworthy shatterer of Guardian’s shield—having the shield be depicted as indestructible for so long, its destruction should have felt like a big moment.  While it’s well-drawn, it feels more like a throwaway.  Indeed, this whole issue feels like a “middle” that we’re dropped into.  The battle has begun at the start, and it doesn’t resolve, or change direction by the time the story ends.  If it feels like Superman doesn’t greatly impact the story, you’re completely right—he only appears in 6 out of the 22 pages in this comic bearing his name. [Max: I think the issue does have two important developments: 1) the Underworlders are now leaderless, and 2) what's left of Guardian's trust in Westfield has been shattered, much like the shield. Oh, and 3) Fancy Feet's feet are fancy.]

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

Were X-Men still the top seller by 1994?  If so having a cover battle with forces that both rhyme with X-Men might have been a calculated idea.

It’s pretty crazy to see Maggie Sawyer just blowing mutants away.  Also, I know that it’s so we can identify her as readers, but she really ought to be wearing a helmet!  Between Maggie and her squad, Bibbo, and even Hamilton, this is a pretty gun-heavy issue!

As with the Hulking Superman story, I’m a little fuzzy on the details—is Professor Hamilton correct that the clone sickness is from exposure to the flood? [Max: I think so, though I kinda prefer Lex's made up explanation that he got sick from the toxins in Engine City. They could have said Lex was patient zero and the virus spread to the rest of Metropolis because he doesn't cover his mouth when he coughs.]

As Lois learns the locations of the bombs, they’re both nods to comics creators of the past.  “Boring and 57th” refers to 40’s and 50’s Superman artist, Wayne Boring; “Burnley and 43rd” refers to Jack Burnley, the second artist to regularly draw Superman, after Joe Shuster himself.

[daydreamerdrew]

Legacy of Superman (1993) #1

[thefaeriefeatherdark]

I'm going to just throw out that Cyborg Superman and Paul Westfield both make far better Evil Father figures for Kon-El than Lex Luthor.

People have deluded themselves into believing Superboy being half-Lex Luthor is good for Superboy, but Lex is honestly so boring as an Evil Father-figure because he's entirely impersonal to Kon.

If you are interested these pictures are from Reign of the Supermen and Superboy: Hypertension respectively.

[mamawasatesttube]

Me: I’m gonna listen to the Cinderella musical and not make any AUs out of it

Cinderella: “Impossible! For a plain country bumpkin and a prince to join in marriage”

TimKon Brainrot: owo

Prince: “In the arms of my love, I’m flying, over mountain and meadow and glen, And I like it so well that for all I can tell I may never come down again”

TimKon Brainrot: OwO

the brainworms are like sleeper agents or something :/ i think kon deserves a pretty princess dress tho this is true!

[jesncin]

Clark has a talk with Conner, formerly known as Paul Westfield. Where will (don't call me) Superboy's journey take him next?

[suzukiblu]

You are (not) the father! (<- spent five minutes trying to find a gif from that one tv show and then couldn't find it) for wip Wednesday? 🥰

“Her name's Kyra,” Tim says quietly, looking down into the crib at her. He keeps his voice low, but he knows she'll sleep through it. She sleeps like a rock every time she goes down. “Kyra Constance Drake-Kent.” 

Kon steps up beside him. Looks down at her too. 

“I named her after you,” Tim says, although it's obviously incredibly obvious that he did that. It's just something to say. Some pathetic attempt at . . . not a justification or even an apology or an excuse, because none of those things would mean anything when he'd do it all again, but . . . but. 

Just–but, he supposes. 

“You were the only way I could explain her,” he says, stiff and abrupt. “I said–I told everyone that we'd slept together. They all just assumed I meant that we'd been together. And I thought . . . it doesn't matter. I just–you were the only way I could explain her.” 

The only way he could stand to explain her. 

“I had to explain her,” he says, and his voice doesn't want to come, but it doesn't have the right not to. He owes Kon this explanation. Owes Kon the truth. 

Part of him still wants to keep lying, though. 

“It's not her fault,” he says, and doesn't take his eyes off Kyra's sleeping face. “And I don't–if he ever found out about her, I thought . . .” 

He feels Kon's eyes shift to him. He still doesn't take his own off Kyra. 

“After you died,” he says very, very evenly. “I . . . ran into him, a couple weeks after. Alone. And then he–and I couldn't–and you were the only way I could explain her. If anyone ever . . . ever looked at her DNA, or–or if she got sick, or . . . got powers, or . . .” 

Tim doesn't think about the last time he saw Kon's face. Doesn't think about–

He doesn't think about it. 

“You can–you can say whatever you need to say to–to everyone. Obviously,” he manages to stutter out, his chest clenching and gut twisting with nausea as he doesn't think about it. “I'll take the fall or the blame for whatever story you want to make up, I just–I just–just–just please, please don't–don't tell them that Kyra isn't . . . that she's from . . .” 

“Tim,” Kon says very, very carefully. Tim tells himself–he tells himself Kon lived through having both Paul Westfield and Lex Luthor as his “fathers”, and not having Clark as one. He tells himself–he tells himself–

“I'm s-sorry,” he chokes like it means something; like he wouldn't do it all again if he thought it'd work. Like he's not a selfish, terrified asshole and a horrible person who lied about his dead best friend and let everyone else believe whatever they wanted to about it. “It was the only thing I could think to do, it was . . . I couldn't . . . c-c-couldn't tell anyone, because . . . because if I told anyone, that meant s-someday I'd have to tell her, or that he might find out about her, and . . . and you were my best friend, and the only way I could explain her, and I told myself . . .”

Kon looks at him for a long, long moment. Tim tells himself–tells himself this is Kon, and he doesn't need the contingency plans. He doesn't need any of that. Because this is Kon, who'd never hurt Kyra. Never hurt him.

Not Match, who already did. 

“I told myself you would’ve said it was okay,” Tim rasps very, very quietly, staring down at Kyra's sleeping face. “I told myself you would've . . . would've let me lie about it.” 

“I would have,” Kon says, his own voice just as quiet as he looks straight at him, eyes intently, inhumanly blue. “And I'm gonna.” 

Tim bursts into tears like the selfish, terrified asshole he is, because he's selfish and terrified and an asshole. Kon just leans over the side of the crib and brushes the back of his knuckles against Kyra's soft little cheek with all the terrible gentleness of unfathomable superhuman might compressed down into touching some fragile, precious, impossibly delicate thing. 

“Hey there, Kyra,” he murmurs with that same terrible, terrible gentleness. “Nice to meet you. I'm your pa.” 

It takes a very long time for Tim to stop crying after that. 

[pluckyredhead]

I've been meaning to ask for a while, since you've read so much more Supers books than me, but what are your thoughts on Kon being retconned as Clark and Lex's lab grown love child? Asides from that one mind-controlled-into-shaving-his-head incident, did that ever factor into anything again? Is it even still canon? If it were up to you would you keep it and try to do something interesting with it or just sweep it under the rug and pretend it was never true?

I think it would be a great retcon if they ever did anything with it aside from one (1) incredibly stupid story.

Because the thing is, originally Kon's human donor was Paul Westfield, and genuinely, who the fuck cares about Paul Westfield? He was only relevant for, like, a year. He's a footnote at best.

But Lex? There's so much potential there:

How does Clark feel about it? Does he trust Kon less? Does he feel guilty about that? Does he defend him to people (Batman) who would question him?

What are Lex's plans? You can't tell me he would sic Kon on other heroes once and give up. Lex always plays the long game. He has to have other Machiavellian schemes. What if Kon gets the clone plague again and Lex has the cure? What if he built in a vulnerability other than kryptonite? Most interestingly, what if Lex cares?

And of course, most importantly, how does Kon feel about it? We've seen him ignoring it and then moping about it. And I think it was his Adventure Comics run where we saw him tracking his own behavior to see if he was more like Superman or Lex. But what if a story really interrogated the fact that Kon is a very different person than Clark? (Especially in light of Jon, Clark's mini-me.) Kon likes money; Lex is a billionaire. Kon loves attention; Lex is functionally a supervillain because he's jealous that people like Superman more. Kon is a sweet boy but he's not a shining paragon of virtue. Is that because of Lex's genes? Is everything good about Kon simply Superman's genes? Is Kon is own person with free will that exists beyond picking a donor to emulate? Is a clone a person at all? Let's get into it, DC!

If it was up to me, I would write two stories about it:

First is the story where Kon and Lex actually develop a relationship. Kon and Clark has never been close, and Kon has rarely had a stable home or consistent parental figures (Rex was untrustworthy, Dubbilex got written out a lot, Guardian died and came back as a child, Pa died, Ma lived but Kon died and then got retconned into another dimension...). Kon is primed to fall for lovebombing, especially if Lex is doing one of his regular "no, really, I'm Redemption Arc-ing for real this time!" routines. Especially right now with a trillion Supers Clark likes better hanging around Metropolis, and Lex swearing he's going to be Good...what if he stopped trying to convince Clark, and started trying to convince Kon? What if he spent time with him, and listened to him, and took his side against Clark, and let's be real, probably spent money like water on him? And what if Lex, despite himself, discovered that...he actually cared about his clone son?

Of course, Lex's self-interest would eventually win out. We see this over and over again, where he sacrifices his relationships on the altar of his ambition, where he just can't quite love anyone else as much as he loves being evil. And yes, Kon ends the story hurt, but also with another reminder that validation needs to come from within and not from a billionaire who wants something from you, even if he is your other dad.

(And maybe Clark is reminded that he has failed Kon. Again. Ahem.)

The second story I would write is the one where Lex goes to jail and Kon somehow inherits Lexcorp and many billions of dollars and is cartoonishly irresponsible with all of it. Lex gets out of jail and there's a giraffe in his office and all of his doomsday devices are full of Zesti Cola.

But yeah, instead DC does nothing with it. Literally a few months ago they had Clark and Kon and Lex all having a conversation about a villain Lex created and gave TTK to - so like, talking explicitly about how Lex created Kon, too - and aside from Kon being mildly snide, that was it. That was it! DC WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS. WHAT IS THE POINT OF SETTING UP SOMETHING SO JUICY AND THEN LEAVING THAT JUICE UNSQUOZE.

[radioactive-earthshine]

Because I have been thinking about it ALL day...

[androxys]

Task Force What? An Incomplete (Yet Still Very Long) Guide to Some of the DCU’s Government Groups [Part 2]

Welcome back to my writeup on 13 of the DCU's government organizations. Recognizing that everything in Part 1 was a ton of information to parse through, here’s a rough timeline of some of the groups’ movements and reorganizations. This time, I’ve put important people’s names in bold so you can track them. Again, much thanks to my editors and beta readers.

Part 1: Organization Descriptions and Histories

Part 2: Timeline

Part 3: Reading Suggestions

1940s-1980s

During WWII, Squadron S earns the nickname “The Suicide Squad” due to its high morality rate. Rick Flag Sr. is brought in to turn the squadron around, eventually making it a highly decorated and effective unit.

Senator McCarthy tries to force the Justice Society of America to unmask. They refuse, instead choosing to go into hiding.

Without the Justice Society to protect the U.S. from “extraordinary” threats, the President authorizes the creation of Task Force X. This group consisted of two wings: Argent and The Suicide Squad.

Rick Flag Sr. is killed in action during a Suicide Squad mission. This version of the Squad is disbanded.

Control, the leader of Argent, kills someone involved in JFK’s assassination. He subsequently directs Argent to go underground.

A new version of the Suicide Squad is formed, led by Rick Flag Jr. This version disbands after a mission in Cambodia. Flag’s supervisor reveals that the Squad was ultimately doomed anyway due to budget cuts.

At some point during the Cold War, Spyral is formed by the U.N., led by Otto Netz.

Project Cadmus is founded.

Sarge Steel becomes a leader in, if not the director of, the Central Bureau of Intelligence.

Katherine Webb Kane becomes Batwoman to try to uncover Batman’s identity for Spyral.

The Agency is founded by Valentina Vostok. The Agency’s work includes Project: Peacemaker.

Roy Harper joins the Central Bureau of Investigation. He meets Jade Nguyen through his work with the CBI.

Katherine Webb Kane is apparently killed by Ben Turner, the Bronze Tiger, while he is under the control of the League of Assassins.

Otto Netz is revealed to be a double agent and is imprisoned.

Mr. Bones is a quasi-member of Infinity Inc., legacy heroes springing from the Justice Society. 

1980s-2000s

Amanda Waller presents her plan to reactivate Task Force X. This new Suicide Squad will use supervillains for high risk, covert missions. The Agency will be brought into Task Force X and subsequently reorganized as Checkmate, though Project: Peacemaker remains independent.

Rick Flag Jr. is made field leader of the Suicide Squad. Ben Turner, seeking atonement, becomes his second in command.

Sarge Steel is officially the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Harry Stein is made King of Checkmate.

Amanda Waller and her Suicide Squad discover the remenants of Argent. With the majority of its members gone, Argent is officially declared to be disbanded.

The Janus Directive occurs. Massive reorganizations happen. 

Task Force X is dissolved as an umbrella organization. 

Amanda Waller is left in charge of the Suicide Squad. 

Harry Stein remains as King of Checkmate, but they are forced to relocate. Project Peacemaker is incorporated into Checkmate. 

Sarge Steel is made the Director of Metahuman Affairs, and is the direct supervisor for all other metahuman related agencies. He continues to oversee the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Amanda Waller disbands her Suicide Squad.

After the death of Superman, Project Cadmus tries to clone him. This results in the creation of Superboy.

Project Cadmus fires “mad scientist” Dabney Donovan.

A “clone plague” begins to affect Project Cadmus creations. This is revealed to be the creation of Dabney Donovan, who kills Paul Westfield.

Mickey Cannon becomes the new head of Project Cadmus. He keeps Dabney Donovan as an imprisoned scientific advisor and brings in geneticist Serling Roquette.

Harry Stein resigns as King of Checkmate. Phil Kramer and Kalia Cambell are made King and Queen, respectively.

Roy Harper leaves the CBI.

Mr. Bones is made the Director of the Department of Extranormal Operations.

Cameron Chase joins the Department of Extranormal Operations.

The Department of Extranormal Operations subcontracts A.P.E.S members Donald Fite and Ishido Maad for a recovery mission.

Lex Luthor becomes president. 

Amanda Waller replaces Sarge Steel as Secretary of Metahuman Affairs in the Luthor Administration.

Knightwatch, a more militaristic branch of the Department of Extranormal Operations, protects the U.S. President from metahuman threats.

Director Bones manipulates the Justice Society into going against Kobra on the DEO’s behalf. This is not well received by the JSA.

Lex Luthor starts the Human Defense Corps to try to build a non-metahuman response team to extraordinary threats.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is absorbed into the Department of Extranormal Operations.

Sarge Steel becomes the head of the Department of Metahuman Affairs, a subdivision of the DEO.

Sasha Bordeaux is recruited into Checkmate by Jessica Midnight.

David Said is promoted to King

Helena Bertinelli is blackmailed by David Said into accepting a position as a Queen in Checkmate.

Lex Luthor leaves the White House. Amanda Waller subsequently leaves her position as Secretary for Metahuman Affairs.

Director Bones and Cameron Chase recruit Kate Spencer, the Manhunter, to work for the Department of Extranormal Operations.

Maxwell Lord becomes Black King of Checkmate.

Infinite Crisis happens. 

Maxwell Lord kills Ted Kord once Kord uncovers Lord’s plot to use Checkmate against metahumans. 

Sasha Bordeaux sends Batman evidence of Kord’s death, leading Lord to activate the OMACs to try to exterminate all Checkmate agents and metahumans on Earth.

Maxwell Lord is killed by Wonder Woman.

One Year Later

After Checkmate is rechartered as a U.N. organization, Amanda Waller is made White Queen. Due to her involvement in the Luthor White House, the U.N. only agrees to let Waller into Checkmate if she does not run operations. This means she cannot run any operations. The other initial leaders of this new Checkmate are Sasha Bordeaux, Alan Scott, and Taleb Beni Khalid.

Wonder Woman joins the Department of Metahuman Affairs in her new identity as Diana Prince.

Alan Scott resigns from Checkmate, tapping his Bishop–Michael Holt–to be the new White King.

Despite being prohibited from running operations, Amanda Waller reactivates a Suicide Squad and begins Operation: Salvation Run.

Once other Checkmate officials find out what Amanda Waller is up to, she is forced to resign from Checkmate. However, by that point, most supervillains had been deported via Operation: Salvation Run.

Squad K is developed out of the Human Defense Corps to specifically deal with Kryptonian threats.

After the events of Brightest Day, Maxwell Lord returns to life. He erases most of the world’s memory of him and begins a discrediting campaign against Checkmate in an attempt to regain power.

Talia al Ghul creates the Leviathan Organization. She frees Otto Netz from his imprisonment so that he can assist Leviathan.

Batman Incorporated begins to move against Leviathan, clearing the organization out of St. Hadrian’s Finishing School for Girls.

Damian Wayne kills Otto Netz to save Batman from a trap.

The New 52 Happens

Spyral takes control of St. Hadrian’s

Katherine Webb Kane reveals that she faked her death to lead Spyral in secret.

A.R.G.U.S. is founded to support metahumans at the federal level.

Dick Grayson is unmasked as Nightwing, and is recruited by Helena Bertinelli to be an agent of Spyral.

Bertinelli and Grayson leave Spyral. Tiger becomes the new Patron of Spyral.

[superman86to99]

Adventures of Superman #513 (June 1994)

"THE BATTLE FOR METROPOLIS," Part 4! The Death of Project Cadmus! (Well, "death" in comic book terms.) After the events of last issue, in which a bunch of Cadmus-brand rockets exploded all around Metropolis, a royally pissed-off Superman heads to the formerly top secret government installation to register his displeasure with Director Westfield... only to find out that someone beat him to it, because Westfield has been murdered.

Since Cadmus' top dorks don't have much experience shouting orders at soldiers (the guy in charge of that just died), Superman steps in to fill that role while they try to figure out who killed Westfield and where his ear went.

Given that Cadmus' other, nerdier directors have spent days in a probably very stinky lab trying to come up with a cure for the Clone Plague ravaging Metropolis (and a small part of Hawaii), the main suspect for Westfield's murder is Dr. Carl Packard, a nervous little guy who tends to disappear for days. Also, he was just found wandering the hallways muttering about someone who "deserves death," so that doesn't look too good for him. Before Packard can explain himself (he was talking about his other evil boss, Lex Luthor), the whole murder mystery matter is shuffled aside when the nerds actually find the key to curing the Plague: the blood of one of the few clones who didn't get sick, the Guardian! Hope he's got a lot of it.

As it turns out, they need Packard to create that Guardian-fueled cure, so everyone agrees to forget about the fact that he's probably a murderer for a while. As soon as they let Packard near a computer, however, he uses the secret program in all LexCorp PCs that notifies Lex if someone types his name (yes, Lex was the original "searches himself on Twitter all day" billionaire) to send him a message telling him about the cure. Instead of letting Packard cook and then stealing the cure, the Plague-stricken and increasingly insane Lex orders his Lex-Men to invade Cadmus and kidnap the Guardian. To be fair, he does look like he's about 15 seconds away from shriveling up into a prune, so I get the urgency.

So, Superman and the few Cadmus soldiers in there (most are out fighting angry clones in Metropolis) have to defend the facility from an army of flying armored goons while the nerds try to work on the cure. Lex uses a hologram of himself when he still had hair to try to convince Superman that he should let Superboy, the Newboy Legion kids, and all those sewer clones die so that Lex himself can live ("Would you let Einstein die to save the Bowery Boys?"), but somehow he isn't dissuaded. Not only that, but Superman even calls Lex "contemptible"... and, uh, everyone else who uses a wig.

Lex must have really hated that crack about his baldness, because the next thing he does is order the Lex-Men to blow up Cadmus' reactor and kill everyone inside. If he can't have the cure, no one can. Superman looks a bit overwhelmed with the soon-to-explode reactor and the Lex-Men trying to stop him from containing it (so much so that he calls them "idiots," about the strongest insult you'll hear from this Superman), but then someone stops by to help him: patient zero of the Clone Plague cure...

...Superboy! Who could barely stand up the last time we saw him and is now flying and punching goons, so looks like that cure is working. Superman tells the Kid to take those goons outside while he tries to prevent the reactor from exploding, but as soon as Superboy makes it out, there's a huge explosion and the mountain surrounding Cadmus collapses. Superboy wants to start digging up the survivors, but Superman tells him not to bother: everyone is dead. And he'll make Luthor pay for this and all his other sins, once and for all... next week, in Action Comics #700!

TO BE CONCLUDED, obviously.

Plotline-Watch:

That's it for Project Cadmus, and everyone who worked in it, which will never appear ag-- ok, no one actually believes that. We'll see how they saved themselves and why Superman is pretending they died next issue. Note, however, that Superboy isn't pretending to believe that some of his best friends are buried under a mountain, so his chipperness in that final panel is disturbing.

As you've probably guessed if you've been paying attention, the one who stole Westfield's ear was the same maniac who killed him, disgraced geneticist Dabney Donovan. I don't remember if Dabney ever used Westfield's ear in one of his experiments, but even if he didn't, at least he got to use it for a couple of corny jokes.

Poor Dr. Happersen... he's trying to tell his boss he loves him and would never betray him, and Lex cuts him off and yells at him. Plus, in the same page Lex made it clear that he still isn't totally convinced Happersen isn't Lois Lane's informant, even thought it obviously isn't him. It's hard not to read that exchange with Smithers' and Mr. Burns' voices.

There's a nice little moment with the Guardian, originally a Captain America self-ripoff by Cap creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, saying he's okay with dying to make the cure because he's lived a very long life. Lines like that work better when it's a character who's actually been around since the '40s. I wouldn't have minded if he had died during this storyline -- they could always make another clone later on (and seeing him struggle to live up to his own legacy might have been interesting).

Patreon-Watch:

The latest Patreon-only post was about an Elseworlds story where Superman turns into a cursed spirit haunting a villain, one where he turns the X-Men into the JLA, and (briefly) one where Bizarro teams up with every other DC villain whose name ends in "O." Join Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Gaetano Barreca at the Superman '86 to '99 Patreon!

And now, more from Don Sparrow (whose newsletter you should be subscribed to, by the way)...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We start with the cover, and it’s a pretty good one, with co-star Guardian in well-drawn technological peril, and I never tire of blasts bouncing off Superman. 

Inside the book we are greeted with a poster (or at least sticker) worthy image of an on-edge Superman flying at the viewer, his Tarzan-like mane flowing in the wind.

Kitson’s art at this time is a bit strange to me—it might be the inker, or more likely it’s the era—the early 90s demanded everything be a bit more exxxxxxtreme and Jim-Lee-like in its rendering, but it mostly seems at odds with Kitson’s naturalistic drawing style.  So you get weird in-between drawings, like on page 2 where Superman is yelling, but his mouth appears to barely be open (as opposed to page 5, when Dr. Packard shouts in surprise, and his mouth appears to be fully extended). 

A page later Superman’s surprise (and perhaps grief?) at Westfield’s death is captured well. 

On page 4, the fun really begins, as Kitson seems to really have a ball drawing the insane and Dr. Robotnik-like Dabney Donovan, and his comedic use of a stolen body part. 

A small thing, but worth mentioning: Kitson and McCarthy absolutely kill it when it comes to reflective surfaces.  Throughout the issue, the shiny glasses are on point.  Great stuff there, particularly with the two-tone colouring of a Lex-Men soldier on page 16.

On page 10 we get our latest look at Lex Luthor, and it ain’t pretty.  The little lines on his flesh make it seem so fragile and sickly. 

The full page splash of Cadmus mountain imploding seems like a bit of a missed opportunity, as Superboy isn’t really facing the “camera” and the destruction is mostly dust.  Finally, on page 21, the drawing of Superman’s righteous anger at Lex wreaking death and destruction is a great one.

In contrast to Superman #90, where I felt not a lot happened, this issue is chock full of activity, with a race against the clock to find a cure for the clone sickness, Lex-Men invaders, and a core meltdown, plus a little pop-in with Dabney AND a Superboy cameo—it’s a big one, and a nice hors d’oeuvres for the very BIG number coming next week. 

SPEEDING BULLETS:

I think Dr. Packard should be played by Micro Machines Motormouth, John Moschitta Jr.  It would certainly make his scientific explanations a lot funnier to imagine them being said at lightspeed.

Superboy makes a reference to a Nancy Kerrigan commercial, which was probably this one for Campbell’s Chicken noodle, where the otherwise waify and demure Ms. Kerrigan bodychecks a hockey player (the Campbell’s slogan, at the time, was “Never Underestimate the Power of Soup”, which is the line that gets cut off as Superboy speaks). [Max: Fun fact, in the Spanish version I read in the '90s, Superboy just says "I learned this from a TV ad." Guess they didn't have space for a footnote explaining who Nancy Kerrigan was...]

GODWATCH: Interesting that Big Words seems to be a believer, as Guardian bravely takes the experimental treatment, the man of science prays that Jim Harper has a “personal guardian”.  

This is a pretty testosterone-driven issue—I can’t remember off-hand another issue that had not a single female appear in the story. [Max: There IS a female Cadmus trooper in page 1, but she doesn't speak, unless she's supposed to be yelling "SSSSHHOOOOOOM!" as Superman flies by... which I'd totally do.]

[dc-polls]

"That Really Happened?!" DC Comics Tournament

Entry #18

Superboy Has Two Daddies

[ID: Artistic drawing of Superman, Superboy and Lex Luthor. Conner Kent as Superboy flies up, separating the enlarged background images of his two fathers, Clark Kent Superman and Lex Luthor, who looks down at glowing Kryptonite. /END ID]

What Happened?

After the Death of Superman event was a big hit, DC Comics released four series, each focusing on different potential incarnation or successor to Big Blue. One of these series was Superboy, a new character and the first time that the primary user of the codename was not Clark Kent as a teen. This version was a totally radical 90s kid for the totally radical 90s, would later get Kryptonian name (Kon-El) and a human name (Conner Kent), and eventually discover that he was a human clone of Project Cadmus Director Paul Westfield with metahuman powers like "tactile telekinesis" to simulate Superman's abilities.

Before that revelation however, a fan letter was published in Superboy #26 suggesting that the character might be a clone of Superman's archenemy Lex Luthor. The author of that letter? One Geoffrey Johns, who would eventually become a comics writer himself and would make his fan theory canon by revealing in his run of Teen Titans that Conner was a half-Kryptonian/half-human hybrid created from the genetic material of Superman and Lex Luthor.

If this story doesn't seem totally unbelievable that's probably because it's become such a core part of the character's identity, to the point that whenever the Conner is adapted to other media, the Clex of it all inevitably follows - Young Justice, Titans, etc.

(Also, this doesn't touch on the initial New 52 version of the character, but "...and then the New 52 came along" feels like one massive "That Really Happened" at this point.)

--

Tournament polls will be posted after all entries are up. As always you can find all posts related to the tournament using #dc-polls-trh

[mamawasatesttube]

Do you think Superman ever found out about Superboy trying to drown himself?

so this is one of those thorny questions that rises out of the way dc editorial was like, well superboy and superman are separate books and we don't want superman all over superboy's story all the time. because in the text, there's absolutely no acknowledgment of it from clark, even when mae shows up and rips the s-shield patches off kon's jacket for misrepresenting what superman's crest stands for. if mae's heard of what's going on, surely clark should have heard about it too, right? but that never actually is shown to have happened anywhere in the aftermath of knockout arc.

it goes back to the attitudes prevalent in karl kesel's writing (and in general at dc in the 90s, i mean), with stuff happening to kon that SHOULD make any adult with a degree of common sense and responsibility go "hey! wait a minute!" but that has no real impact because karl kesel as the writer thinks it's nbd. like in superman jr and superboy sr, when clark is written as thinking kon and tana dating is just fine.

like, it's a discrepancy. because superman, the character whose entire thing is like. caring about everybody ever, and who IS shown to care for kon even before they're as close as they get later, ostensibly should have heard about superboy getting tangled up in something with a villain, and gone to investigate, and the fact that he didn't is entirely because editorial didn't let him, and because karl kesel didn't think this was a predatory situation. like yes knockout was written as manipulating and abusing kon, but not in a predatory way - just in the "manipulative and evil woman takes advantage of kind and naive boyfriend who wants to believe her" way. which is insane because she's also written calling him jailbait and all sorts of shit, but. that's just how kesel thinks sexual women are, and that's what he thinks teen boys fantasize about, etc., so it's not written in a fashion that even remotely condemns that behavior as Maybe Not Great.

because like. the thing is. if superman heard that a kid who fights crime wearing the crest of his house got manipulated into defending a villain and then tried to kill himself to take her down, of COURSE he would step in and say something or do something. in annual #2 he literally shows up just to talk to kon about how he's feeling about the paul westfield revelation - the idea that he wouldn't step in re: the knockout situation is absurd. it's completely out of character for him.

so like, no, i don't think he knows. it's the only way to explain him not showing up at any point. which is still hard to actually reconcile with the fact that mae did know, but... when working within the confines of what we're given with by a flawed canon that reflects its authors flawed views, we kinda have to bend stuff here and there a little, right? it's kind of impossible to make sense of, otherwise.

my personal interpretation of events is that clark was kind of avoiding too much news about kon in the early days because he needed some time to process the whole "being nonconsensually cloned while he was dead" thing, but also was in denial that he was upset or feeling violated at all, because he knew it wasn't kon's fault and because he was already fond of kon, and felt quite guilty for having any hangups about how kon came to be. it still takes a little fiddling (for instance, his appearance in annual #2) but it's the best way i've found to keep clark in character while having kon's story remain as it is. (i do find kon's narrative of exploitation and suicidality compelling. he's so kind and so full of joie de vivre and so independent. and at the same time those traits keep getting him taken advantage of. he's a vulnerable child in the spotlight. ough.)

[cer-rata]

Secret Origins

Kon-El: So are you like, a clone too? Like a magic clone?

Donna Troy, smoking a cigarillo, wistfully staring off into the distance:

Kon: Uh...Donna?

Donna: ...Sometimes.

Kon: What? What could that possibly mean?

Donna: It means sometimes. The less you know or think about it, the happier your life will be. Trust me.

Kon: Okay that's...sort of ominous.

Donna: You have no idea.

Donna takes a long drag before getting distracted by something and coughing:

Donna: ...Wait.

Donna: Wait you know you're not actually a clone right?

Kon, choking on his Flaming Hot™ Mountain Dew: Ex-excuse me?

Donna: Yeah Vic explained it to me a while back. To be a clone you have to be completely or at least very nearly genetically identical. You're a mix of Superman and Paul Westfield. So...not a clone. Like you could call yourself a Binary Clone, but at that point It's like...why? Y'know? That's basically everybody.

Kon: I...but...I'm...wait no, what are you talking about, I have Lex's genes not Westfield's.

Donna: ...Right, sorry, it's Lex now. Sometimes I forget which continuity we're in...

Kon: What?!

Donna: Y'know honestly I'm not even sure I believe that anyway, It's literally the easiest lie Lex could possibly tell to upset both you and Clark. Like think about it for more than five seconds.

Kon: ...But...

Kon:

Kon: Why do I get sad whenever I ask you questions.

Donna, putting out the cigarillo on her bracelet: Because my curse is to remember everything that editorial has done to us. Sometimes. Now listen, if you don't start crying on me and finish all of your liquid war crime I'll take you out for skeeball and hookers.

Kon: Word?! :D

[insidecroydon]

Croydon escapes worst effects of Gove's 'Developers' Charter'

Tory minister takes a swipe at London Mayor as he moves to reduce planning restrictions and allow ‘some incredibly poor quality homes which should not have been built’ Developers’ mate: Michael Gove Croydon and Sutton might just escape the worst excesses of Michael Gove’s desperate, eve-of-election “Developers’ Charter”, aimed at reducing planning controls for “permitted development” shop and…

[jesncin]

Who is (don't call me) Superboy? Conner (as Paul Westfield) confronts Lex Luthor.

I think Conner bearing a stronger resemblance to Luthor opens up more possibilities for his complicated relationship with his sense of self as a Superman clone.

[suzukiblu]

Considering Kon is Clark’s clone and sort of supposed to be a carbon copy of him, what would Clark think if he found out about Kon being a sugar baby? Like would he just gloss over it or realize some things about himself (like how Batman pays for everything)

Let's be real, Clark and Bruce are in a constant battle for who can get the check before the other one can. Bruce pays for Justice League stuff, sure, but not LUNCH. Ma Kent raised a politely passive-aggressive Midwestern boy and he is gonna DIE MAD about that time Bruce tricked him into letting him pay for his pie at Bibbo's!!

Clark will never understand Kon ever and will probably blame Paul Westfield's DNA right up until he finds out about Lex's.