Superman: The Triangle Era omnibus ships next week. It comprises Superman #49-64, Adventures of Superman #472-486, Action Comics #659-673 and Superman: The Man of Steel #1-8. It is named for the sequential numbering of the four regular series which appeared inside a little triangle on the covers at the time, making "Superman" essentially a weekly series. That's all well and good, but it seems an arbitrary method for delineating the beginning of a collection, especially considering that the so-called "triangle era" didn't actually begin until Superman #51, seven issues in to the collection. What's more, it leaves a gap of 34 issues of Superman continuity (Action Comics #647-658, Superman #38-48 and Adventures of Superman #461-471) from the point at which the Superman: The Exile & Other Stories omnibus ended. that gap had some good stories in it, too: "The Brainic Trilogy," "The Day of the Krypton Man" and "Dark Knight Over Metropolis" to name a few. That's enough for another omnibus in the future, but why not release them in order?
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Better pick up the pace a bit... volume two has been solicited for September 30 release.
I'm not at all surprised that this has happened, and that I'm so far behind.
Hey, at least you're still reading comics... and willing to discuss them.
Inspired by the impending volume 2, I've read a couple more issues in this collection.
The first is Adventures of Superman #474, by Jurgens and Thibert. Clark goes back to Smallville on New Year's Eve -- the night when the parents of his old classmate Scott Brubaker are preparing to take him off life support. He's been in a coma since Clark was in high school, before he knew he had superpowers. After a NYE party, Scott offers to drive Clark, Pete, and Lana home, but he's been drinking, and swerves into the wrong lane and the car gets hit by a semi. Pete and Lana are relatively unscathed, and Clark is fine of course, but Scott is in bad shape. We're led to believe his parents eventually have gone through legal hurdles to take him off the machines and allow him to die.Clark shows up on New Year's Eve to apologize to the Brubakers and to say goodbye to Scott.
I've been through something similar lately -- our nephew was hit by a drunk driver during Mardi Gras, and was hospitalized & comatose for nearly a year before he passed away earlier this year. So I can't say I was looking forward to this one, and I might have been putting it off a little because of it.
The next issue, Action 661, is a welcome change of pace -- a silly story by Stern, McLeod, and Breeding guest-starring Plastic Man. This is the era soon after Phil Foglio's Plastic Man miniseries, in which Plas's outlook was depicted in a cartoony way; McLord & Breeding continue that tradition here -- at one point showing a character full of bullet holes like he was a piece of Swiss cheese. Plas and Superman are looking for a series of numbers and the arrival of someone initialed "T.B." There's a menace that shows up by the docks named Time Bomb who seems to fit the bill, but it turns out to mean the arrival of Bruno Mannheim's girlfriend Leilani's very tall sister, Tiny Bubbles, and the number was a flight number. It's unclear if anyone ever finds out; they don't in this story.
Also, Bibbo's lottery ticket -- which he found when Jose Delgado lost it -- has netted him $14 million...and he's using it to buy the Ace O' Clubs bar in Suicide Slum.
There are also a couple reference of the moment: Plas gets clobbered and sees "a thousand points of light" -- a reference to a speech by President George H.W. Bush, and at one point Woozy and Time Bomb jointly say he "blew up real good," a reference to a sketch on SCTV.
I hit one more issue last night, Superman 52, a Terra-Man story by Jerry Ordway and Kerry Gammil. Terra-Man, at this point, had been reimagined as an environmental warrior; this was his second appearance, I believe.
Terra-Man attacks some Lexcorp workers, and one of them dies in his escape. Lois tracks him down to an abandoned town that had been contaminated by chemicals, borrowing a hazmat suit to keep herself safe. Superman's also on his trail, and captures Terra-Man before realizing that he'd been working to de-contaminate the town. Superman fixes TM's device, and puts it into action, after extracing a promise from TM to turn himself in to the cops to stand trial for his actions that killed the Lexcorp worker. Terra-Man agrees, and Lois hopes the trial will also bring attention to the chemical waste he's been protesting against.
Also, we learn that Jose knows that Bibbo found his ticket and got rich with it; his own financial insecurity is making him wonder about his relationship with the wealthier Cat Grant. Plus, we get our first real instance of Foswell being a jerk to Lois, or at least not giving her the benefit of the doubt that Perry gave her.
Inspired by the impending volume 2, I've read a couple more issues in this collection.
I have read every issue in this collection, but I didn't remember either of these at all.
I found Adventures of Superman #474 to be a bit preachy. I wouldn't have liked it when I was 17, much less 27, which is how old I was at the time. No wonder I didn't remember it.
Regarding Action Comics #661, I think Plastic Man, like Captain Marvel, works best in his own milieu. This one didn't work for me, but that's what makes horseraces.
I hit one more issue last night...
Whoops, hang on...
Sorry to hear about your nephew. My symnpathies.
Okay, I'm back...
Superman #52 (Triangle 4) is another issue I remember absolutely nothing about. Wait 'til we get to Action Comics #662 (Triangle 6), though.
Karry Gammill was an artist I didn't appreciate at the time, but allow me to take another opportunity to plug his recent Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Starring Boris Karloff.
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