Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Action Comics #765

Action Comics #765

Scheduled to arrive in stores: March 29, 2000

Cover date: May 2000

2000 Shield No. 21

Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciller: Kano
Inker: Marlo Alquiza

"A Clown Comes To Metropolis"

Reviewed by: Nick Newman (NNewman8283@yahoo.com)



Two women walk through Metropolis, gossiping. Suddenly they are stopped by a pack of hyenas, held on a leash by Joker and Harley Quinn. Harley pulls out a large camera and flashes it at the two women. Afterwards, both are left bald and babbling.

In a darkened bathroom in the Kent apartment, Clark carefully burns away his beard. Lois comes in, and bluntly points out how disgusting the smell of burning hair is. While Clark struggles to apoligize, Lois leaves.

Lex Luthor goes over the schematics of his new fortress from his top floor. Suddenly, two bald people appear in the doorway mumbling about being Lex Luthor.

At a Press Conference in Canada Clark dozes, half-shaven, in a chair. Suddenly he wakes up and then apruptly curls over into a fit of hacking coughs. He hears Jimmy's signal watch, repaired since the B13 virus ravaged Metropolis.

Back in Metropolis Clark, Lois and Jimmy hide as dozens of people run around bald and yelling about being Lex Luthor. Apparently, Joker has been making use of his strange camera. Lex suddenly arrives on the scene with Mercy, Hope, and a squad of guards. Harley flashes the guards and Hope hangs back, but Mercy hurls herself at Harley.

Superman appears in the sky over them, but before he can stop the Joker, the hyenas attack him. In his weakened state, he is subdued by the animals. As Lex looks on in amazement at Superman's predicament, Mercy and Harley go at it.

Sick of the hyenas, Superman scares them away with a blast of heat vision. Getting up, he spots Lois glaring at him from the bushes. As he flies back to Lex and the Joker, Lois begins to cough....

Saving Joker from Lex, Superman is shocked to see a giant Lena robot fall from the sky and grab onto Lexcorp Tower. The cops arrive at the scene, but with Joker covered under diplomatic immunity, there is nothing they can do. Mercy and Harley continue to go at it.

Joker tries to kill the police at the scene, but Superman saves them. Then, leaving the Joker, Superman flies up to the Lena-bot, who is currently ascending the tower. She bats Superman aside with a casual wave of her arm. Laying on the ground, Superman is dazed when suddenly he looks up to see a bolt of light radiate out of Lexcorp Tower. The robot explodes and all of the hypnotized people return to their normal, but bald, selves. Wondering what happened, Lex tells Superman that he generated a signal that rebooted all other signals, including mind control and the robot.

As Joker gets into his car to leave, and Superman has to leave to rescue the planes affected by Luthor's reboot, Luthor looks on with hate. Mercy and Harley continue to go at it, until they are run over by the Joker's car.

In the Daily Planet offices, Clark finishes his story as he gets a delivery pizza. Curious about its source, he opens the box to find a note:
"Dear Clark
Can't face you
Don't look for me
The living room isn't far away enough
I'm leaving, forever".

3Story - 3: This was an okay story, but it seemed way too forced to me. Joker just shows up, starts turning people into Lex drones, and then leaves. Kind of pointless to me. It was nice to see more of the Y2K changes, truly Kelly's strong point, and seeing the signal watch again was awesome.

4Art - 4: I like Kano's art, it matches Kelly's storytelling very well, but some of his characters are just bad. Joker especially looked stupid in my eyes. But still, almost everything looked good, and it was nice to see some of the new Metropolis for a change.

2Cover Art - 2: Why, when we have a good artist like Kano, do they put Yvel Guichet and Danny Miki on the cover? Why? It just doesn't make sense. Anyway, with the exception of Harley and Lex's profile, all of the characters on the cover looked extremely stupid. This is not the image you want to be sending DC.



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2000

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