Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Superman #163

Superman #163

Scheduled to arrive in stores: October 4, 2000

Cover date: December 2000

2000 Shield No. 47

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Penciller: Ed McGuinness and Paul Pelletier
Inker: Cam Smith

"Where Monsters Lurk"

Reviewed by: Nick Newman (Nnewman8283@yahoo.com)



Tempest threatens Superman, but Superman refuses to let himself be threatened by the Garth. He flies around Tempest and presses him on the neck, knocking the young hero off of his hovercraft. Without Tempest's restraint, the ominous tidal wave crashes into the streets of Metropolis.

Superman zips down to street level and makes short work of the attacking Atlanteans, blowing their boats back out to sea. Flying up the side of a Lexcorp building under construction, Superman pushes the structure down into the path of the rushing water and fuses the girders together, slowing the torrential water pouring through the city.

He looks through the ground and locates the city's hydro pumps. He prepares to start the pumps when suddenly Young Justice appears on the scene. They move to the streets, saving people from both the water and from the sharks that are beginning to infest the city. All of a sudden, they look up and see the huge whale monster scaling the Daily Planet building. Robin and Wonder Girl head for the whale on the Super-cycle, and proceed into its mouth. Superboy remains hovering outside of the behemoth, keeping the cycle from being swallowed with a steel cable.

Down on the surface, Superman, Red Tornado, and Impulse create a whirlwind to remove the water from the pumps. They then remove the concrete covering the huge turbines, and start them running. The giant pumps instantly begin to suck water out of the streets, as the three heroes appear triumphant above the waves.

Inside the whale's mouth, Robin and WG work with gas canisters to gas the giant creature. Superman arrives to help Superboy just as the monster releases his grip on the building and starts to fall. The two heroes tow the monster out to sea and drop it into the depths. Superman commends the kids, and then flies off over the horizon, having spotted something with his super-vision.

Lois is dangling from the roof of the Planet. Superman swoops in just in time to catch her as she falls. Replacing her on the roof, he dashes off to deal with Aquaman.

He storms into Atlantis, barging into Arthur's throne room. He demands that Luthor be returned, but suddenly Luthor steps between the two teammates. He tells Superman that now that he has been informed of the activities of his research facilities. Luthor, of course, had no idea what was happening there. He has smoothed things over with the Atlanteans, and even offered them some of the B-13 technology.

Topside, Luthor tells the public that he will make whatever reparations necessary to restore their city, and thanks Superman for coming to the rescue. As he walks toward his car, a woman walks through the crowd and calmly shoots Luthor.

The woman, who hit Luthor in the leg, has been identified as Jenny Hubbard. She works at a truck stop 900 miles away from Metropolis. Luthor is resting comfortably in Lexcorp Hospital, and his popularity has gone up six points. The whole event has put him even closer to the presidency. 5Story - 5: Loeb is great. The action of this issue was great, but where he really shines is the last three pages. I recognized the name, but I couldn't place where Mrs. Hubbard was from. And then they mentioned the 900 miles and it came to me and I just started laughing out loud. If you don't get it, it really can't be explained so that you will find it funny. Let's just say that read some back issues and you'll find out why. Arguably one of the best post-crisis Superman stories, and probably the definitive Luthor story appears in Superman #9. Go find it and read it, now.

4Art - 4: Great stuff, but no fantastic scenes this month. One good thing, though. It is almost impossible to tell between Pelletier and McGuinness. If McGuinness can't handle doing every issue himself, fine, because DC found a great helper. Still, I think I would rather have Ed do a complete issue and then take a month off instead of sharing issues with Paul. Still, good art all around.

4Cover Art - 4: Great cover, but where is Young Justice. More could have been done with this one.



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