Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman: Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite

Next up for the month is a return to the 90’s. I could probably say that the early 90’s were good for the Man of Steel. I’d probably say that the post-Crisis in general was pretty good. Yeah, you’d get some bad stuff here and there, but you get that in every era. Superman was powerful but not too overpowered, he got on with Lois, and he had a nice supporting cast of characters.

I was looking for a small arc to do, and I stumbled upon this story. “Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite” was released during November of 1990. It crossed over into the three books at the time: Superman #49-50, Adventures of Superman #472, and Action Comics #659. It was especially a momentous occasion since something major happened in Superman #50. The writers were Jerry Ordway, Dan Jurgens, and Roger Stern. On pencils, you mainly had Ordway, Jurgens, and Bob McLeod (of the clan McLeod). On Superman #50, you had other pencillers enter the fray like Curt Swan, John Byrne, and Kerry Gammill. So, what happens when Superman loses his powers and gets engaged? Oh yeah… that happens here.

Superman: Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite!

Writers: Jerry Ordway, Dan Jurgens, and Roger Stern

Pencils: Jerry Ordway, Dan Jurgens, Bob McLeod, Curt Swan, Kerry Gammill, and John Byrne

Inks: Dennis Janke, Brett Breeding, Art Thibert, and John Byrne

Colors: Glenn Whitmore

Letters: Bill Oakley, Albert DeGuzman, and John Costanza

Editors: Mike Carlin and Jon Peterson

SYNOPSIS

We start out in a graveyard where Perry and Alice White are laying their son, Jerry, to rest. He ended up getting killed in a previous storyline. Not far from them, Lex Luthor is also in mourning since Jerry is actually his son, not Perry’s. It’s a long story. Anyway, a red rock hits Luthor, and it’s revealed to be Mr. Myxzptlk. It’s time for him to screw with Superman again, but he’s busy facing some “Fantastic” group in another universe. So, he’s sent a small piece of himself in the form of a red stone, and the stone can make one equal to Superman. Luthor can have this power as long as he keeps its origins a secret from Superman.  Luthor takes up the imp on the offer and goes home.

Okay, Luthor beating Supes with his stump is kinda funny.

Elsewhere, Superman is doing his usual thing. He’s also trying his best to be there for Lois since her mother has fallen ill. Luthor eventually uses the “Krimson Kryptonite” by rubbing it. Instead of giving Luthor powers, this causes Superman to lose his own. He ends up losing them at the worst time too since he was flying over the river. Luthor uses the stone to teleport Superman to the tower so he can berate and beat him up. Superman, who was already beat by the fall he took, gets beaten up and thrown on the streets.

Since he doesn’t know how the rock caused this, he goes to Emil Hamilton to see why his powers are gone. With no explanations, Clark tries to get used to being normal. When some major trouble in the form of Mammoth shows, though, he tries to get out there in costume with some gadgets cooked up from Emil. It almost kills him, but he’s able to get Mammoth corralled. Then, he gets with Starman (the Will Payton version) to see if he can get his powers back through him. That doesn’t work, but Starman is able to change his shape to look like Superman. He’s able to get the rock that Luthor used and he’s able to keep up appearances around the city. Meanwhile, Clark asks Lois to marry him, but she says she’s not sure right now with everything going on.

This was a pretty cool moment here.

Emil also whips up an armor suit for Superman. This comes in handy when the villain, Killgrave, and other criminals riot over at Stryker’s Island and incapacitate Starman. It takes Superman, Guardian, and Gangbuster to stop the riot, but Killgrave still escapes. After this, Clark becomes determined to find out the secret of Luthor’s rock. He storms Luthor’s office in his civilian clothes and Luthor tells him that Mxyzptlk gave him the rock. This causes the magic of the rock to wear off and Clark gets his powers back. Unfortunately, this ticks off Mxy, so he leaves The Marvel Universe and comes over to the DC Universe to throw down with Superman. It takes a while, but Superman defeats Mxy and gets him to go back to the 5th Dimension. The story ends with Lois finally giving Clark an answer: Yes.

OPINION

I thought this was a pretty nice storyline. We see this Superman deal with being depowered for an small period of time. I think it’s happened before this in the post-Crisis, but it may have only lasted an issue. Here, Clark has to really get used to being human and all the stuff that goes with it. Even without his powers, he still tries to do his job as Superman. One of my favorite moments is when he basically plays a game of Chicken with Mammoth during their battle and he psyches that big dude out with his attitude. Also, we get Superman doing his best Iron Man impression. Pretty cool stuff.

Then, we get to everything else happening in the storyline. We got folk dealing with loss, dealing with sick parents, and dealing with moving on to that next stage of a relationship. It’s good stuff especially if you’ve been following the books. Of course, we have Lois and Clark getting engaged here and it is pretty nice to see. As for our villains, it was nice to see Luthor and Mxy team up for a bit. It was also nice for Lex to get the jump on Superman even for a little bit. Dude took his metal hand off and was like, “I’m going to enjoy beating you up!” Hilarious!

Then, there’s the great artwork. The main artists did their job and did it well. I don’t know if I’ve said it before, but Jurgens and McLeod are two of my favorite Superman artists from this era and probably in general. Ordway’s cool too, but he’s not on the list, I think. The guests also do some nice work. I had to laugh at Byrne’s pages since he had Mxy basically doing an impression of the Impossible Man in the Marvel Universe. Look out for those “Fantastic” cameos I sort of mentioned before. Even though the Mxy fight was “meh,” Gammill’s artwork was good. The only one who wasn’t as enthused with was Swan’s stuff. The coloring looked weird.

This was hilarious!

I don’t many problems with the story. I kinda wish that the 50^th issue had a better final fight. While Mxy’s an okay villain, I don’t know if he works as a villain who you can punch. At least we had the engagement at the end. Other than that and Swan’s okay art, this was a pretty good story. If you’re wondering, no, Clark hasn’t told Lois about the other thing yet. You gotta wait for that. You think he would’ve said something before the ring, but nah. Anyway, I got two more posts left for the month, so I’ll be getting on those. For now, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.