Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman: The Death of Clark Kent

Well, it took a few days to get to this, but I’m usually a late bloomer. September was pretty busy in general. It’s 2020, I’m dating again, there was a family emergency, and there’s still a lot of housework to do, so the blog and some comic reading needed a break. Sometimes, you need a break from certain things. Still, I wanted to get back and finish what I started.

The 90’s was a big time for Superman since He got married, he died, and he grew long hair (NOT A MULLET!). He also had a crapton of stories where stuff would go wrong. “The Death of Clark Kent” is definitely such a story. Before I get to that, I need to touch on a newer character that showed up after Zero Hour: Kenny Braverman, aka Conduit. Kenny was basically a rival to Clark back in high school and even beyond. He was imbued with Kryptonian radiation as a child (he was born the night Kal-El landed in Kansas) which left him sickly sometimes. As an adult, he got with the government and had a suit created to channel that energy. He also had a mad hatred for Clark Kent since he always felt inferior to him. When he found out that Clark Kent was also Superman, his hate went into overdrive.

“The Death of Clark Kent” spun through the four Superman books in 1995. 

• Superman #100-101
• Adventures of Superman #523-524
• Action Comics #710-711
• Superman: Man of Steel #46-46
  

While it ended with Man of Steel #46, it truly came to an end in Adventures of Superman #525. I covered that a couple of years ago as well as Conduit’s first issue in Man of Steel #0. I’ll list the creative teams below since it got to be quite a lot. We also had a few changes around this time. Dan Jurgens draws his last issue with Superman #100, and Gil Kane takes over afterwards. Stuart Immonen had already replaced Tom Grummett a few issues before this. So, what does happen when a jilted jock decides kill his rival’s family and friends?

Superman: The Death of Clark Kent

Writers: Dan Jurgens (Superman), Karl Kesel (Adventures of Superman), David Michiline (Action Comics), and Louise Simomsen (Superman: Man of Steel)

Pencils: Dan Jurgens (Superman), Stuart Immonen (Adventures), Jackson Guice (Action), Jon Bogdanov (Man of Steel), and Gil Kane (Superman)

Inks: Brett Breeding (Superman), Joe Rubinstein (Superman), Jose Marzan Jr. (Adventures), Dennis Rodier (Action), and Dennis Janke (Man of Steel)

Colors: Glenn Whitmore

Letters: Albert DeGuzman, John Costanza, and Ken Lopez

Editors: Mike Carlin and Chris Duffy

 

SYNOPSIS (of 8 issues)

Someone is after Clark Kent. Beforehand, someone has been striking back at Clark Kent’s co-workers and book agent. Clark comes home to find a voodoo doll of Superman stuck on his door. After he wards off Jimmy, he realizes that someone knows who he is and is striking out at everyone he knows. He changes into uniform to warn everyone like Lois and his parents. Unfortunately, Conduit, the villain striking out at Clark, is on the warpath already. He sends a strike team to Kent farm, he tries to have Pete and Lana Ross blown up, and he even tries to blow up Clark’s apartment while Jimmy Olsen was inside. The dude even explains why he’s doing all this to a captured Jimmy but doesn’t tell him about the Clark’s double life. Lois also gets threatened.

Cool shirt rip, but did he have to ruin that cool turtleneck???

All this has Superman spread out trying to protect his loved ones. He’s able to save Pete and Lana, but misses out on saving Lois… or so he thinks. The Kents house gets blown though. He then tries his best to protect his parents from certain Teen Titan supervillains, Metallo, and robotic duplicates of Conduit. He even thinks his parents get killed at some point which leads him to abandon both Clark Kent and Superman for a while. While Clark does find Martha and Jonathan alive, they end up keeping a low profile for some time while Conduit is searching. We also have Lois doing her best to find the Kents and Clark but just missing them.

For those who say that a bearded, long-haired Superman doesn't work, here's an example on why you're wrong.

They end up hiding in the Midwest. Clark ends up taking a job as a lumberjack and even grows a beard. He tries to keep a low profile, but a forest fire ends up outing him to the public and eventually the media. Conduit eventually captures Clark and takes him to his secret fortress in the Dakotas. Braverman ended up creating a mock-up of Smallville and had had murderous robots made of everyone including the Kents and Lois.

Obviously, Superman has had it with Conduit’s crap.  Superman finds him at Smallville’s football stadium where Braverman has made robot duplicates of his father as the audience. The two have one final battle with and without abilites. It ultimately ends when Conduit dies by absorbing too much power from the electricity powering the complex. After Superman takes out the rest of Conduit’s forces (in an awesome way), he finds out that only Braverman knew about his double identity. Superman then returns to Smallville to drop off Braverman’s body to his father who is still a piece of crap. Even Superman lets him know that. The story ends with Clark returning to Mt. Rushmore where the Kents are hiding out.

Dang, Braverman. All this for that... even Toyman has better motive!!!

If you want to know Lois and Clark reunited, check out my post of Adventures of Superman #525.

 

OPINION

Overall, I thought that this was a fine story, but it’s not the best from this era. I can say that it did bring the Conduit plot the comics had going at this point to a fine end. While our villain was… weird, I did like that Braverman struck out at Superman’s loved ones. It’s something that’s been seen before in stories and since then. Heck, we’re in the midst of that now with Brian Michael Bendis’s Superman run. Seeing Clark deal with all of this was good especially when it seems like he’s lost everyone in his life. I still remember reading the scene where he scorches his Superman uniform when I was a kid at some grocery store.

I know some may say differently, but I like it when Superman gets mean. Some folk deserve it.

I also liked how the Kents and Lois were handled. We actually got quite a bit of the Kents this time since they were in on the action. The same goes for Lois, Jimmy, and that weird ninja dude… Dragon Guy? That was a weird interlude. This era’s rife with weird interludes that one day will tie into another story. As for the action, we get Superman going toe-to-toe with a few villains like Metallo, Titan villains like Warp and Plasmus, and then Conduit himself. Even though that fight was brief, it was time to see that whiny nut get what was coming to him. The same goes for his goons and Superman doesn’t hold back either. You never want to really tick Superman off.

And now, Superman has turned into Tarzan... or Conan... or John Carter of Mars... or---

The artwork was also pretty good. We got Jurgens, Immonen, and the others turning in some good work. While I’m not the biggest fan of Bogdanov’s art, I gotta say that he draws one mean-looking Superman. That cover to Man of Steel #46 looks awesome. These guys even made Conduit’s 90’s suit work well. The action was pretty good all-around. Even though I did miss Jurgens on Superman #101, Gil Kane did a good job. He’s actually drew Superman back in the 80’s, so it was nice old-school pick. While there were some hiccups with the artwork here and there, it was pretty good in the end.

You know you can't be taken seriously when Jimmy is poking holes in your motive, you gold-looking idiot.

As for my problems with the story, it all comes back to Conduit. He’s kind of a crappy villain with some pretty lame motives. Braverman just comes off like some jilted jock who just wants to one-up his rival, and we have this for about seven issues. I can see why this villain hasn’t made a comeback in recent times. Even his and Clark’s final battle felt anti-climatic. I also felt like the story got padded out a bit, though that could be due to the format these books had at the time. Also, some dialogue wasn’t that good. It could get on the melodramatic side especially when Conduit goes on about being inferior to Clark/Superman. You’d think he thought he was Liquid Snake or something.

……………………………………………………….

In the end, this was fine story. It wasn’t the best from this era, but it still packed quite a punch. At least I can finally say farewell to Kenny Braverman. What a douche. That more or less ends my time with Superman this year. I might have one more post in me on the Man of Steel, but I’ll save that for next year. Besides, I got to get back to some things I meant to finish a while back. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and tell the Kenny Bravermans of the world to get therapy. That would’ve wrapped this story up in two issues flat!