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Mild Mannered Reviews - Superman Adventures Comics

Superman Adventures #34

Scheduled to arrive in stores: June 2, 1999

Cover date: August 1999

Writer: Mark Millar
Penciller: Mike Manley
Inker: Terry Austin

"Sanctuary"

Michael (George) O'Connor Reviewed by: Michael O'Connor

In Cairo, Egypt, Dr. Fate meets with a friend of his who explains that an evil has been unleashed when a group of archeologists entered a tomb possessed by a spirit as "old and evil as the night itself." Dr. Fate realizes that such an evil will make itself apparent soon, and that all he need do for the time being, is to wait...

At Metropolis Harbor, two weeks later, a Porsche speeds out of a ship sailing in from Morocco and into the bustling city of Metropolis. A LexCorp truck is forced off the road, but Superman is able to save the vehicle before it hits water. Superman turns around only to see the sportscar smashed into a pole as a haunted survivor walks out of the wreckage.

The man is taken away to the hospital as Superman flies off, unaware of the evil that is in his city. After he leaves, Jimmy goes to talk to Lois but is batted out of the way as he realizes that the evil spirit has taken control of her.

Elsewhere, Dr. Fate begins to wonder about the spirit's location and soon realizes that the spirit must be looking to take control of Superman.

At the Daily Planet, Dr. Fate interrupts Clark, revealing him as Superman. Fortunately, Dr. Fate has taken the precaution of making everyone else in the Planet oblivious as to what is going on. Lois Lane isn't, however, and she interrupts Dr. Fate and Superman, attacking the Man of Steel. Superman is thrown backwards by Lois as she smashes him into the ground.

Climbing out of the wreckage below, a perplexed Lois Lane is grabbed by Dr. Fate, just as he realizes that the spirit has now taken control of Superman! Superman's powers, combined with the spirit's powers begin to overwhelm Dr. Fate, until Fate can cast a spell, which imprisons Superman. Dr. Fate claims that the only way to get rid of the evil spirit is by getting rid of Superman.

Lois objects, however, claiming that while the spirit was inside her, it was afraid, not evil. Fate agrees to follow Lois' claim and sends himself to a netherworld along with the evil spirit, only to discover that the spirit is an alien that crash landed on Earth during primitive times and is only attempting to get home. Dr. Fate agrees to let the spirit use Superman's body to get back and the alien speeds off towards its home planet as Dr. Fate attempts to make sense of the whole ordeal for Lois.

Story - 4: I really liked this story, which is rare whenever it comes to magic, because I often find that whenever Supes and magic are mixed, the combination is usually strange, stupid or a little of both. This issue was an exception however. The story was laid out brilliantly and Superman was given a backseat position to Dr. Fate which was interesting to see and was something new. Besides that, the twist ending tied the story together well and gave readers an explanation into history with the claims that this alien spirit guided all of humanity for centuries. Sounds like something you might find watching the X-Files...

Art - 4: Ah... Manley! Excellent! The only thing that was bad in terms of art, was the coloring. Recently, the coloring has really been weak. Or maybe a better word is too strong. The fact of the matter is that whenever Supes is in the city, you get these awful pink backgrounds and all the buildings are different colors. It really assaults the eye and doesn't let the reader focus in on the characters, plus it doesn't look anything like the background in the animated series. Other than that, though, a good job by Manley and Austin who brought Dr. Fate, Superman, Lois and all the background characters looking like their animated series counterparts.

Cover - 3: Kind of cool, but rather formulaic. Plus, Superman's upper body looks much too large for his lower body. Dr. Fate and Lois do look pretty awesome though...