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Adventures of Superman 592

Adventures of Superman #592

Scheduled to arrive in stores: May 9, 2001

Cover date: July 2001

2001 Shield No. 27

Writer: Joe Casey
Penciller: Mike Wieringo
Inker: Jose Marzan Jr.

"Strange Behavior"

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

Jimmy talks to Clark inside of the Planet building, informing him of the release of the new Final Destiny VIII video game. He says that as soon as he gets off work he is heading to his apartment to hot-wire his Gamestation to get the maximum effect. Clark warns him against this course of action, but Jim doesn't think that the risk is too great.

Suddenly, the skies outside of the building darken and huge bolts of lightning begin to rain down from the sky. It quickly ends, but when Jimmy turns around to talk to Clark, the reporter is gone.

Heading into the clouds, Superman dodges lightning bolts and finds Strange Visitor huddling in the center of the storm. Superman briefly thinks of her history, and his lack of surprise at her present condition.

Inside Jimmy's apartment, Jim's friend finishes soldering a few wires in the wall and retires to the living room where Jimmy is preparing to play. He boots up the game and waits. In the clouds, Superman approaches Strange Visitor when suddenly her eyes snap open. Jim battles his way through the game. Strange Visitor suddenly explodes with energy and plummets towards Metropolis. Jimmy and his friends are ecstatic at the on-screen action. Strange Visitor approaches the LexCorp Tower. As Jim continues to play the game, Strange Visitor hits the tower, blanketing Metropolis in a huge electro-magnetic pulse.

As cell phones and pagers fry across the city, Jimmy is drawn into the screen, vanishing. Jim suddenly finds himself in the world of Final Destiny. He flees from an axe-wielding monster, but soon takes the offensive when his friend takes the controls.

Superman dashes through Metropolis, trying to save everyone from the aftereffects of the EM pulse, as Jimmy continues to fight the enemy. Suddenly, Strange Visitor appears and vaporizes the creature. Then she takes Jimmy and the two head skyward. In Metropolis, Superman catches a falling plane and gradually eases it down. Jimmy and Strange Visitor continue to fly over a volcanic landscape when her powers fail her and she impacts the earth, taking Jimmy with her. Panicked, Jimmy's friends run to his bedroom and find his signal watch. Pushing the button, the two wait for Superman. Across Metropolis, Superman responds, heading for his friend's apartment.

Jimmy's character is almost dead in his virtual world when Superman arrives and pushes the reset button, warping his friend into the real world. Superman flies off while Jimmy shakily looks for Strange Visitor.

Somewhere else, a flashlight beam illuminates Strange Visitor. A team of men and one woman approach her with sinister intentions.

2Story - 2: I really didn't like this. Maybe it was just because Casey got stuck with writing Strange Visitor, but to me this issue seemed like the reintroduction of a character (who probably shouldn't be reintroduced, but that's another matter) that should have taken five pages stretched out to fill an entire story. The story of Jimmy was just stupid and was only used to fill pages. I did like the reference to Final Fantasy, as my passion for that game is only exceeded by my passion for Superman, it didn't make it any better. You do not 'hot-wire' a 'Gamestation'. I don't care about B13 or anything else, and yes I do realize it is just fiction, but you don't alter a video game system to get better performance. I did like seeing Jimmy take a more prominent role, but not as a video game character. This story could have been a five-page end to any other story, but instead they fill an entire book with it. And why does Strange Visitor have to come back at all? As a completely unrelated side note, we have only eight more issues until we reach issue 600. This is especially important to me because it will mark my one-hundredth consecutive issue. Only eight more months.

4Art - 4: I liked Wieringo's art. I hope that we finally get a steady artist on this book. His art is very clean and uncluttered, and while not extremely dynamic, it is eye-catching. Every now and then Superman's face looks a little too simple, as it does when he is leaving the Planet, but other than that I like it a lot.

4Cover Art - 4: I have pretty much the same impression of the cover that I do of the interior art. Superman looks bold and uncluttered and the cover is eye-catching, if not very exciting. My main complaint is not really a complaint. Where is Strange Visitor? While I do like covers that just have Superman in some dynamic pose (a la Superman #50 way back when), it works better with big issues rather than just a standard story. Still, it is a nice picture of Superman.

Other recent reviews:

Mild Mannered Reviews

2001

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic was on sale.

January 2001

February 2001 March 2001 April 2001 May 2001 June 2001 July 2001 August 2001 September 2001 October 2001 November 2001 December 2001 Annuals

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