InsaneJournal

Superman/Madman Hullabaloo! part 2


In our last installment, Superman and Frank Einstein accidentally crossed into each other's realities, with surprising effects. As MadSupes and Dr. Flem try to find a way to cross the dimensional barrier and set things right, SuperFrank and Lois Lane run into a superpowered Steve Buscemi.

We last left SuperFrank completely at the mercy of Buscemi.


Guess that didn't last long.
Dan Turpin, Maggie Sawyer and the SCU to the rescue! And they brought Professor Hamilton along, too! They take down Mr. Pink, though he keeps getting back up until Lois whacks him with Ham's robot arm.
SuperFrank: "That did the trick. Remind me not to make you mad."
Lois: "Okay, don't make me mad."


SuperFrank holds back the building while the tenants are evacuated from it. Not wanting to wreck their stuff, Frank tries to find a way to disable it instead of destroying it.



Meanwhile, in Buzztown, MadSupes is lugging some heavy machinery to put the finishing touches on Dr. Flem's dimensional gateway. He says he's finally adjusting to the reduced strength. Joe wonders how much strength he really needs.


Poor Joe. :(
To be fair, Dr. Flem has a long history of being a dick in the name of science. While he always promises to help Frank with whatever he's looking into at any given time, a lot of time it seems he makes these promises just so Frank'll be more willing to guinea pig for Flem's experiments. It kind of falls to Joe to make sure he isn't being taken advantage of.
Also, the coloring on the metal plate on MadSupes' forehead looks a little...off.

Back in Metropolis, Ham is studying the data from his robot arm. He comes to the conclusion that the cross-dimensional collision dispersed Superman's powers, some of which came to Mr. Pink, and he can track the others. He can't conclude on the cause of any of it other than...MAGIC!
He makes a gadget to suck the unnatural energy out of an object, and uses it to get the portion of Superman's power from Mr. Pink (it's worth noting that everybody has only reffered to him as "the criminal", but he looks like Steve Buscemi in Resevoir Dogs, so I've referred to him as such).
Unfortunately, to set things right, they'll have to duplicate the incident from both sides, but he deduces that Superman's on the other side "with the remainder of Frank's physicality".

MadSupes and the gang put Dr. Flem's gate to the test. SuperFrank and the gang put Ham's tracker to the test.


It's kind of funny how Lois and Supes' reunion is basically the same as Joe and Frank's, only way more restrained. I've always thought of Joe and Frank as a little younger, though there're a number of possible reasons for it. Something I thought was great in the last issue that I didn't mention there was at the beginning of the story, Superman was basically just killing time till Lois got off work. That kind of attitude is pretty normal for Frank, but it's funny coming from Superman.
Drawing the comparison further, on the next page MadSupes whispers something about his apprehension about his looks, while Lois tells him it's what's inside that she loves about him, a conversation Frank and Joe have had more than once.

Anyway, Flem gives an excited Ham an inter-dimensional radio, and MadSupes, Flem, Joe and Mott jump back to Buzztown to get working on re-enacting the collision.


Of course it works out, but it's a double page splash image and I can only post so many.



He's cut off by something icky on his shoe. They get impatient waiting around, and decide to use the X-ray vision to look around.


Superman catches the boy while Frank goes to collect the little girl. She accuses him of badtouching her and beats him up. Supes catches her in his cape while Frank uses the Collector to get the powers out. The girl's mom pops up and starts panicking until they explain what happened. Frank and the girl exchange raspberries and they go their separate ways.

"And so..." the narration goes, with Ham locating the next power source at a health food store.


"See?! This is just like the runaway building we told you about!" Frank exclaims. The storefront explodes with fruits and vegetables. "I'm ruined!" Hermie laments, but Supes and Frank assure him that the publicity from the news (Jimmy Olsen came around to help!) will insure him a future, especially with Lois saying (on-air?) how constructively he was using his powers.

Ham has isolated the power fragments to Frank's dimension, it being two or three (it is fluctuating!), so the gang decides Snap City is the place to be.


Will Superman get his powers back?
What are those mean old beatniks up to now?
Why's that signature keep fluctuating?
What does Mxyzptlk hope to achieve by throwing that car at them?

All the answers in part 3!
Sorry this one's so fragmented, it wasn't as easy to pick pages, there not being a six-page origin recap to easily ignore in this issue.