City of Hope: An Editorial by Perry White
Karl Kesel – Writer
Stuart Immomen – Penciller
José Marzan Jr. – Inker
Glenn Whitmore – Colorist
Albert T. DeGuzman – Letterer
Chris Duffy – Assistant
Mike Carlin – Promoted from the Mailroom
Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
Our cover was constructed by editor Mike Carlin placing his three arms (now you know!) on the heads of penciller Stuart Immonen, inker José Marzan Jr., and colorist Glenn Whitmore, while cover editor Curtis King telepathically channeled the artistic information to color separator Android Images. Complicated, isn't it?
Yes, it sure is. In fact, it may have been a bit too complicated, since somewhere lost in the shuffle was the fact that the mysterious Bloodwynd didn't appear in this issue. I only know him from the Death of Superman storyline, which only serves to play up the mysteries of Bloodwynd. But everyone else here does show up in the issue, and I'm pretty familiar with all of them — Guardian, Maxima, Impulse, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and Guy Gardner.
So apparently just before Zero Hour, a completely unrelated event destroyed the city of Metropolis. When Zero Hour was all wrapped up, Metropolis quickly returned to its former glory. But nobody bothered explaining how that happened until now. The editor of the Daily Planet, Perry White, noticed a lot of people were sending in letters, asking how the city went from ruins to being completely restored overnight. A valid question, I must say. Well, Perry finally had enough with his inbox being clogged with this pesky question and decided to answer the question himself.
Perry's editorial begins with the arrival of Superman and all the heroes we saw on the cover, minus Bloodwynd. Before they can assess the damage of the city, Superman learns of a hostage situation taking place at the one building that mysteriously wasn't destroyed. The "terrorists" (for lack of a better word) are normally good people who just fell into desperate times after their homes were destroyed and their jobs were lost. When Impulse hears they have guns, he quickly disarms them, not waiting to hear they also had a drug that could temporarily transform them into demonic monsters. So they naturally all took the drug as soon as they found their guns had disappeared.
All the heroes team up to quickly subdue the monsters without causing too much harm, then send them away to a hospital. They then turn their attention toward rebuilding Metropolis, which Captain Marvel and Impulse think is a good idea.
Superman curbs Impulse's enthusiasm, and they decide to limit themselves to repairing damaged buildings along the blast zone's rim and erecting some temporary shelters for the homeless. The heroes work all day, and do a pretty good job, except for Impulse's hasty brick work. They all prepare to go home for the night, when Zatanna suddenly shows up out of nowhere with a plan to restore Metropolis completely.
Using Martian Manhunter as a telepathic conduit, Zatanna rebuilds the city in a few seconds using the memories of Superman and Perry White (J'onn had to grow an extra arm to place a hand on everybody's head). Impulse and Captain Marvel laugh at Zatanna's stupid-sounding backwards talk, and Wonder Woman chastises the two of them for being immature.
So that was a pretty fun, though random story. I guess it makes sense that Superman would recruit Impulse right after Zero Hour, since he seemed to be pretty impressed by his powers. And as fun as it was seeing all the heroes fight a handful of monsters and rebuild the city, it all felt completely pointless once Zatanna showed up. She completely negated their entire day's work in less than a minute, begging to question why she didn't arrive earlier. You'd think the destruction of Metropolis would be pretty big news around the world, and someone with her power would surely want to go help out sooner than later, right? Oh well. Any excuse to use Impulse as a guest star is good for me — even if this was the wildest-looking Impulse I've seen so far.
The letter page, Kryptograms, naturally doesn't mention Impulse, so I'll move on to the ads.
French Toast clothing. If you were willing to cut a large chunk out of your cover, you could have sent in an application form to win a chance to be a French Toast model.
Who says chivalry is dead? The Spoiler returns in Robin #16. Chuck Dixon, Phil Jimenez, Stewart Johnson, Scott Hanna.
Year One. They were legends from the beginning. DC Comics annuals.
The Three Faces of Argus. Super-hero. FBI agent. Mobster. The Flash isn't the only hero watching over Central City. Written by Wheatley & Gross. Art by Hester, Faucher & Wallace. A six-issue miniseries. I just realized that Argus has been conspicuously absent from the latter half of Terminal Velocity. I also thought the Flash lived in Keystone City instead of Central City in this time period.
The future of the Blood Syndicate revealed. Blood Syndicate #25. 48-page Milestone special. Fully painted color.
Animaniacs presents World Domination?! The Wackiness starts in March. Ongoing monthly. From DC Comics. We see Yakko, Wakko and Dot bursting through a Pinky and the Brain poster, with Yakko saying, "Hey! Whose comic is this anyway?"
Exciting stories ... & great savings ... when you subscribe to DC Comics. This ad uses a rather lackluster image of the Flash, but it does have an exciting piece of information — Impulse is listed among the titles available for $15 for 12 issues.
Chris Claremont. Dwayne Turner. Sovereign Seven. A new team coming to Earth this May.
It will take you a million lightyears from home. But will it bring you back? Stargate for Super Nintendo, Genesis, Game Gear and Game Boy.
Impulse doesn't appear in New Titans this month, since he's allegedly busy following Damage in issues that have already come out. So next time, I'll conclude Terminal Velocity in Flash #100.
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