EPISODE 11: DARK KNIGHT OVER METROPOLIS REVIEW

The Two Sons are at it again and this time they look at an arc which includes Superman's best buddy, Man Bat....er, I mean Batman!

It's another ride into Metropolis where Connor-El and Rey-Zod chat about the merits of the arc graciously requested in by one of our Super Listeners!

SHOW NOTES:

• Action Comics Annual #1
• Adventures of Superman #466
• Action Comics #653 
• Superman (Volume 2) #44 
• Adventures of Superman #467
• Action Comics #654
• Worlds Finest
• Superman 7
• Perez/Morrison Fiasco
• Super Cafe
• Steve Rude
• Hush
• Injustice done right
• Superman/Batman Theme Mashup

SYNOPSES:

(Written by Connor-El)

Superman (Volume 2) #44 (Dark Knight Over Metropolis, Part One: Green Death in Crime Alley)

Amanda McCoy is a disgruntled ex-employee of Lexcorp who after being fired for suggesting Clark Kent was Superman, decided to prove to herself that her theory was correct. After attacking Clark Kent with the Kryptonite ring she stole from Lex Luthor to prove he was Superman, Amanda Mcoy is scared she has killed him and runs away from the abandoned cemetery where they met. She is then abducted and killed by thugs while walking home, the ring falling through a sewer grate....

Jose Delgado aka Gangbuster is currently acting as Cat Grants bodyguard due to her being marked by Intergang. They and her son Adam exit the movies while a shadowy figure on the rooftops tails them (as well as an undercover cop acting as extra protection). Despite Jose's protests, Cat opts to take a shortcut through a dark alley where they are ambushed by an invisible assailant. Jose manages to dispatch the assailant while the shadowy figure is revealed to be Superman himself. Who interrogates this so called “Blindspot” and warns him to leave Cat Grant alone.

Meanwhile at the morgue, Police Inspector Henderson is informed of the body of a woman (Amanda McCoy but they don't know that) that was found battered and beaten and left for 2 weeks. Henderson is disgusted that something like this could happen outside of suicide slum, and worries that Metropolis is going the way of Gotham, where we cut to to find a statement by Commissioner Gordon that violent Crime is on the rise in Gotham.

The Batman comes across a homeless man being mugged and steps in, stopping the crook but unfortunately the homeless man is dead from a heart attack. Inside the homeless mans box, Batman discovers a ring with a green radioactive gem that seems to glow...

Meanwhile at Lexcorp, Luthor is furious to find that his kryptonite ring has been stolen right from under his nose, while Intergang plan the next attack on Cat Grant and decide to get Superman out of the way by baiting him with Lois Lane and Clark Kent. They make plans to attack the upcoming Journalists banquet which is being hosted by Luthor.

Batman studies the ring in his batcave and has tracked it back to Metropolis, where he decides to attend the journalist banquet he was invited to so he can meet with Clark Kent (they know each others identities at this point) since he will be working in his city.

Meanwhile Superman flies to his fortress in the Antarctic and fixes the damage done by the Eradicator, rebuilding the statue to his kryptonian parents. He then flies back to Metropolis to meet Lois Lane for a date as Clark Kent.

(Written by Connor-El)

Adventures of Superman #467 (Dark Knight Over Metropolis, Part Two: Taken to the Grave)

After his date with Lois Clark finds a note left by Batman in his apartment requesting that they talk, Superman flies through Metropolis pondering what trouble is happening in his city that Batman himself has appeared.

Batman meanwhile is breaking into the morgue where a Jane Doe (McCoys body) is held as it has slight radiation poisoning and Batman suspects she held the ring before the homeless man. During his examination he is caught by a cop who says they don't tolerate his kind in Metropolis. Batman says the law takes too much time then asks the officer what he is going to do exactly to stop him, shoot him in the back? Then walks away.

Superman heres the alarms from the morgue going off and flies over, seeing a shadowy figure on a rooftop on the way, he confronts them. It turns out to be Jose Delgado in his Gangbuster attire, watching Cat Grants apartment from the rooftop. Superman and Gangbuster then talk where Superman compliments him but they reminisce all the times he's been dangerously injured. Batman then shows up and says if Gangbuster couldn't stand the heat, he wouldn't be there. Batman then says he needs to talk to Superman alone, and they depart with Gangbuster reflecting on Batman being just a normal guy like him. Jose is then ambushed by two villains from intergang; Chiller, who can take other peoples forms and disguises himself as Cat Grant, as Shockwave brings down the roof beneath him and knocks out Delgado, capturing him and taking him out of the picture.

Meanwhile batman informs him of his investigation, and shows Superman a picture of the body whom he identifies as the woman who cornered him and revealed his identity. He informs batman that the ring she used can kill him and has every reason to believe Luthor is mixed up in all this. Batman doesn't tell Superman he has the ring as he thinks it might come in handy, they then head to Lexcorp together and break in, despite Supermans grumblings about breaking and entering, which Batman points out will be much more effective than Superman trying to intimidate Luthor into giving him what he wants.

Superman shorts out all the cameras with his heat vision and they hack into a computer near Luthors vault. They discover that the woman is Amanda McCoy and they find her address, while Superman worries if Luthor knows who he really is. They then leave before Luthors guards arrive and make a plan to go to his banquet, then McCoys address.

At the Banquet Clark, Lois and Bruce are socialising when Luthor shows up and meets Bruce for the first time. Lex brings up how Clark saved his life when intergang attacked a few months ago, and speak of the devil Intergang arrive again and start trashing the banquet, killing people indiscriminately while looking for Clark and Lois. Lex pushes Clark out of the way of incoming fire and tells him to consider his debt repaid.

Clark heats up the pool with his heat vision to create enough steam for him to change into Superman, and Bruce also changes into batman. Superman and Batman take care of Intergang and realise it was a diversion and that they must have Cat Grant, so they both set off to find her.

Chill has kidnapped Cat Grant disguised as Jose Delgado, and Shockwave gets the order to execute Delgado and make it look like an accident, he then causes the building to fall on them.

(Written by Rey-Zod)

Action Comics #654 (Dark Knight Over Metropolis, Part Three: Deadly Covenant)

After the abduction of Cat Grant, both Superman and Batman scour the city only to come across the sounds of a crumbling building not far away.

Superman tends to the wreckage whilst Batman chooses to check out Grant’s apartment for clues to her whereabouts.

Superman is momentarily stricken with horror as he finds Delgado, aka Gangbusters, head gear amongst the debris, but Delgado proves to be a hard man to kill and Superman is relieved to see him alive and well up high in the adjacent building’s fire escape.

Delgado recalls his narrow escape but the two are suddenly distracted with the assassin, Shockwave’s appearance as he stumbles out of the debris. Shockwave is adamant to finish the job he was contracted to, but he faces a blue and red wall in the form of the Man of Steel.

Meanwhile, Chiller (the assassin who abducted Grant using his skill of disguise) brings his hostage to an outlaying industrial park, where Dr Moon and his cohorts have set up shop.

Dr Moon has been employed by Intergang to facilitate a brainwashing of Cat Grant, in order for her to provide a favourable testimony to Morgan Edge’s court case.

Brainwashing is in fact not the correct term, with Dr. Moon preferring the term, ‘re-programming’.

Both Chiller and Dr. Moon conspire behind the Intergang members’ backs after a slight altercation concerning recent events. Dr. Moon convinces Chiller to put up with Intergang’s idiosyncracies but before anything else could be said, both Batman and Superman crash onto the scene.

Whilst the legendary duo stave off the Intergang thugs, Dr. Moon persists with his plan to re-program Cat Grant. Fortunately, Gangbuster appears and knocks Dr. Moon out before any damage can be done to the shaken Grant.

Intergang briefly gain the upper hand with Superman, but ultimately the caped heroes prove too much for them. Gillespie and Mannheim (two of Intergang’s big wigs) monitor the situation via a camera feed and concede that Morgan Edge is beyond help.

Whilst Gangbuster and Superman are left to clean up the scene, it’s not long before Batman’s disappearance is noticed. Leaving a note pinned to the unconscious Dr. Moon cryptically leading Superman on, Superman flies off to catch up with the Dark Knight.

His travels lead the two to Amanda McCoy’s apartment, where her diary explains some previous events and puts some mysteries to rest. She is indeed the unidentifiable corpse, and her involvement with Superman includes the theft of Luthor’s Kryptonite ring, the danger of Superman’s secret identity getting out, and his encounter with her in the cemetery.

Batman reveals he has the Kryptonite ring, gives it to Superman, and recommends that Superman should take the evidence from Amanda’s apartment, which exposes him as Clark Kent.

As time goes by, Edge’s court case ends in a guilty conviction and the mystery of the unidentified dead woman is revealed as Amanda McCoy. Back at Wayne mansion, Bruce is greeted by a visit with Superman. Having invited himself to the Batcave, Superman opens up on the respect he has for the Dark Knight and bestows upon him the honour of safe guarding the Kryptonite ring...as he states, “I Want the Means to stop me, to be in the hands of a man I can trust with my life”

The music for this episode contains excerpts from various songs and is copyrighted by Styzmask. The music used on Last Sons of Krypton - A Superman Podcast is licensed under an Attribution License;