When we last left Superman and the Whiz Kids, they were facing a radioactive gas leak looming over Metropolis. What will they do to save the city?
When I read this, I almost threw the comic book out. I had laughed at it; I had scoffed; but this marks the point where I got truly angry. Why?
Major Disaster started the tornado earlier. We're supposed to believe that it spewed out micro-crystals of kryptonite. Here, Superman makes a tornado, but instead it's supposed to contain a radioactive cloud and spiral it upward to space! In eight pages, they've completely changed the laws of physics!
I eventually managed to cope with my anger, and mercifully the last page of The Computer That Saved Metropolis had come.
Look carefully at Superman's body language in this frame -- the forced smile, the horribly tense posture. He looks like his Super-underwear is full of a load of Kryptonite. This frame is an epiphany for the Caped Crusader. He realizes now that he has made a fatal mistake: he brought the TRS-80 to the children; now they see that they can think just as fast as him. His brain may still be super, but it's meaningless when people have technology which works just as well. He's introduced the vector of his own obsolescence, just like thousands of Americans, Superman's been downsized by an improvement in technology.
You can probably see now why this dark chapter of Superman's career has been forgotten. No one wants to see the greatest of the comic book heroes getting owned by a two-bit Radio Shack computer. But, if it wasn't embarrassing and unfair, it wouldn't be the Jim Smith Archive.
