Superman #706 – A Grounded Interlude

Five issues into “Grounded” and it doesn’t focus on Supes, yet again.  It’s an INTERLUDE!!! Not written by JMS, but by G. Willow Wilson.  And she delivers.  A few issues ago, we had the issue that was Lois-centric visiting her old friend and his seemingly “perfect” family, wishing her and Clark’s SPOILER ALERT (aka Superman) END SPOILERS relationship was more like theirs, and realizing she had something special, with the boy in blue showing up at the end of the issue, again, we have an issue focusing on characters we really haven’t heard much from in later years.  In the Golden/Silver Age, we had whole comics devoted to these supporting characters!  Jimmy Olsen had more super-powers than Dial H for Hero (yeah, I know my shit).  Lois had monthly comics dealing with…. BAD HAIR!!!!  But now… we have to follow continuity and  Superman is flying off to a new crisis every other week.  This week?  He has time to walk.  That’s what “Grounded” is all about.  Superman taking a breather.  With Batman creepily popping in and spying on him and some freaky New Krypton debris powered hobo attacking him and blowing up a town, making him rethink his vacation.

But this week?  This week it’s all about someone who is more important to the Superman mythos than most characters.  A man who gave a mild-mannered college grad his job… without this man we wouldn’t have a mild mannered reporter.  This issue is all about Perry White.  At first, you think, wow, Perry, you racist old blowhard, unwilling to get with the times, calling a kid trying to get into photography (with a degree no less… Olsen just did it with a set of steel testicles!) names and pushing him around.  But, in typical Perry fashion, he’s worried.  He’s hiding it and taking it out on his workers that aren’t performing up to par.  Insert a blogger with dirt on the Planet and some issues with why the Planet has missing funds, the most exclusive with Supes and some risque photos with Lois, and BOOM, it gets interesting.  Especially for Perry, the captain of this ship.  Even after a visit from Superman himself, Perry still has his doubts and tells the man confident to wear his underwear outside his clothes to take care of himself. 

Perry is afraid.  New technology, like the one right here, is threatening print media!  GWW, is this a clever barb at digital media instead of print media????  I dunno… something smells a bit fishy here.  But, back to the story, Perry pulls some classic White moves, shakes his fists, gets the blogger and… well.. I don’t want to spoil it for you.  But if you are a fan of hardcore, old school, hard ass Perry White, the one who would yell at Clark, who had the hard candy shell but delicious milk chocolate inside?  You won’t be disappointed.  It was a nice break and it does move the story, as a whole, ahead.  It could have been a back up somewhere else.  But… it’s worth it if you are a fan of The Planet and the old stories that were told, when you first got into comics.  So far, “Grounded” (even the Interludes!!) is doing a good job, the art was better this issue, in my opinion and Amilcar Pinna (funny… they were a previously announced team on this run?  That was publicized as a JMS piece??).  In any way.  This issue.  Buy it.