TITLE: Superman vol. 2, issue #78
YEAR: June 1993
COMPANY: DC Comics
WRITER: Dan Jurgens
PENCILLER: Dan Jurgens
INKER: Brett Breeding
LETTERER: John Costanza
COLORIST: Glenn Whitmore
EDITOR: Mike Carlin
Superman died while protecting the world in his fight against Doomsday.
Cadmus and then Lex then made their attempt of obtaining Superman’s body.
And just when Lois Lane and those who knew Superman wanted to pay their respect for Superman after his death, media reports of Superman being alive have now captivated people wondering if Superman has returned?
For the “Reign of the Supermen” arc, we see four people now taking on the mantle as Superman and for issue #78, we see someone wearing the same costume as the Man of Steel but he appears to be half human/half robot (a cyborg?)?
And for some reason, he happens to have memories of Superman that the original would know.
But why is he robotic? And why is he adamant in finding the corpse of Doomsday?
This issue features Lois Lane going to find out more of these reports of Superman being alive, while the Superman/Terminator looking thing (who we will call “Cyborg”) going to S.T.A.R. Labs wanting Doomsday’s corpse and was told it was turned over to Project Cadmus.
As Cyborg Superman arrives to Project Cadmus and the soldiers try to stop them, he shows his power of drilling to the the lab and taking Doomsday’s corpse and disposing of it into outerspace, tied up and affixed on an asteroid with steel cables.
As Lois tries to get answers, Cyborg shows up and she asks him to prove he is Superman and he tells her that he came from a farm in Kansas and lived with the Kent’s. Lois is shocked because only the real Superman would know that.
She takes Cyborg to see Professor Hamilton and he confirms that the cyborg is Kryptonian technology and the cells suggest he is Superman.
And just when Lois is surprised by the revelation, we see Doomsday’s corpse floating in space and then we see his eye open and the monster giving a big laugh.
I have to say that when this issue came out, I was captivated by the artwork of Brett Breeding and even started drawing Cyborg. I felt among the four Supermen that were featured, he was the coolest looking one. But at the same time, you couldn’t help but think by that Terminator look, he’s probably going to go evil. But will he? Hmm…