From: [c--ve--n] at [cae.wisc.edu] (Michael Blakeman Cleveland)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.misc
Subject: ZERO HOUR SUMMARIES: 5/6: ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #516
Date: 31 Jul 1994 22:53:44 GMT


Adventures of Superman #516

Minor spoiler review:  Claims to occur within Zero Hour #2.  I suppose
it can be shoehorned in there.  No _direct_ links to Zero Hour except
that it explains who the guy with the big A on his chest was in ZH #3.
Fairly predictable, but kind of fun.

Summary w/ spoilers:































OK, there's a two hour gap in ZH #2 between the heroes sending the future city
away and the heroes going to the 30th century.  Let's assume that this issue
fits into that two-hour gap.

Superman goes to check on Metropolis during the chaos of Zero Hour and is 
struck by lightning on the way.  He finds Metropolis restored from the recent
damage and wonders if the time anomalies have put something right.  However,
he notices some changes from his own Metropolis:  unimportant things, like
the new subtitle for the Daily Planet (Latin for "Forewarned, forearmed.") and
the fact that nobody recognizes Clark Kent, not even Lois.

Before he has time to unravel the mystery, he hears a bank alarm and flies off
to investigate.  He finds Alpha Centurion (who we recognize from ZH #3) 
fighting a woman named Bloody Mary.  Mary is equipped with lots of flying
robots and shape-changing metal hands (and a Maxima-like fixation on AC).

While Supes destroys the robots, AC fights Mary.  Mary's jet-pack fails and
AC gallantly rescues her.  She makes a pass at him, but he rejects her and
so she turns her hand into a knife, guts him, and then flies away.  (Her
jet-pack wasn't really damaged.)

Superman catches her, but is then threatened by a bunch of deputies in 
stylized flying chariots. (The deputies include Maggie Sawyer and Jim Harper.)
AC explains that Superman is a friend and turns over Bloody Mary to his 
deputies.  (AC shows considerably more control over his Metropolis than 
Superman has over his.  There are lots of ancient Roman references that 
seem to have been adapted into the culture.)

When the deputies leave, AC reveals that he is hurt much worse than he let on.
Supes takes him to his building (a big A-shaped building where Lexcorp should
be.) and falls into his pool of aquavitae, which heals him.

AC tells his origin:  Aliens came to ancient rome and suggested an exchange
of ideas and information.  Emperor Hadrian liked the idea and held a contest
to choose a representative to go with them.  AC won, was taken and studied
with the aliens, and was return "due to the vagaries of quantum physics" 
(Shouldn't that be relativity?) 2000 years later.  His arriving spacecraft
caused a collision between a plane and a space shuttle, which AC saved. 
Reporter Lois Lane named the fledgling hero and fell in love with him.  (Sound
familiar?)  Superman explains his past, and AC realizes why they've never 
met before.  Then they leave to return to the fray of Zero Hour.

Michael