Adventures of Superman #436 is an issue of the series Adventures of Superman (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1988.
Synopsis for "Junk"
Upon his arrival in Smallville after following Lana Lang in the form of a Manhunter agent, Superman disguises himself as Clark Kent and casually meets with Pete Ross in his office, while outside young people are behaving rather strangely. Clark's meeting is interrupted by the appearance of Dr. Whitney, the old town physician who never showed up at the Kents to "deliver" Clark, who distracts him long enough for a stun weapon to take him down.
Clark wakes up as Superman inside a Manhunter ship, put into restraints that he cannot break out of, and finding out that Dr. Whitney was a real Manhunter agent along with his wife; the people that he helped deliver into the world, including Lana, were simply "sleeper agents" that had Manhunter programming implanted into them. The Manhunters originally intended for Superman to be their Manhunter agent, and so sought to intercept the rocket carrying the matrix with Kal-El inside as it was launched toward Earth. However, the Guardians knew they couldn't let a Kryptonian fall into the hands of the Manhunters and so they sent the Green Lantern Corps to foil their attempt to capture Kal-El. Instead, the Manhunters sent their own agents to kill the real Dr. Whitney and his wife and to take their places in society until such time as they were needed.
As Dr. Whitney goes off to tend to other matters, Superman uses his X-ray vision to scan the ship and finds that the older residents, including Jonathan and Martha Kent, are in stasis chambers. It is then he decides to test his power of flight, and finds that he could cause the Manhunter ship to fly just by the power of his will. Using that ability to his advantage, Superman makes the Manhunter ship fly out of control until Dr. Whitney powers the ship down, enabling Superman to break free of his restraints to confront the Manhunter agent. Dr. Whitney activates a self-destruct mechanism on himself that destroys him, but as Superman turns to look at the "sleeper agents" to see if they would be freed from the Manhunters' control, he sees that they all died.
Appearing in "Junk"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Jonathan Kent
- Lana Lang
- Martha Kent
- Pete Ross (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Manhunters
- G.I. Whitney (Flashback only)
Other Characters:
- Green Lantern Corps
- Guardians of the Universe (Flashback only)
- Elsie (Single appearance) (Flashback only)
- Mrs. Whitney (Single appearance) (Flashback only)
Locations:
- Kansas
- Smallville
- Kent Farm
- Lang Farm
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- This issue is a "Millennium" Week Three tie-in issue.
- Pediatrician Doc Whitney and his wife are revealed as Manhunter agents in this issue.
- Jonathan and Martha Kent appeared last in Superman (Volume 2) #12. They appear next in Action Comics #596.
- First Post-Crisis appearance of Pete Ross.
- This issue is reprinted in Superman: The Man of Steel Vol. 3 (2021 Edition).
See Also
Recommended Reading
Links and References
  The events from this issue are related to Millennium, a 1988 crossover event spanning through all DC Titles, in which the Guardians of the Universe left and Earth was put in danger by the robotic Manhunter Cult. Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Millennium #3 · Adventures of Superman #436 · Booster Gold #24 · Green Lantern Corps #220 · Infinity Inc. #46 Week Four
Week Five
Week Six
Week Seven
Week Eight
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