Superman: The Man of Steel #119 is an issue of the series Superman: The Man of Steel (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 2001.
Synopsis for "Joker: Last Laugh: Snowball's Chance"
Superman flies back into Metropolis only to find Killer Frost and Icicle, with their henchmen in tow, attacking Metropolis. He lands and finds Maggie Sawyer, clad in an SCU battle suit, trying to stop the villains. She barely has a chance to mention that she is transferring to the Gotham P.D. before telling Superman that the attack is centered on the Steelworks.
Inside the building, Killer Frost and Icicle stand triumphant. In front of them is the absolute zero chamber.
Heading for the Steelworks, Superman finds S.T.R.I.P.E. heading the same way. As the duo land through the skylight, Superman's worst fears are realized. It is the absolute zero chamber that they are after. The two super-villains turn and taunt the heroes. S.T.R.I.P.E. leaps forward to stop the intruders, but before he can do anything, they freeze him solid. Superman launches himself at Killer Frost, heat vision smoldering. Suddenly the chamber lets its prisoner loose and the Eradicator stands freed.
The Kryptonian killing machine stands before his rescuers, and questions the chemicals that they have subjected him to. While the Joker chemicals should have made him insane like all the others, he has never felt saner. Letting Superman go, he blasts Killer Frost and Icicle and escapes through the roof, mentioning that the visions he has seen must be found, and eradicated.
As S.T.R.I.P.E., John Henry Irons, and Professor Hamilton begin to thaw out, Superman tries to figure what the Eradicator meant by visions, and then he remembers the memories of the new Krypton that Superman showed the Eradicator when they last met. The new Eradicator is seeking to eliminate the Krypton of Krypto and his parents that he visited recently. Leaving S.T.R.I.P.E. to mop up, Superman leaps up and heads southbound to the Fortress of Solitude.
At the South Pole, the Eradicator attempts to crack the sphere that houses the Fortress tesseract. He cannot figure out how to open the gate, and so instead decides to kick the structure across the frozen landscape. Inside the Fortress, Kelex and the Superman robot discuss what to do about the Eradicator's assault, while Krypto tries to get at the attacker. The droids come to the conclusion that while the Eradicator cannot solve the puzzle that will open the gate, he may eventually destroy the containment vessel and gain access to the Fortress. They assemble the defensive robots and begin to open the tesseract. However, as soon as the gate is opened, Krypto dashes past them and out into the world.
The Eradicator immediately recognizes Krypto as the creature from his visions, and links him with everything blasphemous about this other Krypton that he has seen. Abandoning his assault on the sphere, he turns his attention to the dog, and prepares to kill.
Dodging an incoming energy blast, Krypto sweeps in and bites a chunk of the Eradicator's shoulder off of his body. The robot whips around and smacks the canine out of the air. As the warbots are finally scrambled from the Fortress in hopes of rescuing Krypto, Superman arrives on the scene and slams into the Eradicator and drives him through the portal and into the Fortress.
Inside the Fortress the Eradicator immediately begins to smash everything around him, heading towards the Phantom Zone portal, and the way back to the other Krypton. Superman calls his dog to his side and together they begin to focus their heat vision on the Eradicator. Heating the robot's armor to a plasma state, they then cross their heat beams and capture the electrons that have been freed from the Eradicator's body. With the Eradicator in tow, Superman and Krypto back into the null chamber and graft the electrons from the Eradicator to the Pillar of Stability. The rest of the Eradicator is drawn along by the force between the atomic particles. As the Eradicator attempts to free himself, Superman explains that he has been atomically bonded to a pillar composed of the most atomically inactive elements in the universe. While that nullifies his morphing ability, the room itself also dampens his strength. There the Eradicator will be trapped, until Superman can find a way to eliminate his kill program. With that, the door slides shut, sealing the Kryptonian robot inside.
As Superman looks around at his destroyed Fortress, he realizes that it is time for a simple remodeling. Donning the interface helmet, he shows the Fortress what he wants and it is built around him. The new Fortress honors both Kryptons, with two versions of both Jor-El and Lara holding up the giant model of Krypton. Now, done with the Eradicator and his cleanup, Superman rubs Krypto's head and heads out the portal, as he and Krypto do a couple of laps around the planet.
Appearing in "Joker: Last Laugh: Snowball's Chance"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Metropolis Special Crimes Unit
- Professor Emil Hamilton
- John Henry Irons
- Krypto
- Kelex
- Natasha Irons (Mentioned only)
- Jor-El (Hologram)
- Lara Lor-Van (Hologram)
Locations:
- Metropolis
- Fortress of Solitude
- Krypton (Mentioned only)
- Phantom Zone (Mentioned only)
Items:
- S.T.R.I.P.E. Armor
- Superman Robot
- Leviathan Armor System
- Kryptonian Service Robot
- Joker Venom
- Warbots
- Null Chamber
- Absolute Zero Chamber
Vehicles:
Notes
- Superman navigation number 2001/48.
See Also
- Cover gallery for the Superman: The Man of Steel series
- Images from Superman: The Man of Steel Vol 1 119
Links and References
| Previous Adventures of Superman #597: 2001/47 |
Superman 2001 Navigation |
Next Action Comics #784: 2001/49 |
  This comic issue or event is part of the DC Universe crossover event "The Joker's Last Laugh", spanning nearly every single DC Title, in which the Joker uses his Venom to jokerize all of the supervillains on Earth, and unleashes them on the populace. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "Joker's Last Laugh Crossover" category. |