Adventures of Superman #458

Sep 1989 · DC · 0.75 USD; 0.95 CAD; 0.50 GBP

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“I Sing the Body Elastic”

★ 1st appearance — Maxima

About this Issue

Adventures of Superman #458 marks the first appearance — in cameo form, voice only — of Maxima, the warrior queen of Almerac, one of the most significant new characters added to Superman's rogues gallery in the post-Crisis era. Her obsessive pursuit of Superman as a genetic mate gave the books a new kind of antagonist: physically his near-equal, morally ambiguous rather than straightforwardly villainous, and carrying a satirical charge about power and desire. The story also continues the fallout from Superman's self-imposed space exile, tying his return directly to an unexpected biological consequence for his best friend Jimmy Olsen — a piece of cause-and-effect storytelling that gave the Superman line's sprawling multi-title continuity a welcome sense of weight and consequence. Maxima would go on to fight Doomsday alongside the Justice League, become a recurring foil across decades of Superman stories, and — decades later — be cast in the DC Universe film Man of Tomorrow, making this issue the earliest chapter in a surprisingly durable legacy.

writer George Pérez · writer, artist Dan Jurgens · inker Klaus Janson · colorist Glenn Whitmore · letterer Albert De Guzman · cover Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway

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DC The Adventures of Superman Comics series Pick Your Issue! Discounts $1.99 Adventures of Superman Vol 1 #458 1989 DC Comics $4 DC Comics The Adventures Of Superman September 1989 NO#458 Comic Book Comicbook $4.55 Adventures of Superman comics select an issue $6.29

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History

The issue sits inside the creative framework established when DC restructured its Superman line after the 1986 Man of Steel relaunch, assigning a rotating team of writers and artists to maintain a tightly coordinated shared continuity across four monthly titles under editor Mike Carlin. For this issue, George Pérez provided the plot and Dan Jurgens handled script and pencils — a split-labor arrangement that was standard practice on the line at the time — with Klaus Janson on inks and the cover jointly produced by Jurgens and Jerry Ordway. Maxima was co-created by writer Roger Stern and artist George Pérez, and her introduction was deliberately staged across two issues: a voice-only off-panel presence here, leading directly into her first full visual appearance in Action Comics #645 the same month.

Trivia · 8 facts

Cover date September 1989; published on-sale August 1, 1989 — a direct-edition and newsstand variant both exist.
Story titled 'I Sing the Body Elastic': plot by George Pérez, script and pencils by Dan Jurgens, inks by Klaus Janson, cover by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway; edited by Mike Carlin with associate editor Jonathan Peterson.
Maxima makes her first comics appearance here — off-panel, voice only — as the alien queen of Almerac who seeks Superman as a mate; she was co-created by Roger Stern and George Pérez.
Maxima's servant Sazu also makes a first appearance in this issue.
The main story directly continues into Action Comics #645 (September 1989), where Maxima receives her first full on-panel appearance.
The issue's central plot — Jimmy Olsen spontaneously developing uncontrollable elastic powers — is causally linked to Superman's return from his space exile, with Professor Emil Hamilton diagnosing the source as a virus Jimmy contracted on the day of Superman's homecoming.
The issue has been reprinted in the Superman: The Exile & Other Stories Omnibus (DC, June 2018), as well as in Scandinavian editions: Stålmannen #5/1991 (SatellitFörlaget) and Supermann #6/1991 (Semic).
Maxima is confirmed to appear in the DCU feature film Man of Tomorrow, portrayed by Adria Arjona — making this issue the character's point of origin for that adaptation.