To recap: when last we left our heroes during the 1992 "Darkness Within" event, the Justice League and the rest of the heroes of the DCU were fighting for their very survival against the awesome corrupting powers of Eclipso, who had just taken his greatest prize, Superman, starting a race against time to find the Man of Steel before Eclipso could unleash the Kryptonian's powers at sunset.

Which brings us to Adventures of Superman Annual #4, and Booster Gold to save the day!

A redheaded Brazilian?

I'd make a joke here about discovering that Booster can read, but he's really just flipping past the articles to look at the pictures. Sigh. Oh, Booster, you really are your own worst enemy.

Look, Booster Gold and Superman have thrown down several times by now, and I'd like to tell you that this is the occasion when our Golden Boy finally taught Big Blue a lesson... but no.

I won't spoil the story further except to say that this issue is the penultimate chapter in this event, and about a third of the pages are used to set up the finale. Still, it's a pretty good battle with consistent characterization, solid (if unexceptional) sequential art, and a heroic tone, which combine to make me nostalgic for the comics of yesteryear.

(Footnote: As it happened, I was listening to the soundtrack to Kpop Demon Hunters during my latest re-read of this and by chance started "Takedown" as the heroes launched into their fight with Eclipsed Superman [page 9]. It's no Dark Side of the Moon during Wizard of Oz, but I thought it made a pretty good backing track for this particular fight. YMMV.)

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