DC Comics Presents #45 The Chaos Network

Issue Description

Just outside the airspace of a foreign power, Superman destroys a jet carrying an American traitor, Kristopher Kross. Still carrying the stolen computer chips and plutonium pack he planned to sell to America's enemies, Kross, along with the pilot, bail out of the damaged jet. Superman uses his super-breath to blow both men out to sea, towards the U.S.S. Rayburn. Kross is struck by lightning, prompting Superman to rescue him, and deliver him, personally, into the custody of the Navy, aboard the U.S.S. Rayburn. Half a world away, Firestorm, having just thwarted a group of muggers, reconstitutes into his separate parts, Professor Martin Stein and Ronald Raymond. No sooner has Stein returned to his office then he is arrested, for treason. Stein is believed to be Kross' accomplice, as the technology Kross stole was developed at Stein's workplace, Concordance Research. That night, Raymond loses a big basketball game to a rival school, due to his distraction over Stein's arrest. Raymond resolves to clear Stein's name, and triggers the transformation that turns both men into Firestorm. Stein is drawn into Firestorm right in the middle of an F.B.I. interrogation. Ironically, it is Stein's many,sudden, disappearances that have cast such doubt on his character. Thousands of miles away, the U.S.S. Rayburn is just passing through the Gibraltar Straits, from the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean, when it's electrical systems suffer cascade failure. Several vital systems are blown by the power surges, resulting in at least one man's death. More mysteriously, two jets take off from the carrier's deck, without any pilots.

Firestorm travels to Metropolis, dropping in on reporter Clark Kent, at the Daily Planet. Firestorm asks Kent to contact Superman, at which point, Kent reveals that he is Superman. The two heroes head off to question Kross, in the hopes of clearing Stein. The two remote piloted jets fire on a U.S Navy submarine, 60 miles off the Rock of Gibraltar. Superman immediately breaks off from Firestorm to intercept the missiles. Superman flies so fast that he generates a super-super sonic boom, that destroys the missiles. With a blast of his super-cold breath, Superman freezes all the radioactive fallout from the missile within a column of sea water. Superman then hurls the frozen mass into space. Firestorm destroys one of the pilotless jets, but comes under fire from the second. Superman reaches the U.S.S. Rayburn, immediately coming under attack from the now super-powered Kross. The lightning bolt that struck Kross inexplicably fused him with the computer components and plutonium he was carrying. Now calling himself Kriss-Kross, he has gained the ability to control technology, a power he uses to take command of all the satellites in orbit around Earth. Firestorm transforms the molecules of a passing cloud into steel, causing the pursuing jet to crash in mid-air. Kriss-Kross uses the power he's gained from connecting to the defense satellite network to beat down Superman. Firestorm begins destroying the satellites, in orbit, disrupting Kriss-Kross' network. His power fading, Kriss-Kross is brought down by a colossal haymaker from the Man of Steel. Stein's name is cleared when it is discovered that a co-worker was really Kross' accomplice.

Notes:

"With apologies to Claire Sterling and her book 'The Terror Network' Gerry Conway". Noted after the title of the story.

DC Comics Presents (1978)

Publisher

DC Comics

Volume Description

DC Comics presents ran for 97 issues with 4 annuals and featured Superman in team up adventures with characters from across the DCU.

Collected EditionsShowcase Presents: DC Comics Presents - Superman Team-Ups vol. 1 (1-26)Adventures of Superman: José Luis García-López (1-4, 17)New Teen Titans Volume One (26)Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents - Superman Team-Ups vol. 2 (27-50 & Annual #1)Superman vs. Mongul (27-28, 36 and 43)Jack Kirby Omnibus vol. 2 (84)(All versions of) DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore and Across the Universe: The DC uinverse Stories of Alan Moore (85)

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