Manic Monday Bonus--The Other DC Challenge

You know what I love?

I love comic book covers that challenge me!!

That's right, I love a comic cover that slaps me in the face, calls me a fool, and dares me to solve some impenetrable riddle that even the world's greatest super-heroes can't.

Case in point? World's Finest #204 (1971) (click to embiggen to full Neal Adamsian glory):

And the challenge?

Hmmm, that could be a toughie.

The killing of a student in 1971 causes the death of everyone 200 years later. And I have to guess the one--THE ONLY-- way to prevent this.

Wow, that's a a real mind-bender.

The answer couldn't be "prevent the killing of the student in 1971," could it? That would be too easy.

Oh wait. That is the answer?

Damn, that wasn't much of a challenge, really, was it? I was expecting Diana using the Amazon's Purple Ray to revive the guy when they were too late, or Superman fetching his doppelganger from Earth-4, or maybe an ancestor from the past, or something else crazy.

But nope, it's straight "save the cheerleader, save the world."

Heck, we don't even know how the kid goes on to avert the apocalypse. Super computer/robot from the future merely asserts that "the course of events is highly complicated." OK, sure, we'll take your word for it, I guess.

And even then we don't know for sure, because while the student protester is saved, a campus security guard dies...and as Diana asks Superman if they succeeded in their mission, we get the whiniest last panel in DC history:

Yeah, that's the actual final panel of the story...so even the story itself fails to resolve the challenge issued by the front cover.

Still, it is a great cover...