Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Best Cover You've Never Seen--Superman #198 (1967)!!

This has always been one of my favorites...

Some other DC comic I owned as a wee lad has a house ad for this one; and as I read whatever comic that was a zillion times, I saw this picture a zillion times.

And, like a lot of DC Silver Age joints, this was a great set-up on the cover. A great Curt Swan job (inks by George Klein); excellent coloring, as the orange background is attention-getting without being ultimately distracting; The "shabby" Clark, in his tattered suits, with chain (with an X-Ray gun?!); the stunned look on the "real" Clark's face...the go-go checks!! 

The beauty part? This scene actually happens on the inside of the book:




Well, it all turns out to be a pretty silly plot by the Superman Revenge Squad involving alternate dimensions, planets full of androids, artificial earthquakes, and...oh, never mind, it's just silly.

Still, even though Kal-El beats the Revenge Squad, he's left with a dilemma, as the "fake Clark" really did expose his identity in front of everyone. So what happens next?

Wait a minute--they learn his secret identity, and Lois doesn't immediately release it to the world? Perry doesn't slap him, and fire him? This must be an alternate world...

But Clark has replaced the X-Ray gun...


Geez, Perry, you're so stupid...


Oh, Lois...

1 comment:

  1. I should have posted this last October, but not only did I see this cover, I believe it's the cover to the first comic I ever bought, when I was a stripling of six in the Pond Point Pharmacy on New Haven Avenue in lovely Milford, CT, excitedly imagining how impressed my older brother would be when he saw it, too. I don't remember his reaction to the cover, but I clearly recall feeling sorry for the android Clark Kent and liking him, (tho' we later learn that "Clark" was actually an unwitting pawn in a nonsensically-too-involved plot to destroy Superman), and I vividly remember my brother's disappointment after he finished the story.

    I finally picked up a cheap copy on ebay a few years ago, and, yeah, the story still sucks, but I do believe this may have been the most intriguing cover the "Weisinger Bunch" produced in all of the sixties (and there was a lot of impressive competition). Thanks for rekindling ancient memories, Snell; I enjoy your blog, but I rarely can think of anything clever to add, so I keep my own counsel.

    ReplyDelete