"THE BONDAGE SCIENTIST“ THE SEXY-BEAST SUPERMAN, PART 3

At the heart of the maze, there is a monster. There was a monster. The Man of Steel knew this, because he had slain it. Even a man such as he, who was guilty of deception and who not only had killed a horned creature, but alas had failed to notice that despite its hideous appearance, this sad beast was a healer, seeking to assist him, such a man, despite his utter ignorance and his inability to listen, may still deserve, if not recognition, but our attention. A little time surely can be devoted to learning about the tribe this individual might come from, that perhaps an explanation for his action can be discovered in his heritage, such as it was, and in the history of his people. And for a simple reason: with every hero or villain, there must be an origin story. And to his credit, his was one of legend, told and re-told many times, as it was in Superman No. 146 (1961) by Otto Binder and Al Plastino. This is how it started: “It is a strange story that begins many years ago, and far away from Earth”¦ where in trackless outer space there once existed Krypton, a planet of giant size, revolving around a red sun!”“ This planet was a paradise for its population. In the cities, huge machines had been erected to manage the weather and, on the ground, robots took on all the menial tasks citizens were no longer accustomed to performing. Then a powerful quake made the ground shake these robots and these people walked on. While there was one on Krypton“s Council of Scientists who warned his colleagues that the planet“s core had become instable and soon their world would explode, so little was the confidence of his fellow scientists affected, that they did not only mock him, but had him removed from their chambers by one of the very same robots that elsewhere cleaned their living quarters. Despite having been humiliated by his peers and unceremoniously ousted from his position of influence, this scientist, Jor-El would not take no for answer where his family was concerned. It was madness, he thought, that they were ignoring his pleas and his advice to have every man, woman and child evacuated on space arks that had yet to be built. Though on this own, the scientist had already designed a small-scale rocket that was large enough to carry one passenger. With so little precious time left, he“d already marked the day of doom on his wall calendar as a grim reminder, and in case the date slipped from his mind, but better safe than sorry, with his infant son watching and in tears, Jor-El coldly put his puppy, aptly named Krypto, inside this tiny experimental spacecraft for a test drive. From a safe distance, the scientist observed on his circular TV screen, how the rocket with the white dog as its sole inhabitant was now violently and ever so dramatically knocked off its programmed course by a meteor that happened to be passing by, dooming the innocent canine to a trip among the stars and amidst the blackness of space for all eternity or at least as long as the tiny vessel“s life support system would sustain him. Undeterred by this frustrating setback, forcing himself to a steely calm despite the near life-ending catastrophe so close at hand as if already gnawing at his heels, he devised another small craft posthaste: “Barely in time before the fatal hour, Jor-El finished another rocket”¦ with his baby son as the passenger this time”¦”“ And there he was, watching with his wife Lara as the spacecraft raced from an open hatch with a powerful boost, hoping to reach escape velocity before the world fell apart behind it. Before he closed the see-through globe of the rocket, Jor-El, looking at his son, could just as easily have said: “You will travel far, my little Kal-El. But we will never leave you”¦ The richness of our lives shall be yours. All that I have, all that I“ve learned, everything I feel”¦ all this, and more, I”¦ I bequeath you, my son”¦ You will make my strength your own, and see my life through your eyes, as life will be seen through mine. The son becomes the father, and the father the son. This is all I can send you Kal-El.”“ Beautiful words a father would be prepared to offer to his only son, knowing full well that they were never to meet again.

Maybe this was what the baby instinctively wished for. But with such a father who meticulously marked the day the world ended on a wall calendar, a man who came from the mindset of a post war generation of men stoic and wordless in nature, despite his culture being that of the celestial body called Krypton, with a distance so far, mere Earth men couldn“t even imagine it existed beyond the realm of speculative fiction, nothing like that could be expected from him. In this incarnation of the tale, the scientist wasn“t overcome by the need to lend his emotions expression with some beautiful purple prose. Instead with his wife“s hands on his shoulder, her head turned towards the leaving ship, he assured her that all would turn out fine for their son in the way that was familiar to Jor-El, by putting his trust in scientific facts, to perhaps find some solace in the words intended for Lara“s comfort: “I aimed the rocket toward a living planet I discovered in my telescope! Our son will live a new life on Earth!”“ Luckily, this new life was fast in baby Kal-El“s grasp, as once he had arrived on Earth, a childless couple drove past his place of arrival. The Kents would adopt him and raise him and teach him the all values he needed to know to be one of Earth“s inhabitants. And for good reason, as his foster parents not only saw him grow up but displaying an array of powers no man or woman on this blue planet could hope to possess. Even his baby blankets were made out of such an awesome material, that once their adopted child had grown into a boy, Mrs. Kent would fashion an indestructible supersuit out of them, one he could wear when he went up against criminals in his new identity as Superboy. Though with the young supergod“s presence made known to the world, the boy, who“d been given the name Clark Kent by his foster parents, needed to disguise his other life, the life which allowed this alien to walk across the Earth undetected, more closely than ever. For fear of reprisal from all evil: “In revenge against me, criminals might threaten you, mom and dad, if they found out I was your son! So I“ll keep my secret identity as Clark Kent!”“ And the boy came up with a disguise only a teen could think of. Forthwith, when in his civilian alter ego, he“d be wearing glasses, though not only had he 20/20 vision, but he was the boy with the x-ray eyes that could do magic tricks like shooting heat rays, showing him things that were miles away as if they were in the palm of his hand, and, of course, revealing the color of his neighbor“s underwear to him. While he quickly discovered that he best replaced the common lenses with those he made from the globe cover of the rocket that once had brought him to Earth, lest they melted from the invisible rays he could shoot from his eyes, the girl, his neighbor Lana, was a different matter altogether. Like everyone else, Lana was fooled by his glasses, but still she had an eye for the obvious: “When you disappear, Superboy shows up! And when Superboy vanishes, you show up!”“ Knowing his deception had reached a more personal level, the teenager quickly built a robot in his likeness, for it to fly around while at the same time he walked next to Lana as a young student. And as luck would have it, soon he was even reunited with his dog. Then something else from his lost home world made it to Earth as well. The doomed world of Krypton had exploded into fragments that were green and proved lethal to him, as he discovered, when for the first time in his young life, he fell ill. As he was stricken with a high fever, his dad had probable cause to suspect that the source of his ailment had to be this glowing piece of meteor he had found for the boy“s mineral collection, and which momentarily lay on his nightstand. Since the chunk of rock had no harmful effect on Jonathan or Martha Kent, there was but one explanation: all matter that was left of Krypton was now deadly to its survivors, as if this was a reminder that his heritage, the history of his people even, was now toxic to him. Despite his outer appearance, he was not of this Earth, but an immigrant to these shores. And while he did not belong on his new home world, not really, the world he was born into, was forever lost to him. His sense of isolation only grew as he got older. In college, he enviously followed football practice in the only way possible for him. As he sat in the bleachers all by himself, he thought: “I can“t join the team and reveal my super-powers!… I“ll have to pretend I“m ”˜meek“ and ”˜unathletic“ all my life!”“ Wiser than his relative young age let on, he had come to accept his status as outsider when earlier, during his last year in high school, he had even found a way to rid himself of his super-strength to be a normal guy and thus to be allowed to do what other guys did. But he had learned an important lesson about himself in the process. He like being Superboy. He liked his powers. He only wished they didn“t keep him at a distance from all those people around him. While as a baby he had endured the emptiness of pitch-black space, on this world he was the loneliest man alive. In his blue uniform he was unique. There was no one like him. In his civilian identity he could only pretend to be human. Small wonder that he found it difficult to interact with others and that he had a hard time to develop interpersonal skills that were genuine and not just pretend-play as well. If he thought that he was lonely now, this just proved how ill prepared he was for what came next. After graduation, his foster mother passed away. And only a few month later, Jonathan Kent came down with an illness Clark could not shield him from with a panel of lead like his father had done for him when he was in the presence of the green rock. But even on his death bed, the man who was a farmer and then the owner of a general store and who had always tried to shape his values, gave him a speech about powers and responsibility, a lesson, a teenager in a different universe would need to learn all on his own more than a year later when his uncle, who was like a father to him, passed away and he had no one to blame but himself. “Listen carefully to my last words!”“, Pa Kent urged his adopted son. “No one on Earth has your amazing super-powers and you must always use them to do good! You must uphold law and order, aid those in need, and save lives! Good luck, my son, and goodbye”¦”“ And this he did. While working under the guise he had created for himself, now as a reporter at a newspaper in the city of Metropolis, pretending to be “meek and mild mannered as usual”¦”“, as Superman he took to the skies and he fought for truth, justice and the American Way. But other nations benefited greatly from his astonishing feats as well. And if nothing else, he found that the citizens of Earth were grateful. The United Nations made him an honorary citizen in every country under their purview. But still he was destined to remain on the outside. And in his Fortress of Solitude he built a shrine to his lost home, the world of Krypton Kal-El could only experience through time travel. But little did he suspect, that like the giant-sized planet once had, he himself possessed a core that was unstable. How else can it be explained that he just as easily had snuffed out a life, much like Krypton, even in death, had killed another world?

With Superman and an origin that also could be traced back to the fertile and over-imaginative minds of two teenagers from Cleveland who both happened to be Jewish, it is easy to see why so many think him of the same faith if not of the same blood altogether. But then, more often than not, orators of his many triumphs, will not simply tell tall tales about him in their four-colored pamphlets, but they will be making an obvious comparison between The Last Son of Krypton and The Son of Man. But with an origin such like his, is he not but a Moses from the stars? He had escaped a celestial slaughterhouse in his tiny vessel and was subsequently adopted by a kind couple first, and then by his new world that had offered a safe haven to him without many questions asked about his heritage. And to not simply let this stand, he had repaid such kindness with a plague, one not of his making, but an incurable one due to his killing of the only healer who could hope to perform such a miracle. If this was the truth, was this not his very nature all along? And if the Israelites were his tribe, what better way was there of getting even with the people who hated them than to kill them wholesale with even your own dying breath? These were the Amalek, a name that already brought up fierce connotations, since it meant “a people who lick blood.”“ They lived on a planet in a great distance to Krypton, a star smaller in size and less technically advanced. Superman No. 195 (1967) introduced readers to the tragic tale of its last son. The story by Jim Shooter, Curt Swan and inker George Klein came with a cover that already offered a most shocking tableau. The Man of Tomorrow was seen kneeling as he was being exposed to poisonous Green Kryptonite gas. And behind him, there were Supergirl, Krypto and even the bottle with the shrunken city of Kandor and its tiny inhabitants trapped inside glass cylinders and put on display. Each cylinder came with its own lamp as if to illuminate this macabre menagerie of defeat. While on the cover itself, the villain remained out of sight, he was front and center on the splash page. And the guy in the purple and green jumpsuit who was seen firing Kryptonite bullets at the hero was familiar to readers who had also picked up Superman No. 190 (1966), by Shooter, with art by Wayne Boring. Whereas in the former issue this villain had been introduced as a mere space pirate, who was eager to turn a quick profit and who simply saw Superman as an unmovably obstacle to his pursuits, the second tale offered his dramatic backstory. But not before he was seen going about his new business. In short sequence readers saw how this man eradicating all pieces of memorabilia The Last Son of Krypton had stored across Metropolis, out in space and even in his Fortress of Solitude. Seemingly, the abilities nor the scruples of this menace knew no bounds. What looked like vandalism at first, revealed itself as targeted desecration. Not only had Superman become the victim of several hate crimes, but these attacks were clearly aimed at destroying the last remaining pieces of Krypton to re-shape reality in such a way, in which this world and its culture had never existed. What could have brought about such hatred in a man who previously had just been a thief? Jim Shooter had the answer. When the instable core of Superman and Supergirl“s home world exploded the planet, the debris changing into Green Kryptonite in the process, “”¦ though most of Krypton disintegrated into small fragments, one large piece of planetary proportions was created!”“ This planetoid-sized reminder of the once proud world of Krypton travelled through space for many years. Until one day, the mountain of green rock, as if to bear witness of Krypton“s former glory, reached the world of the Amalek who had no defense against it. Its impact was swift and all-encompassing. This was the moment, another world and its entire population died. All, except for one man. The Amalek had begun to develop space travel, and a lone astronaut was circling the planet“s orbit in his tiny capsule like this world“s John Glenn, when disaster struck. Travelling to the doomed world“s moon, he found water and air to sustain himself. This was where he swore to take revenge on any man, woman and dog that had survived the fate of Krypton which had spelled the end for his world as well. And to honor its memory, he took on the name Amalak. Of course, like when they first had met, Kal-El foiled his plan to kill him and all that remained of Krypton. Even from the solitary confinement, to which Superman had condemned him, Amalak vowed revenge.

Like God onto Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai, Pa Kent laid down the rules to Clark on his death bed. Thou shalt not kill. But to the horror of readers and his own, Superman had violated this law. Too eager had he been to blame another Kryptonian for the plague that had befallen the citizens of Central City, that he wouldn“t even listen to him. Like his foster father Jonathan Kent once had been able to identify without fail the source of his strange illness, that his adopted son, Superman, was convinced that it had to be Name-Ek who caused all these people to suffer. And did they not show a coloration on their faces that was of the same color as the Eternal Man“s skin? The man, who had slain two precious beasts only to obtain their healing powers, and who had been rendered into an outcast on Krypton when, as a dire consequence of his vile actions, his appearance told the tale of his original sin. Nam-Ek had survived the death of a world, but when they did battle in Superman No. 311 (1977), and the hero cast the contents of a live volcano over his purple body, too late did he realize that the lava contained traces of Kryptonite. And then, if this was not already enough damage for a day, his love Lois Lane was affected by this weird plague as well. Sure, when the next issue started, told by artists Curt Swan and Frank Springer and new series writer Martin Pesko, readers saw in Superman No. 312 (1977) how he now built a hospital for all the victims of this extraterrestrial epidemic posthaste, and the media gave him favorable coverage. Still it was apparent that these were the deeds of a man who had a guilty conscience. And for good reason. In killing Nam-Ek, he had not only violated his vow not to kill, but he“d destroyed the only cure for those poor souls who had already fallen victim to the pandemic disease that was spreading by the hour. But while he now wallowed in self-pity, Supergirl appeared, his cousin from Krypton to whom he had once told the story of Nam-Ek“s plight. Like a little boy who had broken a vase, Kal-El had to fess up to what he had done when Supergirl pushed him to tell her how he could have let Nam-Ek escape. From his own tale from a few months earlier, The Maid of Steel was well aware that The Eternal Man, or precisely the horn he sported on his forehead, promised salvation. With no choice left to him, Superman flew off to the satellite of The Justice League of America to tender his resignation from this esteemed organization. 22,300 miles above Earth, Kal-El met up with Green Lantern while he tended to The Flash who had been injured in the previous fight with the horned Kryptonian. It was then, that he and his cousin learned of the teleportation-beam that had been activated right at the same time when he and Nam-Ek had their fatal confrontation. The beam had been trained at the exact spot from which Nam-Ek had vanished into thin air. Quickly, after some investigation at the site where Superman was sure he had killed his enemy, they came upon the place from which the beam had originated. In space they found a secret base which was disguised as an asteroid. But even before Superman and his blonde cousin saw him, readers learned that not only had Nam-Ek survived, but he now stood together with the foe who had sworn to kill every survivor of Krypton. Amalak, the Kryptonian-Killer was back. Surely glad that his own foe had saved the man-beast, Superman had to accept how wrong his earlier judgement of the immortal actually was. He told him how Amalak had imprisoned him earlier on his base, and this was when he had figured out the plan of the foe. The plague was of his design. Once his attempt to escape had proven successful, Nam-Ek had hastily travelled to Earth to not only warn his fellow Kryptonian of the villain“s nefarious scheme, but to offer his assistance. But now, after Superman had reacted the way he had, his actions had turned the purple-skinned man against him. The hero and his cousin were locked in a battle for survival against the man who had Superman“s powers and an electro-surrogate the foe had created of himself, a ghostly being made up of charged particles which behaved like Amalak told it to. While Superman and Nam-Ek took the battle into the void of space, The Kryptonian Killer now not only boasted how he had escaped the inter-galactic penal colony where Superman had imprisoned him after their last encounter from but a year earlier, but he gloated as his green-glowing surrogate was violently choking the girl with both its artificial hands while she lay flat on her back. As Amalak renewed his campaign against all Kryptonians, the sight of the defeated girl getting all life squeezed out of her in a fierce stranglehold, surely gave him sadistic pleasure. And he had to notice how Superman“s cousin had changed in appearance since when they had last done battle. Then, she was barely an adolescent, and her conservative one-piece costume was of its time. She now was clearly a woman in her early twenties, and her hair was long and wavy like she was about to enter a discotheque. And her uniform was different as well to better fit with this age. Supergirl had donned a long-sleeved, V-neck top, hot pants and knee-high boots. And whereas her belt had previously been placed at the point where her upper torso and her pelvis connected, it had slipped lower, as if to draw attention to her wide hips. And with her hot pants replacing the somewhat demure skirt of her former costume, her shapely legs seemed endlessly long. But Amalak“s look had changed as well. Gone were his crew haircut and his mustache. His hair was thin, and he wore it at shoulder length like some hippie from outer space, and for his facial hair, he now sported an unkempt Van Dyke beard. And whereas his uniform had been loose and slightly bulky, it seemed to have shrunken as it was form-fitting to the point of being almost too tight. And the legs of his shiny green boots were longer, which, together with his straight, narrow pants gave him an air of militaristic authority. Amalak, being a fierce and mean foe even in his earlier appearances, now looked like the rogue commander of a lost platoon. In his mission he remained as steely and steadfast as ever, though: “Krypton destroyed my home-world. I will have my vengeance upon it! Every survivor of its destruction, Superman, Supergirl, the bottle-city of Kandor, all of them will die at my hands!”“ This now had Supergirl confused even while she was getting perilously close to passing out from the pressure of the artificial being“s hands around her neck and the lack of oxygen this caused her: “Can“t understand it”¦ Amalak never used to have this vendetta against Krypton! Last time I heard, he was a mere space-pirate! Wonder how he got hung up on this vengeance thing?”“ And Supergirl wasn“t the only one who was puzzled. Readers of Superman No. 195 were as well.

To answer The Maid of Steel“s question of what had caused this change in Amalak“s behavior? That was on writer Martin Pesko. While the story of dying Krypton destroying the world of the Amalek could have been a neat tale in hindsight, as it tied beautifully into Superman“s mythos and the current story Pesko was telling, it had not happened to the Amalek, because they had never existed. And it hadn“t happened to Amalak for that matter. Amalak wasn“t the sole survivor of a dead world. Jim Shooter had introduced the character as a space pirate. And that was what he was when he returned in Superman No. 195. It is fascinating that the writer came up with a name like Amalak, since the Amalek were indeed the enemies of the Israelites. But instead of giving this character the backstory he presented as his in Superman No. 232, Shooter created the world of Salitar, and the tale of the lone survivor, the astronaut who happened to be in orbit when his world got destroyed by a meteor-sized fragment of Krypton, was Rinol-Jag“s tale. It was he who got saved by the space pirate looking for a means to destroy Superman. But even when Amalak showed him that it was the explosion of Krypton that had caused the death of his world, he still needed to brainwash the young man to unleash in him “The Fury of the Kryptonian-Killer!”“ And as these things went in the Silver Age of Comics, by the end of the story, Rinol-Jag turned on the villain who had betrayed his trust and who had turned him into a tool as if he were a loaded gun. Rinol-Jag, though not effective as a hero, gave Superman the respite from certain death by Kryptonite gas, to defeat Amalak. But the Silver Age was also a time during which imagination could travel freely to many places without too much worry of a continuity. A year later Shooter himself would play fast and loose with continuity when he presented a backstory for his new villain Mordru in Adventure Comics No. 369 in such a way as if to indicate readers had missed an older issue in which this tale was being told, while he had made it all up. Mordru“s origin had never seen print outside of his first appearance as tale told by Mon-El to Shadow Lass. Then there were the so-called “imaginary tales”“, what-if stories that ostensibly informed readers that whereas all stories by their nature were tales of the imagination, and as such were entirely made up, here now were accounts of events that had never happened to the characters, but could have happened if but for a second, fate had turned the other way. In Superman No. 170 (1964) for example, Bill Finger, E. Nelson Bridwell and Al Plastino had Lex Luthor travel back in time and visit Krypton with one sinister purpose: he would best Superman“s future father Jor-El for the affections of Lara. And soon enough, after he had even tried to warn the citizens of Kandor of their looming fate to no avail, his plan to woo this raven-haired beauty, who toiled in the same laboratory as Jor-El, worked: “What an honor to be courted by such a famous space hero! He may not be handsome, but he“s exciting!”“ Sure, Luthor had made certain that Jor-El was out of the picture, but Lara“s feelings for him were genuine. Lex came close to marrying her, and this was his ultimate goal, to father their son. Superman, Lex figured, would be obliged to aid him later on, once he had sent him off into space as baby, right before the end of this world of the past and he had safely returned to ours. But in the end, of course, he failed. However, this was pretty adult stuff, and perhaps a story like this could only be told in a way it never actually happened in the reality of the characters. Against this rich, multi-layered tapestry of imaginative storytelling, why should any writer want to waste such a narrative opportunity? Especially if this author was a trickster like Martin Pesko. Alas, he simply ignored that the destruction of Salitar had never happened to Amalak. And he now had the villain amend his mission in an especially cruel manner. But first he made Superman choose. After Supergirl had managed to beat his surrogate in the proverbial last second before the dark night of unconsciousness took hold of her mind, he stunned her with his star-cannon. When Superman, who had managed to subdue Nam-Ek and had taken the immortal prisoner, returned to Amalak“s base to take care of business, to his horror he found Supergirl bound with heavy chains to a chair while Kara now had the gun pressed to one of her temples, with the deadly cannon liable to make “her lovely head part company with her body!”“ Amalak, sensing the strategic advantage was his, proposed a trade: “I let you take Nam-Ek back to Earth”¦ and in exchange Supergirl remains my prisoner! Either that”¦ or I“ll kill her right before your eyes!”“ Even though Superman knew full well that Amalak intended to kill Supergirl the minute he left, he still had to consider the lives of those affected by the plague, and those included his love Lois. Sure enough, right after his departure, the heroine looked across the barrel of the weapon.

Ma and Pa Kent had not raised a fool. When the story continued in Superman No. 213 (1977) a month later, after more than two pages that recapped what had Â Â Â Â transpired before to catch every reader up to speed who had missed the previous two issues, Amalak revealed his masterplan to Supergirl while she was still in chains and he still pointed his star-cannon right between her eyes: “I cannot kill your cousin”¦ but I shall cripple him emotionally!… I need only put him in a situation where he must kill”¦ to destroy him psychologically!”“ To his surprise, Supergirl now even provoked him to use his weapon on her again. But instead of a deadly shot, there was only a repeated metallic clicking sound as he pulled the trigger, and simultaneously she broke free from her bonds with ease. She landed one powerful punch right on the surprised pirate“s face which knocked him out cold. While he had been oblivious to this, Superman had melted the gun-barrel on the inside with his invisible heat-vision. And while her cousin now brought Nam-Ek to Earth to offer healing via The Eternal Man to those affected by the plague Amalak had sprung on an unsuspecting Earth, Supergirl learned that even partially in chains himself, the pirate still proved a formidable foe. And with the villain once again releasing his ghost warrior, and now inker Dan Adkins adding a crisp and dynamic polish to the proceedings, the fight raged on once more. And this time, the glowing apparition knocked her this and that way across the base and surely enough, and quickly, once again, its green hands found her neck. But this time, she raised herself up to her knees and fought back. Readers surely took note that Curt Swan and Dan Adkins painstakingly labored over every visual in great detail, with the artists even adhering to one of George Lucas“ tenets, which they clearly followed to a tee. In space, according to Lucas, it was virtually impossible for any woman to be wearing a brassiere. Then again, weren“t Kryptonians supposed to defy gravity? Still, obviously, their bodies felt the cold and the excitement. While the pirate was keenly following Kara“s struggle with sadistic glee, he revealed, in a calm manner at first, then mockingly, that of course he knew of Superman“s secret identity. Not only this, but he had placed the transmitter of the pandemic right among his circle of colleagues and friends. However, Amalak“s carelessly discarded star-cannon with its penned up energy blast in need of release, as indicated by the artwork, had no hope of containing its load much longer. All the while this arousing battle between the blonde woman and her powerful, green-glowing nemesis was taking place, the gun erupted like volcano and with equal force. The resulting discharge of power not only took out the entire base of the Kryptonian-Killer, but the meteor it was situated on. Readers had to fear for the worst, while back in his civilian persona, Kara“s cousin discovered that the plague was getting more widespread by the minute. As if this wasn“t enough, suddenly, a winged, orange-skinned alien being entered the scene. Though it didn“t seem terribly bright, it certainly was a terrific fighter, and it knew how to say its name. He was Jevik. And though the hero gave chase in his attempt to pursue the creature, Jevik still managed to slip away without trace. But there was Supergirl now and weren“t readers glad to see that the blonde heroine had survived the explosion. Supergirl hooked one finger in a gesture that demanded intimacy and to beckon her manly cousin to move in closer while Kara leaned seductively against a post, her back arched, a commanding look on her face. And like he must have gotten used to by now, his cousin landed a powerful haymaker punch right on his kisser that sent him flying across the hotel lobby they were in. Superman recovered quickly, though, and now he figured that this was not Kara, but the alien Jevik who had to be shapeshifter. Grapping the slippery creature by the scruff of its neck, it reverted into the tiny beast readers had seen in the lap of the pirate in Superman No. 211, and then into the little dog Steve Lombard“s nephew had found and whom he had name Ralphie. Confident that finally he had uncovered the transmitter of the disease, Superman was about to obliterate the alien animal, when the kid Jamie entered the lobby. Though Superman told the boy: “I can“t explain, now, but I must destroy this creature or Earth is doomed!”“, Steve“s nephew would have none of it. Valiantly, and stupidly, he confronted The Man of Steel, who made the mistake to let Jevik, still in the guise of little Ralphie, go free. Jamie blocked his path to the animal, and stubbornly the boy insisted: “I don“t know why you“re doing this Superman, but if you wanna kill him”¦ you“ll hafta kill me, too!”“ While readers still pondered if killing an alien beast was now alright for Superman, and perhaps this meant that he would go even further, maybe Amalak had succeeded, or the sight of a plague-ridden Lois had driven The Man of Tomorrow simply mad, Pesko ended the issue. And right on cue, when the next issue hit the spinner racks, on the splash page readers saw a familiar scenario: Superman holding the little dog with one hand up in the air, while his right hand was getting ready to deliver a fatal blow, and Jamie now pounding his tiny fists against his chest in vain. But now, floating in the air as well, there was the long-haired, bearded visage of his mortal enemy who mockingly proclaimed: “Before this night is over, Superman will kill!”“ And judging from the splash page, the space pirate seemed to have a point. Then, Jamie fell victim to the plague of Amalak“s making. Could there be more drama, really? However, like so very often, the build-up to multi-part storyline is all kinds of awesome, with a lot of threads spun to rachet up the tension to eleven and to keep readers guessing, but likewise, when it comes to the conclusion, things do often feel a bit rushed. As with this arc. While it had seemed that Superman was at least willing to murder the shapeshifter, who now was back in his somewhat humanoid form, he had already figured out last issue, as readers learned in a flashback, that Jevik belonged to a species called Klynn who continued to exist even though, once in the state Jevik was in, they had already died. So technically, he could not kill the creature because it was already dead. This of course was not the end of it, because Amalak had foreseen that Superman would see right through his ruse. Via remote control, he now woke the sleeper. Reverting back into his living state, Jevik turned into a huge beast that ran rampage in Central City while also triggering more infections. After Superman had trapped the alien beast, he now came up with a plan how to prevent the pandemic from spreading further. But for that, he needed to return to the satellite of The Justice League of America. Conveniently, without having any idea that Superman would go there, this was where Amalak lay in wait for him. He casually informed his enemy that while he had managed to teleport himself off his base right before his exploding star-cannon tore it to pieces, Supergirl did not have so much luck. Even with hearing this grim news, Superman had a bit of fun with the pirate who tried several of the weapons on him, The League had stores in their trophy room. But of course, Superman laughed it all off. Even a last-ditch attempt of Amalak“s to kill himself and make Superman believe he had caused his demise, failed miserably. And he would neither kill the alien creature. He simply tossed it into space for it to be somebody else“s problem. With the transmitter of the disease now out of the way, and thanks to Nam-Ek“s healing horn, everyone recovered, Lois included, of course. After he was off to a flying start, Pesko dropped the ball right before the end zone. It was a mistake the writer was not going to repeat with his next major arc for Superman.

As for Supergirl, she“d survived the explosion of Amalak“s base of operation as well. However, the way she re-entered the story in the last two panels of the penultimate page, felt like Pesko was treating her like Kal-El had dealt with his cousin since she had first appeared in Action Comics 252 (1959). Supergirl was unceremoniously shunted aside. To add insult to injury: she“d been “drifting in space unconscious.”“ The Flash and Green Lantern, bit players themselves in this storyline, had brought her to the satellite. After she had been such an integral part during the middle section of the arc, possessing a lot of agency while offering plenty of eye candy to adolescent male readers, and maybe some female readers as well, as she was brutally mangled non-stop by the glowing surrogate and even put into chains by the sadistic, bearded space pirate, this felt disappointing. Especially since she had done more than to hold her own against two foes at the same time. Kara had handled most of the action while Superman saw to it that those infected with the alien disease received treatment, after he had apprehended Nam-Ek. Supergirl was like all three of Charlie“s Angels rolled into one, and with superpowers. But this was a taste of where things would go. Previously, she had taken over Adventure Comics as the title“s star after the Legion of Super-Heroes had moved into Superboy“s series. And she had held on to this gig for almost three years, until she received her own series in 1972, albeit a very short-lived one. Other than her rare appearances in Superman“s books, Supergirl was but one of several characters in the Superman family who couldn“t sustain their own series any longer and now hung around in the appropriately named Superman Family, an anthology title that also featured Krypto the Superdog. With the art for her stories being handled by old stalwarts like Jim Mooney and Kurt Schaffenberger at first, and later by newer hands like Jose Delbo, this also seemingly put an end to the overtly sexy depiction of the character. However, at the height of the days of disco, there were two notable exceptions. Around the time Kara was fighting the pirate and his surrogate, she was one of three heroes who teamed-up for Super-Team Family No. 11. This tale did not only feature artwork by the dynamic duo of Alan Weiss and Joe Rubinstein, but they also provided a lurid cover on which the blonde was shown in bondage once again, trapped by a living tree. Not to let this be their only contribution to the canon of the lovely Kryptonian, in Superman Family No. 186, later in the same year, the team treated readers to Disco Supergirl in perfection, with Supergirl“s hair styled into a big Farrah Fawcett-Majors hairdo, while her low-cut top constantly revealed more cleavage than a thirteen-year-old reader could possibly handle. Which was as well, since this came during a time when comics featured ads for pin-up posters of the blonde actress, Kristy McNichol and The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, bigger than life. Still, it was slim pickings for Supergirl. Her cousin not only had two books which were dominated by his overly muscular frame, plus World“s Finest Comics, the long-running title in which he shared top billing with his buddy Batman, but in 1978, DC Comics created a fourth series to feature The Man of Steel. While this was a team-up book, it also was designed to give Martin Pesko yet another showcase, this time with popular artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, who had previously worked on Superman for the Gerry Conway three-parter at the beginning of the previous year. Interestingly, Pesko also used an early issue for a re-matched between Superman and the beautiful villainess Star Sapphire, who had not only trounced The Man of Steel pretty badly in a tale by Cary Bates in 1973, but the woman had even forced Superman to kiss her boots. Though, by the end of Pesko“s story in DC Comics Presents No. 6 (1979), with art by Curt Swan and Frank Chiaramonte, he not only defeated her soundly, but once she had reverted to her civilian identity, Carol Ferris hung loosely in his powerful arms, with her heaving bosom straining her tight blouse, and her crotch right in the readers“ eyeline. Not only had The Man of Steel validated his masculinity once again, it became pretty obvious where Pesko“s sympathies were at in Superman-Clark dynamic. This also explains why, from a modern storytelling perspective, if not even in utter disregard for the commercial possibilities from a publishing standpoint, Pesko totally buried the lede in Superman No. 314. Instead of building up to it and to present this in a single issue, he opted to have the marriage proposal of Clark to Lois as the coda to his four-parter, on the last page even, almost as if this was but an afterthought. When Clark checks on her recovery, once he had returned from the JSA headquarters in Earth“s orbit, he popped the question. Ms. Lane let him have her answer right away: “I“ll say ”˜yes“”¦ without a moment“s hesitation”¦ if you tell me right now”¦ that Clark Kent is Superman!”“ To which a stunned Clark had only one answer which was not even a lie, but reflected the state of their relationship: “I“m sorry, Lois”¦ I can“t tell you that”¦”“ To which, left to her own reflections, Lois drew one conclusion: “And now I finally know the truth! You can“t tell me you“re Superman, because it isn“t true!”“

Consequently, Pesko spent the next couple of issues mostly with Superman as he battled Skull and the new Metallo. Like his brother earlier, Roger Corben had found a way to become Clark Kent“s colleague. He had assumed the identity of the associate producer of Clark“s news program, without learning Clark“s secret identity, however. The writer used this arc to set up a lot of threads he would pay off later. Even though Superman defeated his nemesis, it was revealed that Dr. Albert Michaels, the Executive Director of the research facility S.T.A.R. Labs, was in league with Skull, the criminal organization that had created this version of Metallo. And even though Superman had dismantled the group, Dr. Michael now vowed to rebuild it, most likely as its new leader. And while Clark was now back in the friend zone with Lois, it came as a bit of a shock to both of them that the latest hire as Clark“s co-anchor on the network WGBS-TV, was none other than Lana Lang, Clark“s boyhood neighbor and Lois“ rival for the hero“s affection. In the next couple of issue, The Man of Steel fought his old foe The Parasite. However, the storyline, which concluded in Superman No. 322 (1978), came with its own special epilogue which Pesko had planted in the preceding issues. Now it was Superman who visited to Lois. And he came with a ring. “A Kryptonian Wish-Ring”¦ the image in the gem reveals whatever its wearer is hoping for!”“ Naturally, the alien stone showed what she wanted from Superman. Like earlier with Clark, Lois offered to cook dinner for him. It seemed natural, that she“d suggest the dish she was wont to prepare for Clark during their romance. Superman was not interested in that. His tastes were very different. And like Gerry Conway had, when he had started the Lois and Clark relationship in earnest in Superman No. 303 (1976), after Cary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin had laid the groundwork at the end of their run, Pesko now closed the door to the eyes of the readers. While Clark had been confident when he courted and then dated Lois, she had let it be known, like so often before, that she was only interested in Superman. And he and she had dated earlier, off and on. She had broken off their relationship when she needed a new perspective right after her sister Lucy had died. But during the last years, Lois had changed. She was no longer twenty-two and she was better at expressing what she wanted, to assert herself. But this was also a different Superman. He was now the sexy-beast, fully formed. His presence, his charisma and his muscular body had always been such that girls like Lois Lane and Lana Lang were seen fighting over him. But that optimism, some may say naivety, he was wont to display, despite adverse circumstances, his brand of chumminess, was gone. These were the days when he was serious and dark, but in a sexy way. And he knew how to smash every foe into the ground. He also knew how to turn on the sexy and how to get the women he wanted. With a being such as Superman, in his purest form, in those days, his desires were not mild-mannered. Whereas Clark had been satisfied with beef bourguignon, Superman hungered for roast and pork chops.

The woman was 5 feet and 8 inches tall. She looked unassuming. Her blue eyes seemed like they needed to be hidden behind glasses. She was a doctor of science and in that she was unlike the other red-haired women he had met. She was a nerd and her long red hair was tied into a practical ponytail. At 127 lbs., her frame was covered by a utilitarian and somewhat dull looking white lab coat. She was as smart as his dream girl Misty who had never existed, at least not in the way she had presented herself to him in his younger years. And like Batgirl had, when they had met for the first time, she stood behind his body to be shielded from a weapon firing at her. This was in Superman No. 304 (1976) when Gerry Conway and Curt Swan had introduced her. And she was saved by Superman like he had saved Batgirl and Lana, his neighbor when he went by the name Superboy and he had lived in Smallville. Like the scientist and Batgirl, Lana Lang had weapon pointed at her, and Superboy was there to rescue her from certain death. Like Lana, the scientist had red hair. And like the girl next door from his boyhood, she wore white. And like Lana and Batgirl, the scientist wore two outfits that were very distinct from each other like the roles these symbolized. Lana was secretly the superheroine the Insect Queen. Batgirl was Barbara Gordon, a Congresswoman, no less. This was just as well, since Superman posed as a mild-mannered news anchor whenever he needed to, biding his time until he could be up in the sky once again as The Man of Steel. It was a time when many men and women wore two distinct identities. During the day, they toiled away in identical cubicles that turned windowless open-plan offices into mazes. Men, whose hair had gotten longer, who wore a mustache or sideburns or both, clad in orange long collar shirts and brown corduroy slacks, and women whose optimistic mini-skirts had given way to pantsuits with silk bow blouses. When the night came, however, men dressed up or really went for casual wear, while the women slipped into slinky jumpsuits made of polyester as they had friends over for cocktails or, if they were unmarried still, they“d drive over to their local discotheque. And while the scientist was a woman as chaste and reserved as the pure facts and specimen she was wont to study in her profession, like all the men and women in those days, once out of her lab coat, she was all about female sensuality and wish fulfillment. She was both, a Madonna and she was Rita Hayworth in her iconic role as Gilda, ready and willing to take on the responsibility for the actions she drove men to. Since this character was created by men and written by a man, these were predominately male fantasies. Conway had portrayed her as an uptight, competent and highly controlled professional in a work environment that viewed women and their abilities mostly with a lot of trepidation. A woman“s mind worked differently and not always scientifically. Pesko knew that underneath so much restraint and discipline there had to be something else, like with any woman he suspected, but more so. In that, the writer turned the table on her and made her the object of study. Her lab coat was white, and so was the outfit she was to wear at the behest of the writer and the villain. While the color white is traditionally associated with a sense of purity and innocent, these blank pieces of apparel also presented a perfect surface onto which men could screen their sexually charged reveries like Superboy“s dream girl Misty once had projected his love letter to her onto her body. And these men invited readers to do likewise. As a canvas, you could prescribe any fantasy you chose onto the scientist. Her name was Dr. Jenet Klyburn, and she was now Acting Director of S.T.A.R. Labs, an appointment that came first with the disappearance of the research facility“s Executive Director Dr. Michaels, who secretly had been aiding the clandestine criminal organization Skull. Even though, Superman had destroyed this outfit, not only were they back in Superman No. 323 (1978) but they had turned Michaels into the latest supervillain and their new leader. And with “The Man with the Self-Destruct Mind!”“, Pesko, with art by Swan and Adkins, started a brand-new storyline for which he heavily tapped into a zeitgeist that was all about Disco, Star Wars, Irving Wallace potboilers, and Roger Moore“s James Bond, as it was about kinky sexual experimentation and slick, assured masculinity. Michaels, who was a nerd himself, the type who had a crew cut and used pocket-protectors and who, of course, wore glasses, now went by the moniker Atomic Skull, and his costume could not have been any more flamboyant had he chosen to perform on a stage in Las Vegas. Donning a skull-like helmet, his yellow and green combo featured a long cape with a disco-collar and thigh-high boots, an outfit that seemed to state that Michaels had fully embraced his true nature once he had broken bad. After Michaels had learned that he was dying of a rare neurological disorder, he had pledged his services to the crime-cartel in exchange for a cure. Skull“s doctors, in their effort to save his life, had placed a radium-powered surgical implant in his brain. What could go wrong? “The implant mutated his brain“s electrical impulses instead of counteracting his seizures”¦ Destructive energy-blasts emanate from his brain with each convulsion!”“ Not only was Michaels now uncontrollably sending these discharges right from his skull, each release powerful enough to cause Superman serious headaches, but the disgraced former director of S.T.A.R. was dying even faster, as he explained to The Man of Steel: “My life expectancy is shortened with every seizure. My own brain is literally destroying me!”“ Naturally, Atomic Skull knew who to blame for his hastened demise: “Because you jailed the only men who could possibly repair the implant, you, Superman, have doomed me!”“ Over months, the villain had schemed in secret, and now that everything was ready for the destruction of The Man of Tomorrow, Michaels, always a total tool, needed to gloat like the bad guy in your latest actioner starring the agent with the license to kill, albeit in keeping with the times, in his most effete and glitzy incarnation. He had lured Superman into a trap. Michaels“ former employee, who had taken his job, was in the middle of a live television interview in her laboratory, when he had his men abduct her in the most theatrically way. But not satisfied with using the young scientist as bait, he wanted to punish her by stripping away each and every signifier that came with her status like a soldier who had his uniform ripped from his body in a prison camp. He now decided what she was allowed to wear, and what she was allowed to wear made a display of her. If not for the Comics Code“s restrictions, he most likely would have presented her nude.

The contrast could not have been more striking. While only shortly before, Dr. Klyburn was seen on live television in her work attire, professional and beyond reproach, now Atomic Skull showed to Superman on a monitor, how somewhere deep in the labyrinthine corridors of his secret lair, located underneath a military base used by S.T.A.R. for testing spacecrafts, the kinky villain had reduced the scientist to not much more than an object. A screen for the dark movie his depraved, inflicted mind was playing within the winding recesses of his brain, as, in his head, he exposed her for who she was. Though she still wore her ponytail, she was now clad from head to toe in a skintight white jumpsuit that left as little to readers imagination as the artists (and Michaels) could get away with. Jenet was bound, spread-eagled no less, and to the extreme, with shackles around her wrists and ankles that were connected with steel cables to four walls that would move in opposite directions once he gave the signal. Not only was the scientist, who was forced to wear a bodysuit that highlighted every nook and cranny of her shamefully displayed shapely young body, bound, Jenet was suspended above the ground. Though the moveable walls were in their starting position, her arms and long thighs were already stretched as far as her anatomy allowed without doing serious bodily damage. Yet with her legs spread apart as wide as they would go, Dr. Jenet Klyburn was defenseless against the villain“s many cameras which leeringly invaded her exposed crotch. Most likely unbeknownst to Pesko at that time, in presenting a character in Superman“s circle in such a tantalizing and objectifying manner, the writer had stumbled into a secret room of shame in the house that DC“s most valuable character had built. When Superman“s co-creator, artist Joe Shuster found that he was shunted out by the industry his hero had created, and consequently desperately in need of cash for himself and his then-wife, in 1954, he began doing illustrations for a S&M comic series called Nights of Horror. The series featured fetish stories about bondage, torture and sexual slavery. The characters Shuster depicted did not wear much more than their fashionable underwear, if that, and women were always shown in impossibly high stiletto shoes. And while Shuster“s men looked a lot like Jimmy Olsen and Lex Luthor, and his women could have been stand-ins for Lois Lane and Lana Lang, he placed them in sadomasochistic scenarios of subjugation and bondage in which heavy whips marred their semi-nude and highly attractive bodies. Like Dr. Klyburn was all about control and self-neglect it seemed, awaiting the writer“s (and the villain“s) hand, to set her hidden desires (or theirs) free, in hindsight, the 50s were equally defined by penned up rage and sexual frustrations that needed to find release. And while Nights of Horror was ultimately banned by the Supreme Court and its publisher and printer sent to jail, Pesko got this past the Comics Code, the difference being the period of time. Somehow, in the 1970s, bondage and objectification had become the new normal, at least where comic tales for mostly adolescent males were concerned. While this likely went over some readers“ heads, the method by which the writer had Superman thwart the villain“s scheme, was equally telling. In order to free the scientist from her ordeal, which felt like a modernized version of Shuster“s drawings for Nights of Horror, the hero was confronted by various obstacles. Using his superpowers, Superman unwittingly moved a container along a pipeline system and onto a rocket, which he then inadvertently launched towards Earth“s ionosphere. As his foe gloatingly explained to him, Skull had stockpiled Kryptonite and he himself had readied the craft which not only carried the deadly payload in its cone, but some explosives as well: “The ship will automatically explode! The ”˜K“ in the nose-cone will be pulverized into dust and that Kryptonite dust will be dispersed around the globe”¦ held there permanently by gravity! ”“Since he lost even more of the very limited time he had left on this Earth, every time the powers he had not asked for manifested, Dr. Michaels wanted Superman to lose his superpowers due to effect the Kryptonite belt“s radiation had on him, and for him to suffer a slow death, while he could never escape Earth. And lest Superman stopped the rocket now, Atomic Skull had another surprise in store. Already knocked out by another discharge from the villain“s malfunctioning, radium addled brain, now a 100-foot gorilla approached his lifeless form. And this was only the first issue. When Superman No. 324 hit the stands, readers had to be reminded of a scene from many years ago. In Superboy No. 198 (1973) Lana Lang and Clark, adolescents then, were walking across a carnival when the cute redhead got swept up by a gorilla that had escaped from one of the side shows. Now on the splash page for the second part of this story, there was another redhead, like Lana dressed in white, but with all the shading with which inker Frank Chiaramonte either unfortunately or very much on purpose highlighted the lower part of her torso in the bodysuit the villain had clad her in, of course, less innocent. And the beast was almost as tall as a multi-story building. This was no common giant ape either. This was Titano, “The Super-Ape”“. Titano hailed all the way from Superman No. 127 (1959), from a story by Otto Binder and Wayne Boring. Originally Titano was the little chimp Toto who appeared on a television show with none other than Lois Lane. As fate would have it, or his handler, Toto was placed aboard a rocket that was to be shot into orbit by the Army. What was intended as a publicity stunt for the television act, to turn Toto into the world“s most famous chimp, ended in disaster. The rocket failed to ignite, then, after Superman had hurled the satellite with the chimp into orbit with one mighty throw, it was struck by two meteors, one made up of Uranium, the other of Kryptonite. After the monkey gone to heaven had returned safely to Earth, with Lois being the first person on site, prematurely the reporter assumed that the radiation hadn“t caused the chimp any harm. But this was the Silver Age after all. And no sooner had she communicated the arrival of Toto, when without warning, the ape grew in size larger than a dinosaur. This fazed her little, not even when Toto picked her up with one of his huge paws, since this represented a sensational news story. Of course, Superman came to rescue her from the huge ape she had re-named Titano. But to his dismay, The Man of Steel quickly discovered that “he has acquired Kryptonite Vision!”“ The chimp formerly known as Toto was now able to shoot a green ray from his eyes, one which was deadly to Superman. Only after Lois tricked him into putting on special glasses that had lead lenses, was the hero able to fly the giant ape off to a world of equally out-sized creatures. It seemed Superman had found the perfect new home for him, and Lois “super-scoop about the giant chimp has a happy ending after all!”“ Now Titano was back. Skull, thanks to the technology Dr. Michaels had stolen, had not only discovered the giant monkey on his new home planet, but they“d teleported him back to Earth as a fail-safe. Titano now delayed Superman“s actions. But then the hero defeated Atomic Skull.

So how did Superman foil the villain“s masterplan? The Man of Steel borrowed another rocket from the site after he had collected a cape-full of galena, the ore from which lead is mined. He quickly wrapped the material around the rocket“s cone and sent it off into space, but not before putting a detonator on the craft similar to the one Atomic Skull had placed on his ship. If on purpose or by coincidence, readers surely took a double take when they saw the shape of Superman“s augmented rocket with its tip more than a little prominent and the shape of the cylindric craft highly reminiscent of something else entirely. Once both rockets were seen next to each other in orbit, Superman“s rocket seemed shorter, but bigger. And once both vessels detonated their tips, the lead dust covered the Green Kryptonite dust, rendering it mostly ineffective. But clearly Superman had averted his attention from the woman in the bodysuit, who was not very effective in tying up the unconscious villain, who came to and began to threaten Dr. Klyburn once again. Making a short stop on his way back to this secret underground lair to rescue Lana Lang who was foolish enough to seek out Titano for a news story, Superman was still in time to smash the villain once again to the ground. He clearly had had it with the nerd gone bad after he now also had discovered that Michaels had planted a receiver right into the giant ape“s brain. Naturally, right on cue, when Superman now punched the living daylights out of the fancily garbed supervillain, Curt Swan and his inker Frank Chiaramonte didn“t waste the opportunity to present a full-body profile shot of the red-haired woman of science in her tight white jumpsuit, to better put her ample posterior on display, after the villain had gone to such length to dress her in this garment. Then Superman was off again. He took care of Titano first, and then he took to skies in his Supermobile which was made of Supermanium and which he had recently shielded against Kryptonite. The craft had been introduced a few months earlier by Cary Bates and Curt Swan in Action Comics No. 481, when red solar radiation from a long-exploded star had reached Earth, and since toy maker Corgi Toys (and later Kenner) felt Superman needed a car like Batman, but of course one that could fly. With the help of his awesome vehicle he now sucked up what was left of the Kryptonite belt, while Pesko got busy with planting the seeds for the next storyline. But there was still some more cleaning up to do. Nevertheless, in Superman No. 325 (1978) the titular hero took his sweet time to return to Skull“s subterranean bunker, where Jenet impatiently was waiting for his return. While Superman had fallen under the spell of an unknown party as part of the new story Pesko was telling, once out of her lab coat and forced into wearing a white jumpsuit, the young woman seemed to have lost her agency. With the securely tied up, newly unconscious Atomic Skull on the floor, Jenet did some handwringing while she was nervously pacing the floor. And when a Skull saucer landed only a few inches away from her position, the vessel was of course shaped like a, well, skull, and one of their agents now aimed a weapon at her, which he then even fired because they saw her as a threat to their organization, she did not run or tried to hide. But once again, like so many times before, there was Superman to shield a helpless woman with his muscular, invulnerable body from harm. And as he now took care of business, like Lana and Batgirl before her, she just stood by and watched. Perhaps she was angry with him that he had abandoned her at the base while other matters seemed more important to him? No. “I feel like the scare has taken ten years off my life”¦ but frankly, Superman, I“m in no position to complain!”“ Whereas the Skull saucer now took off, obviously Superman hadn“t bothered to use his super-vision to perform proper reconnaissance earlier on, he possessed the foresight not to attack the craft directly since he suspected that they still had some Kryptonite on them. Once again using a rocket from the military base that seemed to have them readily available, he simply clubbed the saucer to the ground with it, surprisingly without doing any damage to the rocket. Once back again with Dr. Klyburn, she seemed to have overcome her trauma and had switched back to her scientist persona. And now he even took her along for a ride to where he had placed the meanwhile caged ape. While some time had passed, the poor woman still hadn“t found an opportunity to get changed. Superman now used the gun he had found on the Skull saucer, which was the teleportation device the criminal outfit had previously used to transport Titano from the planet where he had dropped him off so many years earlier. Then he flew off with the young woman in his arms, to where and for how long, he couldn“t even say later since he now was fully caught up in episodes of backouts, which once again was Pesko“s next storyline. When the hero and the scientist met again in the next issue, she was back in her work outfit and her lab coat. She was all matter of fact while they were talking about what was bothering him. “I“m sorry to burden you with all this, doctor”¦ but you are the only person I can talk to about it”¦”“ Interestingly, while overall readers seemed to enjoy Pesko“s mix of fast-paced action, innovative stories and interpersonal drama, judging from the responses in the letters page, however, in Superman No. 328 (1978), Tim Fields from Palos Hills, Illinois found a reason to complain about issue No. 323: “Superman is becoming too wordy”¦ What little action we saw was packed with balloons explaining why he did what he did.”“ Perhaps even he would not have protested had Pesko added five words to issue No. 326. “How are you, Dr. Klyburn?”“

Author Profile

Chris Buse (RIP)

A comic book reader since 1972. When he is not reading or writing about the books he loves or is listening to The Twilight Sad, you can find Chris at his consulting company in Germany... drinking damn good coffee. Also a proud member of the ICC (International Comics Collective) Podcast with Al Mega and Dave Elliott.