The Phantom Horseman of Metropolis!

If you look at the last image in yesterday's blog post, you'll see Superman (and Clark Kent) promoting the stories featured in the next issue of Superman. As luck would have it, #289 is another of the handful of comics from those days I managed to keep in fairly pristine condition.

What kid could have resisted that cover, with its superimposition of Superman and a freaky silhouette upon what seemed to be the real world itself? Not me! These days, I wonder about the circumstances of the shot - are those DC staffers, perhaps posing in front of their own offices?

 Sadly, the cool technique isn't repeated in the comic itself. But rather than cry "super-false advertising!" I simply absorbed the story, in which Superman's absent-minded friend Professor Pepperwinkle loses one of his inventions.

When I first read this comic I was savvy enough to see that there was some kind of connection between Mrs. Pepperwinkle's television and the various phantoms that plague Metropolis. But I wasn't quite sharp-eyed enough to figure out exactly what was going on. Are you?

The phantoms freaked me out, with their blankness and imperviousness to Superman. They just did their thing, vaporizing stuff along the way.

Superman's always at his best when he uses his wits instead of his muscles. I like the little invention blurbs that appear every few pages in this story, a device rarely used again in Superman comics.

This revelation about blew my mind. The invention was hidden behind the rabbit ears all along! The robot driver scared me, though. Sadly, I do not have "The Man Who Cried Super-Wolf!"