SUPERBOY #92

On Sale August 17, 1961

Edited by Mort Weisinger
Cover by Curt Swan

our first feature is "SUPERBOY MEETS BEN-HUR!"

Written by Robert Bernstein
Penciled by Curt Swan
Inked by Stan Kaye

Out story opens with Superboy saving Lana Lang from being run over by a truck. Shes dazed and upset because her father just got fired from his museum job for misusing funds. Superboy flies to the museum to learn that Professor Lang purchased a bronze bust for $30,000. He claims that it is a bust from Ancient Rome of Ben-Hur. This is impossible because Ben-Hur was a fictional creation of author Lew Wallace in 1880. Professor Lang has tested the bust and says it is 2,000 years old. If it can be proven that Ben-Hur was based on a real person, Professor Lang will get his job back and won't be the laughingstock of the archeological world.

Superboy reads "Ben-Hur" then flies through time to Ancient Rome. Superboy thinks at this point in history Ben-Hur is a galley slave so he searches for a ship that has a lionshead on its prow. Scanning the Mediterranean with his telescopic vision, he finds the ship under attack by pirates. He dives under water and sinks the pirate's ship. Then he pretends to be an escaped prisoner of the pirates to get on Ben-Hur's ship. The ship captain thinks he's worth nothing more than a galley slave, so he is put to work next to Ben-Hur. Superboy looks at the man and he looks nothing like the bronze bust Professor Lang purchased. He does look a little like Moses though. The slave driver tells them no one will be fed until they reach port 200 miles away. Superboy tells the rest of the crew he's got this and rows the ship to port in a minute. He explains that the gods gave him special powers that he can access whenever he says the name of a wizard. Superboy tries to walk off the ship, but the slave driver tries to stab him. It doesn't go very well for the sword. Ben-Hur breaks his bonds and the two of them escape.

The pair are set upon by a runaway chariot. Ben-Hur uses his skills to calm down the horses and the owner is so grateful that he'll buy Ben-Hur's freedom if he wins the big upcoming chariot race in his colors. Ben-Hur wins some races and becomes the favorite of the common people as the big race approaches. His opponent, Marcellus, tries to bribe Ben-Hur out of the race, but he refuses. The common people all pool their wagers and give it to one messenger to bet for them. Naturally, this man is robbed by Marcellus' thugs. I guess they didn't send Superboy since he's too young to place wagers. Superboy comes up with an idea to raise funds so the common people can have money to throw away on wagers for the race. He flies to a corn field somewhere, it has to be Central or South America at this point in history. He fills a nearby cart with the corn and pops it with his heat vision as he flies back to Rome. He then sells all the popcorn to make money to give to the common people to bet on the big race.

Marcellus isn't done yet.  He and his thugs steal Ben-Hur's horses while everyone is out buying popcorn. Superboy flies to Arabia and gets four horses. He even takes some time to break and train the horses so they can be used for racing. He then flies the horses back to Rome in time for the big race. During the big race, Ben-Hur leaves Marcellus in the dust. However, Marcellus' thugs cut the ropes holding his steeds to his chariot. Superboy flies to a pile of discarded fireworks and turns them MacGyver style into a jet engine. Flying faster than the human eye can see, he puts the jet under the chariot, starts it and watches Ben-Hur roll his way to victory. Marcellus complains to the Emperor that Ben-Hur won with witchcraft instead of horses. The Emperor wavers about changing the results, but Superboy puts him in a chariot and runs him around the course until the Emperor is ready to declare Ben-Hur the winner. He probably had to do this a few more times to the bookmakers so the common people got their winnings.

The Emperor gives Ben-Hur a statue a few days later. It is filled with gold and looks like Ben-Hur rather than the bronze head that Professor Lang bought.  However, that night Superboy encounters thieves trying to hack their way into the statue to get the gold. They ruin the statue's head so it now appears to be the same as the one Professor Lang bought. Superboy tells Ben-Hur goodbye and flies back to his own era. He finds the statue in a hillside in Italy and brings Professor Lang and his boss to it. Superboy reunites the head with the rest of the statue and Professor Lang gets his job back.

The End!

STORY: B-
Gloriously ridiculous! Superboy resorts to stealing corn, horses and shaking down a Roman Emperor to save the day.

ART: A-
Kaye's not my favorite Swan inker, but the art still looks great.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: C
The Charlton Heston version of Ben-Hur came out in 1959 and (adjusted for inflation) is the #13 biggest box office success of all time. Just like many other popular things before and after, it was used to try to sell more comics.



our second feature is "KRYPTO'S ARCH ENEMY!"

writer: either Otto Binder or Jerry Coleman
artist: George Papp

Superboy and Krypto are racing a comet in space. Superboy sees a nearby planet and notices that it is about to explode just like Krypton did all those years ago. He will stay and try to move the planet's people and civilization to another one. Krypto is sent home to protect Smallville. Just outside Smallville, Lex Luthor has built a machine that will give him Superboy's powers. However, as he is about to be hit with the power ray, his pet dog Wolf gets in the way. Lex is upset and strikes the dog, but hurts his hand. It is Wolf that has gained the super powers and Lex gets to work in training him on how to use them. He also tells the dog his name is no longer Wolf, it is Destructo!

In the first phase of his plan, Lex has Destructo don a Superboy cape to make witnesses think he is Krypto. He then has Destructo commit a series of crimes and Krypto gets blamed for them. Destructo is a different color and a bit larger than Krypto, but you know how witnesses are. My favorite crime is when Destructo melts a Superboy statue at the Superboy museum and covers himself in metal. Then he flies near an open window and a giant magnet flies out to attach itself to him. Then he flies away with the giant magnet. Chief Parker tries to contact Superboy about his crime committing mutt, but he's still moving a civilization. Krypto is wondering why people are suddenly afraid of him when Chief Parker shows up with a small piece of kryptonite to drive him off. He flies away and buries himself underground. He overhears people talking about him and knows this was the work of an imposter.

He goes to the melted Superboy statue and picks up the scent of another dog. He finds the dog with Lex and comes up with a plan. He breaks into the Kent General Store and makes off with a sack of coins.   The police see him and he sets off for Luthor's hideout with the bag dripping out coins to leave a trail. The police see the loot in the hideout and Destructo in Krypto's cape and they realize who the criminal had been. Lex gets Destructo into his new cape really fast and the two dogs clash. The police take Lex off to reform school while the dogs go up in the air to fight. Krypto has to break it off to save a plane while Destructo flies off to free Lex. 

Krypto finds them at another lab and Lex fires his power ray weapon at Krypto. This time the ray takes away Krypto's powers and gives them to Destructo giving him double the power. Destructo uses super breath to blow Krypto far away on to a haystack. Krypto walks back to Chief Parker's and brings back the Kryptonite. Lex is forced to give Krypto his powers back so the kryptonite can effect him. Krypto gets the dealy rock kicked out of the way just as Superboy arrives. Superboy then uses the ray to get rid of Destructo's powers and sends Lex back to reform school.

The End!

STORY: B
Good fun and Krypto is pretty resourceful.

ART: B+
I like Papp on Superboy and his Krypto is really good.

COVER: A-
I love the little detail of the bricks inside of the dummies to show Destructo's power.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: B
I didn't mention it above, but Lex Luthor's origin is retold in this issue. It gets shortened due to time constraints and the source of Lex's anger gets changed. The previous origin by Jerry Siegel in Adventure Comics #271 was the previous year. In it, Lex creates artificial life when a lab accident happens and he loses his hair. He creates a kryptonite cure for Superboy as a temporary ploy, but a few stray drops winds up saving Superboy at the end. In this issue, the fire breaks out when Lex is trying to come up with the cure for Kryptonite. He now gets mad at Superboy for this rather than his unrelated life creation in the earlier origin. This version of Lex's origin would stick around for about fifteen years when Elliot S! Maggin restores the original origin in the classic Superman #292.


up next...Bronze Age Marvel I bought off the stands back in the day

CAPTAIN AMERICA #224

On Sale May 9, 1978

Written by Peter Gillis
Penciled by Mike Zeck
Inked by Mike Espisito
Edited by Roger stern
Cover by Mike Zeck

Hostess Fruit Pies presents Spider-Man in "Spider-Man meets the Home Wrecker!"

and now..." SATURDAY NIGHT FUROR!"

A couple of joggers come across Captain America lying in the pristine waters of New York City. The two joggers, Ginny and Doug Barber pull Cap out of the freezing water and take him home. He wakes up and goes to the bathroom, there he takes off his mask to discover a face that is not his own! Steve Rogers has been replaced by Bruce Wayne! Maybe not. Even worse, he can't remember recent events and can't even remember the phone number to call the Avengers. It seems he's been having memory issues lately and Cap takes a cab to Avengers Mansion. Jarvis opens the door for him and Cap tells him to pay the cabbie. Beast greets Cap and he takes off his mask to reveal his new face. Beast thinks the shield is real and that it seems the real Cap is catching it, so he believes that this dark haired man is the real Captain America. Iron Man and Wasp come into the hall and Iron Man takes a sample of Cap's new face. It turns out his new face is made out of a highly advanced plastic. Cap has the Avengers tell him about the party they held on Saturday night. Cap left the party with a man named Al Avison who claims to have known Cap from World War II.  Cap doesn't remember anyone form World War II with that name. He turns down help and sets out to solve the case on his own.

Over the next week he checks in with hotels, cabbies, the police and Nick Fury and can find no leads on Al Avison. Dr. Faustus claims he is not responsible, but envies the villain that's doing a good job of driving Cap mad. I'm rooting for MODOK to be behind it all. Cap decides to blow off some steam with a workout, but his arm hurts. He looks at it and finds what looks like bee stings. The blood analyzer in the lab tells him that he was bitten by a Brazilian spider and if it wasn't for the Super Soldier Serum, he'd already be dead. They weren't just trying to drive him mad, but kill him too? Cap can't figure out the need for the ruse either and smashes the analyzer in frustration. Cap then decides to play back all the calls to Avengers Mansion in the week before the party. At four a.m. he comes across a message from a person who tells him he will be attending under the name of Al Avison. Up at all hours Jarvis wakes the rest of the Avengers. Cap tells them he remembers this man, but under another name. He asks them to remember any details about the man. Beast remembers he had dark hair and in his late 30s. Vision says he was much too young to have fought in World War II. Beast remembers he said" last war" not World War II. Cap deduces that this was the Madbomb War!

Cap contacts Argyle Fist who wonders why Cap isn't on the Madbomb Convoy assignment. He and Ken Astor were supposed to infiltrate the convoy and stop the hijackers their intelligence had uncovered. Cap now remembers that they were discovered. He got out alive, but not poor Ken. The convoy left an hour ago with the Madbomb parts and if they were able to extract the codes from Astor, it could be a catastrophe. As Cap speeds to where the convoy is supposed to be, he recalls the rest of that fateful Saturday night. He had disguised himself and the two agents went to meet the boss of this plot, Tarantula. As he starts his speech, he is interrupted by his partner, Senor Suerte telling him it's time to take out the spies. As cap was fighting the thugs, Senor Suerte attacked from behind and knocked him out with his electrical powers. Tarantula poisoned him and threw him into the river. Cap lands near the hijacked convoy and tells the villains he is coming to get them. He wipes the floor with them in two and a half pages and the day is saved.

The End! The ending also mentions the regular storyline will be continued next issue.

STORY: B-
Decent for a fill in issue.

ART: B+
A couple of weak faces here and there, but this Zeck guy is going to be really good. The last battle was really well done.

COVER: A-
Well drawn, and it got 8 year old me to grab it off the stands.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: C
Saturday Night Furor is, of course, a play on words of a big disco movie hit of 1977 called "Saturday Night Fever." They should have gone for broke and have Cap found in Travolta's white suit.

My Gawd, that Superboy cover is a frightening little gem. Even when you look at it in full-size, the bricks and rocks that had been in the Krypto dummy look for all the world like his spilled innards.