Hoo-boy. I honestly can't remember if I've brought this story up here or not, but it's worth mentioning again.
DC Comics Presents 50 "When you wish upon a planetoid" by Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn.
A mysterious device referred to only as "The Miracle Machine" vanishes from an alien planet in the 30th century. It isn't stolen - it just vanishes - this technological wonder which can "turn thought into reality" simply disappears as if it has a will of its own. Meanwhile, back in the present day of 1982, Superman is busy Supermaning his way through space towards a planetoid on a collision course with an inhabited world. He diverts the course of the planetoid while reminding himself that Clark Kent is late for work at WGBS. "It seems I'm always rushing back and forth between my two identities - and giving both the short end of the stick. Sometimes I wish I could really be both Superman and Clark, living each of my lives without having to worry about the other", he thinks idly as he streaks towards Earth. At this point, we're given one final, close-up shot of the planetoid and see... The Miracle Machine. It blinks.
Cut to Metropolis where a crowd of reporters are waiting impatiently for the Man of Steel to arrive at the UN's Superman Day Gala being held in his honor. Amongst the crowd, is an irritated Clark Kent. "How come he's an hour late and counting?" a fellow reporter asks. "How should I know what's keeping him? Your guess is as good as mine." However, the fact that this is the third time today that someone has assumed some sort of friendship between Kent and Superman, strikes WGBS's star reporter as curious. It isn't a curiosity which lingers mind you, if Kent feels any sort of bond with Superman it certainly isn't reflected in the hatched job he writes about his no-show at the day's event which, he learns through Perry White, was due to Superman diverting a flood elsewhere. Though not arguing that receiving medals should take precedent over such work, Clark is busy trying trying to convince White that Superman is too detached from the people he's sworn to protect when a report of The Atomic Skull attacking S.T.A.R Labs comes in over the teletype. Kent quickly sneaks off to The Planet's store room, takes a quick look down the hall to ensure that he hasn't been spotted, enters, unbuttons his shirt, and reveals...
Meanwhile, Superman has arrived at S.T.A.R Labs where he battles The Atomic Skull. Lois Lane arrives upon the scene thus enabling The Skull to escape by endangering her life. We learn through the exchange which follows that Clark Kent isn't the only one acting peculiarly.
Lois: Thanks for saving my life - again! Hope I haven't used my quota up yet!
Superman: It's nothing to joke about! Your interference allowed The Atomic Skull to escape!
Lois: I was only doing my job, Superman! You know that!
Superman: And my job is stopping madmen like The Skull! Let me warn you, Miss Lane, someday if I'm forced to choose between life and property endangered by a super-villain and one reckless individual, that individual will have to be sacrificed!
In the days which follow, Lois, Clark, Lana Lang, etc. all take note of Superman's odd behavior and the fact that he seems to be pushing himself 24/7 which wouldn't necessarily be troublesome except for the fact that the more he accomplishes, the colder he gets. When chided by a S.T.A.R. Labs employee for arriving too late to stop the still on-the-loose Atomic Skull for instance, Superman responds "There are world-wide emergencies which transpire every day that require the help of a Superman. You Earth people should feel lucky to have me at all."
For his part, Clark has become a more well-rounded individual - no longer needing to pretend to be meek and mild, no longer having to run off at inopportune moments. He has however, been suffering from a recurring dream in which he's preventing a planetoid from slamming into another world. In fact, it is when he wakes from one of these dreams that he realizes something odd - his glasses don't seem to effect his vision one way or the other. "Maybe my eyesight's improving." He looks at himself in the mirror, glasses-less with his mussed hair no longer hiding a familiar spit-curl and...
"Great Krypton".
Cut to The Daily Planet where Clark Kent races up to Jimmy Olsen and activate his Superman Signal watch.
Superman arrives and when he does, Clark requests that they speak in private. An irritated Superman tells Kent to say whatever he has to say quickly and it's at this point that we learn the true significance of Clark's dream. He tells The Man from Krypton that he made a miscalculation when redirecting the path of the planetoid and Superman scoffs. "I don't make mistakes like that." Besides, how could Kent know anything about his encounter with the planetoid anyway?
Superman runs the events surrounding the planetoid through his head, recalculates his every move, and realizes that while the planetoid has been knocked off its collision course with the planet it threatened, is now headed towards its moon which will result in the same cataclysm. He doesn't know what to make of Clark's assertion that they're the same person - it's not as if either of their memories have returned - and is too busy with this information to really focus on this development regardless. Superman fixes things with the planetoid, Clark Kent takes down The Atomic Skull, and it's the epilogue to this tale that really hits you in the gut.
Neither Superman nor Clark Kent really know what to do now that both the planetoid and The Skull have been dealt with. The two pay a visit to Smallville where Clark shows The Man of Tomorrow his old home containing Superboy's hidden workshop and the underground tunnels he used to avoid detection.
"It's not that I don't believe you - all the evidence you're showing me indicates what you're telling me is true - but, for the life of me, I can't remember anything about being Clark Kent. I recall your parents, Clark - vaguely - they seemed like very kind people. But the idea that they were my parents too... I'm sorry, it just doesn't register."
With this, the two accept that they'll be living separate lives from now on. Clark makes one request - that he fly him to the graves of his parents so he can pay his respects.
As Superman waits, Clark tells him how although he's largely gotten over the guilt of their deaths, the pain remains. Asking what he means by "guilt" Clark tells him how as Martha and Jonathan Kent lay dying, he "tried everything I could think... but nothing worked. I felt so powerless knowing that with all my powers, I couldn't..."
A saddened Superman interrupts with a whisper...
"... I couldn't save them".
He remembers.
With The Miracle Machine no longer giving Superman/Kent his/their wish that they be removed from one another's lives, they merge and accept that they work best together rather than apart.
Man, it's that "...I couldn't save them" that gets to me.
Every. Single. Time.
