Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #87

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #87 (On Sale: August 13, 1968) has a cover by Neal Adams. This one just doesn't work for me; the Superman figure seems distorted and unnatural looking due to the angle and the Cor-Lar figure in green is only in this bizarre position so that her legs do not extent off the cover.

We begin with "Feud of the Super-Femmes" by Leo Dorfman, Irv Novick and Mike Esposito. Continuing from previous issues, Lois has gained super-powers with the help of Kandorian scientist Cor-Lar. However, the scientist forces Lois to retrieve a rare bird from another world. Lois brings the bird back to Kandor, but is told that Earth's atmosphere is now poisonous to her. Cor-Lar then takes Lois's place on Earth while Lois remains behind as a super-hero in Kandor.

Lois rescues a Kandorian archaeologist and discovers a secret cache of Jor-El's inventions. Inside the cache is a supply of Kandorite, a mineral that can remove super-powers from anyone native to Kandor. She also learns that Cor-Lar lied about Earth's atmosphere being poisonous. She returns to Earth and exposes the scientist to Kandorite to remove Cor-Lar's powers. Lois's powers wear off, and Cor-Lar is returned to Kandor to pay for her crimes.

The back-up is "The Jealous Lois Lane" from Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #31 and is drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger. Lois Lane agrees to test a special emotion detecting device for Professor Potter. When Lois becomes jealous a bell will sound. As the girl reporter follows Superman around, she becomes jealous, but she prevents the bell from ringing. When she returns to the Planet, Superman is there, and the building fire alarm accidentally sounds. Everyone believes it is the bell from the emotion detector. Lois is upset because she had tried hard to make the Man of Steel believe she was not a jealous person. Wow, and they saw fit to reprint this one.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

1 comment:

vinnie said...

Keller, I agree with you about the cover. One of the things I love about Adams' artwork is his use of foreshortening and perspective. The results are usually dramatic (e.g., the Action cover with the Parasite from March '68). But here, the dimensions are a little unnatural and Superman just looks kind of odd and stiff. However, I still get a warm feeling from this one 'cause I bought it while visiting my hometown and staying with my grandmother. ;-)