Superboy #160

Superboy #160 (On Sale: August 19, 1969) has just an astounding cover by Neal Adams. Every once in a while Neal just knocks one out of the park and this is one of those!

Superboy stars in "I Chose External Exile" a 23-pager by Frank Robbins, Bob Brown and Wally Wood. I find it hard to believe that these stories have never been reprinted. I remember Frank Robbins doing a good job on the scripts and hell, this is Wally Wood inks we are talking about. Egyptian envoy Abdul Amahdi and his beautiful daughter, Cleop, visit Smallville. Cleop soon clashes with Lana Lang over the affections of both Clark Kent and Superboy. Superboy escorts Cleop to a costume ball, but when they kiss, he appears to fatally crush her. Tormented by what he has done, Superboy exiles himself from Earth.

The costume ball continues without him. Cleop, who was not really killed, meets Lana on the roof. Pete Ross witnesses Cleop fall to her death and believes that Lana pushed her. Lana is then taken into police custody for murder.

Meanwhile, back on the moon, Superboy decides to return to Earth and report his crime to the police, but when he does so, the police explain that Lana was the killer, not him. Superboy investigates and discovers that Cleop was never truly alive. A former assistant of Professor Lang named Tingly discovered Cleopatra's tomb. He animated her corpse in order to frame Lana and get Superboy out of the way. The Boy of Steel's provides evidence to clear himself and Lana and exposes Tingly.

Edited by Murray Boltinoff.