Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #96

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #96 (On Sale: August 12, 1969) has a cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. This one has an interesting gimmick on the cover, with the empty word balloons and the question to the reader.

We began with "The Girl Who Died for Superman" by Cary Bates, Irv Novick and Mike Esposito. Lana Lang returns home one day to find her apartment filled with 3D images of Superman and Lois together. Also in her apartment are two aliens from another dimension who explain that a few months ago Lana saved their dimension when a rift opened up and was blocked by her news helicopter. As a reward they promise to make her the wife of Superman.

Across town Lois Lane also is greeted by an alien who tells her that Superman is trapped in their dimensions and shackled with green kryptonite and that Lois has a chance to save him if she comes back to their dimension to take part in a contest. Both Lana and Lois are put asleep in interdimensional travel bubbles and awake in rooms alone. Lois exits a door to find herself in another world where she quickly locates a still green Superman when shakes her and tells her that he feels nothing for her and when he leaves to go back to earth, he will not be taking her with him.

Lana emerges into the landscape and also confronts a Superman, this one fully recovered. He says he has decided to leave earth and remain here as the dictator of this dimension. A voice asks Lana if she still loves Superman now that his true personality has been revealed. She is being watched by the three aliens, now looking quite human, from a secret booth.

The girls are brought together where they begin to fight one another when one of the aliens returns with Superman once again in green K shackles. Superman says the aliens made him say those things, that they were not true. The alien offers to spare Superman if one of the girls will take his place and offers them a glass of poison. Lois drinks it and the aliens reveal that they are human psychologists and this was just a test to see how the emotion of love will drive a person to extremes.

Lana and Lois reveal that they knew it was fake all along and planned out their actions.

The back-up is "Weep for Lois Lane's Baby" by Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan and George Roussos. This is a sequel to "The Lois Lane in the Mystic Mirror" from Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #94. In that story the Lois from another dimension switched places with our Lois. Our Lois is now in the other dimension trapped on a space station with Jor, the son of that realms Superman and Lois. When the other-realm Superman is brought to our dimension, the mirror used to transport between realms is destroyed trapping Superman and Lois in our world, and our Lois in theirs.

Our Lois is given the super baby's powers by Gold Kryptonite and sues them to escape from the space station. back on earth she finds the smashed mirror and using her new super powers restores it.  While our Lois finds dealing with baby Jor a chore, his mother is on our world living it up as a bachelor girl once again.

At least she is till one day both Supermen arrive at her apartment to tell her that our Superman knows she is not the real Lois. She refuses to go back till she looks through the mirror and sees Lois punishing her son. When she realizes he is no longer super-human and that what Lois is doing is actually hurting him, she agrees to return. Superman destroys the mirror and Lois explains how she acted mean to Jor to get Lois's motherly instincts to kick in and drive her home.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.