Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #98

Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #98 (On Sale: November 13, 1969) has a cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.

We begin with "I Betrayed Superman" by Robert Kanigher and Irv Novick.  Kanigher's disdain for method acting is on full display in this one.  Perry White assigns Lois Lane the task of exposing the Stanislav Method of acting by enrolling her in Maestro Stanislav's school. Students are standing on their heads and laying on the floor impersonating Persian rugs. Ugh. Anyway, Lois is chosen to play Delilah but none of the men in the class seem to turn her on as Samson. the next day Superman shows up and asks to audition for the part and, of course, Lois is moist in the panties in no time.

The next day they act out a scene together and Lois is given a knife purported to have been used by Delilah to cut Samson's hair and remove his powers. When she uses the knife on Superman it cuts his hair and Superman goes into a rage at losing his powers and notes that Lois seems to no longer be in love with him now that he is mortal. It ends up Superman is actually fellow student Johnny in disguise wanting to prove that he could play her lover. Stanislav asks Lois if she now has enough information for her story and she agrees she does. As she writes it she wonders if she really only loves Superman because of his powers. This inane story was reprinted in Superman Family #176.

The back-up story is "Tomorrow I Die" by Robert Kanigher, Curt Swan and George Roussos. As bad as the first story was, this one is even dumber. Superman takes Lois to an asteroid where she drinks some nectar that  makes her glow with radiation. Superman notes that is is actually harmless and will wear off in a few days. During those days the radiation helps Lois avoid a number of problems (hydra-snake, mad bomber, etc.) that she causes because she thinks the glowing radiation is killing her. It's not and so there really is not much of a story here, no matter how many Phantom Zone encounters and such Kanigher throws in. This is dreadful, pure and simple.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.