Thursday, October 06, 2011

80-Page Thursdays: Superboy #165!

Invulnerable or no, I don't think Krypto wants to be rubbed with barbed wire...
For the next stretch, as long as I can find them, every Thursday we'll check out an 80-page comic! Not 64, not 100, 80-page giants only! Today...a cheat, since this is an "80-pager" with maybe 60 pages of story, and those are reprints: Superboy #165! Featuring "Superboy's Red-Letter Days!" There's an expression I just don't hear anymore.

This issue reprints some classic Superboy stories, like the first appearance of Krypto (where he looks super-doofy), the deaths of Ma and Pa Kent (which I swear I've seen five versions of, pre-Crisis), Superboy's first encounters with the Phantom Zone and Kryptonite (which probably contradict the hell out of his first encounters with them as an adult), and the secret origin of the Lana Lang/Lois Lane feud. That last one is some good crazy; as Lana uses a time viewer to get a glimpse of future Superman kissing "that hussy, Lois whoever she is!" Lana goes to surprising lengths to block the young Lois from becoming a reporter and meeting Superman--I say 'surprising,' because Lana stops short of arranging a fatal 'accident.'

Featuring work from Jerry Coleman, Al Plastino, Curt Swan, and more.

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