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in: Dennis Jensen/Cover Artist, Len Wein/Writer, José Luis García-López/Penciler,
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The Best of DC Vol 1 66

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"Sun-Stroke!": This story is reprinted from DC Comics Presents #4.

The Best of DC #66 is an issue of the series The Best of DC (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1985.

Synopsis for "Sun-Stroke!"

This story is reprinted from DC Comics Presents #4.

Autumn in Metropolis has been unseasonably warm with an enhanced amount of sunlight, sending the people of Metropolis flocking to the beaches. However, things are more dangerous then they appear, as the villain known as Chemo rises from the waters off Metropolis and sends the beach goers fleeing with a blast of chemical fire before storming off toward the city.

In a nearby junkyard, the Metal Men pass the time by playing tennis when they suddenly spot their old foe walking through the city and attempt to stop him. Despite their best efforts, the Metal Men find that their Respondometers have stopped functioning properly and they are easily knocked away by the creature. Wondering what's wrong, they decide to head to S.T.A.R. Labs to see what the scientists there can learn about their malfunctioning powers. While over the ocean, Clark Kent is aboard a new experimental aircraft covering it's test run for WGBS news when suddenly a tornado appears in their flight path. Feigning air sickness, Clark slips into the aircrafts washroom and changes into Superman and rushes out to stop the tornado. His x-ray vision briefly falters before the Man of Steel creates a waterspout to stop the tornado before quickly returning to his civilian guise.

Back in Metropolis, Superman also pays a visit to S.T.A.R. Labs to find out what might have caused his powers to malfunction. He arrives just as the Metal Men are undergoing a test by Janet Klyburn. The Metal Men are happy to finally meet Superman and as they (especially Platinum) gush over the Man of Steel, Janet comes up with the answer behind their malfunctioning abilities. She shows them that the sun is going through abnormal sunspot activity and giving off additional solar radiation, which explains why their powers briefly malfunctioned, pointing out that a magnetic ray from the Earth had caused the initial disturbance. Superman decides to investigate the cause and asks the Metal Men to provide their talents to help him track down it's source, a request that the Metal Men accept unanimously.

Meanwhile, at an abandoned observatory, long time Hawkman foe I.Q. is visited by Chemo, whom the super-intellect is able to control with his superior mind. He explains that after his last capture at the hands of Hawkman and Hawkgirl, he spent his days in prison absorbing solar rays and increasing his intelligence to massive levels. Breaking out of prison he set up shop in the observatory and soon, through calculations, determined that the sun was going to explode if unless bombarded with a magnetic cannon. After doing so, I.Q. rechecked his equations and learned that he made an error and that his magnetic bombardment of the sun only made things worse. Deducing that turning Chemo into a missile and shooting him into the sun would be the only way to stop the coming crisis, he used his superior intellect to call the creature to him for those purposes.

Superman and the Metal Men track the source of the magnetic beam to the observatory and arrive just as I.Q. is about to fire Chemo out into space. Using his super-mind, Superman double checks the calculations and finds that I.Q. is once more in error and that shooting Chemo into the sun will only be worse. He is too late to stop the villain, and is forced to rush into space to intercept the missile. While Superman succeeds, the resulting explosion causes feedback that creates a small army of mini-Chemo's in the observatory. When I.Q. attempts to command them to attack the Metal Men, they use their chemical compositions to change I.Q. into stone. Seeing the many Chemo's as a threat, the Metal Men try to fight them into submission. However, the Chemo army proves to be too strong and they easily defeat the Metal Men before merging into one giant form again. Superman returns from space and begins attacking Chemo until the creature begins reaching critical mass. Superman then grabs the chemical monstrosity and throws it out into space where it explodes harmlessly, and creates a special chemical screen over the Earth that will protect the planet from the bombardment of rays until the sun naturally corrects itself following I.Q.'s magnetic bombardment.

With I.Q. turned over to the authorities, Superman rushes the critically damaged Metal Men back to S.T.A.R. Labs to see if they can repair them. Superman eventually begins to fear the worst and that he Metal Men died in battle, however they pull through and are more alive than ever before -- especially Platinum who is heavily flirtatious with the embarrassed Man of Steel.

Appearing in "Sun-Stroke!"

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Synopsis for "The Prisoner of the Kryptonite Asteroid!"

This story is reprinted from World's Finest #246.

Certain day in Gotham City, the GCPD and Batman are on the trail of a wanted criminal, who finds himself cornered and request to talk to Batman. The Dark Knight agrees and after a brief discussion, Batman is forced to let the criminal go in exchange for a mysterious stone tablet. Batman takes the object for further examination and he calls his friend Superman, who is shocked to learn that the tablet is from Krypton and reveals an untold story about his long-lost twin brother, a misshapen hunchback named Kor-El.

Soon, the world becomes convinced that Superman is responsible for his brother's disappearance, as it seems Kor-El was exiled into space in a Kryptonite asteroid and subsequently blotted out from his memory. Superman is induced to free Kor-El from the asteroid, which kills Superman due to Kryptonite radiation. With the Man of Steel gone, Kor-El is free to take control of Earth and becomes the new ruler of the planet under a vicious dictatorship, calling himself "Big Brother"[1]. The JLA prepare a defense against the evil alien, but their efforts are futile and their only hope is a recently resucitated Superman.

Appearing in "The Prisoner of the Kryptonite Asteroid!"

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  • Kor-El
  • Mad Dog Doyle (First appearance)

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Synopsis for "The Last Hurrah for a Superman?!"

This story is reprinted from World's Finest #247.

During the reign of tyranny of Superman's twin brother, Kor-El, Batman decides to give up. However, when he learns that Superman is still alive, he joins the efforts to take down the madman.

Batman tells Superman that he suspects that Kor-El is not his brohter and is a mere imposter, who somehow managed to learn secrets from Superman's past. Despite the new information, Superman has to confront his "twin brother", but his strength is not enough to defeat his adversary and is instead beaten and taken to prison. In order to help Superman, Batman asks Kor-El for permission to see Superman in prison, before his ultimate execution. The next day, when Superman is about to be killed, he vanishes in front of the shooting squad, baffling Kor-El and his troops. The amazing escape was made possible by The Atom, who switched bodies with Superman during Batman's visit to the Man of Steel in prison.

Meanwhile, Superman and Batman reach the Fortress of Solitude and they continue their investigations on Kor-El and they think of a way to defeat them. Superman decides to turn the tablet that Kor-El used to trick them and transforms it into liquid Kryptonite by replicating the explosion of Krypton and covering the statues of Jor-El and Lara with the chemical.

When Kor-El attends a United Nations' metting to declare himself ruler of the Earth, a couple of representatives of Middle Eastern countries offer him the statues of his parents as a gift. The representatives are really Batman and Superman in disguise and they trick Kor-El into touching the statues. Once in contact with the Kryptonite, Kor-El is weakened and his true identity is revealed. The man is in fact the Parasite, who disintegrates back into the state of dispersed atoms he was reduced to at the end of Superman's and his last encounter.

Once the threat is gone, Batman and Superman reinstate order in America and the world.

Appearing in "The Last Hurrah for a Superman?!"

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  • Atom
  • Ram Drood (Dies)

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Synopsis for "To Live in Peace -- Nevermore!"

This story is reprinted from DC Comics Presents #13.

When a strange alien craft endangers a space capsule in space, Superman goes to the rescue. Seeing the Earth astronauts safe, the Man of Steel follows the alien craft back to its galaxy where he finds that the Nrvynian race is starting a huge intergalactic war. Seeing them as a threat to peace in the universe, Superman decides to get involved, using his super-powers to disarm them and stop their conflict. He is stopped by the Legion of Super-Heroes, who have traveled back in time from the year 2979. They explain to Superman that the coming Nrvynian intergalactic war is a key part of their future, because it spurred the human race to advance their own technology and fight back, winning the war and leading to the era of peace that the Legion exists in. Finding the reality hard to swallow, Superman agrees to not change the future and leaves the scene, allowing the Legion of Super-Heroes to free up the Nrvynian fighters and send them back on their fated course.

Superman returns to Metropolis, where he changes back into Clark Kent and runs into Steve Lombard. Lombard tells Clark that there is someone waiting for him. Clark is surprised to find that it is his old friend from Smallville, Pete Ross. Pete tells Clark that aliens have captured his son Jon and reveals to Clark that he has secretly known he was Superman for years. When Pete shows Clark a drawing of the alien ship that captured Jon, he is shocked to see that it was the same ship that it was the same Nrvynian ship that he saw in Earth space earlier that day. Clark quickly changes into Superman and races off to save Jon, promising Pete that he won't come back until he returns his boy safe and sound.

Meanwhile, the Legion of Super-Heroes, knowing of Jon's abduction, fly down to the surface of Nrvynia and find the boy locked up in a prison cell. They explain to Jon that he is fated to be trained by the Nrvynians to be a soldier, and years into the future he would play a pivotal role liberating the universe and ushering in an era of peace. When they learn that Superman has revealed his identity to the boy, they realize that the Man of Steel might come to rescue him. Sure enough, when they go back out into space they arrive as Superman is coming to liberate Jon. The Legion tries to explain things to Superman, but the Man of Steel refuses to allow Jon to live out the rest of his childhood in captivity. However, it seems that fate has stepped in and no mater how much Superman tries to get to Jon he is stopped.

After being blasted by an alien ship, he is taken aboard the Legion's time bubble where they try and come up with a solution to prevent the Millennium War. When Superman gets the Legion to realize that no other planets in history have records of being attacked by th Nrvynian race, they realize that it could have been a millennium long war game instead. Inspired by this, Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes quickly go to Earth and collect Superman's now defunct Superman robots and set them up in massive space ships to battle the Nrvynians for the next thousand years in order to preserve history without any loss of life. Satisfied with this, the Legion and Superman part company, and Superman returns to Metropolis with the hard task of explaining things to Pete Ross.

When Superman attempts to explain things to Ross, his old friend cannot bring himself to accept the truth of the situation and vows that he will make Superman pay for failing to return his boy home to him.

Appearing in "To Live in Peace -- Nevermore!"

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  • Nrvynians

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Synopsis for "Judge, Jury... and No Justice!"

This story is reprinted from DC Comics Presents #14.

Clark Kent and Lois Lane are at the Metropolis Court House where the Sidecar Bandits, captured months earlier by Superman, stand trial. As they are about to leave the court room for lunch, Clark is suddenly attacked by what appears to be Superboy. Shocked at seeing his younger self in the present with him[2], Clark is knocked into a wall and buried in rubble. Taking this as a cover to change into Superman, the Man of Steel attempts to battle his past self. As the two battle each other, Superboy tells his older counterpart that he has come to seal his doom. When Lois tries to come to Superman's aid from the jury box, this inspires Superboy to try another approach and flies away. Superman, in order to cover for his double identity, appears to go after his younger self but quickly switches back to his Clark Kent identity.

Later, resuming his guise of Superman, the Man of Steel searches around Metropolis for his younger self, wondering how he could possible exist in the same time period. After preventing some disasters he suddenly hears the super-sonic signal of Jimmy Olsen's signal watch and follows it out to the Grand Canyon. There, Superman is struck with a Kryptonite missile that knocks him out. When he revives he finds himself shackled to the canyon with Kryptonite shackles and before his younger self. This Superboy tells Superman that he is going to stand trial for his crimes and reveals a ship containing Perry White, Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Steve Lombard, and Jimmy Olsen to stand as the "jury" for his trial.

Realizing that this person is not his younger self, Superman is surprised that the body of his younger self is possessed by none other than Pete Ross. Ross explains that he wanted to come up with the ultimate revenge against Superman for leaving his son on some alien world and used his contacts to find one of Lex Luthor's old lairs. There he found a device that could not only transport someone out of the past, but allow him to swamp minds with them. Pulling Superboy out of the past and switching minds seemed to be sufficient enough to keep Superboy's body in the present and be used as the ultimate tool of revenge to use against the Man of Steel. However, when "Superboy" orders his captives to judge Superman, he is angered to find that they all find him innocent of any wrong doing. Furious, Pete orders them to change their decision otherwise he will kill them as well.

While at Luthor's old laid, Superboy -- in Pete's body -- manages to break free of his bonds and escape the lair. There he finds that the hideout is located in Smallville and goes looking for the old Kent house. Although it's boarded up and all of his old trophies have been removed, he does find a whistle left on his old dresser that could be useful. While back at he Grand Canyon, Pete becomes angry and decides to eliminate Superman with a Kryptonite missile anyway. With the last of his strength, Superman manages to pull the chains free from the mountain side and fall to safety.

Furious at being denied killing Superman, Pete flies off into space to knock Kryptonite meteors down around the Man of Steel. Superman is unable to break himself free from the Kryptonite bonds to be able to stop him. However, Pete does find opposition in the form of Krypto, who attacks him. Knocked back down to Earth, Pete is shocked to find that Superboy had escaped and freed the others. Now forced to face both a revived Superman and Krypto, Pete tearfully surrenders. Later, back at Luthor's old lab, Superboy explains that the whistle he found was the old super-sonic whistle he used to use to call Krypto when he was a boy. With everything straightened out, Superman uses the device to restore Superboy's mind to his body and return him home to his own era.

While Superboy flies through Smallville in his own era looking to reward Krypto for a job he will do in the future, Superman is grimly determined to help out Pete Ross no matter what.

Appearing in "Judge, Jury... and No Justice!"

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  • Flying saucer prison capsule



See Also

Recommended Reading


Links and References

  1. ↑ An obvious reference to Nineteen Eighty-Four, where the dystopia was ruled by a tyran called Big Brother.
  2. ↑ It's kind of a wishy-washy rule in the Pre-Crisis DC Universe that one could not occupy the same time period as a past or future version of yourself
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