Superman Turns Villain!

 

cover art by Neal Adams

World's Finest #180 (November 1968) starts where #178 had left off (#179 was a reprint issue). Superman has lost his powers; adopted a non-powered hero identity using the name Nova and a different costume; made a mess of things; and got captured by a master criminal named Mr. Socrates.

By the way, Cary Bates continues to write the script, but Ross Andru takes over on the pencils. Perhaps this somehow explains the abrupt color change (blue to red) in Nova's costume. On the other hand, I'm reading digital reprints and perhaps the error came about when the issues were digitally re-colored? 

Anyway, Mr. Socrates plants a mind-control chip into Superman's neck. Despite a brief instance in which Superman breaks free from control, Mr. Socrates is convinced this brief failure can be accounted for and corrected.

Superman has been ordered to kill Batman, but he's still not up to speed in fighting without superpowers. Batman knocks him out and brings him to the Bat Cave.

But this is all a part of Mr. Socrates' plan. Superman escapes and, while Batman and Robin are pursuing him, the villain has used the chip to identify the Bat Cave's location. 

He and his henchmen rig the elevator that comes down from Wayne Manor to explode. That will do away with Batman and Robin next time they use it and leave Mr. Socrates access to all the cool Bat Equipment.

The story  continues to be a strong one and Andru's portayal of the Bat Cave is pretty darn cool. Mr. Socrates plan, examined via the logic of a Comic book Universe, is a good one. Most astute readers, though, will have picked up on his overconfidence in his mind-control chip after it briefly fails. This indeed will be his downfall. 

I like what follows because it shows both Superman and Batman (both without actual powers) using their brains to come out on top. Batman allowed Superman to escape. Superman quickly found Jimmy Olsen and used Jimmy's signal watch to jam the mind-control signals. Batman equipped Superman with a lead collar to permanently jam the signal. The good guys return to the Bat Cave and start going to town on the henchmen. Mr. Socrates panics and tries to escape via the booby-trapped elevator.

Batman tells the henchmen that he will ask Green Lantern to wipe the memory of the Bat Cave's location from their minds and everything is back to normal. Well, almost. Superman still has no powers, but the Caped Crusader will help train him into a proper crimefighter.

As I mentioned last week, making this an "imaginary" story was the perfect decision. This meant that we were not automatically expecting Superman to regain his powers. It left the ending uncertain and even opened the possibility of a tragic ending. This led to a strong, entertaining story that earned its more upbeat conclusion. 

Next week, it's time for the Laff-a-Lympics.