It takes four, five guys, to beat Terra-Man this month? C'mon.

A massively chewed-up quarter bin copy today: from 1977, Action Comics #470, "Even Superman Must Die Sometime!" Written by Cary Bates, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Tex Blasdell.

The issue begins with a Superman costume being thrown away--traditionally, the costume goes in a garbage can. Or eBay. Superman actor Gregory Reed throws his costume off a cliff, since he's out of a job: Superman had just been killed, gunned down by Terra-Man! Back in Metropolis, the Planet staff is taking it pretty hard, especially since T-M is leisurely moseying--er, flying--around town. But while he had put a force-field around the city to keep everyone else out, that doesn't stop the Flash from getting through and attempting to "even the score." The strangely quiet Terra-Man launches Flash speeding backwards: no one's sure quite how, since he had a vast repertoire of alien tricks and gadgets. Green Lantern then joins Flash, as an alien saucer arrives over the city; and we're treated to a couple possible clues as a beat cop repeatedly gives a bum the hassle.

Things are even more complicated: Superman wasn't dead at all (duh) but had somehow been transformed to look like Terra-Man! The alien saucer belongs to the brother of the alien pirate who gave T-M his knowledge and gear, then was killed by him: in fairness, I think the pirate had abducted Terra-Man, so he wasn't exactly an innocent there. Supes realizes Terra-Man's scheme, to get him killed in his place. Meanwhile, Gregory stares at his latex Superman mask--he looked pretty close to Supes, I don't know why the mask would be necessary--and fantasizes about taking the alien saucer down with Superman's powers. Which is exactly what happens, then Terra-Man shows up to for-real kill Superman this time--which prompts the beat cop to unmask, since he was the real Terra-Man hiding out! Flash and GL had helped Gregory take out the saucer as "Superman," then still looking like Terra-Man, the real Superman had confronted him to draw out the "Cosmic Cowboy."

There are way too many unmaskings this issue; I can only hope Lois kisses the real one in the end!

Ren & Stimpy panels from the Ren & Stimpy Show #5, "Commander Höek and Cadet Stimpy vs. the Croco-Men from Planet Zed!" Written by Croco-Dan Slott, art by Croco-Mike Kazaleh. A surprising amount of Ren & Stimpy jokes I remember are from the comic.