I would've sworn this had been reprinted recently...This month, Clark Kent and Steve Lombard get called onto the carpet by their crabby boss Morgan Edge, since ratings were down; probably because WMET News has what's very obviously Walter Cronkite! (Hmm, with the "Piker's Peak" reference yesterday, this makes two straight posts with 'kronkites.' Weird.) Clark's at a loss what to do about that, then gets suckered in another of Lombard's petty tricks to impress new girls. But, taking a spin in WGBS's "flying newsroom," he's there in time to see the Metro bridge collapsing, and after setting up automatic cameras, to switch to Superman and save it. Clark gets the story put together just in time to make the live broadcast, which Edge watches with one of their sponsors: Edge is puzzled, since Kent was clumsy, late, and badly dressed, yet somehow the consummate professional when on the air. He'd be more impressed, if he had been in on another Lombard 'joke,' as Steve nicks Clark's script during a break, thinking he would panic and stammer, but Clark carries on perfectly, of course having already memorized all the lines!
Over the next few days, Superman seems to be all over the place, making the news constantly. When he was going to appear at a charity function, Edge says he'll have Lombard take that softball, to give Kent a break: arriving as Superman, he notices Steve "showing rare ingenuity" with a high shot, away from the other cameramen. Supes was there to squeeze a lump of coal into a diamond for charity, but as he does Lombard becomes dizzy, then crashes the scene, as a diamond monster, there for revenge!
Steve blasts Superman with eye beams, to turn him into a diamond as well; and Supes realizes Steve had been changed, because of the radiation he'd taken for his bum knee (save me some!) in his debut in Superman #264. (We don't have that one, but we saw the DC Comics Presents cover version of it!) Superman had also subconsciously been causing disasters, which he then stopped to improve ratings...I feel like that needed to be unpacked more, but no time: turning diamond himself, Superman has to punch diamond-Lombard so hard it knocks the radiation out of him...yeah, I know, but they were running out of pages...and Lombard returns to normal. Still, Clark gets him in the end, switching his script at a test run, for nursery rhymes. (I do like that Lombard managed to make it into the last Superman movie, as a tool, but maybe not a bad guy. Like he'd probably do the right thing...eventually.)
The lead feature, despite the striking cover, is maybe shorted a bit; to make room for a "Life of Clark Kent" back-up, "The Last Headline" (Written by Martin Pasko, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Tex Blaisdell.) Edge gives Kent a new assignment, that he specifically doesn't want: a documentary, capping the career of editor Perry White, before he was forced into retirement at age 65. White absolutely didn't want to retire, but Edge had wanted to get rid of him, probably because he was among the few to stand up to him. White had been tasked with tailing an embezzler, that he had put away years ago: the money had never been recovered. Kent gets it on camera, with a brief aside to 'accidentally' knock out the embezzler's partner; as White blocks three bullets with a garbage can lid like he was Captain America, then pulls the embezzler out of the collapsing building! Later, Edge watches the rough cut of Kent's documentary, which features Kent addressing him directly: Perry shouldn't be forced to retire...and the entire staff of the Planet would walk if he did. Edge acquiesces, although it's probably still obvious he's not thrilled about it; and Perry gives Clark a nod of gratitude, before getting back to work.
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