Friday, August 17, 2007

40 Years Ago Today From DC Comics -- Superboy #142

Superboy #142 (On Sale: August 17, 1967) sports a cover by Curt Swan and George Klein. Purple Gorilla Alert! Purple Gorilla Alert!

"Superboy Goes Ape" is written by E. Nelson Bridwell, penciled by George Papp and inked by Frank Springer. Superboy is exposed to Red Kryptonite. This time he is transformed into a monkey and is forced to work for an organ grinder. Lana buys a license for him and gains ownership. She intends to expose Superboy's secret identity, but before she can act a secondary effect of the Red Kryptonite causes Superboy to grow into a giant ape that menaces Smallville.

Miles away, Beppo the Super-Monkey sees Superboy with his super-vision. He comes to fight the super-ape, but is also exposed to the same piece of Red Kryptonite. Beppo changes into a double of Superboy possessing his intelligence too.

The second Superboy story, "The Shyest Boy in Town" is a reprint from Superboy #80 by Robert Bernstein and John Sikela. The school psychologist is worried about Clark Kent’s shy behavior, so she encourages the students and teachers to help build Clark’s confidence. Clark, wanting to maintain his shy personality to protect his dual identity, sabotages the attempts made to bolster his confidence.

After the students enlist Superboy to aid them with their campaign to help Clark, Clark shows up at school a changed person. He acts overconfident and downright rude to his fellow students. They realize that they miss the old Clark and despise his new personality.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.

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