LOIS LANE #64 (1966)
by unknown & Kurt Schaffenberger
The writer is probably Leo Dorfman like in the first part, but I couldn’t find an official source.
But who else would want to continue this story!?
To recap: S.K.U.L. wants to kill Superman and the FBI wants to stop them. Fair enough, but why rely on Lois and Lana instead of calling Superman!?
Sounds legit.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you one of the most egregious examples of the Silver Age stalling for time because the story is too short.
This could only be useful if S.K.U.L.’s base is on Vulcan.
Well that was pointless. Back to insanity!
What is it with Schaffenberger and skeletons!?!?
You know, I’m beginning to think that this comic might be kind of weird.
The Superman-Wolverine crossover isn’t what I expected.
Turns out that S.K.U.L.’s plan all along was to… split Superman in two? WTF!?
I have no freaking clue why that would help anyone, but there’s no time to dwell on it because it turns out that the whip lady was the leader of S.K.U.L. all along!
And Superman was Van Benson? I swear I don’t even know what’s going on anymore.
That is a loooong plan to summarize in two panels, Superman!!!
The S.K.U.L. leader can’t believe that Silver Age stories can get this stupid.
Okay, Weapon X might have failed, but she still has Weapon Y!
We don’t even get to know what “Weapon Y” is.
And so we end with the return to the status quo.
Glad we spent so much time establishing Van Benson.
Historical significance: 0/10
Van Benson has a couple of extremely minor cameos, but this was his most notable story… and he basically didn’t do anything.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
We don’t know if Weapon X was supposed to work, but the very idea that a random criminal organization has that kind of technology is peak Silver Age!
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
I get the distinct feeling that this story is extremely rushed. Which is fine by me because outside of some trippy skeleton action it was rather disappointing!
Stupid Lois Lane moment
Making THIS face when she sees someone shooting at Superman with regular bullets!
That’s no “jumping out of the window to contact Superman”, though.
Can we see that again?
Aaah, it never gets old.