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Monday, 26 March 2012

Great covers of our time. Nick Cardy's Superman #274.

Superman grabs his logo as he is stretched like a rubber band and sucked into a hole in the Earth, Nick Cardy cover, #274
Hooray! It's yet another great new feature from Steve Does Comics, the blog that, over the years, has brought us a whole slew of all-time classic features, like, erm, er...

I could claim the concept came to me in a flash of inspiration but the truth is I was going to review the story within but soon realised I didn't have anything to say about it.

It's a pleasant enough tale - even if Superman does save the world by a method that's far-fetched even by his standards.

But the truth is that what really makes the comic memorable is Nick Cardy's cover. Who couldn't be sucked in by the sight of Superman being sucked in?

Just to add drama to it he's crushing his own logo, a good six years before Dark Phoenix thought to do the same on the front of X-Men #135.

Probably the cover's only failing is the presence of Superman serenely flying along above the masthead. Is that figure by Neal Adams? It's a nice enough picture but the cover would've benefited from it being removed so the main image could reach right up to the top of the page.

8 comments:

  1. Kid26 March 2012 at 23:37

    Interestingly, although ol' Supes is clutching onto the original Ira Schnapp logo, the 'u' seems to have a curve to it rather than the angled edges which had graced the cover since around issue #7. As you'll know, the logo was revised in the early '80s and the 'u', 'p' and 'r' were all rounded off.

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  2. John27 March 2012 at 12:28

    Love how they call it a FULL LENGTH SUPER-NOVEL when it's just a 20-page comic.

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  3. B Smith28 March 2012 at 07:58

    He's being sucked in?

    I only ever saw this cover on one of those "ten covers showing this month's issues" pages and thought he was flying out (the text was too small to read)

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  4. Steve W.28 March 2012 at 09:37

    Yep. In the story, a scientist's created a space wormhole device that, if it's not held completely still, will suck the whole of the Earth into a black hole type thing and kill us all.

    Needless to say it's not held completely still and, needless to say, Superman saves the day...

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  5. La Belle Esplanade29 March 2012 at 05:03

    Nice catch.

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  6. Steve W.29 March 2012 at 08:30

    Thanks, Whalehead King. :)

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  7. Anonymous3 November 2016 at 04:07

    The Superman figure above the masthead was on the covers of #256-#275, IIRC. It appears to be reproduced from the wraparound cover of Superman #252. Which was by Neal Adams.

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  8. Steve W.3 November 2016 at 08:32

    Thanks for the info, Anon.

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