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"The Great Mento": Before going to a annual photographers masquerade ball, Jimmy Olsen is ordered by Perry White to put the phone-a-scoop tip money into the Daily Planet's wall safe. The guest of honor at the ball is [[Kal-

Quote1 Superman, as punishment for your many brave and worthy deeds, we vote that you be executed! Quote2
Cosmic King

Superman #147 is an issue of the series Superman (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1961.

Synopsis for "The Great Mento"

Before going to a annual photographers masquerade ball, Jimmy Olsen is ordered by Perry White to put the phone-a-scoop tip money into the Daily Planet's wall safe. The guest of honor at the ball is Superman, and as the party progresses, the microphone is taken by a masked man named Mento who claims to have ESP powers that allows him to read others minds. Proving his ability by reading Jimmy Olsen's thoughts, Mento further goes to write down what is apparently Superman's true identity down on a chalk board and shows it only to the Man of Steel. Mento warns Superman that if he interferes with his crimes that he will reveal the Man of Steel's secret identity.

The next day there are a series of spectacular robberies carried out by Mento and his gang. When they attempt to steal a large diamond being put on display by a visiting maharajah, Superman poses as a decoy to try and move the jewel to another location. However, Mento sees through the disguise and orders his men to shoot away Superman's disguise. With his cover blown, Superman is forced to hand the diamond over or risk having his secret identity revealed.

When Mento next attempts to steal the phone-a-scoop money from the Daily Planet's safe, Superman attempts to stop Mento with one of his Superman robots. However, Mento sees through this plot and has come prepared: using a magnet device he destroys the Superman robot. When the real Superman attempts to stop Mento again, he is forced to stop when Mento further threatens to reveal his identity.

With news over Mento's "immunity" to Superman, he calls in a number of big name mobsters including Rocky Sneed to his private boat to plan a major crime spree in Metropolis free of interference from Superman due to Mento's knowledge of his secret identity. The boat is suddenly lifted out of the water by Superman. When the crooks are all captured by Superman, they all demand that they release them or Mento will reveal his identity. When the crooks are all locked up in jail, Mento does reveal a secret identity: his own.

As it turns out, Mento is none other than Perry White, who had devised the identity with Superman in order to trick a number of wanted criminals into coming to Metropolis so that they can be captured. With the crooks in jail, Superman and Perry return to the Daily Planet to tell Lois and Jimmy of their success.

Appearing in "The Great Mento"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Mento
  • Rocky Sneed (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Several gang leaders

Locations:

Items:


Synopsis for "Krypto Battles Titano"

While putting on a show for charity, Superman is shocked to see a giant creature fly into the area. However, knocking it aside Superman reveals it really to be his faithful dog, Krypto playing a trick on him.

Afterward, Superman answers questions at a press conference where he talks about some his greatest foes. He recalls his recent battle against Titano, the ape that was mutated into a giant gorilla that fired beams of Green Kryptonite from it's eyes. Finding the story boring, Krypto goes off to find one of the bones he buried only to find that it was crushed by Titano before Superman sent the ape into the prehistoric past.

Wanting to get back at Titano, Krypto travels into the past to get even. There the Dog of Steel watches Titano battle off a pack of Tyrannosaurus Rex. After the fight, Krypto decides to have fun at Titano's expense by tricking the gigantic ape into attacking it's own reflection and attacks Titano directly. Krypto learns the folly of his plan when he becomes victim to the gigantic ape's Kryptonite vision. Krypto is spared however when the simple minded simian is distracted by a swooping pterodactyl.

Krypto realizes that perhaps it would be better to make peace and befriend Titano instead and wins the simple brutes friendship by bringing him bananas. Their tranquil time together is short lived when aliens invade the Earth and attack the two super-animals. Krypto and Titano manage to destroy both of the probe ships, but Krypto overhears the mothership commanders talk about testing Earth's air to see if it's worth invading. Krypto then sacrifices his newly found friendship with Titano by attacking the beast and goading it to bombard the alien ship with it's Kryptonite rays, causing the aliens oxygen test to read a negative result, prompting them to abandon their invasion endeavors.

With pre-historic Earth protected from invasion, Krypto is forced to return to his own time or risk being killed by Titano's Kryptonite ray. Returning to the present, Krypto still muses that he somehow finds the creature lovable.

Appearing in "Krypto Battles Titano"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Aliens

Items:

Vehicles:

  • Alien space ships

Synopsis for "The Legion of Super-Villains!"

Having earned the right to do repair work in prison, Lex Luthor secretly steals components to build a device that allows him to send messages into the future. Having heard of Superman's previous exploits with the Legion of Super-Heroes in his youth, Luthor deduces that if there is a Legion of Super-Heroes, there must be a Legion of Super-Villains which he could contact to help him break out of prison. Lex's plan works and devices from the future to help break him out of jail are sent from the future, Luthor breaks out and is soon met with the 31st Century's Legion of Super-Villains:

Cosmic King, who can transmute matter with his eye beams; Lightning Lord, brother of the Legion's Lightning Lad who also was bombarded with the lightning powers of an alien beast; and finally Saturn Queen hailing from Saturn just like the Legion's Saturn Girl and has the powers of telepathy, who one day turned evil after years of being an non-criminal on Saturn.

The group team up with Luthor to get revenge on Superman, who at that time was helping build Orphan City, for a bunch of orphans to live in. After the Legion of Super-Villains terrorized the celebrations, they lure Superman into a trap on a planet in the future where he is captured and sentenced to death.

However, before Luthor and the Legion of Super-Villains can pull the lever, the now adult Legion of Super-Heroes arrive and battle their evil counterparts. When the fight comes to a draw, the Legion offers one of their own to die in Superman's place, Saturn Woman volunteering to take his place. As a last wish she asks that Superman create a ring around the planet they are on just like her home world of Saturn. With a ring around the planet, Saturn Queen suddenly becomes good and uses her mental powers to subdue her fellow evil Legionaries and Luthor. Superman reveals to the others that when Saturn Queen revealed why she became evil, Superman deduced that it was possibly due to the fact that she was away from Saturn's rings which has a special property that made Saturians incapable of criminal or evil activity. With the criminals defeated, the good Legion takes their evil counterparts into custody while Superman returns to the present to bring Lex back to the authorities to finish his prison term and he's sure that future court laws will be lenient of Saturn Woman. Luthor attempts to contact the future villains once more, but they are unable to help as they are jailed too.

Appearing in "The Legion of Super-Villains!"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Notes

Trivia

  • Cosmic King says he has the power to change any solid object to something else, however, the first demonstration of his power was turning water into mercury, both liquid materials.
  • The cover to this issue is an homage to the cover of Adventure Comics #247 - the first appearance of the Legion of Super-Heroes.
  • In this story, the Legion and their evil counterparts are said to have come from the 21st Century, when in all previous (and later) Legion stories they state that they come from the 30th Century.


See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References

Superman v.1 147
Adult Legion
This issue takes place in Adult Legion continuity, one of the Possible Futures for the first incarnation of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Whereas regular Legion stories traditionally revolved around Superboy, the Adult Legion stories usually involved the fully grown Superman, taking place in his personal future as well.
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