Superman #419 – “The Man Who Murdered Evil” – Elliot S! Maggin/Curt Swan/Dave Hunt
This story gets into some metaphysical ideas about good and evil. It’s narrated by a guy called Iago, who serves some greater master of evil (who isn’t shown, but from the hints it looks like Satan). Iago was once a human named Arnie Alpert, a very nice person who went out of his way to help people and was kind and charitable to everyone. Apparently Superman’s computers determined that there was an intelligence behind all the evil Superman had been fighting over the years
and he tracked down Iago’s predecessor (Blue-eyes). When Superman was pursuing Blue-eyes, the servant of evil ran into Arnie Alpert and Satan switched all of Blue-eyes’ evil into Arnie, thinking it fun to corrupt someone so pure. Arnie mutated into the twisted demon Iago and after studying Superman for a long time, came up with a plan to get rid of him. Using his powers of disguise, Iago talks Alice Herman (the scientist from Action 571) into aiding a jailbreak, and pushes the Daily Eagle into writing a bunch of editorials trashing Superman. When he hears about the prison break, Superman heads out to stop it, running into Alice’s yeast-based tricks. (She’s figured out a way to create pseudo-life with spores … or something like that.) Superman uses plutonium to kill the trees Alice brings to life, but 
Iago causes Alice to inhale her own spores, turning her into a living tree that grabs Superman. Iago figures Superman will use the plutonium on Tree-Alice and that knowingly killing a human being will cause Superman more pain than anything else. Superman doesn’t know about Iago’s manipulations, but he chooses not to use the plutonium, knocking Tree-Alice out so he can put her in suspended animation in his Fortress while he looks for a cure. It turns out that Alice’s yeasty concoctions only have a temporary effect on animals, so she soon turns human again. When the bystanders ask Superman how he knew that would happen, he says he didn’t know, but if you do what seems right things will usually work out. Later, we see Iago reporting to his hellish boss that he hasn’t given up on defeating Superman.
Action #579 – “Prisoners of Time” – R.J.M. L’Officier/Keith Giffen/Bob Oksner
This is a take-off on the French comic Asterix, although the title hero never actually appears. It starts with Jimmy Olsen trying to make time with a woman named Karen, who’s showing him around the museum. She shows him an ancient Roman shield (the Arverne Shield) that’s almost 2000 years old. When thieves break in to steal the Shield, Jimmy signals Superman who shows up and pounds the thieves. In the fight, Jimmy breaks the Shield and Karen isn’t too happy with him. He asks Superman if there’s any way to replace it, but Supes tells him even time-travel won’t work, since retrieving the Shield from earlier in
time would mean it was never there to get broken in the first place. Back in the year 253 A.D., the Romans have retreated and Gaul has become the Gallic Empire, except one small area that’s been resisting all conquest since 50 B.C. There’s a Gaulish village there where a certain Druid has come up with a potion to confer super-strength, which is why the Romans couldn’t conquer them, although a small bunch of Romans are trapped in the area, in an uneasy peace with the Gauls. (Anyone familiar with Asterix will know exactly what I’m talking about.) A hedge-wizard named Prolifix has heard rumours of the secret potion and offers to help the local centurion get rid of the Druid, 
leaving the village open to defeat. The centurion sends Prolifix and some “volunteers” into the forest around the village. They find the Druid, but he’s guarded by the giant warrior Columnix (whose face we never see, but is obviously meant to be Obelix). Columnix pounds the Romans and when they get back to camp, Prolifix decides they need help. He uses his magic to pull a champion (Superman) from the future and to enslave his mind. The spell also pulls Jimmy back in time, but he lands elsewhere and ends up being taken to Asterix’s village. King Flickmybix (Abraracoucix in the original) tells Jimmy he’ll help look for Superman. The Druid asks Jimmy about what’s happening in the outside world and realizes that his magic has kept the
village (and the few nearby Romans) in a state of suspension. The Druid knows it’s time for him to move on and let his people catch up with the times. The Druid wants to let the Romans know too and Jimmy and Columnix volunteer to go along, Jimmy being given Asterix’s old outfit to wear. (We also learn that Obelix … er, I mean Columnix, still has a taste for wild boar.) When they approach the Romans, the enslaved Superman comes out to fight them and ends up going toe-to-toe with Columnix. Jimmy drinks the potion and pounds the Romans, but Superman is too strong so they end up surrendering. Prolifix orders the Druid to whip up some strength potion and the druid agrees, but says he 
needs Jimmy’s help. When the potion is done, Prolifix and the centurion are both scared to test it in case the Druid sabotaged it, so they order the invulnerable Superman to drink it first. That’s just what the druid was counting on and the potion he brewed frees Superman from Prolifix’s control. The Gauls end up attacking the Romans, but Superman stops the fight and tells them the roman Empire has fallen and they’re technically all part of the same nation now. That ends their hostilities and Jimmy takes a shield to replace the one he broke in the museum.
DC Comics Presents #93 – “That’s the Way the Heroes Bounce” – Paul Kupperberg/Alex Saviuk/Kurt Schaffenberger
This one starts with a prologue showing a shady dude named Skizzle Shanks doing something strange in an abandoned chemical plant. Shanks has set up a vat of chemicals and shoots himself so he’ll fall against the vat and get covered in its contents. Sound familiar? A few days later, masked thugs show up at the Daily Planet wanting Jimmy Olsen’s elastic formula. (Jimmy has a sample on hand that he was taking to STAR Labs.) Jimmy signals for Superman, but Ralph (Elongated Man) Dibny shows up instead to take out the thieves. (Ralph just happened to be in the building for an interview.)
Ralph wonders how these thugs knew Jimmy had his serum on hand and they go to Jimmy’s office to check it out. Right before they get there, we see an elastic finger slither through the window and steal some of Jimmy’s formula, pouring something from a vial into what’s left. Jimmy tells Ralph he has the perfect place to hide the formula—in his stomach. Jimmy drinks the formula, saying STAR Labs can just use a blood sample for analysis. Superman shows up and isn’t happy that Jimmy used the formula, since it usually gets him in trouble. They hear gunshots from the street, so Superman and Ralph check it out. Some guy 
robbed a jewelry store and just disappeared in an alley. The store owner says the guy just came out of nowhere, but Plastic Man squeezes from inside the safe, demonstrating how the crook could’ve done it … if he had super-stretching powers. They hear a scream and see a stretchy guy trying to slip through a manhole. Superman busts right through the pavement to chase him, but he eludes Supes in the sewers. The same stretchy crook (or maybe a different one, it’s not clear) attacks Ralph and Plastic Man in the alley. The stretchy villain gives them quite a fight before escaping, leaving them all to wonder who he is and how he got his powers. Later, Ralph discusses the case with Sue and they’re so distracted they don’t notice a stretchy hand come through the window and
pour something into Ralph’s Gingold (which is the drink that gives him his stretching ability). Superman and Plastic Man are out on patrol when they discover two of the stretchy crooks robbing a bank. They chase the thieves to the building where Ralph and Sue are having dinner, but the three heroes end up getting in each other’s way, allowing the stretchy crooks to get away (after one of them tosses some liquid in Plastic Man’s face). Later, Ralph, Jimmy, and Plas all take off like they were hypnotized … which they kinda are. The stretchy mastermind behind everything is Skizzle Shanks and he put something in the various formulae to allow him to control the stretchy heroes. Skizzle is 
the old partner of Eel O’Brian (aka Plastic Man) and got his powers by recreating the accident that gave Plas his stretching ability. Now Skizzle wants to rob Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and figures stretching powers will help him do it. Skizzle and his mesmerized minions get inside the Fortress, but Superman is waiting for him. Turns out Supes analyzed the stuff thrown at Plastic Man and came up with an antidote, so nobody was actually hypnotized. Skizzle tries to fight, but his powers have worn off because he used slightly different chemicals to recreate Plas’s accident.
Justice League of America #250 – “The Return of the Justice League of America” – Gerry Conway/Luke McDonnell/Bill Wray
This one starts with various ex-JLA members (Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary) getting emergency alerts from the old Secret Sanctuary, which surprises them since the place has been abandoned for years. Of course we know (from last issue) that the weird alien spore Gypsy found (and christened Junior) has mutated into a humanoid and is draining the life forces of the new JLA. Sue Dibny just managed to trigger the alert before she was overcome. The vintage JLAers arrive at their old headquarters to find the new team near death, but they
manage to revive Gypsy, who was having weird fever dreams about an idyllic suburban life (possibly her actual life before she ran away and ended up on the streets). Gypsy tells them about Junior, but isn’t sure why she’s revived and the others haven’t. Batman says their top priority is finding Junior, so they split up to look around. In New York, Zatanna visits the marina looking for her friend Sherri, who’s disappeared from the apartment she sub-let from Zatanna. Zatanna finds Sherri on a yacht, but the whole thing is a trap and Zatanna is knocked out. Sherri seems to have joined a cult led by a guy named Adam, who needs Zatanna for something. In the Secret Sanctuary, Green Lantern 
gets drained by Junior, but Green Arrow forces Junior to flee with a stun arrow. Gypsy speculates to Black Canary that her strange powers might have helped her recover and she’s feeling guilty about her friends still being near death (especially since they warned her about trusting Junior). Batman and Superman find the records J’onn was examining and realize Junior was brought back accidentally from another planet and is now feeding on whatever life forms he can. Junior attacks, but Batman and Superman get away. When everyone confers, they realize that Junior is a telepathic vampire, draining life force mentally. (Since Gypsy’s powers are telepathic, she was able to recover from Junior’s attack.) Batman knows they can’t just kill Junior, since the JLAers’ life forces are inside the alien, but he has an idea how to
save their friends and stop Junior. They tempt Junior to follow them, leading him to an electrical grid where all the energy is drained from him and channelled through Superman back into the JLA. Junior withers and dies, while the JLA revives. Afterwards, J’onn suggests the new League could use some guidance and asks Batman to come back and lead it. Batman is reluctant, but finally agrees … although he apparently has his own reasons for doing so. It’s not clear if everybody is rejoining the League, or just Batman; I guess we’ll see next issue. There’s an epilogue with Despero on Kalanor being “reborn” (and repowered) from the Flame of Py’tar and swearing vengeance on the JLA.