Superman #421 – “Imp TV” – Cary Bates/Curt Swan/Dave Hunt
This one starts with various people (Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Lana Lang) seeing a disturbing sight on their televisions … Superman lying unconscious in a strange room. Turns out Superman’s plight is being broadcast on every network and cable channel in the vicinity. As Superman’s friends gather at the Galaxy Building, they speculate on who could be behind this. Their curiosity is soon satisfied when Mr. Mxyzptlk appears on the TV to claim responsibility. Meanwhile, Superman wakes up inside the strange
chamber and realizes Mxyzptlk is to blame for him being there. But Mxyzptlk manifests in one of the floor tiles, claiming to be as much a victim as Superman. Mxyzptlk crawls out of the tile, but Superman doesn’t believe him when he asserts his innocence. Things get weirder when Jimmy shows up inside a mirror, dressed in some kind of punk S&M outfit. Mxyzptlk shatters the mirror and tells Superman not to be too sad over Jimmy’s fate. Sure enough, the mirror reforms and Jimmy attacks Superman, using his signal watch to send a solid sound effect. (By which I mean the “zee-zee-zee” sound that Jimmy’s watch makes turns into actual letters that try to impale the Man of Steel.) 
Superman still thinks Mxyzptlk is behind everything and wishes he could wring his neck. That’s when Lana appears (in a wild fetish outfit) and puts Myxzptlk on a leash, forcing him to act like a dog. Superman’s heat vision burns up the solid letters (and the fake Jimmy) and he confronts Lana just as Mxyzptlk is pulled into the dog dish. Lana tries to tell Superman what’s going on, but she suddenly transforms into a monster and takes off. Superman drags Mxyzptlk out of the dog dish and finds out another imp named Nzykmulk (Mxyzptlk’s cousin) is using magic to manipulate both of them. In the real world, the conversation between Superman and Mxyzptlk isn’t broadcast
because of “technical difficulties”, which makes Jimmy and Lois suspect somebody doesn’t want them to hear what’s being said. In the magical realm, Mxyzptlk explains that his cousin is nuts and his “pranks” could end up killing them. Perry White shows up, looking like he’s going to a leather bar, and starts tossing magical cigars that are strong enough to hurt Superman (who’s vulnerable to magic). Mxyzptlk takes out the fake Perry with an exploding cigar, but Lois shows up (also dressed pretty funky) and kicks his ass. (I think these characters’ outfits are supposed to be punk/new wave, but most of them look more like fetish gear; Lois is the exception … she kinda looks like 
a cross between Joan Jett and Dale Bozzio.) The fake Lois puts the moves on Supes, but gets disintegrated by the fake Clark Kent (who looks like Falco). Superman goes after “Clark” and when he rips the shades off Clark’s face, he sees Clark has no eyes. Mxyzptlk is confronted by Nzykmulk, but before the imp can blow him away, the fake Clark shows up and asks if he can do it. Of course, it’s really Superman and he knocks Nzykmulk out, which brings everything back to normal. Superman explains that removing “Clark’s” shades rendered him powerless for some reason, so Supes just took his outfit as a disguise. Mxyzptlk says he’ll take Nzykmulk back to the asylum and tells Superman he has a new appreciation for the harm his magic can cause. Superman gets home in time to get a call from Lois; Clark tells her he was reading a book and missed the big show on TV.
Action #581 – “Superman for a Day” – Cary Bates/Kurt Schaffenberger
This one starts with a kid named Mark Traynor at STAR Labs to have his esper abilities tested. The doctor in charge (Yarnell) tells Mark to find something to focus on while they measure his mental output and Mark decides to concentrate on Superman, who he just say fly past the window. Mark projects his mind outward and ends up inside Superman’s head, controlling him while he saves a sinking boat. Mark is enjoying being Superman and gets a surprise when Supes heads to the Galaxy Building. Mark is seeing everything through Superman’s eyes (and that’s the point of view we get too, which is kinda cool) and soon realizes
Superman is really Clark Kent. Clark and Lois are assigned to interview Dr. Yarnell about his esper research (how’s that for a coincidence?) and head over to STAR Labs. Yarnell is having trouble figuring out what’s going on with Mark and allows Lois and Clark to see the experiment. Yarnell explains that the monitor shows everything Mark can see while projecting his mind, but on a one-hour delay. As soon as Clark sees the boat rescue, he realizes Mark is inside his head and he’s got less than an hour to protect his secret identity. Yarnell explains to Lois that Mark has merged his mind with Superman’s, but doesn’t know how to break the merge. After confirming that Mark’s mind is merged with 
his, Super heads to STAR Labs and tells Yarnell he has a way to separate their minds … using his will-power to break the mental link. That makes Mark pass out but when he wakes up, he’s still inside Superman’s mind. Superman confronts some aliens who claim they can blow up Metropolis, killing everybody in the city except one person. The bomb goes off and the sole survivor turns out to be Mark, who freaks out seeing himself when he knows his mind is still inside Superman. That causes him to break the link and Superman leaves a post-hypnotic suggestion in Mark’s mind to bury Mark’s knowledge of his secret identity.
“Even a Superman Needs a Lawyer” – Michael J. Wolff/Kurt Schaffenberger/Dave Hunt
This is a goofy story about a lawyer named Douglas Giddings, who takes
care of various legal things for Superman, making sure he doesn’t get sued for destroying stuff when helping people, and that nobody is ripping off his name to make a buck. I have no problem with the idea in general, but Giddings is shown rushing to the scene when Superman stops some bank robbers, taking photos and getting witness statements to protect Superman from later liability. I find it hard to believe Giddings goes out to every crime scene with Superman and does all this shit … talk about a full-time job. And apparently he’s doing it for free (because Superman saved his life eight years ago), so how does he make a living?
DC Comics Presents #95 – “The Big Kill” – Tony Isabella, Alan Gold/Richard Howell/Murphy Anderson
This story takes place during the Crisis and is basically just a set-up for the new Hawkman series that came out right after Crisis. It starts with a guy named Kasta (who apparently likes killing lawmen, especially Thanagarian hawk-police) going to a black hole to siphon energy into himself. On Earth, Superman detects the disturbance in the black hole and wonders if it’s Mongul who’s responsible. By the time Superman arrives to check it out, Kasta’s ship has gone through a space warp, but his tampering with the black hole has left it full of energy that’s so intense even Superman can’t handle it. Superman heads back to Earth and Kasta orders his ship to follow,
even though their mission is to collect various energies and take them back to Thanagar. Kasta wastes the captain when he protests and insists the ship head for Earth. On Earth, Hawkman gets a visit from Gentleman Ghost, who warns him about Kasta’s imminent arrival and that he’s hunting Superman. Hawkman decides he’d better find Supes and help him since he knows how dangerous Kasta is. Hawkman finds Kasta observing Superman (saving a boat from a tornado) and jumps him, but Kasta’s power is too much for him. Superman shows up to stop Kasta from killing Hawkman, but Supes finds Kasta’s black hole power overwhelming. Hawkman saves Superman and the two of them keep Kasta on the run until Hawkman drags him into the heart 
of the tornado. For some reason, the tornado keeps Kasta from using his power (maybe he can’t breathe inside it) and Hawkman tells Supes that the Thanagarians will pick Kasta up and take him home to prison. Turns out Hawkman isn’t being totally honest with Superman: there are Thanagarian warriors who have sworn to enslave Earth and can use the Absorbascon to read minds, giving them enough of an edge over Earth’s heroes that they could kill them. So Hawkman (and Hawkwoman) are waging a “shadow war” against these Thanagarians and keeping their friends in the dark. Meanwhile, Kasta forces the ship to return to the black hole so he can siphon more energy, but he kills so many of the crew that he ends up drifting in space beside the black hole … waiting for a chance at revenge.
Justice League of America #252 – “Arrival” – Gerry Conway/Luke McDonnell/Bill Wray
This one starts with Despero crashing to Earth and wasting a hunter in the woods after absorbing everything in his mind. Despero learns that the original JLA has disbanded, so he decides to take his revenge on the new team. In New York, Zatanna tries to stop Adam (the cult leader who kidnapped her) from using the blood he took from her to gain magical powers. Adam had a headband fitted on Zatanna that causes so much pain she can’t concentrate to use her spells. She manages to find the lab where Adam is being transformed, but his brainwashed followers grab her before she can interrupt the process. In Gotham, Bruce Wayne and Mari McCabe (Batman and Vixen) are out on a date when a lava
spout erupts in the park. They quickly change to their costumed identities and when he realizes Despero is behind the lava eruption, Batman signals the rest of the team. Despero can read Batman’s mind and is vastly more powerful, but Batman still manages to get a punch in. Vixen knocks Despero into the lava, but it doesn’t faze him at all. Despero explains that he’s technically no longer a living being, so he can’t be killed. The rest of the JLA head to Gotham, which has been surrounded on three sides by a huge wall of fire, and is blocked on the fourth side by an invisible force field. The JLA drop in past the force field and encounter a vibrational barrier, which Vibe takes down easily. They end up face to face with the new Despero, who’s ready to obliterate them.