Action Comics #397

A deeply affecting image opens this February 1971 issue: Superman sits hunched in a wheelchair, head in hand, surrounded by photographs and cobwebs, lamenting that Lois is married, Jimmy has moved on, and the world no longer needs him — while a ghostly reflection in a mirror shows him still in his full costume. The cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson perfectly frames the emotional mystery teased in the headline: "Why? What Was the Secret of the Wheel-Chair Superman?" Inside, writer Leo Dorfman and artist Curt Swan (inked by Murphy Anderson) deliver what promises to be a compelling, character-driven tale of a Man of Steel brought low not by kryptonite, but by despair.