Action Comics #508

A battered Superman crashes through an apartment window on the cover of this June 1980 issue, while an older white-haired man exclaims "Who could have done THAT to you — my son?" and a dark-haired woman seated nearby gasps that Superman must therefore be Clark Kent. The cover's breathless banner — "Pa Kent Alive! Superman Beaten! His Identity Revealed!" — sets up what DC was calling the most unforgettable story of the year, and the charged domestic scene penciled by Ross Andru and inked by Dick Giordano absolutely sells that promise. With Cary Bates writing and Curt Swan on interior art, this is a wonderfully tense slice of 1980 Superman storytelling.