Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #73

This April 1967 issue of Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane bills itself as the "Shock Story of the Year," and the cover by Kurt Schaffenberger makes it easy to see why — Lois Lane is shown furiously whipping a life-sized Superman marionette (complete with painted clown-like face and dangling strings) while the real Superman lies flat on a table in the foreground, apparently incapacitated. The visual contrast between the puppet Superman looming upright and the genuine Man of Steel helpless below Lois creates a genuinely puzzling and eye-catching tableau that the story title, "The Dummy and the Damsel!," only deepens. Leo Dorfman's script and Schaffenberger's crisp, expressive linework make this one of those Silver Age covers that practically demands you flip to the first page.