In Which Superman is Busy Being Murdered

Superman #269 gives us more of the rivalry between Steve Lombardi and Clark Kent.  And it doesn't exactly bring out the best in Clark.  Thusly:

Yes.  Clark violently knocked Steve unconscious to he could go off and be Superman.  Sure, he could have done something less brutal but... you know, Steve insults Clark's manhood so anything goes.  That's just basic Bro Code, folks.

But this is disturbing:

Lady, if you're going to vamp on a guy while wearing a mini-skirt, could you maybe leave your elderly mother and small daughter at home?  I'm all in favor of women asserting themselves, but you can see that little girl is already picking up some... techniques... that you may not want your small daughter to have.  I'm not sure if I should be calling Child Protective Services or To Catch a Predator.

Anyway, Superman loses his powers yet again.  To this guy:

Yeah.  Barnum put Superman's powers into puppets so they could put their powers into Barnum.  How?  No one's talkin'.  But this was some awesome dialogue:

You are about to become too busy... too busy being murdered!

Yeah, that's a great one.  The only thing that was missing was a twirling of the mustache as he said it.

Anyway, Superman cheats or something and it really doesn't solve anything because Barnum doesn't lose the whole "stealing powers" thing.  So, Barnum could start the whole process over after a good night sleep and a balanced breakfast.  But apparently Barnum would rather just stew in prison for a while because that's what happens.

Yeesh.

See you tomorrow!