from Super DC Calendar 1976 (DC, 1975), letters by Ben Oda
You should be worried about this. What if Superman did not survive this tension-filled, angst-driven, cheese-and-onion flavored battle to the death? Let's watch. How bad could it be? It's got a Neal Adams cover!
cover of Superman (1939 series) #249 (DC, March 1972), pencils and inks by Neal Adams, letters by Gaspar Saladino
Most old-timey cowboy villains challenge you to a shoot-out at high noon (hey! That would be a great title for a western film). Not Terra-Man, I can tell you! This guy shows up at dawn roarin' ready to take down the Man of Steel before breakfast time. Terra-Man: he does more before 9:00 than you do all day!
from "The Challenge of Terra-Man" in Superman #249; script by Cary Bates, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Murphy Anderson
Now's as good a time as any to tell you that yes, I do have a certain amount of respect for Terra-Man as a character — he's visually and script-wise a fun character. Where else in comics do you get a Pegasus-riding hombre? And yes, he's rough and tough and strong and powerful, but I submit this to you: he really shouldn't be a match for Superman. I don't know about future Terra-Man stories, but this first one handicaps Supes straight from the start by giving him a debilitating birth-spell that weakens and screws up his superpowers. It's something that a Kryptonian only suffers every six Kryptonian years, so it's like Superman's pon farr, except without all the sexy energy or with Kal-El fighting Jimmy Olsen to the death in an arena, which, hey, now that I think of it, would make a dandy story.
So for a few pages here it looks like Supes is doomed, as Terra-Man no-sells his every attack. What a shame for Superman to die in this issue, cancelling the series only one comic from big anniversary issue #250. And we never saw Superman again.
Of course, as these stories always end, Superman rips his head off or chops him in half or sends him to Arkham Asylum and it's all over. Or...is it?
Yes. It's over for today, June 23, at least. Adios!
I don't recall this story as well as the backup that followed, because that was reprinted in a Secret Origins of Super-Villains tabloid I read to pieces as a kid. I do, however, remember being awfully surprised when Terra-Man was later revealed to be the brother of Geo-Force-Woman, taken under the wing of Deathstroke-Guy.
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