Web user trying to track down story

[Great Rao]

We recently received the following request:

I have a question that emerges from my memory of an old Superman comic that I read as a child in the 1970s.

It involves Superman doing battle with a mysterious airplane that could shape-shift and become any other object--like a telephone booth, or a car, etc.

The airplane, if memory serves, had an intelligence and could communicate.

At any rate, it captured my imagination as a child, and yet I cannot remember in which Superman title the story appeared.

Does it ring any bells?

[wimted]

Yes, this does ring some bells. As a kid I was fascinated by this shape-shifting story.  Although it was published in in my country (The Netherlands) in Dutch Superman #28 (1973), it is this story:

The Dagger That Ripped the Sky   
published in Superman # 256 (sept 1972)

See this link on comics.org for a cover etc:
www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=25417

Please let me know if this is indeed the story you're looking for

Wimted

www.superman-comics.nl

[davidelliott]

The Dagger That Ripped the Sky   
published in Superman # 256 (sept 1972)

See this link on comics.org for a cover etc:
www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=25417

Interesting that one of the characters involved is Mickey Moran (aka the UK's Marvelman)... I would love to read that story!

[Permanus]

Interesting that one of the characters involved is Mickey Moran (aka the UK's Marvelman)... I would love to read that story!

Kimota!

[Super Monkey]

Wimted gets a fabulous No-Prize!

Superman No. 256
September 1972
Cover: Mickey Moran filming Clark Kent being exposed as Superman by Zeena //Nick Cardy
Story: “The Dagger That Ripped the Sky” (17 pages)
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Writer: Cary Bates
Penciller: Curt Swan
Inker: Murphy Anderson
Feature Character: Superman (last appearance in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #213)
Supporting Character: Morgan Edge (last appearance in ACTION COMICS #415; next appears in SUPERMAN’S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #154)
Intro: People of Bent Fork, a general (only appearance for all)
Villain: Dr. John Novil (first appearance; dies in this story)
Synopsis: Superman must deal with the menace of Dr. John Novil, a scientist who has transferred his mind into the body of a fighter jet of his own design which can morph into any metallic shape he desires.

http://darkmark6.tripod.com/supermanind5.htm