DC Comics Presents #9 Invasion of the Ice People!

Issue Description

Clark Kent and Lois Lane are on assignment to interview master sculptor, Anton Lupescu. Apologetically, Lupescu backs out of the interview. As if in a trance, Lupescu returns to his work, adding the finishing touches on a towering figure, carved entirely from ice. Upon completion, Lupescu walks back inside, and collapses. Revived, Lupescu speaks with newfound clarity. Just as he is about to reveal the horrific truth about his giant ice sculpture, it's icy hand crashes into the room, grabbing him. The impact hurls Kent backwards down a flight of stairs. Kent uses his falling momentum to cover his switch to Superman. Lupescu's ice sculpture carries him to the edge of a cliff, and throws him over. Superman uses his super-breath to draw up the fallen snow into an enormous drift, which provides Lupescu a gentler impact. Superman carries Lupescu back to his home, allowing the ice sculpture to escape into the frozen landscape. It reappears at the Metropolis International Airport, destroying everything in it's path. It's psychic screams overwhelm the passengers of a landing plane. Only one passenger, Diana Prince, is able to resist the telepathic assault. Prince races to the plane's lavatory, switches into her guise as Wonder Woman, then kicks through the floor to exit the plane.

The giant ice sculpture uses it's psychic abilities to lower the temperature around it to sub-zero levels. Superman arrives, and melts the sculpture's arm off with his heat vision. The sculpture bats Superman away with it's remaining arm, while simultaneously growing a new appendage. Wonder Woman loops her Lasso of Truth around the sculpture., but it proves immune to the Lasso's power. Ignoring Wonder Woman's commands, the sculpture grabs the lasso, and uses it to throw Wonder Woman across the tarmac. Superman shatters the sculpture into thousands of pieces. The shards quickly coalesce back into the sculpture. Suddenly, dozens of the sculpture forms on the tarmac, each moving off in a different direction. Superman attacks one, only to discover that it is merely an illusion, as are all the rest, covering the sculpture's escape. Superman sees to Wonder Woman, then the pair head to Lupescu's home for answers. They find Lupescu's housekeeper, Mrs. Quinch, sprawled unconscious on the floor. Revived, she reveals that Lupescu has been under the influence of an alien from the planet Skryn. The Skrynian distilled itself down to it's essence, then propelled it's life force through space to Earth. Upon arrival, the Skrynian used it's telepathic powers to possess Lupescu , then set about sculpting a more appropriate body for it to inhabit. The Skrynian returned, and carried Lupescu off, heading North.

The Skrynian uses its power to freeze the Atlantic Ocean with each of it's footfalls, as it makes it's way to the North Pole. All the while, Lupescu, entranced again, sculpts a second ice giant. Splitting it's life force in half, the Skrynian is able to animate both ice sculptures. Superman and Wonder Woman arrive, but their physical assault on the sculptures prove futile. Switching tactics, Superman uses his heat vision to melt the Skrynian animated sculpture. The sculpture's chest becomes glassine, reflecting Superman's heat vision back at Wonder Woman. The Amazon Princess deflects the invisible rays with her bracelets, but, distracted, is felled by the second ice sculpture. Superman punches a chasm between Wonder Woman and the Skrynian, giving her time to recover. Superman and Wonder Woman begin racing at super-speed, in a circle, around the two sculptures. Stopping at regular intervals, the two heroes leave after images of themselves as they move, faster and faster, around the sculptures. Flanking the sculptures, Superman and Wonder Woman strike the sculptures together with all the force they can muster. The sculptures shatter into fragments. As the Skrynian's life force rises up into the air, Superman imprisons it within a thermal container, brought from his Fortress of Solitude. In truth, the Skrynian's invasion of Earth was doomed from the start. Skryn being thousands of light years from Earth, the alien mistakenly believed that the Earth's climate was akin to Skryn's because it was observing Earth during the planet's Ice Age.

Notes:

This issue contains the Hostess Superhero Ad, the Penguin in "Penguins on Parade".

DC Comics Presents (1978)

Publisher

DC Comics

Volume Description

DC Comics presents ran for 97 issues with 4 annuals and featured Superman in team up adventures with characters from across the DCU.

Collected EditionsShowcase Presents: DC Comics Presents - Superman Team-Ups vol. 1 (1-26)Adventures of Superman: José Luis García-López (1-4, 17)New Teen Titans Volume One (26)Showcase Presents: DC Comics Presents - Superman Team-Ups vol. 2 (27-50 & Annual #1)Superman vs. Mongul (27-28, 36 and 43)Jack Kirby Omnibus vol. 2 (84)(All versions of) DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore and Across the Universe: The DC uinverse Stories of Alan Moore (85)

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