Superman and Flash race for charity

Superman #199 - 1st Supes/Flash race, originally uploaded by Paxton Holley.

The first time I saw a picture the cover I knew I had to find this comic. I mean, this was the greatest mystery of our times, and I had to learn the answer. So as I scoured flea markets throughout PA & New Jersey, I looked and looked . . . and found it.

And man, was I pissed.

I mean, it's bad enough they're racing to raise money for old-school foreign aid, which we now know ain't all that. I wasn't plugged into that scene when I was nine, so no upset there. No, the real problem was that the race itself was a crock. The heroes run into a couple groups of lame criminals and then end the race in a tie.

A friggin' tie.

So I found the next one, and DC went all postmodern everything-looks-different-from-different-perspectives on me, thereby fostering the disillusionment with crit theory that kept me from smoking clove cigarettes and quoting Foucault in grad school.

Eventually I got the one that set things right but by that point I'd read Green Lantern/Green Arrow and realized it was just a pointless game.