Personal Collection // Nick Cardy // Superman #276 Cover (Nick Cardy) (1974)

July 1974, Superman #276 Cover, Nick Cardy pencils/inks, "Make Way For Captain Thunder!", One of the most iconic DC Bronze Age covers! It’s the 1st time Superman fought Captain Thunder aka Captain Marvel or Shazam! In this historic story written by Elliot S Maggin, Superman comes face to face with an alternate Earth version of Captain Marvel, known as Captain Thunder. This story takes place in 1974, two years before Captain Marvel actually meets Superman in the pages of Justice League of America # 137.
This cover was repaired by Robert Dennis, who did a superb job bringing this masterpiece back to its former glory! 

A young boy, Willie Fawcett, materializes in a dingy alleyway. His clothes and his hairstyle look at least "twenty years behind the times." He is surprised to learn about Superman whom he's never heard of before. During an armored car robbery, Superman is distracted by an illusion of a flying monster. Willie rubs his magic belt buckle and says the magic word, "Thunder!"
Willie Fawcett is secretly the super hero Captain Thunder. But, instead of helping the police, Willie's alter ego helps the crooks. After Superman deals with the illusion, he goes after Captain Thunder and the crooks. Thunder manages to get away and later, as Willie Fawcett, goes to see Clark Kent. He tells Clark the origin of Captain Thunder, of how he was on a camping trip for orphans and followed an owl to the last medicine man of the Mohegan tribe. There he is invested with the powers of Tornado, Hare, Uncas, Nature, Diamond, Eagle, and Ram: the acronym spells THUNDER.
The last thing Willie remembers is fighting the Monster League of Evil which appears to be comprised of Frankenstein's monster, the mummy, the wolf man, and Dracula. He imprisons them in another dimension, but they laugh about how they have done something to him secretively and "you'll never be the same!" Clark is not entirely convinced and decides to take Willie to the police and see if he has been reported missing. Just as they arrive, a jail break is going on and Clark slips off to change into Superman. When he tries to stop the jailbreak, Captain Thunder appears. They have a tremendous battle in the skies and the fight goes back and forth. Superman realizes that he can not defeat Thunder in a battle of strength, so he decides to use "super wits." He uses static electricity to generate a bolt of lightning directed at Captain Thunder and manipulates the conversation so that as his foe says the word "thunder," Superman forces him to rub his magic belt buckle. This causes Thunder to revert to his Willie Fawcett identity.
Superman explains that he has figured out that Thunder comes from another dimension. His plan is to put a full nelson on Willie and have him change into Thunder in order to use Thunder's wisdom to overcome the Monster League of Evil's hold. When Thunder comes back, he tries to break free, but can not. Eventually, Thunder breaks free of their hold and figures out how to get home.

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