I was just reading Superman #192, part 1 of a 2 part imaginary story where Superman encounters a mix of green, red, and gold kryptonite, loses his powers and memory of having ever been Superman, marries Lois as Clark Kent, and they have a son with super powers (which they think came from a Superman souvenir of Lois'). Not a bad imaginary story overall by Otto Binder and Curt Swan. Some typical Weisinger suspension of disbelief, but a few things were kind of disturbing, even for Weisinger. First, Clark twice becomes an absentee father in order to advance the story through time. First was through no fault of his own, when he became stranded in Tibet for two years looking for the missing-and-believed-dead Superman, but the second time he took an assignment as a foreign corespondent for the Daily Planet. He returned several years later to Lois and Clark Jr.  and apparently during that time Clark had no contact whatsoever with his wife and son, as he is surprised by Clark Jr.'s super-vocabulary and knowledge. (Meanwhile, Clark Jr., who now appears to be at or near school age, is still running around in the same clothes - a copy of Superbaby's play suit - that he was wearing when he was two!)

As the story progresses into part two, with neither Lois nor Clark Jr. seeming to care about Clark Sr.'s disinterest in them, the most annoying thing in the story happens. Clark is asked to help assemble and narrate a documentary on Superman and at the premiere, the Justice League and Supergirl, now Superwoman, show up. At this point I was thinking that they were going to give some explanation about why the JLA or Supergirl did nothing about Superman's disappearance when they knew Clark Kent was still around. Or for that matter, why Supergirl didn't take over answering Jimmy's signal watch! Well, on the final panel of page 19, the caption reads, "Wait readers! Put down those pens! Don't write in to tell us we goofed! We're aware there are TWO famed heroes who know Superman's secret identity! What about them?" Batman: "Psst, Superwoman! We're the only ones here who are aware that Clark Kent is Superman!" Superwoman: "Of course Batman, but we agreed that we'd never reveal the truth to Clark because..." And they make you turn the page for the answer...

Page 20: Superwoman: "...Because you see, readers, that would ruin this imaginary story! So we're keeping mum and minding our own business! Let the writer and editor solve this super-mess they've got Clark into!" Batman: Check! As Superwoman said, we're sitting out this story!" ARGH!!!! What a cheap cop out!!! Way to ruin the story Binder! At least you could have come up with something like they didn't want to spoil Clark's happiness with Lois. Sheesh!

So what are the worst cop outs that you've seen DC do?

-Eric