“Yesterday’s” Comic> Superman #54

This is what happens when you watch Dr. Strangelove too many times.

Superman #54

DC Comics (April, 1991)

“Time & Time Again” phase 3: “The Warsaw Ghetto”

WRITER/PENCILER: Jerry Ordway

INKER: Dennis Janke

COLORIST: Glenn Whitmore

LETTERER: John Costanza

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Dan Thorsland

EDITOR: Mike Carlin

[continued from Action Comics #663]  We last left Superman, or rather the Spectre did, in front of a Nazi train in 1943 Warsaw, Poland. After taking off he finds that the ghetto area is still filled with Jews, who are about to be experimented on by the mysterious Mr. Z (General Zeiten here), someone Superman met a few issues ago and had blamed Superman for destroying a Nazi train. After learning of his experiments and that Z has an atomic bomb, Superman breaks up the operation and this time destroys the train, freeing the prisoners. When they try to drop their bomb on the refugees, Superman takes the bomb into the air, where it explodes, sending him on another time trip. [continues in The Adventures Of Superman #477]

What they got right: Superman versus Nazis. You need more than that? Ordway was apparently ready for this story since Mr. Z mentions an event from here.

What they got wrong: Yep, Hitler’s anti-superhuman spell is still in place. So if The Spectre can get Superman past the barrier why not do the same with the other Justice Society members and kick Hitler’s butt? The point of the spell is to have a reason why the superheroes didn’t break up World War II since some of them are more powerful than, say, Captain America and the Invaders, the WWII superteam over at Marvel. But that gets subverted when we see Superman, possibly the most powerful superhuman there at the time, able to go over there by Spectre “waving his hands” as Superman stated.

Recommendation: This is still a good storyline, and I hope it ends well. I’m working from a trade collection and it might be your best bet to find the story in full.