World's Finest #158 is an issue of the series World's Finest (Volume 1) with a cover date of June, 1966. It was published on April 26, 1966.
Synopsis for Superman and Batman: "The Invulnerable Super-Enemy"
Robin and Jimmy Olsen discover a secret cave which contains three bottled cities similar to Kandor. They bring the bottles back to the Batcave and then shrink themselves to enter one of the bottles. When Superman and Batman return to the Batcave, Jimmy and Robin are still inside one of the bottles. The two heroes shrink themselves to find their missing partners.
The first bottle contains an abandoned Kryptonian city inhabited only by criminals. Superman is powerless in the bottle and is injured. Batman is captured by the Kryptonian outlaws. When Superman recovers he rescues Batman, and they escape the bottle.
Since Jimmy and Robin were not in the first bottle, Superman and Batman split up. Batman encounters a race of aliens in the second bottle, but finds no trace of his friends.
Superman finds them in the third bottle, held prisoner by a gang of super-criminals who possess powers like the Legion of Super-Heroes. The bottle has a green sun, so Superman is again powerless. Batman follows him and helps the boys escape. Robin then turns a sunlight beam on the crooks which weakens them. The four heroes then escape the bottle.
Superman suspects that Brainiac was responsible for shrinking the cities. When they return to the cave in which the bottles were found, they learn the truth. The cities were taken by Brainiac A, a precursor to the evil Brainiac. Brainiac A was not evil and uses the shrink ray to capture and imprison criminals. Superman returns the cities to Brainiac A to take back with him to his own world.
Appearing in Superman and Batman: "The Invulnerable Super-Enemy"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Group of Unnamed Kryptonian Criminals (Single appearance)
- Group of Unnamed Alien Creatures (Single appearance)
- Group of Unnamed Super-Criminals (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Brainiac (Flashback only) (Origin)
- Brainiac A (Single appearance) (Flashback and main story) (Origin)
- Computer Tyrants (Flashback only)
- Ron Farley (A movie star) (Single appearance)
- Legion of Super-Heroes (Mentioned only)
- Colossal Boy (Mentioned only)
- Light Lass (Mentioned only)
- Lightning Lad (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Colu (Flashback only)
- Earth
- Gotham City
- Batcave
- Brainiac A's cave
- Three Shrunken Bottled Cities
- Jerat from Krypton (Single appearance) (Flashback and main story)
- Three Shrunken Bottled Cities
- Fortress of Solitude (Mentioned only)
- Metropolis (Mentioned only)
- Daily Planet (Mentioned only)
- Gotham City
- Krypton (Flashback only)
- Kandor (Flashback only)
- Kryptonopolis (Mentioned only)
Items:
- Artificial Suns
- Batarang
- Batsuit
- Golden Goddess of Kryptonopolis (A giant golden statue) (Single appearance)
- Hyper-Ray
- Video Projector & Film
Vehicles:
- Brainiac's Saucer Space Craft (Flashback only)
- Brainiac A's Saucer Space Craft
- Miniature Jet Packs
Synopsis for Roy Raymond: "The Magic Tablecloth"
This story is reprinted from Detective Comics #236.
An elderly man named Johann Hinkle, desiring to be on Roy Raymond's TV show, "Impossible... But True" creates a magic tablecloth act which acts as a horn of plenty, the bowl & pitcher on the table never going empty even as food & drink are removed from them. Roy realizes how the trick is done (food and wine being pumped into the containers by means of pumps hidden in the table legs) but books them on the show anyway in order to surprise Hinkle by revealing that the table cloth itself is the amazing feature, being created with 100,000 stitches to make all the signs of the zodiac. Roy even manages to find a buyer for the tablecloth willing to pay Hinkle $5,000 for it.
Appearing in Roy Raymond: "The Magic Tablecloth"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Other Characters:
- Johann Hinkle (Single appearance)
- Mama Hinkle (Johann's wife) (Single appearance)
- Unnamed man auditioning for TV show
Locations:
- Hinkle Home
- TV Studio
Items:
- Intricate Designed Tablecloth
- Cane that casts shadow image of Napoleon Bonaparte
- Trick paper that doesn't burn
Notes
- "The Invulnerable Super-Enemy" was reprinted in Showcase Presents: World's Finest Vol. 3 and Superman and Batman in World's Finest: The Silver Age Omnibus Vol. 2.