All week long we will feature brand-new Cool Superman Comic Book Moments (all from the 75 Greatest Superman Stories of All-Time). Here is an archive of all the past cool comic moments that I've featured so far.

We open the list with Superman making a grand sacrifice for Batman during the Emperor Joker storyline.

Emperor Joker was about the Joker gaining the powers of Mr. Mxyzptlk and, well, going nuts with it. In the conclusion to the story in Action Comics #770 (by Joe Kelly, Kano and Mario Alquiza), Superman discovers what Joker had been doing with Batman the whole time...

Pretty messed up stuff.

Superman seriously considers killing the Joker but instead, he finds Mr. Mxyzptlk and learns that Mxy can recover his power from the Joker, but Superman has to first cause Joker to have a lapse in concentration long enough for Mxy to nab the power back. Superman does so by explaining to Joker that while Joker BELIEVES he is the most powerful being in the universe, he is wrong, since he defines himself in relation to Batman. Therefore, BATMAN is the most powerful being in the universe, because no matter what Joker tries to do, he just can't kill or erase Batman from existence. This realization disorients him long enough for Mxy to sweep in and take his power back. Mxy and the Spectre then repair all the damage Joker did to the world. Everyone will remember Emperor Joker as just one really messed up dream.

The problem is that for some, that dream is SO messed up that it will permanently scar them...

What a pal Superman is!