The Coming of Atlas

Superman meets a new old adversary named Atlas, he meets the real Brainiac, and his father meets Batman's father. 

Superman #677

The Coming of Atlas part 1 of 4

Superman and Green Lantern play fetch with Krypto in outer space.  Hal Jordan contemplates the tragedies in his own life compared to Superman's happy marriage.  Meanwhile on Earth, a monster rampages through Metropolis and Science Police helpless try to stop it while secretly hoping Superman will arrive to save the day.  The globe is knocked off the top of the Daily Planet building, and is caught by somebody who everybody assumes is Superman.  Instead, it turns out to be a man called Atlas, who fights the police until the Man of Steel shows up.

New writer James Robinson joins Renato Guedes, who had already become the regular series artist a couple issues earlier.  Atlas was a lesser-known Jack Kirby creation who appeared once in 1st Issue Special #1 back in 1975, but hadn't really been seen since then.  He would make more appearances after this story than in all the previous decades.

Action Comics 867

Brainiac part 2 of 5

Superman shows the Brainiac robot to Supergirl and she tells him that's not the real Brainiac.  Supergirl says none of the various versions of Brainiac that Superman has encountered were the real thing, because nobody has ever seen him.  She still remembers what Brainiac did to the city of Kandor, which isn't clear yet it if was destroyed or stolen.  Clark spends some quality time with Ma and Pa Kent before he plans to go into space to look for the real Brainiac.  On the way, he listens to some Kryponian files of General Zod and Non talking about Brainiac before they abruptly cut off.  Finally, he arrives on an alien world and has his first encounter with the real Brainiac's ship before he's knocked unconscious and taken prisoner by Brainiac.

Superman/Batman #50

In the extra-sized 50th issue, the Justice League helps Superman rebuild Smallville after it was destroyed in the last issue.  They find a Kryptonian artifact that activates when Superman touches it, which they find out activates another artifact that was in the Batcave.  They discover that Jor El had sent probes to several planets to decide which one to send his son to.  The probe sent to Earth was found by Thomas Wayne, who meets Jor El and gives him compelling reasons to send his son to Earth.  At first Batman is skeptical, but a conveniently discovered journal of Thomas Wayne corroborates the story.  A meeting between Superman and Batman's fathers was a strange and unnecessary retcon which other writers have since never referenced again.