DC Comics Presents #21 (1980)

Clark Kent is running late for a deadline at the Daily Planet and begins pounding out his work. However, just as he begins he is shocked to find that the Elongated Man, sick from some kind of illness has wound himself up in his typewriter. Noticing strange splotches appearing on his comrades face, Clark changes into Superman and rushes Ralph to the Fortress of Solitude for examination. There, caught in a fever delirium, Elongated Man goes on a rampage through the Fortress until he accidentally smashes open some vials of chemicals, and the fumes produced knock him out. After repairing the damage done to his friend, Superman begins examining the illness and eventually cures Ralph of it. When Ralph comes around, he explains how he and his wife Sue were on vacation and traveling through New England on a trip to visit Sue's mother. When they stopped for the night, Ralph soon noticed that the people in the town of Stevenson were becoming ill and began showing signs of some strange plague. Even Sue began to succumb to the illness. In his investigation, Ralph would learn that an alien species called the Masters were the ones responsible and that the virus turns those infected into the members of the alien race. When confronting the creatures, he would find himself outmatched and be forced to escape. Returning to his wife, Ralph would be horrified that not only was Sue infected, but had also transformed into one of the Masters as well. As he went seeking help he soon too began to fall sick and that's why he sought out Superman's aid. When Superman and Elongated Man determine how long ago, they are horrified to find that it has been days and now nearly the entire globe has been infected by this strange disease. Superman and Elongated Man then rush to the New England town where the epidemic started hoping to find a cure for the disease. Clashing with the aliens that brought the illness to Earth, they learn that the Masters travel from world to world transforming the dominant life forms into members of their own race for the purpose of taking over the entire universe. Although they manage to weaken Superman temporarily with Kryptonite based weapons, they prove to be too weak to harm him and soon he and Ralph defeat the aliens. However, searching their ship they find no source of a cure. While this disheartens Ralph at first, Superman deduces that some element in the Gingold that Ralph drinks was a catalyst to allow him to resist the virus and in turn be cured. With this information on hand, Superman and Ralph return to the Fortress of Solitude to manufacture a cure to change all those infected with the virus back to normal.