Action 74 – Superman helps an impostor, and Americommando ends

As the cover of Action 74 (July 1944) makes clear, the Superman story in this issue sits firmly in the realm of romantic comedy.  Ira Yarborough does show some criminal activity, but that’s not the core of the story.

A clever weakling, Arthur Dribble, lures Superman into a suspended rubber room, locking him in order to impersonate him, using a suit filled with helium.  Superman is more intrigued than anything else, and discovers that Arthur is doing this in an attempt to win over the woman of his dreams, Bertha Bigge.

Bertha winds up captured by hoods, who think she is Superman’s girlfriend, so Superman must rescue her, instead of Lois Lane.  Arthur’s attempts to solve a drought prove disastrous.

But everything reaches a happy ending, as the two men work together to stop the flood Arthur created.  And Bertha is so pleased with the effort Arthur put into wooing her that she doesn’t care that he isn’t Superman.

Greene and Baily bring the Americommando series to an explosive finale in this issue, and the splash page does not lie in announcing a death.

Americommando is in disguise as Captain Brand, overseeing a bombing run aimed at the California coast.  Before he can do anything to sabotage it, he is unmasked by Dr. Ito.  He is brought aboard the plane, and strapped to the bomb.

Tex manages to get free and fight his way into the cockpit, taking control of the plane.  Dr. Ito shoots him, but Tex releases the bomb doors, dropping Ito and the bombs into the ocean.  Tex passes out, but wakes up as the plane approaches San Francisco.

Although this is the final appearance of Tex Thompson in this era, he appears as a member of the All-Star Squadron in a couple of stories set during 1942.

Tex is shown in the Justice Society Returns miniseries to be back behind enemy lines as a German officer before the end of the war, which is backed up by the events in The Golden Age miniseries.  Although Golden Age is technically an Elseworlds, James Robinson considered it canonical during his run on Starman, and I tend to follow the train of thought that it is as well, meaning Tex makes his final appearance in its pages, captured and killed by the Ultra-Humanite.

 

Action 73 – Superman and the Hobby Robber, Stuff gives money to the Fiddler, Congo Bill in Canada, and Americommando vs Dr Ito

Siegel and Citron pit Superman against the Hobby Robber in Action 73 (June 1944).  The cover does not directly tie in with the story, but is generic enough that one could stretch it to be symbolic of it.

The Hobby Robber steals rare collections, and then ransoms them back to the owners.  This story attributes Clark Kent as collecting clocks.  Not that he has ever been shown to do this before, or after.

Siegel does craft a nice scene.  Superman has laid a trap for the Robber, but Lois Lane has also picked up the trail, and sneaks into Clark’s apartment, hiding in one of his clocks.  Superman spots her in time to keep his identity a secret, but must then allow himself to be knocked out.  Lois gets discovered, and Superman figures he is sick of rescuing her, so he lets her die.  No, just checking to see you’re still awake.  He rescues her.  Again.

At least the scene is a dramatic one, as the Hobby Robber tries to kill Lois by throwing her into a giant, man-eating plant.

Although this particular Hobby Robber never returns, Siegel will recycle the name later on for an early Superboy villain.

The Fiddler returns in this story by Samachson, Meskin and Paris.

The Fiddler teaches his gang to sing, part of his scheme to worm them into the house of a well-known millionaire with a soft touch.  In fact, the man is so willing to help the needy that he gives Stuff $50 when he sees him on the street, assuming the boy to be a homeless waif.  Perhaps Vigilante should buy Stuff some new clothes. The poor kid has been wearing the same thing for years.

Stuff then happens across the Fiddler and his men.  In a really touching scene, Stuff gives the Fiddler the $50, in hopes that it will deter him from his next crime.  It doesn’t, but you have to admire the simple faith of the boy.

The Fiddler and his men get taken in and fed by the millionaire, after hearing their plaintive songs.  But this is just part of their plan to steal his art treasures.  Stuff tells Vigilante about running into the men, and they arrive at the millionaire’s house just in time to stop the thefts.

Congo Bill heads to Canada in this story, with art by Smalle.  You can tell it’s Canada because everything is covered in snow.  He is dealing with a man who is illegally selling guns to the natives, attempting to stir up a “tribal war.”  In Canada?

The story claims to be set above the Arctic Circle, but shows natives dressed as if they were living on the plains.  They also seem impervious to the cold, running through the snow in loincloths.  It’s not an awful story, but doesn’t show much familiarity with Canada.

Dr. Ito arrives in Tokyo to smoke out Americommando in this Greene and Baily tale.

Ito suspects Captain Brand almost immediately, as well he should.  Americommando does little in the way of disguising himself, aside from his uniform.  Tex does pull off a clever ruse to keep his identity safe – rigging a drop of leaflets at the same time he is with Ito as Brand.

 

Action 62 – Superman fights Nazis, Americommando in Romania, and Congo Bill in the Arctic

Action 62 (July 1943) does put Superman into a World War 2 adventure, but the cover does not depict the actual story.

Don Cameron and Ed Dobrotka take an interesting route to telling a World War 2 story with Superman.  It was difficult to show the heroes in battle.  The course of actual events could make the stories very inappropriate.

This one starts off in the distant future, a happy, peaceful one.  The story is told in flashback, but set in 1943.  Lois Lane is doing an article on a fisherman, Captain Zeb.  She and the rest of the crew get captured by Nazis.

Superman finds an underwater Nazi base, and destroys it.

The last couple of panels of the story show Superman alive in this distant future, over 200 years old, and not appearing to have aged a bit.  This may be the first time that Superman’s longevity has been discussed.  I will keep an eye out when I come to his own book.

 

Americommando is in Romania in this story by Greene and Baily., with Dr Ito hot on his trail.  The story has Tex working with the resistance movement again, helping to blow up an oil plant.

There is a good, climatic fight on a train between Americommando and Ito, who appears to fall to his death *he’ll be back.)  Tex no longer wears his mask as Americommando, so seems to have completely given up on trying to disguise himself.

Congo Bill’s story is once again war-based.  Samachson and Smalle have him up in the Aleutian Islands, helping to defend a fort against a Japanese assault.

The story is good,nothing really special.  But I included it simply because it has taken Congo Bill about as far from the Congo as he could get.

Action 58 – Superman vs Dr Menace, Vigilante vs the Dummy, Americommando vs Dr Ito, and Congo Bill vs the Nazis

Oh, it’s that infamous “slap a Jap” cover on Action 58 (March 1943).

Jerry Siegel is joined by Sam Citron on pencils and John Sikela on inks for this unusual tale.

An aging actor is approached by Dr. Menace, who insists he can make the actor young again.  He undergoes the surgery, only to discover that he has been left with a hideous face, and must wear a mask to appear normal.  Although really, what could one expect from a man named Dr. Menace?

Menace forces the man to commit crimes while wearing a leopard skin, and sends notes to the police and the papers, claiming to be the thief, and calling himself Adonis.

Clark and Lois get on the case when the Adonis letters arrive, and eventually Superman corners the two men, who wind up killing each other.

The final panel is such a let-down though, never showing what the man looked like after the operation.

The Dummy is the most enduring villain of the Vigilante.  He had been introduced in the pages of Leading Comics, battling the Vigilante as he functioned as one of the Seven Soldiers of Victory.  This story, by Don Cameron, Mort Meskin and Charles Paris, was the villain’s second appearance, and first in the pages of Action Comics.  Chronologically, this story follows the Dummy’s appearances in All-Star Squadron.

The Dummy breaks out of prison with the help of Bobo, a relatively dumb criminal.  He is content to follow the Dummy’s instructions, as he begins a new crime spree.

The Vigilante and Stuff get on the Dummy’s trail.  Bobo traps the heroes, but gets tossed into the pit himself by the Dummy, who has tired of him.  Bobo quickly switches sides, helping the Vigilante escape.  In turn, Vigilante allows Bobo to give the Dummy a spanking before taking him back to prison.

Dr. Ito returns yet again, hunting the Americommando in this Greene and Baily tale.

They are both still in France, and for some reason Ito is also running a concentration camp.  Americommando is working with the French Resistance, and this time Ito does not even really get close to catching him.  Still, from the next issue, Americommando moves on from France, travelling to other occupied countries.

Congo Bill returns to Africa in this story by Samachson and Smalle.

Bill comes to the aid of Joan Reid, whose father has been killed by an “outlaw” native tribe.  Bill discovers that the tribe has been supplied by guns by the Nazis.

This story manages to weave the African adventure and war elements together better than most, as a stampeding herd of elephants trample the Nazi general, as Bill rescues Joan from man and beast.

 

Action 57 – the Prankster returns, and Americommando heads to France

A goofy, if memorable, cover for Action 57 (Feb. 43), as the Prankster returns, in a story by Siegel and Sikela.

I compared the Prankster to the Joker in his first story, but for this one, the Penguin would be a more apt comparison.  Because this tale bears more than a passing resemblance to a Penguin story.  It opens with the Prankster making a deal with a mob boss.  For a $100,000 investment, the Prankster guarantees to give him a million dollars.

The Prankster turns himself in, but donates the money to a society that protects ostriches.  This wins him the goodwill of some prominent society matrons, who demand his release.  The Prankster then starts an “appreciation firm,” writing flattering letters to the rich and powerful, becoming their friend. It’s all a set-up to rob them, and though he turns the million over to the mobster, he immediately steals it back.

Superman spends much of the story frustrated, as there is nothing he can do as himself, or as Clark, when the Prankster isn’t breaking any laws.  Superman does get involved at the end, but the Prankster escapes, returning shortly in an issue of Superman.

With his identity as Otto Riker exposed, the Americommando leaves Germany for France in this Greene and Baily story.

Dr Ito is hot on his trail, and it’s lucky for Tex that the man has never read Les Miserables, as Tex disguises himself as an artist, going by the name Jean Valjean.

Ito is suspicious, though, as the painter resembles Riker, and does expose him as Americommando.  Another failed disguise, though our hero gets away and destroys a German ammunition depot.

 

 

Action 56 – Superman protects monuments, Vigilante fights for ownership, and Americommando is wanted by Hitler

The cover of Action 56 (Jan. 43) loosely ties in to the story, although I have a suspicion that the cover was meant to be a World War 2 one, and only linked to the story afterwards.  The Sphinx and Great Pyramid appear on the splash page, but not in the story itself.

Siegel, Sikela and Roussos begin this piece with Lois and Clark on a trip to Washington, DC.  A storm of lightning and massive hail threatens to destroy Washington Monument, and Superman springs into action to save it.

Other notable structures in the US are also imperiled, but none outside of the US are shown.  Superman spends a lot of time doing damage control, literally, before he can get around to finding the bad guy.  There is also a plot line about people going missing.  Lois gets onto that story, which allows her to be captured and meet the villain.

Emil Loring has been building a modern Tower of Babel, using the kidnapped people as slave labour.  He has also been causing the destructive storms, determined to wipe out anything that might challenge the greatness of his edifice.

I think Emil has a severe case of small dick-itis.

Meskin and Roussos touch on the exploitation of song writers in this Vigilante story.

It features a character almost identical to Billy Gunn.  A singer and wanna-be cowboy, the grizzled old man looks very much like Gunn, and even has similar dialogue when he explains that he has never been to the west.  Greg Sanders plans to hire him to write songs for him, but some sharks get the man to sign a contract for far less money.

Vigilante gets into the action, scaring and threatening the men who signed up his writer.  It’s a little bit shady, as Vigilante is doing this simply to ensure that the man will write his songs for Greg, so he is directly profiting from this.  But it’s clear the old man is being used by the other men.

Greene and Baily continue with the Americommando’s undercover mission in this story.

Now that Americommando has revealed his presence in Germany, Hitler calls in Dr. Ito from Japan.  Also called the Little One, due to his height, he is given very high status to pursue the Americommando.

And Hitler probably made a wise decision, as Dr. Ito takes only a couple of pages to determine that Otto Riker is a fake.  With his cover blown, Tex gets into Americommando garb and fights his way free.  He remains in Germany, and Dr. Ito remains his chief enemy.  But all the effort that was put in for his big impersonation of Otto Riker proved to be a waste of time.