Action 144 – how Clark Kent got hired at the Daily Planet, and Vigilante hunts for a gold mine
That’s quite a flood on the cover of Action 144 (May 1950), but it’s not nearly as interesting as the story of how Clark Kent came to be hired at the Daily Planet.
Schwartz, Boring and Kaye delve into the past, as they recount the events that lead to Perry White hiring Clark Kent to work at the Daily Planet.
The story is told in flashback – and a flashback within a flashback, as Clark arrives in Metropolis, and recalls Perry visiting him in Smallville, and promising him a job. The story being referred to in this scene would actually come out a month later, in the pages of Adventure Comics. And both that story and this one have pretty much the exact same format. Clark Kent takes on a number of jobs, trying to get Perry White’s attention. Along the way he stops crimes as Superman.
As an adult, the first time he runs into Perry is while working as a cab driver. Clark attempts to remind Perry of his earlier promise, but the editor is all caught up in a story, and pays little attention to Clark.
Only at the end, when Clark turns in a Superman story, which gets picked up by the wire services, does Perry recall having met Clark years before, and fulfills his promise to kill him.
Gardner Fox and Dan Barry tell an entertaining story, based on the legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine, with some really great art.
In this case, two men fought to the death after finding the mine. And in some nice parallel structure, the Vigilante and another man compete to find the lost gold mine.
Stuff has only a small role in this tale, which helps keep the intensity up.
Vigilante finds a native blanket, which shows the fight to the death, and uses the landmarks shown as a treasure map.
I really like Dan Barry’s art, and overall, the Vigilante series had stronger than normal art throughout its run.