Action 538 – Jackhammer struts, and Mera is possessed

Barr, Novick and Calnan continue the saga of the half-Superman in Action 538 (Dec.82).

With Superman too afraid to face him, and the police helpless against his armor, Jackhammer makes the most of being the most dangerous man in Metropolis.

When Superman does finally confront him again, he is once again overpowered by Jackhammer.  But the crowd is none too pleased, and they step in, hurling anything they can find at the villain. When he turns to attack the crowd, Superman takes his opening, and knocks out Jackhammer.  Still, this should have been a nothing fight for the hero.

Rozakis, Saviuk and Colletta clarify things in this chapter of the Aquaman story.  The woman has a lot of trouble getting control of her hard water powers, but Aquaman still believes this is really Mera.

And though it does turn out that he is correct, it’s not such a good thing.  It’s Mera’s body all right, but she is under the control of someone else.  Some who Aquaman has just instructed in how to use Mera’s powers.

The story continues in the next issue.

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Action 537 – Superman suffers from his split, and Aquaman tries to restore Mera’s memory

Mike W. Barr, Irv Novick and John Calnan are the creative team on Action 537 (Nov. 82), as a new villain takes advantage of the weakened Superman.

Superman attempts to travel into the past, and rejoin with his other half, still trapped in the middle ages.  But Lord Satanis stops this journey, even though the other Superman is in the hands of his enemy Syrene.

Of all the various stories that see Superman turn into two people, I think this one spends the most time with only one version of the split character.  We briefly see the captive other half, with Syrene.  But the story really deals only with the one in the present.

Superman’s weakened condition has made the news, and a new villain, Jackhammer, is excited about that, and eager to face the hero.

And despite being a not very impressive villain, with armored extendy punches, he does beat Superman at the end of the story.

Rozakis, Saviuk and Giella continue Aquaman’s hunt for Mera, as he questions the woman who looks just like her.  Though she claims to be human, Aquaman is so certain that this is his wife that he convinces her to go swimming with him.

She agrees, and to her surprise, discovers that she is able to breathe underwater, and even manifest the same hard water powers that Mera has, but still has no memory of being that person.