Action 611 – Arisia shows her stuff, Deadman sees the real thing, the Secret Six ride the pig, attack on the Superman cult, Catwoman begins, and Black Canary hits the bar

Superman gets the cover of Action 611, which means his series gets an update in this entry.

David and Smith give Arisia a chance to show what she can do without a ring in this story.

As the room service waiter tries to kill her, Arisia fights him off, and shoves his knife into a socket. Hal was in the shower.

And the day is not over for Arisia.  Waiting to file a report at the police station, she meets woman who wants to sign her as a model.

Green Lantern talks with the police, and creates a hundred monkeys to search the trash, looking for any note possibly sent by the one causing the outbursts of violence.  The note gets found, but Hal falls victim to the villain, Mind Games.

Baron, Jurgens and DeZuniga continue with the Deadman story.  the DB Cooper devil finds himself not being believed by the head of the CIA.

So he shows what he can do.  The devil goes back (to the jar?), taking Yakim with him.

But the story is not yet over!  Talaoc returns, with the space ship.

The Secret Six find themselves in danger of being exposed in this Pasko/Spiegle story.

Some quick changes of costume, and a bit of luck, get them out of the meat processing plant.  The contaminated meat is part of a special “extra-lean”pork creation.

Stern, Swan and Beatty continue with the Superman strip.  The man who Superman rescued is part of a cult of Superman worshippers.  They have a degree of super-powers, which they believe come from Superman himself.  Clark has no idea why they think this, but the man uses his abilities to show Clark and Perry his cult, under attack by some scary high tech people.

Catwoman begins a four-part story, of one of a couple to run under the Showcase label in Action Comics Weekly.  By Mindy Newell, Barry Kitson and Bruce Patterson, this story is set a while after Batman: Year One, and brings back Holly Robinson, Selina’s best friend from that storyline.

Selina is running a small club now, while also operating as Catwoman.  She steals a jewelled cat, and gives it to Holly as a present.  A wedding present, once she finds out Holly is settling down in New Jersey.

But everyone from the police to organized crime knows that she must have been the thief, and they all come for her.

Wright, DuBurke and Marcos continue the Black Canary story, which now also involves smuggling Mexicans across the border.  Because it hadn’t been complicated enough in it’s first two chapters.

Canary hits the bars to extract information.  But while she is terrorizing men who likely deserve it, Rita’s father gets murdered in the hospital.

 

Action 595 – Superman’s ghost vs the Silver Banshee

Byrne and Williams introduce a new villain for Superman, and a mysterious ghost star, in Action 595 (Dec. 87).

Maggie Sawyer, the head of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit, and her second in command, Dan Turpin, had both been introduced in the pages of Superman in the last year, and have their first appearances in Action as they pursue the Silver Banshee, a woman who appears to be able to kill with her touch, as she searches bookstores in the city.

Superman’s attention gets drawn.  The Banshee is unable to kill a man who she thought she had already attacked, an important clue to the nature of her powers.  She has no such trouble with Superman.

And leaves him lying dead on the ground.  It’s not her touch that is fatal, it’s her voice.  Which is kind of obvious, if you know her name is Silver Banshee.

Lois Lane and Lex Luthor are both shocked to hear about Superman’s death.  Lois actually handles it better, Lex is so jealous that he did not kill him.  The Justice League are mournful, and we see Batman, Black Canary and the Martian Manhunter.

Perry White chokes on his words as Superman’s ghost visibly rises from his coffin during the funeral.

Superman’s ghost fares much better than Superman did against the Silver Banshee.

Her frustration leads to a scream that seems to destroy her, but there is clearly much more to this villain, and she returns in the pages of Superman within the year.

The Martian Manhunter was really the ghost.  Superman was almost killed by the Banshee.  Her power seemed cued to identity, the reason she was not able to kill the man she thought she had met before. The Martian Manhunter could not be killed by Banshee, as she thought she was trying to kill Superman’s ghost.

A good intro for the villain.  Showing Martian Manhunter early on made it easy to figure out though.

Action 583 – “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” concludes

Action 583 (Sept. 86) brings to a close the era of the Pre-Crisis Superman, with the concluding half of an Imaginary Story by Alan Moore, Curt Swan and Kurt Schaffenberger.

The entire story is one of dark foreboding, and is related by Lois Lane, now married and with a son, to a reporter, writing a story about the last days of Superman.  Many of Superman’s friends and enemies appeared in the first half of the story, and most of the villains have died.  Superman has brought Lois, Lana, Jimmy, Perry White and his wife to the Fortress of Solitude.  Cosmic King, Lightning Lord and Saturn Queen have come from the future, knowing that this was the end of Superman, to join in the fun.  They find the Kryptonite Man, as well as a disturbing union of Luthor and Brainiac.

Many of Superman’s friends are shown throughout the issue, trying to get through the force-field surrounding the Fortress.  Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Captain Marvel and the Martian Manhunter are shown, along with Vartox, and pre-Crisis Superwoman.

The story is filled with heart-wrenching sequences.  Jimmy takes his Elastic Lad serum, and Lana bathes in the pool that gives her super-powers, so they can join the fight against the assembling villains.  Her super-hearing allows Lana to hear Superman explain to Perry White that it is Lois that he truly loves, but he cared too much for Lana to ever let her know.

Lana and Jimmy both fall to the Legion of Super-Villains, while Krypto sacrifices himself to take out the Kryptonite Man.

This is all turning far too bloody and dangerous for the villains from the future, and they flee in their time bubble.  Luthor and Brainiac are the last, but perish in the snow.

Who was the villain that brought this all about?  Mr. Mxyzptlk, the most powerful adversary Superman has, who chose to be a pest, but has now chosen to be a destroyer.

Superman winds up using the Phantom Zone projector to rip the 5th dimensional being in half, but he has knowingly, and willingly killed.

Though Lois gives him all manner of justifications, Superman has violated his own code.  He enters a chamber of gold kryptonite, which permanently removes his powers, and is never seen again.

The reporter leaves.  I was teary eyed and emotionally drained by this point when I read this the first time, but so thrilled at the end, as the baby turns a lump of coal into a diamond.  And then I really looked at the face of Lois’ husband.

I believe Alan Moore has now dismissed this story as garbage, as he is wont to do.

I don’t care what he thinks.  This is the crowning gem of the first 50 years of the character.

 

Action 574 – Superman competes for the glory, and Mr. Mxyzptlk has a son

Action 574 (Dec. 85) has a great cover, although the art on Boldman’s story itself, by Schaffenberger and Hunt, is not as evocative.

Superman receives a challenge from the champion of Ostok, a planet that used to hold regular athletic competitions with Krypton.

It’s all really friendly, and Lana Lang broadcasts the meeting of the two planetary champions, and is later allowed to go along and cover the games themselves.  The hero looks identical to the one who was involved in the last, undecided, games, but claims to be someone else entirely.  He is the same.  It’s so obvious.

Anyway, the games go on, and each one is very close.  Jenet Klyburn, who is with Jimmy Olsen, running tests throughout, determines that the champion from Ostok is giving off an odd radiation, but it doesn’t seem to be a threat or attack.

Superman loses the games, and the champion returns home, and dies.  He had made himself young again in order to finish the competition from so long ago.  Klyburn realizes the radiation affected the timing monitors, and that Superman really won.

The best panel in this is the last, in which he expresses sorrow that he won, as it was just another victory, not as special a one as it was for the man from Ostok.

Mr. Mxyzptlk returns in a story by Robert Greenberger and Barbara Kesel, with art by Bender and Hunt.

Mr. Mxyzptlk has had a baby boy, and comes to Earth to celebrate.

He throws a party at the Daily Planet, with cigars for everyone.  I love the personalized bibs for Perry, Jimmy and Lois.  Lana and Clark get flowers, perhaps to reflect their relationship.  Mxyzptlk is enjoying the day so much he wants it to last forever, until Clark makes him realize that he will never enjoy his son growing up if he does that.  Mxyzptlk agrees, and goes home without being tricked.

 

Action 562 – Queen Bee meets King Alexander

Alexander the Great, aka the Planeteer returns, now calling himself King Alexander, in the Rozakis, Schaffenberger and Hunt story in Action 562 (Dec. 84).

The story has a subplot about Steve Lombard,who was fired from WGBS by Morgan Edge in the pages of Superman.  He is starring in a production of Damn Yankees, and has sent opening night tickets to Clark, Lana, Jimmy and Perry White.  Perry actually winds up stopping a pair of robbers during the show, and his wife Alice gets a small role.

Queen Bee gets most of the attention in the story.  She has been causing magnetic anomalies throughout Metropolis.  She has found an immortality serum that needs a constant recharge of magnetic energy to allow her to stay mobile.

And who should also be back in Metropolis but the magnetically powered Alexander?

They hit it off, and Alexander thinks its true love and world conquest, unaware that he is being drugged, and his power drained, by Zazzala.

Mind you, even when Superman explains to him what is going on, he just chooses not to believe it.  He has fallen hard.  Superman uses the couple’s magnetism against them.

This is the final appearance of Alexander the Great aka Planeteer aka King Alexander, and the Queen Bee is next seen in the pages of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

And Steve Lombard’s revival of Damn Yankees closes after one night.

Action 540 – Rip Hunter aids Superman, and Aquaman ends

Wolfman and Kane present the penultimate chapter in the split Superman story in Action 540 (Feb. 83).

Clark recovers, just as knife is going in for the autopsy.  But he can tell his other self is severely weakened, and he will die if the other Superman does.  Perry and Jimmy are happy that Clark is alive, but Lana is hugely affected.  When she thought he had died, she realizes how much Clark had meant to her throughout the years.  Lois, on the other hand, just takes the opportunity to challenge him again about being Superman.

Back int he past, Syrene and the merged Satanis/Superman continue their battle throughout the issue, the dynamic segments neatly spaced through the tale.

Lois talks about a series she is doing on Forgotten Heroes.  She references Cave Carson, as well as the Sea Devils and Suicide Squad, Ragman, Bwana Beast and Vigilante.  But the one that grabs Superman’s attention is Rip Hunter, Time Master, and he seeks out Rip and his team, finding them all unusually aged.  This is Rip’s first appearance since appearing in DC Comics Presents a couple of years earlier.

Perhaps because it is not expected, the magical defenses that have kept Superman and his friends from the past are no barrier to Rip Hunter, and he delivers Superman to his merged double just as Satanis/Superman defeats Syrene.

The story concludes in the next issue.

Aquaman’s series comes to an end in this story by Bob Rozakis, Alex Saviuk and Joe Giella.

Ironically, Aquaman himself winds up sidelined, as Mera and V’lanna battle over him.  Mera wins, and V’lanna kills herself, rather than be executed for treason.  Mera is expected to stay in Xebel as queen, but chooses to return to Earth with Aquaman.

So a nice happy ending for these two, and the final back-up story Aquaman will have.  It takes three more years before he gets his own mini-series, and a few of those before he gains his own book again.

 

Action 539 – Superman looks for time travelling help, and Aquaman heads to Xebel

Giffen and Giordano execute the cover for Action 539 (Jan. 83), as the split Superman storyline moves towards its climax.

Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane have Superman look for help in trying to travel back to the middle ages, and re-unite with his lost half.  The Atom accompanies Superman into the Time Pool, but find it mired in a time storm.

The Flash attempts the journey with Superman on the Cosmic Treadmill, but it shorts out.  Superman is weakening further, and, as Clark Kent, collapses at the office.

At the same time, hundreds of years earlier (I love writing about about comics), Lord Satanis continues to try to disrupt Syrene’s use of the other Superman, to acquire the power of the runestone.

Lord Satanis uses his magic to merge with Syrene’s Superman.

The story ends as Clark is pronounced dead, and the autopsy begins.  Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White are all at the hospital, grieving.

Rozakis, Saviuk and Dan Adkins make things clear in this Aquaman installment. Mera’s body has been taken over by V’lanna, the new queen of Xebel, who brings Aquaman back to her dimension.

There she and Mera split into themselves again.  V’lanna intends to kill Mera, and keep Aquaman as her consort.

The story concludes in the next issue.

Action 531 – ghosts of the Daily Planet, and the Atom comes to Curacao

Wolfman, Staton and McLaughlin take Superman into the supernatural in Action 531 (May 1982).

Morgan Edge leads the prospective buyer of the Daily Planet, Mort Waxman, around the building, showing off the facilities, and introducing him to staff members Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White.  Waxman’s newspapers are sleazy and sensationalist, and the Planet staff are dismayed at his purchase, but not as much as spirits that inhabit the paper, who come to life as they tour.

It seems like Superman might be behind this, he certainly shares the sentiments of the ghosts, but the story makes clear that this is not the case.

The ending is a bit off.  It’s not Waxman who gives up on the paper, it’s Morgan Edge who turns on Maxwell, for being exactly the kind of person he knew he was.

Ray Palmer and Jean Loring head into dock at Curacao in this Rozakis, Saviuk and Colletta story.

They’re just looking for a nice tropical island to hang out on, but the Atom almost immediately stumbles across some people with an armed nuke.

The story concludes in the next issue.

 

Action 528 – Superman and Brainiac vs the Death Star

Ok, it’s not called the Death Star in the story, but it so totally is.  And that’s what people I knew called the story in Action 528 (Feb.82) at the time it came out, after Empire Strikes Back.

They even use Star Wars style lettering for the title of this story, by Wolfman, Swan and Chiaramonte.

There is a totally non-Star Wars related plot in the story, as Morgan Edge intends to sell off the Daily Planet, which is losing money for Galaxy Communications.  Perry White is not the only one upset, and Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Steve Lombard and Jimmy Olsen spend the story awaiting news on this.

Superman gets far more interesting stuff to do, having been contacted by Brainiac, who warns him of an approaching, all-consuming artificial world.  Brainiac did build the thing, before realizing how all-destroying it would be.  Oops.

The two heroes work together, Superman penetrating the world, while Brainiac advises him from his ship.  This invasion proves fruitless, and Brainiac tries turning the planet “off,” putting it in a dormant state while Superman attacks.

But even “asleep,” the planet takes down Superman.

A really good, suspenseful ending.  An injured Superman collapses in front of the waiting Daily Planet staff, while Brainiac observes the destructive effects of the not-Death Star’s approach to Earth.

The story continues in the next chapter.

Aquaman gets a solo chapter as part of Rozakis, Saviuk and Chiaramonte’s continuing story arc.

Materializing on the alien world Air Wave had been drawn to, Aquaman finds a race of intelligent sea creatures, who are being exploited and enslaved by land dwellers.  Aquaman decides to help them, just as the land dwellers show up.

The story continues in the next issue.

Action 526 – Superman vs Neutron, and Air Wave’s new power

Wolfman, Staton and Chiaramonte conclude the Neutron storyline in Action 526 (Dec. 81).

Morgan Ledge gathers the Daily Planet/WGBS staff on the roof for the celebration of the return of the globe.  Lis Lane, Lana Lang, Jimmy Olsen, and of course Perry White are there. Meanwhile, Clark is frantically searching the city as Superman.  Neutron has told him that he has placed bombs throughout the city.  The art alone makes it fairly obvious that one of them is in the big glowing globe, surrounded by all his friends.  But it takes Superman until close to the end of the story to figure that out.

Along the way, Superman runs into the H.I.V.E.  They want to get rid of the bombs as well, and could work with Superman on this goal, but prefer to try to kill him.

Superman gets rid of the explosive globe, but replaces it with a safe one.  He captures Neutron far more easily than one might expect, encasing him while he is in his energy form.

Air Wave gets a more series adventure in this issue, by Rozakis, Saviuk and Colletta.

After being struck by lightning, Hal discovers that he has the ability to pick up on people’s thoughts, justas if they were broadcasts.  This comes in useful at school, when quizzed on work he hadn’t read.  But even more useful when his uncle Jack gets kidnapped.

Jack Jordan is a District Attorney, and he has been grabbed by mob goons who want vengeance.  Air Wave’s telepathy vanishes before the end of the story, but helps him find, and save, his uncle.