Action 368 – Superman is bored, and Supergirl needs help

Superman finds himself out of work in Action 368 (Oct. 68), in a story by Otto Binder, Curt Swan and Jack Abel.

Superman has been off in space, on a replica world of Krypton, bemoaning how Earth makes so many demands on him.  But when he comes back to Earth, he finds it a different situation entirely. There is no crime, no emergencies.  Superman flies around trying to help, but there is nothing for him to do.

When Mr. Mxyzptlk shows up, Clark is convinced the imp is at the root of all this peace and goodwill.  But Mxyzptlk has been changed as well, and now wants only to spread fun and happiness.

Even Jax-Ur, no longer in the Phantom Zone, has reformed, and spends his time in space protecting the planet from meteors.

Superman is approached by a glowing giant molecule thing, which calls itself a Sentinel.  They have brought peace and stability to the planet, but Superman threatens to undo their good works, with his propensity towards violence.  The Sentinel convinces Superman to leave Earth and head to a planet that orbits a red sun.

The story concludes in the next issue.

Supergirl finishes her battle with Alpha and Beta in this Bates and Schaffenberger story.

Those googly eye things in the first part of the story really were the best thing about this tale, which comes to a really simple conclusion.  The boy Supergirl is protecting takes a look at the bomb keeping everyone out of Stanhope, and realizes its a fake.  Sueprgirl had managed to flag away Superman before he broke the dome, but now realizes that was not necessary.

Some future cops come to round up Alpha and Beta.  Supergirl discovers that she still has her powers, as the future cops also shielded her from the gold kryptonite exposure.

Probably shouldn’t have fallen for the eyes and just skipped this three-parter.

Action 367 – Supergirl trapped in Stanhope College

Supergirl gets the cover story for Action 368 (Oct. 68), continuing her battle with Alpha and Beta, courtesy of Cary Bates and Kurt Schaffenberger.

Supergirl uses gold kryptonite on herself, permanently removing her powers.  Changing back into Linda, she hovers around the domed campus until Alpha and Beta spot her, and bring her into the sealed Stanhope College.  Her powers would have set off a bomb, but it still seems like a really extreme move.

At least we learn what the two women are up to.  They are not aliens, they are from the distant future, and have travelled back in time to find the man who would one day invent “noricon.”  This substance is really valuable, and their plot is to basically corner the market, by getting him to invent it earlier. Of course, the poor guy has no idea how to invent it yet, and the idea is compared to asking an 8 year old Thomas Edison to invent a lightbulb.

As the mid-part reaches a climax, Supergirl has found the inventor boy, and is keeping him safe.  But Supergirl’s absence has drawn Superman’s attention, and he flies towards the dome, intending to smash it, unaware that this will blow up the campus (as per the cover image.)

The story concludes in the next issue.

Action 366 – Superman substitutes, and Supergirl meets Alpha and Beta

Dorfman, Andru and Esposito conclude the Virus X storyline in Action 366 (Aug. 68).

Superman is found by some flame beings in the sun.  He has been cured of Virus X, thanks to the white kryptonite thrown at him by the Bizarros.  That killed the virus, and the sun healed his injuries.

Returning to Earth, he finds that no one realizes he has been gone, and that there are versions of himself fighting crime all over the place.  He checks Kandor, and the Phantom Zone, but no one is missing.

The Supermen are actually his fellow Justice Leaguers, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter and Aquaman, working alongside Supergirl.

This story was really highly regarded at the time.

Cary Bates and Kurt Schaffenberger introduce a pair of alien villains for Supergirl in this story.

Alpha and Beta are on a mission, and want one of the Stanhope students.  They seal off the campus, which actually helps protect Supergirl’s identity, as her Linda robot is at class.

Not much is explained in this action-packed tale, which concludes next issue, but those bug eyes merited inclusion.

Action 365 – along the flight to cremation

Action 365 (July 1968) contains the penultimate chapter of Dorfman, Andru and Esposito’s Virus X saga.

Sadly, there is little that actually happens in this issue.  It begins by recapping the story so far, and then turns into a reviewof Superman’s life, as it all passes through his mind as he travels through space.  We get Jor-El and Lara sending him off from Krypton, and teh Kents finding and raising him.  Lana Lang is introduced, and the origin of LexLuthor retold.

As Superman’s body passes Lexor, the people rise in revolt against Lex for killing Superman.  Ardora tries to get the mob to calm down, but I expect she had some rough days ahead of her.  In fact, we do not see Ardora again until the 80s, although Lexor appears in World’s Finest tale in the mid-70s.

Superman recalls his time with the Legion of Super-Heroes, and later Batman and Robin, and the Justice League.  Lori Lemaris, and then his time at the Daily Planet, with Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, and Lois Lane.

Brainiac, Kandor and Supergirl get a page devoted to their tale.

He passes Bizarro World, and they shower him with all the forms of kryptonite.  Just before he plunges into the heart of a star, Supergirl flies out Lois, Lana and Lori, to watch and mourn.

 

Action 364 – no cure for Superman

Another Adams cover on Action 364 (June 1968), as Dorfman, Andru and Esposito continue the Virus X saga.

Superman gets out of the cliffhanger from last episode, simply by doffing his clothes, and appearing to Lois as Superman.

Luthor announces that he is able to cure Superman’s disease.   He was the one who created it, after all.  His men produce the infected cat, which Luthor’s cure works on.  He demands a million dollars.

Luthor gets his money, but it’s all a scam.  It was not the same cat.  Luthor just wanted to hold out the cure, and then laugh in Superman’s face.  Asshole.

Supergirl plans to send Superman into the Phantom Zone.  Jax-Ur and Professor Vakox protest, not knowing if the plague would spread to them and others in the Zone.  Superman agrees, and tricks Supergirl into entering Kandor, and then seals her in.

Feeling death approaching, Superman makes a farewell speech, wearing a mask to look the way he wants to be remembered.  Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane are at the funeral, but neither had major roles in this tale.  Superman is fired into space to die.

The story continues in the next issue.

Action 362 – the Head of Hate, and Supergirl on trial in the future

Leo Dorfman is joined by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, as a long-running story sets off in Action 362 (April 1968).  It is amazing that, even with Neal Adams doing the cover, that huge head still looks awful.

The villain in this tale is a ventriloquist. His brother was captured by Superman but died in prison.  He has a dummy of his dead brother carried around by his men, and refuses to acknowledge that he is dead.

The Ventriloquist’s plan is to use one of Superman’s friend to kill him – and has Clark Kent kidnapped.  He has built a hypnosis machine out of a broken Superman robot – the huge head.

To further induce Clark to kill Superman, he shows him the supposed corpses of Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White, and claims that Superman killed them.  Of course, these are just more dummies.  But Clark behaves, as the story reaches its ending, as if he is ready and willing to kill.

Otto Binder and Kurt Schaffenberger have Linda become an exchange student in this story.

To Linda’s surprise, she winds up being sent to the 40th century. I wish the story followed the 40th century resident who was exchanged for her, but it doesn’t.

Supergirl is considered a great villain in this era, and she winds up arrested and put on trial.  Robin shows up to act as her defense, with a really lame explanation of how he got there.

But that’s ok, it’s not really Robin.  It’s a descendant of Mr. Mxyzptlk, who drew Linda to his century, and made everyone think she was a villain, all for his own amusement. But Linda had caught on, when he flew as Robin.  Exactly how that convinced her that this was a descendant of Mr. Mxyzptlk is not clear, but she does trick him into saying his name backwards.

 

Action 361 – the Parasite returns, and Supergirl dates a Kryptonian?

Jim Shooter and Al Plastino bring back the Parasite in Action 361 (March 1968).

An alien geographer exploring the Earth finds an unusual cloud, which registers as a life-form.  He brings it aboard his ship, and concentrates it, which restores the Parasite back to life.  The Parasite drains the geographer, and heads down to Earth.

The Parasite still is aware that Superman is Clark Kent.  He takes on the identity of a reporter, drawing the needed skills and abilities from Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, even from Perry White as he hires the man for the Daily Planet.  The Parasite sticks close to Clark, but only draws his energy from him as the Parasite.

This plan works extremely well.  The Parasite never lets his presence be known, so Superman has no idea what is weakening him.

When the Parasite has drained Superman sufficiently, he goes on the attack.  And Superman has been weakened so much that the Parasite should have won this fight.  But the geographer recovered, and comes up form behind, trapping Parasite in the device he used to gather him as a cloud int he first place.

Surprisingly, after two great appearances the Parasite is not seen again until the mid-70s.

Otto Binder and Kurt Schaffenberger explore the wonders of computer dating in this story.

Linda gets matched with a boy who seems to have super-powers, speak Kryptonian, and know that she is Supergirl. She is wary enough to not reveal anything, but also intrigued.

When she comes to his aid as Supergirl, he rudely rebuffs her, claiming to have interest only in Linda.  This really throws her.

He finally tries to prove Linda is Supergirl, at the risk of her life.  She gets out of it, and he confesses that the he faked his Kryptonian stuff, thinking she really was Supergirl.

And we are meant to laugh as he winds up matched with an ugly girl.

But he was right.  And although he lied about who he was, Linda also lies about who she is.

I think they were better suited to each other than Linda thought.  No wonder she never gets a stable boyfriend, and is content with her dalliances with a merboy, a horse, and an alien living in the distant future.

 

Action 360 – the Supergirl game

Action 360 (March/April 1968)is an 80 Page Giant, reprinting Supergirl tales from earlier in the run. You can tell these reprints were quite popular, both form the number of giants dedicated to them, but also the fact that Supergirl’s own back-up series now ran new stories interspersed with reprints.

But this one is a special one, simply because of the board game cover.  The events on the board correspond to the run of stories reprinted in the issue, culminating with the story in which Supergirl’s existence was revealed.

Action 350 – the Caveman Superman, and Supergirl and the Heroes

Binder and Boring solve the mystery of the stone-age Superman in Action 350 (May 1967).

Perry White gets trapped at a cave-in at an archaeological dig.  When Superman comes to dig him out, they discover the skeletal remains of a caveman, wearing a Superman uniform.

Superman travels back in time to investigate, and winds up in a prehistoric era, with both dinosaurs and cavemen, and even a red sun.

As far as I understand, the red giant phase is something our sun has yet to experience, not part of its distant past.  But whatever, it leaves Superman powerless.

Superman runs afoul of a tribe, lead by Guarr, but eventually proves himself to them.  Guarr wants Superman’s costume, which retains its invulnerability. Somehow.

One of Superman’s robots comes back in time, worried that his master has not returned.  He brings Superman back to the present, and they leave a costume for Guarr to wear and die in, and be dug up centuries later.

I have to confess, I wish it wasn’t Wayne Boring on the art.  Superman grows a beard while in the past, but Boring never makes it look like much more than some shading.

Dorfman and Mooney pit Supergirl against some unheroic Heroes in this story.

The Heroes are a rock band, who dress as Batman, Green Arrow and Green Lantern, as well as a girl dressed as Supergirl.  Linda enjoys their music, but they are really a gang of thieves, who steal from the locations they perform at, while everyone is watching their Supergirl.

Supergirl notes the correlation between the thefts and their performances, and goes to question their Supergirl.  She has also just figured out what is going on, and wants no part of the ban anymore.  When Supergirl shows up to rehearse for their next gig, the boys are suspicious.  She seems to be much better than she had been previously, and they suspect she is the real thing.

They lay a kryptonite trap for her, but their pans backfire badly.  It was not the real Supergirl, just their singer, pretending to be, so the kryptonite does nothing.  Supergirl calls on the Justice League of America, and Batman, Green Arrow and Green Lantern are happy to help her round up the band, while Hawkman sits, stuck on monitor duty.

 

 

Action 339 – the Superman of 2966 vs Muto, and Supergirl vs Brainiac

A split cover for Action 339 (July 1966), as the Superman of 2966 faces Muto, in a story by Hamilton, Swan and Klein, while Supergirl is caged by Brainiac, thanks to Jim Shooter and Jim Mooney.

The Superman of 2966 escapes from Muto’s trap, using the androids to bring him to safety.  He has to struggle to deal with Muto, who keeps his base in the toxic waters.

Muto makes use of an enlarging ray.  His plans are never very precise, but the art is fun.

It really looks like Superman is killing Muto, not just sending him back to his home dimension.  But Muto does return, along with this Superman, in World’s Finest Comics the following year.

Sueprgirl has her first solo outing against Brainiac in this story.  Superman leaves Earth in her care as he goes into space with the Justice League of America.

Brainiac has a trap all specially prepared for Superman, and comes to challenge him.  He refuses to take Sueprgirl seriously.

But Supergirl will not give up, and keeps attacking over and over.  Finally, Brainiac considers her enough of a nuisance to use his special kryptonite cage on her.

But the cage was built for Superman’s size, and Supergirl slips through the bars. It’s painful, but possible, and she defeats the unwary Brainiac and sends him running.