Action Comics 320
January 1965
The cover and splash page look to be by Curt Swan, but the rest of the
Superman story looks like Al Plastino. Supergirl art is by Jim Mooney.
Superman in "The Three Super-Enemies!"
Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen volunteer to test an underground bomb
shelter for three days. "It'll be a bit crowded for three," notes Jimmy to
Lois. "However, you and Clark had to have somebody to chaperon you!" "Oh,
Jimmy, don't talk nonsense."
Soon, Clark's super senses indicate that an inhibitor wave from somewhere
has shut down all electrical equipment in Metropolis. How will he get out of
the shelter to help? His solution? He sends Lois and Jimmy to go make lunch
while he checks out the radio. With them gone, he quickly turns the radio into a
time drawing device to bring his friends from the 30th century to help. I
think he and Luthor went to the same vocational school in Smallville.
Unfortunately, the inhibitor even affects time machines, but he finds it
will draw people from the past, so he calls on Hercules, Atlas and Samson, who
land outside the city limits. Clark informs them by super ventriloquism that
he needs their help. He sends them to the Jimmy Olsen fan club building to
put on copies of his super suit so people will think Superman is on the job.
But as they do so, Clark's suspicions are raised as the three heroes boast of
having powers they shouldn't have… And why would the Jimmy Olsen fan club
have three Superman suits? Perhaps Atlas would have looked swell in a green suit
with a red bow tie.
They quickly find and destroy the inhibitor ray being run by a criminal
gang, but then refuse to return to the past. They want to stay in the present and
take over the world! "We only stopped those thieves because they were
stealing what should belong to us!" declares the red-headed Hercules. They begin by
conquering Metropolis, using the power of Neptune to raise the ocean, the
thunderbolts of Jove, and the sleep powers of Morpheus. With the waters
threatening to engulf the bomb shelter, the three reporters are released and Clark is
free to take charge of the situation as Superman!
But the three menaces soon get the drop on Superman, and he has to use his
wits to win. Oh, the pain! He concocts a story about an even greater menace
who has the powers of all the gods, and his name is Omni-Menace. They agree to
let him go to find this new challenger. Of course it's Superman in a purple
outfit and a mask, so they don't recognize him. Works like eye glasses.
He uses his powers to convince the evil dictators that he his godly powers
make him mightier than they, and so they surrender. He puts them to work
building a giant fortress, and the work is so hard they sneak away into the time
machine to get away! "Just in time to escape that slave-driver!"
Back in his Fortress, a scientist from Kandor calls up on the view screen
and explains that the inhibitor ray distorted the time drawing device, bringing
the three from a parallel world like Earth, but with a different history,
where the three were evil instead of heroes. D'oh!
Supergirl in "The Man who Broke Supergirl's Heart"
Evil aliens scan Supergirl to study her personality and emotions so they can
determine what would make up the perfect man for her. They build a mold and
fill it with protoplasm to make an artificial dream date for the Girl of
Steel. They send "Randor" to Earth to meet Supergirl, he discovers her identity
as Stanhope College student Linda Danvers, and they begin a whirlwind
romance. Randor "admits" he's an alien from Calyx and he asks Supergirl to move
there with him. She turns him down but agrees to go take him home and visit for
a while. Once there, her powers are drained into one of the evil alien
scientists, and he reveals Randor as only an android. Poor stupid Supergirl!
But Randor has exceeded his programming and truly fallen in love with
Supergirl, so he helps her escape and regain her powers, although it costs him his
artificial life. She captures the evil scientists and tenderly holds Randor
as he slowly melts away into protoplasm. Who's going to pay for that dry
cleaning? Supergirl vows to maroon the scientists on an uninhabited planet, and
then carves Randor's face into an asteroid with a vow to never forget him. And
he's never mentioned again. The end.
Unca Mort and his writers sure crammed a lot of story elements into a few
pages. Time travel, parallel worlds, ancient heroes, false identities and
powers, aliens, androids, and even a love story featuring a foolish teenager. As
silly as these stories seem now, I ate them up as a pre-teenager when they were
first being printed in the mid-1960s.
-- your pal, Hoy
The cover and splash page look to be by Curt Swan, but the rest of the
Superman story looks like Al Plastino. Supergirl art is by Jim Mooney.
Superman in "The Three Super-Enemies!"
Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen volunteer to test an underground bomb
shelter for three days. "It'll be a bit crowded for three," notes Jimmy to
Lois. "However, you and Clark had to have somebody to chaperon you!" "Oh,
Jimmy, don't talk nonsense."
Soon, Clark's super senses indicate that an inhibitor wave from somewhere
has shut down all electrical equipment in Metropolis. How will he get out of
the shelter to help? His solution? He sends Lois and Jimmy to go make lunch
while he checks out the radio. With them gone, he quickly turns the radio into a
time drawing device to bring his friends from the 30th century to help. I
think he and Luthor went to the same vocational school in Smallville.
Unfortunately, the inhibitor even affects time machines, but he finds it
will draw people from the past, so he calls on Hercules, Atlas and Samson, who
land outside the city limits. Clark informs them by super ventriloquism that
he needs their help. He sends them to the Jimmy Olsen fan club building to
put on copies of his super suit so people will think Superman is on the job.
But as they do so, Clark's suspicions are raised as the three heroes boast of
having powers they shouldn't have… And why would the Jimmy Olsen fan club
have three Superman suits? Perhaps Atlas would have looked swell in a green suit
with a red bow tie.
They quickly find and destroy the inhibitor ray being run by a criminal
gang, but then refuse to return to the past. They want to stay in the present and
take over the world! "We only stopped those thieves because they were
stealing what should belong to us!" declares the red-headed Hercules. They begin by
conquering Metropolis, using the power of Neptune to raise the ocean, the
thunderbolts of Jove, and the sleep powers of Morpheus. With the waters
threatening to engulf the bomb shelter, the three reporters are released and Clark is
free to take charge of the situation as Superman!
But the three menaces soon get the drop on Superman, and he has to use his
wits to win. Oh, the pain! He concocts a story about an even greater menace
who has the powers of all the gods, and his name is Omni-Menace. They agree to
let him go to find this new challenger. Of course it's Superman in a purple
outfit and a mask, so they don't recognize him. Works like eye glasses.
He uses his powers to convince the evil dictators that he his godly powers
make him mightier than they, and so they surrender. He puts them to work
building a giant fortress, and the work is so hard they sneak away into the time
machine to get away! "Just in time to escape that slave-driver!"
Back in his Fortress, a scientist from Kandor calls up on the view screen
and explains that the inhibitor ray distorted the time drawing device, bringing
the three from a parallel world like Earth, but with a different history,
where the three were evil instead of heroes. D'oh!
Supergirl in "The Man who Broke Supergirl's Heart"
Evil aliens scan Supergirl to study her personality and emotions so they can
determine what would make up the perfect man for her. They build a mold and
fill it with protoplasm to make an artificial dream date for the Girl of
Steel. They send "Randor" to Earth to meet Supergirl, he discovers her identity
as Stanhope College student Linda Danvers, and they begin a whirlwind
romance. Randor "admits" he's an alien from Calyx and he asks Supergirl to move
there with him. She turns him down but agrees to go take him home and visit for
a while. Once there, her powers are drained into one of the evil alien
scientists, and he reveals Randor as only an android. Poor stupid Supergirl!
But Randor has exceeded his programming and truly fallen in love with
Supergirl, so he helps her escape and regain her powers, although it costs him his
artificial life. She captures the evil scientists and tenderly holds Randor
as he slowly melts away into protoplasm. Who's going to pay for that dry
cleaning? Supergirl vows to maroon the scientists on an uninhabited planet, and
then carves Randor's face into an asteroid with a vow to never forget him. And
he's never mentioned again. The end.
Unca Mort and his writers sure crammed a lot of story elements into a few
pages. Time travel, parallel worlds, ancient heroes, false identities and
powers, aliens, androids, and even a love story featuring a foolish teenager. As
silly as these stories seem now, I ate them up as a pre-teenager when they were
first being printed in the mid-1960s.
-- your pal, Hoy
