Page 14 of 89 FirstFirst ... 41011121314151617182464 ... LastLast
Results 196 to 210 of 1324
  1. #196
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Invasion of the Super-Ants

    ACTION COMICS 296 (January 1963)--"The Invasion of the Super-Ants" by Edmond Hamilton and Al Plastino:

    Our story opens at the Municipal Zoo in a new wing devoted to insects, as Clark Kent tells Lois Lane a wealth of information about ants (for one and a half pages).

    Not long after, a menace of giant ants creates a panic. As they have green Kryptonite, Superman is unable to get near them. When they kidnap Lois Lane, Superman flies through a cloud of red Kryptonite which bestows upon him temporary immunity to green K. and also an ant head.

    His antennae enable him to telepathically communicate with the giant ant colony and they relate their strange story. They come from a world where human beings destroyed themselves in an atomic war and the ant population of that world were mutated by the radioactive fallout into advanced, giant ants.

    They then embarked throughout the cosmos to take their message to every human civilization to stop atomic proliferation, so they won't end up like the humans of their world. As they came to Earth, their rocketship broke down and they had to make repairs. It happens that their ship uses green K. as its fuel.





    Having heard their message of peace, Superman speaks before the United Nations, giving the ants' warning to all governments: "Avoid atomic war or the ant-head I grew will symbolize our Earth's future! If we can't live in peace, Man will vanish and the insects will inherit the Earth!"

    In the 30th century, the Legion meet the ant-race of Canopus, which could be the same race of ants a thousands years in the future. It's another story from Edmond Hamilton (with John Forte art)--"The Return of Lightning Lad" in ADVENTURE COMICS 308 (May 1963). There's also the already mentioned tale "The Menace of Insect Island" in SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 79 (September 1964).

    And in SUPERBOY 124 (October 1965)--"The Insect Queen of Smallville" by Otto Binder and George Papp--Lana Lang comes to the assistance of an arthropoidal space traveller (from an unidentified world) who got trapped under a fallen tree near Smallville. When she frees the extraterrestrial, she's rewarded with a ring that has biogenetic powers to transform her into a new invertebrate each time she wills it. Thus begins her career as "Insect Queen" (which will one day win her honourary membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes).

    As I'm sure Clark Kent would tell you (such a well-informed fellow), "Insect Queen" is a misnomer as Lana transforms into many other invertebrates that are not classified as insects.

  2. #197
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Zigi and Zagi

    ACTION COMICS 315 (August 1964) - ACTION COMICS 316 (September 1964)--"The Juvenile Delinquents from Space" and "Zigi and Zagi's Trap for Superman" by Leo Dorfman and Jim Mooney:

    When Zigi and Zagi leave their planet in the Alpha-Centauri system, in their father's hyper-drive vehicle, they accidentally end up on Earth. As fish out of water, they have some innocent misadventures--yet Superman seems to take a decided dislike to the boys, even though they are rather pleasant to everyone on Earth.



    The Man of Steel manages to convince them to return to their homeworld; however, only after that they have left, does he realize a dangerous, escaped convict has stowed away aboard their spaceship and is on his way to the Alpha-Centauri system, as well.

    Superman is soon to follow and arrives on their planet in the next issue. Zigi and Zagi send the convict back to prison on Earth, without the Action Ace knowing, so the super-hero will stay on their planet to look for the fugitive.



    A romance grows between their sister, Zyra, and the Last Son of Krypton. On the one night of the year when the two moons "kiss," Zyra proposes to the Man of Tomorrow, as per her world's custom, and Superman is a man who just can't say "No."



    However, at pains to somehow get himself out of his engagement, the false lover seeks to find Zyra's old boyfriend, Zarthur. This space explorer set out for the Korb Galaxy--also called the Ravenor Galaxy--where the Korb live. Superman's flies across the vast expanse of space to this other galaxy and locates Zarthur--freeing him from a tomb on the Graveyard Planet--and bringing him back to Alpha-Centauri.

    Now that Zarthur is returned to her, Zyra would rather have him as a husband than Superman and asks the Man of Steel to free her from her promise. So the cad from Krypton gets himself out of another love affair. Such a Don Juan that Superman.

    Once he's back on Earth, the Man of Might, who never before had a kind thought for Zigi and Zagi, now admits to himself that "they were two of the nicest kids" he'd ever met--of course, this is only because they liked him so much. Superman is easily flattered by the admiration of others.

  3. #198
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Earth-Doom from the Duplor Galaxy

    SUPERMAN 178 (July 1965)--1st story, "Project Earth-Doom" by Dorfman and Plastino

    Rogg and Vikk are from the Duplor Galaxy, where everyone looks like Kerry Drake. They've come to Earth to warn Superman that their emperor, Torr the Terrible, plans to steal the Earth for their galaxy. Torr is a compulsive gambler and he's gambled away every planet in his galaxy except the Duplor homeworld.

    To locate the Man of Steel, Rogg and Vikk have fired a raygun at those men in Metropolis they suspect might be Superman. If the man isn't Supes, he vanishes, leaving his clothes behind, and he is transported to a stasis chamber at their secret mountain lair.

    When the Red and Blue Blur follows them back to their hideaway, Rogg and Vikk give him the 411.




    However, Torr's spies use dissolvo-rays to reduce them to protoplasm. The Man of Tomorrow is left on his own to foil the plot by Torr's agents to abduct several planets, including Earth, for the Duplor galaxy. Torr the Terrible is left to preside over an empire of nothing.



    Since all Duplorians are exactly alike--manly white-haired humanoids (i.e. Kerry Drake)--they seem to be unisexual.

  4. #199
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Demon Under the Red Sun

    SUPERMAN 184 (February 1966)--"The Demon Under the Red Sun" by Binder and Plastino:

    Investigating an astronaut's report of a planetoid on a zig-zag trajectory beyond the Earth's atmosphere, the Metropolis Marvel visits a world called Zhonda. Under the planetoid's surface, he finds the gravity drive machinery that propells the planet on its chaotic course.

    Telepathic tapes from a long since dead engineer tell how the people of Zhonda created the gravity drive so their world could zig-zag through hyperspace from solar system to solar system, avoiding hostile attacks from any invaders. However, the planetoid travelled through a cosmic cloud which regressed the intelligence of the people on the surface. The engineers living below were immune, but they soon died out.




    The primitive inhabitants of Zhonda don't know how their world zig-zags from star to star--they think it's all supernatural. And they believe Superman to be a demon. When the planetoid zig-zags to a red sun and the Caped Kryptonian loses his powers, they attack him. He's happy to let lose, now that he doesn't have to worry about killing anyone, so he can get a good work-out, but he's nearly burned at the stake before Zhonda zig-zags to a yellow sun.

  5. #200
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default School for Superman Assassins

    SUPERMAN 188 (July 1966)--"The School for Superman Assassins" by Binder and Plastino:

    This adventure features the planet Zarria, where all the humanoids (male and female) are bald and have narrowed eyebrows.

    On Zarria, the Galaxy Crimeteers conduct tests, using an android Superman, to select an assassin to kill Superman.



    Zunial's plot to broadcast Kryptonite radio waves wins him the honour and he goes to Earth where, after several failed attempts, he uses a radio tower to broadcast Kryptonite across all of Metropolis and thus murders the Man of Steel.

    Towing Superman back to his home planet and the headquarters of the Galaxy Crimeteers, the other Crimeteers fete Zunial and make him their chief. However, Zarria's Peace Vigilantes witness the disgraceful actions of the Crimeteers on their monitor and set off to raid the criminal organization--suiting up to do so.



    Meanwhile, one of the Crimeteer's android Supermen is activated and seeing the Action Ace lying in state, in a glass coffin, arouses the android's sympathy for his caped brother. He figures out how to reverse the polarity of the Kryptonite radio wave broadcaster and by so doing resurrect the Saviour from Krypton, but at the cost of his own artificial life--as the sonic vibrations from the broadcaster crystallize his artificial flesh.



    However, Zunial has launched a satellite that destroys all recorded knowledge and history on Zarria--while archiving this vast library on his own microfilm--and he extorts the citizens to vote him their new leader, so they might regain their storehouse of information.

    When the defeated Zunial destroys his microfilm archive, the Man of Steel is able to use his x-ray and microscopic vision to memorize all the information contained there before it goes up in flames. Superman recites the entire contents from memory to the Zarrian archivists.

  6. #201
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Super-Human Bomb

    ACTION COMICS 342 (October 1966)--"The Super-Human Bomb" by Jim Shooter and Wayne Boring:

    In ACTION COMICS 242 (July 1958), Brainiac made his debut. At the time, he was presented as a humanoid alien (along with his lovable space-monkey Koko); however, for reasons too involved to relate here, the foe with the 12th level intelligence was later retconned into an alien android. [See SUPERMAN 167 (February 1964).]

    In ACTION COMIC 342, the rival to Brainiac, Grax makes his debut. No android he; rather, a blue hued alien with four arms and a 20th level intelligence. Although this is his first comic book appearance, he has already tangled with the Man of Tomorrow before and wants revenge. He attacks Brainiac's ship, leaving the computer criminal stranded in space, and steals the ship's force-field technology, as part of a plot against Superman. [I love Wayne Boring's Kirby Krackle.]




    The cyan sage hobbles the Metropolis Marvel with a K-meson bomb that will destroy the entire planet, while a force-field around the entire Earth prevents Superman from flying off into deep space. The Man of Steel is at a loss how to neutralize the bomb until he gets a message from Brainiac, who is determined to stymie his adversary.

    Using a super-magnet, Superman pulls Grax's ship toward the force-field and flying up toward the ship, the Man of Might lets Grax know that when the bomb goes off he will be the first to be destroyed. Grax relents and lets Superman through an opening in the force-field into his ship; however, time has run out, the bomb goes off and though a force-field around Grax's ship contains the blast, everything within the ship's force-field is destroyed but for the Action Ace.



    Superman rescues Brainiac, builds a new spaceship for him and the two shake hands, having settled the score between them for the time being. Meanwhile, we see that Grax managed to transform into a phantom and now in that form is floating in outer space.

  7. #202
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Four Element Enemies

    SUPERMAN 190 (October 1966)--"The Four Element Enemies" by Shooter and Boring:

    Our story opens on Superman defending an unidentified planet from invaders. Remotely observing the Man of Steel is a space pirate, who calls himself Amalak. He is hiding in a cosmic cloud, because alien races are pursuing him. He needs a base, a planet, where he can regroup. Amalak decides to take Earth, but before he can do so he must first get rid of the Caped Kryptonian.




    Using a device powered by the energy of a super-nova, the space pirate chooses four nondescript men in Metropolis to blast and transform into four elementals--earth, air, water and fire. However the fourth man is Clark Kent--the blast bounces off him and turns a youth into the fire elemental, while Superman is left at half-power. The feedback from the ray's misfire knocks Amalak unconscious.

    Left to their own devices, with no one to control them, the four E-Men are driven by a native instinct to destroy the Man of Tomorrow. Their rolling fight travels over and beyond our world, with the Action Ace unable to fend off his four attackers for long. However, when Amalak regains consciousness and attempts to control the E-Beings, they are momentarily frozen and Superman is able to strike back. The earth, air and water elementals are neutralized and revert back to their human forms.

    It just remains for the fire lad to be taken down, but he turns radioactive and threatens to level the city of Metropolis when he reaches critical mass. The Man of Steel has regained enough of his power from the defeat of the other three that he is able to launch the radioactive boy into space, where the blast destroys Amalak's ship. With the youth now returned to his human form, Superman has only seconds to save the innocent from the peril of airless space.

    Thankfully, the Metropolis Marvel rescues the lad in time and all four Metropolis citizens are left to recover in a hospital, while we are left to wonder if this is the last we'll see of Amalak the space raider.


  8. #203
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default The Kryptonian Killer

    SUPERMAN 195 (April 1967)--1st story, "The Fury of the Kryptonian-Killer" by Shooter (from a cover idea by Cary Bates), Swan and Klein; cover art by Swan and Klein:

    A mystery man attacks every tribute to Krypton, even those in the Fortress of Solitude, stealing the Bottle City of Kandor and ultimately defeating Krypto, Supergirl and Superman with Kryptonite gas.

    The stranger is Rinol-Jag, the last survivor of the planet Salitar.

    When Amalak's space-ship was blown up by the radioactive fire lad, he escaped death by travelling back in time and enslaved blue-skinned aliens on another planet to rebuild his technology. He next set out for Krypton, hoping to reach it in time to kill baby Kal-El; however, his timing is off and he arrives to see the planet explode into fragments of Kryptonite. The space raider tracks the trajectory of a very large chunk of Kryptonite (the size of a small planet) and travels through time to witness it destroy the planet Salitar in the present.

    One inhabitant of Salitar survived the destruction--Rinol-Jag, an astronaut aboard a rocket ship at the time of the collison. The astronaut landed on Salitar's moon, where Amalak rescued him and took him aboard his spaceship. The space pirate then manipulated Rinol-Jag, feeding his despair until it turned to obsessive hatred for Krypton and all things Kryptonian.





    continued in next post following

  9. #204
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Cover story

    When Rinol-Jag explains his origin story to Superman, the Man of Steel points out that Amalak was simply using him as a pawn. In fact, the space pirate is bent on destroying Earth, so the would-be Kryptonian Killer turns on Amalak and aids the Action Ace in defeating the planetary privateer. Rinol-Jag says his farewells to the Last Son and Last Daughter of Krypton--taking off for parts unknown--while Amalak is sent to a space prison.





    In the letter column for this issue there's a letter from Cary Bates. In answering that letter, the letter column editor explains that Bates, a college student, has sent in many cover ideas for their comics, including the cover idea for this issue.


  10. #205
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Clark Kent Abandons Superman

    SUPERMAN 201 (November 1967)--1st story, "Clark Kent Abandons Superman" by Cary Bates, Swan and Klein; cover art by Swan and Klein:



    When Clark fails to save an archaeologist from being crushed by a falling rock, he's plagued with feelings of guilt and doubts that he can go on as Superman.



    Suffering a post-traumatic depression, he decides to give up being a super-hero and leaves Earth for a red-sun planet with a heavy gravity, Moxia.



    continued in next post following

  11. #206
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Part II, New Life . . .

    On Moxia, a relatively peaceful planet, Kal-El adopts the identity of Clarken. He gets a job working at Computron, where he dates the boss's daughter Lloru, a computer programmer.




    However, the calm easy life on Moxia is disrupted one day when a powerful invader named Kromn arrives, spoiling to rule the planet. Now without powers of his own, Clarken builds a make-shift Super-Robot and gives it his costume, so it can fight Kromn.



    When the two get into a slugfest, the Super-Robot is the victor and it's revealed that Kromn himself was a robot. Clarken traces the robot parts back to Computron--in fact to Lloru's father, Rolgar. With the aid of Super-Robot, Clarken brings Rolgar to justice and then leaves Moxia to return to Earth.

  12. #207
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default When Superman Killed

    SUPERMAN 203 (January 1968)--3rd story, "When Superman Killed His Friends" by E. Nelson Bridwell and Pete Costanza:



    After helping out some jolly green aliens on their planet, the Man of Might experiences an encounter with a strange fragment in space that attaches to his chest and ends up killing Perry, Lois and Jimmy. A space-hunter named Knarf explains to Superman that the scientist Quor Jal from Eaox wanted to become immortal but his experiment transformed him into this parasitic entity. However, the glowing fragment on the Man of Steel's chest kills Knarf, too.

    But this is all a dream. The Action Ace wakes up still on the planet of the jolly green guys, having had a dream induced by a red Kryptonite rock--it's a premonition of what could happen. This time, Superman seeks out Knarf and learns that the parasite can be subdued with his x-ray vision.



    The "Metropolis Mailbag" for this issue includes comments on the Canada themed 200th Anniversary issue ("It's the Hundredth Anniversary of Confederation! Everybody sing together!"), with a letter from Dave Sim of Kitchener. Can that be the same Dave Sim who went on to create Cerebus the Aardvark? I think it just might.


  13. #208
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default The Unemployed Superman

    ACTION COMICS 368 (October 1968) - ACTION COMICS 369 (November 1968)--"The Unemployed Superman" and "Superman's Greatest Blunder" by Binder, Swan and Abel:

    Each year on the anniversary of Krypton's destruction, Superman flies into deep space to a memorial model of Krypton that he and Supergirl have made--populated with android models of Kryptonians, including his parents, Jor-El and Lora Lara-Van. There, the Last Son of Krypton plays out a pathetic representation of his tragic origins.

    Returning to his adopted world, the Action Ace discovers that all crime, all disasters have stopped, thanks to strange crystalline spheres called Sentinels. Superman has been made redundant.



    The Sentinels exile the Man of Steel to a red-sun planet. The next issue picks up on the ACTION with a tantilizing fourth wall breaking splash page . . .



    When he accidentally eats forbidden fruit, Superman has to battle an alien king's knights.



    But as he does so his powers start to return. The Metropolis Marvel realizes that the sun is half red and half yellow--when it spins on its axis, the yellow side shines.

    continued in next post following

  14. #209
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default Superman's Greatest Blunder

    The Caped Kryptonian decides to leave that planet and return to Earth, given he suspects the Sentinels are evil not good. He goes about destroying them, utilizing some interesting facts about the Earth along the way--



    --only in the end to learn that, on the planet Sraghalni, the people there created the Sentinels to eliminate all evil and peril.



    With them, Earth would be safe from natural disasters and there would be no crime. Now that the Sentinels are out of service, Earth returns to its old ways. Superman has goofed--all the woes of the world are his fault.


  15. #210
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default

    Reader . . .

    THIS HALLOWE'EN--

    Do You DARE to Enter

    SUPERMAN'S Gallery of

    GHOSTS & GHOULS?










    coming October 31st!
    (you've been warned)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •