The Super-Men (and -Women) of All-Planets

[Jim Kelly]

Little Clark makes friends with a family of bears.



When it becomes too dangerous for the bears to live near humans, Clark relocates them to a cave in the forest. However, mother bear gets her paw stuck in a trap and Superbaby has to free her.



Later a couple of poachers come upon baby Kal-El and the bears and start shooting, yet run away when the Mighty Mite brings them some honey--along with a hoard of stinging bees. Afterward, the poachers run into the game warden, but he ignores their stories about a flying baby, being more interested in the ducks they've poached.

Little Clark goes to sleep that night, holding his teddy bear.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 419 (December 1972)--1st story, "The Most Dangerous Man on Earth" by Bates, Swan and Anderson; 2nd story, "The Human Target: The Assassin Express Contract" by Wein, Infantino and Giordano; cover art by Adams, Anderson and Adler:



This issue's cover features a team-up of Neal Adams and Murphy Anderson on the Superman figure (you don't see that very often), with the photographic background provided by National production man Jack Adler. This might not seem like anything much nowadays but matching illustrations with photographs was a spectacular production feat back in the day.



Julius Schwartz takes the editor's chair with this issue of ACTION. In the lead story, a new space telescope transmits energy to Earth with odd effects.

[Jim Kelly]

The back-up feature debuts Len Wein and Carmine Infantino's co-creation, Christopher Chance, the Human Target.



Note: Christopher Chance is not the first character to be a Human Target--there were at least two others, in stories before, both with the "Human Target" title--

Batman's ally Fred Venables in DETECTIVE COMICS 201 (November 1953)--



--and police detective Bruce Perry in GANG BUSTERS 61 (December 1957 - January 1958), reprinted in DETECTIVE COMICS 419 (January 1972).

[Jim Kelly]

Next week: The Bob Kanigher Rises

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 128 (December 1972)--1st story, "Death Waits to Kiss the Bride" by Kanigher, Rosenberger and Colletta; 2nd story, "Edge of Madness" by Kanigher and Heck; cover art by Bob Oksner:



Oksner turns in a classic cover for this issue--the first edited by Bob Kanigher (who also wrote both stories in the issue), but the lead story can't live up to the expectations set by the cover. The dead bride that the Man of Steel holds in his arms is not Lois Lane but rather a robot, fashioned to smoke out some killers.

Rose and the Thorn remains the back-up feature for the next few issues.

Kanigher also becomes the SUPERGIRL editor the following month, that title's 2nd issue.

***

SUPERGIRL 2 (January 1973)--1st story, "Death of a City" by Bates, Saaf and Colletta; cover art by Bob Oksner:



Linda has a new boyfriend--Jeff (not Geoff)--this issue but he doesn't stick around for long because he gets jealous when Linda gives mouth-to-mouth to her biology professor, Allan Forsyte. If Linda is a post-graduate at Vandyre in the drama program, why is she taking a biology class?

Forsyte has a strange malady that can only be cured by taking him into the bottle city of Kandor, where Kara Zor-El must retrieve a panacea from the crypt of Nor-Kan (the scientist who aided Superman and Jimmy Olsen when they were Nightwing and Flamebird).

The revolving door of romance keeps going round and round for Linda as almost every issue she has a new boyfriend--Jeff, Bob, David, Tony, Mitch, Dale.

In the letter column, E.N.B. provides little hope for Streaky making a Super-Cat appearance.

Kanigher will remain in the editor's chair, for both SUPERGIRL and SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE, until they turn out the lights.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 155 (January 1973)--1st story, "The Downfall of 'Judas' Olsen" by Dorfman, Schaffenberger and Colletta; 2nd story, "A Coffin for Mr. Action" by Dorfman, Schaffenberger and Colletta:

Olsen trails gang leaders of the Young Dukes, the Ebony Hawks, Satan's Saints and the River Lords to a block of abandoned buildings scheduled for demolition. Believing they're plotting some criminal enterprise, Jim is surprised to find Terry Dean is there. She gave up her discotheque and opened a school for hard luck cases.



However, just as she gives Olsen a tour of their storefront school, a wrecking ball disrupts the lessons. Matt Gordon, the city housing commissioner, is going forward with bringing down all the buildings.

Jimmy promises Terry that he will use his resources as a reporter to get them some action. And sparks start to fly between the two characters.

Olsen goes to Edge with his plan to be a "Mr. Action"--and Morgan likes the publicity angle but isn't interested in the storefront school--he wants Jimmy to focus on the abandoned autos in the city.





Later, Mr. Action gets framed for extortion and Terry Dean loses faith in him, but he's cleared in the end and comes up with a solution for both the school and the junked cars. The students strip the car parts and build new autos, selling them and raising enough money to buy back their building from the city.

Schaffenberger preserves the Jack Kirby look of Terry Dean.

[Jim Kelly]

The second story is essentially the plot of POINT BREAK with Jimmy in the Keanu Reeves role and Stan the Surf playing the Patrick Swayze part. In this surfer drama, Stan's band of bros are transporting the stolen pages of an ancient Aztec Codex inside their surfboards to a waiting trawler.

It doesn't make much sense that Stan is breaking up an ancient text, hiding it inside surfboards, then sending those out on the salt sea. Such treatment of a rare codex would surely do great damage to the artefact and decrease its value.

The "Jimmy Olsen's Pen-Pals" page is devoted to a bio on Kurt Schaffenberger.

[Jim Kelly]

Valdemar of Valhalla

SUPERMAN 260 (January 1973)--1st story, "Keeper of the Eternal Flame" by Maggin, Swan and Anderson
SUPERMAN 270 (December 1973)--1st story, "The Viking from Valhalla" by Maggin, Swan and Anderson; 2nd story, "I Can't Go Home Again" by Maggin and Anderson:



When Morgan Edge sends Clark Kent and Percy Bratten up to Maine to film a documentary on potato farmers, the mild mannered reporter discovers a Viking village hidden from the view of all others except himself.

Fearing the Red and Blue Interloper, Valdemar takes up his flaming sword and rides on the back of the giant golden falcon, Skaggerak, to pursue the Caped Outsider.



Superman figures out that the "Eternal Flame" at the centre of the village is somehow what protects and preserves the Vikings, so he inhales the Flame and expels it into the sky. Then realizing that this will reveal them to the outside world, the Man of Steel reignites the Eternal Flame.

[Jim Kelly]

After a year has passed, Valdemar flies on Skaggerak to Metropolis, to repay the Action Ace's visit. But soon he and his golden falcon become disoriented and delusional.



The Metropolis Marvel realizes that a combinaton of future shock and pollution is the cause and the Defender of the Eternal Flame is removed to a hospital room, where he may recover.

[Jim Kelly]

The second story in issue 270 has Clark returning to his old house in Smallville, which is about to be torn down to make way for a highway.



Pete Ross is in charge of the demolition and has made sure that none of Superboy's secrets will be revealed to the public. In fact, Clark isn't worried about that--he cleared away any evidence linking him to the Boy of Steel long ago--he's only sad to lose a house that has so many memories for him.



Clark leads Pete to an old cave they used to explore as kids, where there are paintings from an indigenous civilization. The Kent house rests on a street that's declared a National Historic Site.



Note: Pete's thoughts at the end--"We must be careful about what we pretend to be…"--are quoted from MOTHER NIGHT by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.--a favourite author of Elliot S! Maggin.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 156 (February 1973)--1st story, "Last Jump for a Skyjacker" by Dorfman, Schaffenberger and Colletta; 2nd story, "The 3 Who Vanished" by Dorfman, Schaffenberger and Colletta:

Mr. Action falls in (literally) with a female D.B. Cooper. She turns out to be a rich heiress--Paula Wallace--who has stolen her own money to audition for an ersatz Challengers of the Unknown.





And in the second story, Olsen finds that three missing miscreants have been shrunk into doll form.

The letters page this issue is given over to profiles on Leo Dorfman and Vince Colletta. The piece on Dorfman was written by one of his sons. Not surprisingly, Dorfman was always finding new facts he could use for his stories. Knowing that Leo would die not long after this, it chokes me up to think of that son losing his father.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 129 (February 1973)--1st story, "Serpent in Paradise" by Maxene Fabe, Rosenberger and Colletta; 2nd story, "The Million Dollar Night" by Kanigher? Heck and Colletta:

In the back-up feature, after the Thorn comes to the rescue of an elderly lady attacked by a gang of muggers, the grateful victim leaves a sum of one million dollars at the Metropolis Bank for the Mystery Woman of the Night.

Lois and her roommates take the train out of town to the cave of a Guru. But "Sexy Sadie" turns out to be handing them a load of bull and is actually an antiquities thief.

Note: Maxene Fabe was a comics writer in the 1970s, but mainly just for editor Joe Orlando for his mystery anthologies and for PLOP! This is the only story (as far as known) that she did for a Superman book.

***

SUPERGIRL 3 (February 1973)--1st story, "The Garden of Death" by Bates, Saaf and Colletta; cover art by Bob Oksner:



By issue 3, Linda's roomie Terry has changed her spelling to "Terri," while Shiela is calling herself "Sabra" and now comes from Israel, if Shiela and Sabra are one and the same (if not then Shiela Wong has gone the way of Wanda Five).

[Jim Kelly]

SHAZAM! 1 (February 1973)--1st story, "…In the Beginning…" by Denny O'Neil and C.C. Beck; cover art by Beck, Cardy and Anderson; on sale December 14th, 1972:

Just in time for Christmas, the Marvel Family arrive to bring love and joy to every little girl and boy.



In the tradition of Captain Marvel's original publisher, Fawcett, where the Big Red Cheese would help promote other titles by appearing on their covers--the Big Red S does a solid for the World's Mightiest Mortal by appearing on the cover for the first issue of Billy's new book. Creating that cover took the talents of three masters of the medium--C.C. Beck, Nick Cardy and Murphy Anderson.



Denny O'Neil's story, begins with Billy meeting Mr. Binder on the street.



Mr. Binder? Surely that's Otto Binder. The man who wrote so many adventures of the Marvel Family. And the man who wrote for the Superman Family, as well. It's just a shame that the real Mr. Binder didn't get to write any new stories for the Marvels.

Mr. Binder would pass away on October 13th, 1974.

[Jim Kelly]

SECRET ORIGINS 1 (February-March 1973)--1st story, "The Secret Origin of Superman" by Siegel and Shuster [first page from ACTION COMICS 1 (June 1938)]; cover art by Nick Cardy; on sale December 21st, 1972:

After various "Secret Origins" try-outs, this reprint anthology gets its own series.



The Cardy cover prominently features Superman, alongside Flash and Batman, although the Man of Steel's origin here is just the first page from the first issue of ACTION. And, as with all Superman reprints at this time, "by Jerome Siegel & Joe Shuster" has been removed from the page.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 261 (February 1973)--"Slave of Star Sapphire" by Bates, Swan and Anderson; cover art by Nick Cardy:





When Carol Ferris suffers a delusion that Superman has killed Green Lantern, it triggers her Star Sapphire personality to seek vengeance on the murderer.