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

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 214 (February 1969)--1st story, "The Ghosts That Haunted Superman" by Bates, Swan and Abel; cover art by Neal Adams:

The Man of Steel is not cowed when he's haunted by the spectres of three of his dead foes--the Composite Superman (Joe Meach), Metallo (John Corben) and Zha-Vam. Knowing that they can't possibly be the ghosts of those adversaries (ghosts don't exist), Superman calls out the real antagonist, who turns out to be an unassuming, young fellow named Nador.

When this young chap tried out for membership in a super-hero club called the Omega Commandos, the others would not let him in because they didn't like his looks. After he begged them to accept him, he was set the challenge of bringing Superman to his knees.





Although Nador has failed at this task, the World's Greatest Super-Hero nevertheless accompanies the lad back to the Omegas' clubhouse. They are all so impressed by Superman's visit that they let Nador into the club. Superman hopes that they have learned their lesson not to judge people by their looks.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 378 (July 1969)--"The Devil's Partner" by Shooter, Swan and Abel; cover art by Curt Swan and Neal Adams:

Although this is the first appearance of the Marauder in a comic, the cosmic viking says that the Man of Steel is the lawman that sent him to a prison asteroid for nine star-cycles.



The Marauder stops a wandering spaceman from reaching the Earth, brainwashing him into posing as the Devil and then sending him to the Earth's surface to menace the Last Son of Krypton.



continued in next post following

[Jim Kelly]

However, when it comes down to it the fake Satan can't kill Superman, because Kal-El is his Godson.

The wanderer of the universe is Rol-Nac, who left the tyranny of his homeworld and ended up landing on Krypton, where he met Jor-El and Lara Lor-Van. He became such a trusted friend that they asked him to be their newborn son's Godfather. Later, the wanderlust took Rol-Nac away from that world and he only returned to the doomed planet in time to witness its destruction and the departure of the rocketship that saved Kal-El.




When Superman discovers who Rol-Nac truly is, he's happy to meet someone who knew his parents. They go to the Fortress of Solitude and Kal-El wants to know everything his godfather remembers about Jor-El and Lara--"Don't leave out the smallest detail."

As teased at the end, Rol-Nac was supposed to have returned for more stories. But the only other appearance he made was in a recap of his Godfather role, in the WORLD OF KRYPTON mini-series, issue 2 (August 1979), by Paul Kupperberg, Howard Chaykin and Murphy Anderson--"This Planet is Doomed."

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 379 (August 1969)--"The Eliminator" by Dorfman, Swan and Abel; cover art by Swan and Adams:

As seen with the previous stories (in SUPERMAN 214 and ACTION COMICS 378) and also with the story of Satdev (in SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 102 - 103), by 1969 there were a fair number of tales where there seems to be some occult menace at work--yet the explanation turns out to be science fiction.

This wishy-washy horror appears to be a general trend across all publishers at the time. I wonder if they were testing the limits of the Code. Certain wording in the Comics Code--i.e, "scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited"--prevented publishers from doing stories that were about the occult outright, yet they began to publish stories that toed the line. Such is the case with "The Eiminator."

The risen corpse of a dead man,Dr. Phantas, curses all the journalistic friends of reporter Clark Kent.



One by one they meet with accidents (but none of the regular recurring cast of Clark's friends). It turns out all these guys were on the same flight as Kent. And when he spots the trend--with only one reporter left alive from that group--Superman poses as him and he's attacked by the spectre of Phantas.

In actuality, all the reporters on that flight but for Clark were fugitive murderers from the planet Rhadmanth. These aliens being transmorphs were able to assume the form of the reporters (who themselves were held in suspended animation aboard their spaceship). Phantas is an Eliminator from Rhadmanth--a lawman sent to find the fugitives and kill them. The Eliminator can become a being of pure energy, which is how he was able to execute the malefactors.





While the pre-Crisis Clark Kent is sometimes viewed as a milksop, in this tale he's a hard-nosed reporter--reminiscent of the George Reeves version. Kent never believes that there's a supernatural explanation for the mysterious events--he voices an opinion that things like ghosts don't exist.

It strikes me that many of Superman's fellow super-heroes echoed this sentiment at the time. They were skeptical that magic and the supernatural existed--despite their encounters, over in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, with characters like the Spectre, Doctor Fate and Zatanna--it's as if in their own books the super-heroes lived in a different universe.

Note: Leo Dorfman was a prolific writer. Not only did he write for the Superman family, but he was a writer of detective fiction and he wrote for Dell and Gold Key. He crafted many chilling stories for their anthology comics, TWILIGHT ZONE and RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT [True Ghost Stories]. And those skills were also put to use writing GHOSTS, starting in 1971, for editor Murray Boltinoff, until Dorfman's death in 1974.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 383 (December 1969) - ACTION COMICS 384 (January 1970)--"The Killer Costume" and "The Forbidden Costume" by Bates, Swan and George Roussos; cover art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson:



When both Enforcer NS-II, of the Intergalactic Prison Police, and his prisoner, Aabur, are obliterated by the radiation of a passing comet, their costumes survive the accident as their spaceship falls to Earth and both costumes are driven by the will of the dead adversaries.



The criminal costume seeks out different bad guys and grants them power to act on its desires. However, the Aabur costume and the Enforcer costume both arrive at the Fortress of Solitude and try to get the Man of Steel to try them on but instead he tests the costumes on two of his Superman robots. In the costumes, despite their programming, the robots are driven to destroy each other.

The next day, the evil Aabur costume comes to the Daily Planet offices and manipulates Clark into agreeing to wear the costume, with Perry White as witness. Kent manages to avoid pulling off the crimes the costume desires--for example, he convinces a fugitive to hide out from the law inside the globe on the top of the Daily Planet building (there's a secret hatch behind the 'Y'), yet this is a hidden meeting place for Superman and Batman--hideout X-1--so when the Caped Crusader arrives there, the fugitive is captured.

Meanwhile, the Enforcer costume has induced Perry White to put it on. However, when Superman (wearing his own costume over the Aabur costume) faces off against Enforcer-Perry, he's able to use his super-speed to steal the Enforcer costume and put that on, as well (leaving Perry in his underwear).



Now with both contrary forces trying to manipulate their host, the Man of Might flies to an orange sun that weakens the costumes' power enough so that he can remove them and destroy them in that sun.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 228 (July 1970) - SUPERMAN 229 (August 1970)--2nd story, "Execution Planet" and 1st story, "The Ex-Superman" by Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan and George Roussos; cover art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson:



Note:There are many many stories about the Superboy/Superman Revenge Squad (over 30, at least) and those feature many alien worlds. I've decided not to cover any of those stories, for now. That's a big project that I might tackle one day. However, this story mentions the Superman Revenge Squad, although they don't actually appear, so I think I'm safe to talk about this one.

One day Clark (Superman) Kent has several complaints--headache, cut thumb, sensitivity to cold. Gradually, the Man of Steel's powers wink out on him and he's captured by a gang of thugs who turn him over to the Anti-Superman Gang (the Earth-based gangsters who are always out to get the Big Red S). They strip him of his uniform and, with the help of the Superman Revenge Squad (off panel), shoot him into space toward the Execution Planet.

The next issue shows what happened there, on Morgu, the Execution Planet. The Ex-Superman is taken in charge by those who liquidate champions of other worlds (we see Dulgran, of the Tullar Galaxy, executed by being turned into glass). Lord Korpon is the despot overseeing these gruesome affairs.

However, in the slave compound, as he's being prepared for his death sentence, Kal-El manages to escape his guards, crossing a body of water and arriving on the shore of a primitive village. There, he's immediately challenged by Supro. A wrestling match ends with the Kryptonian being the victor--and now Clark is the new Supro and gets to wear the red and blue costume that goes with that title.




It's explained to him that in the very distant past their people were saved by a being called Supro and so the mightiest one in their tribe is given that name.

When Korpon's men come to the village to drag away a girl, Lirlon, to the slave compound to be the "Bride of Death"--sacrificed to the god of destruction by Korpon--Supro steals into the compound, but arrives too late he thinks. Then the maddened Supro is slapped by a living Lirlon, but actually it's Supergirl.

The Maid of Steel tracked her cousin to Morgu. She explains that his costume was contaminated with weird, red space-dust that robbed him of his powers. She further explains how it was Superman himself, on one of his time-trips into the past, that saved those people who came to Morgu--they had been an advanced people on a lost continent in the Pacific.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 395 (December 1970)--1st story, "The Secrets of Superman's Fortress" by Dorfman, Swan and Anderson:

This is the first in a short-lived series on the Fortress of Solitude in ACTION COMICS, under new editor Murray Boltinoff, and it features the fresh team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, a.k.a. Swanderson--their run in ACTION began with issue 393, although they had been teamed as cover artists for much longer than that.

All of "The Secrets of Superman's Fortress" is set in the Man of Steel's past. It begins by telling how he built the Fortress and shows the Action Ace bringing Jimmy Olsen as his first guest to marvel at the secrets of the new citadel--as shown in a magnificent two-page spread (although curiously the Supergirl costumes on display are what she wore in the publication year 1970 and not prior).



The bulk of the story is a flashback within this flashback, which Superman experiences via his memory tapes. He remembers how one day he arrived on a jungle planet, where a tribe of primitives were being exploited by Space-Amazons from Vrandar. He instantly falls in love with the beautiful and powerful captain of the Space-Amazons, Althera by name.



And she upon seeing him is just as smitten. It seems like a match made in heaven, but when Althera removes her helmet, the Man of Tomorrow sees that instead of hair she has plumes. He then learns from her that the Vrandars are evolved from birds. The Last Son of Krypton realizes that they could never be a couple (one must assume there are anatomical differences that would prevent them from consummating their romance).



And so the star-crossed lovers part never to see each other again. All that Superman has is one plume from Althera's head which he keeps as a melancholy memento in the Fortress of Solitude.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 397 (February 1971)--2nd story, (Untold Tales of the Fortress) "The Super-Captive of the Sea" by 'Geoff Brown' (alias Leo Dorfman), Swan and Anderson:



When the World's Greatest Super-Hero revisits his old undersea Fortress, he becomes the unwitting victim of a plot to snare him and take him to the distant waterworld, Quor. The two aquarians angling to capture the Caped Kryptonian are telepathic and can metamorphose into any other creature of the sea. They wish to have Superman serve as their world's champion if he can pass their tests.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 417 (October 1972) - ACTION COMICS 418 (November 1972)--"The Conspiracy of the Crime-Lords" and "The Attack of the Phantom Super-Foes" by 'David George' (alias Leo Dorfman), Swan and Anderson:



Four of Superman's greatest enemies want a truce. And the world is in favour of ending hostilities rather than enduring the constant chaos that these super-hero vs. super-villain contests cost the planet. In their peace talks with the Man of Might, Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Grax and the Marauder explain that he is a greater threat to world peace than any of them.

Out of curiosity, the Action Ace visited the Phantom Planet--a negative world created after an exploding sun destroyed the planet and left this phantom copy in its stead. Luthor explains that the Phantom Planet altered Superman's atomic structure. "Now with every Super-Feat . . . your body unleashes an uncontrollable negative of yourself, which destroys everything in its path."



Consequently (in the next issue), Superman signs a pact with the four foes at the United Nations.



The three bald brains and the other one serve to protect the Earth from any collateral damage that the negative Supermen cause. However, it's all a conspiracy of the crime-lords. The phantoms are actually generated by a mirror device of the Marauders.

[Jim Kelly]

Note: The image host for a lot of my images was down. It seems to be back now, sorry for any problems.

[Jim Kelly]

[Note from the Judges: Your responses must be in the form of a question.]

Category: Super-Heroes and Super-Villains
for 100, Alex
Clue: Thought to have Murdered the Earth.

SUPERMAN 248 (February 1972)--1st story, "The Man Who Murdered the Earth" by Len Wein, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson:

As told in flashback by Lex Luthor, the scientist created the Galactic Golem from galactic energy. The Misbegotten Man-Thing hungers for more galactic energy and is directed toward the Man of Steel to find some. However, the cataclysmic confrontation between the two super-beings produces such hyper-energy that it devastates the Earth.




Believing that his mad quest for revenge has left him alone on the planet, Luthor is suddenly confronted by the Cosmic Creature--still lusting for stellar sustenance. However, the Action Ace arrives upon the scene and prevents the Golem's attack. Luthor uses his energy canon to infuse a passing meteor swarm with the galactic energy and the Galactic Golem flies toward the swarm into space and away from Earth.



The Man of Tomorrow then explains that he realized the release of energy from his battle with the Golem would destroy everyone on Earth--so he shifted everyone else to a different dimensional plane and then shifted them back later.

[Jim Kelly]

Category: After the Holidays
for 400, Alex
Clue: Beagle, Egg and Island

SUPERMAN 251 (May 1972)--1st story, "The Island That Invaded the Earth" by Wein, Swan and Anderson:

Aboard a scientific research vessel, a team from S.T.A.R. witness an island emerge in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The new island causes a disturbance in the world's environment--massive storms, melting glaciers. The Action Ace locates the source of the trouble on the mysterious island, which is protected by a force field fence. Using super-speed moves from the Flash's repertoire, the Man of Tomorrow takes down the force field, but now must cut through a gauntlet of silent stone sentinels (that look like Rapa Nui Mo'Ai), to reach the strange tower at the middle of the island, which is the source of the climate catastrophe. And inside this weird citadel resides an egg-like object.

The Metropolis Marvel figures out that the egg was meant to hatch in the high-pressure depths of the ocean and the force field was recreating those conditions at sea level. Likewise, the robotic stone sentinels were the mid-wives for this home birth--they simply were trying to guard Superman from the harsh conditions on the island. Realizing he must put up the force field again, Superman rebuilds the control mechanism in time for the baby E.T. to burst from its egg and fly into the cosmos like some new born salmon swimming out to sea.



Category: Canadian Cities
for 1000, Alex
Clue: Calgary and Vancouver have played Superman's city on the screen, but this "Hogtown" was the model for the comic book Metropolis.

SUPERMAN 257 (October 1972)--1st story, "Superman Battles the War-Horn" by Cary Bates, Swan and Anderson:

The full process of creating a comic book is given in "How a Comic Magazine Is Created," THE AMAZING WORLD OF SUPERMAN, METROPOLIS EDITION (1973)--including a peek at how this story, "Superman Battles the War-Horn," was scripted and illustrated (on page 16).





continued after the break

[Jim Kelly]

Category: Elementary Beatles Lyrics
Daily Double
Wager _____
Clue: It's "Here, There N Everywhere."

When an alien soldier splashes down near Metropolis Pier, its War-Horn causes devastation to sea, land and air. No matter what tactic the Metropolis Marvel employs against the space warrior, the War-Horn calculates the correct counter-move, turning the environment against Earth's Greatest Champion.



The War-Horn is stealing the nitrogen from our planet--and thus causing ecological destruction--but Superman's code against killing prevents him from delivering a death blow to the galactic grunt. However, the Man of Tomorrow feints a killing power-punch so the War-Horn retreats with its host, taking the soldier back to their homeworld.

As the soldier was only following orders, the question why these aliens wanted our nitrogen remains unanswered. And the story ends with the Man of Steel wondering if the War-Horn will return for another assault on our environment.

Category: On the Map
for 600, Alex
Clue: All indications point to this.

SUPERMAN 258 (November 1972)--1st story, "Fury of the Energy Eater" by Wein, Swan and Anderson:



The hungry hungry Galactic Golem returns to Earth again. The Creature was salvaged from outer space by a group of alien scientists, who discovered too late the menace they had unleashed. To get rid of the Man-Thing, they used the same trick that Luthor had--sending the Astral Abomination away from their planet to follow energy enriched meteoroids.



Superman stymies the Golem at the magnetic north pole, bathing the Creature in molten metal from the Earth's core. Encased in nickel and iron, the magnetic pull of the Earth's axis keeps the Macabre Man-Thing anchored to one spot, unable to move.

Final Jeopardy

Category: Face the Facts

back after these messages . . .

[Jim Kelly]

Category: Face the Facts
Wager ___
Clue: Although a star story teller, like a horrific host, he was not Abel.

In memory of Alex Trebek

***

Bonus pages 17, 18, 19 from "How a Comic Magazine Is Created," THE AMAZING WORLD OF SUPERMAN, METROPOLIS EDITION (1973):

[Jim Kelly]

As seen in the Sand Superman Saga, with a powered down Man of Steel, the conclusion indicated he would never be as powerful as before.

However, in the very next issue--SUPERMAN 243 (October 1971)--"The Starry-Eyed Siren of Space" seemed like a return to the Mort Weisinger era. In fact Cary Bates, one of Mort's regular writers, penned this yarn, with Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson providing the artwork. And this was Cary's first Superman tale for Julius Schwartz--although he'd already done two Krypton stories for Schwartz and two Superman stories for Murray Boltinoff's ACTION COMICS.

I wonder if this was an inventory script that Bates had written before the editorial changes.





Unfortunately Rija--the Starry-Eyed Siren--and her mate, Kond--a Superman doppelganger--cannot be included on our list for the simple reason that they're out of date. At the end of the story, the Man of Tomorrow realizes that the stars are all wrong and he has actually travelled eons into the past.

An editor's note offers that there might be more stories about this odd couple, but sadly that never was in the cards.