WC: ACTION COMICS #319

I’ve always been just a little bit fascinated by this cover to ACTION COMICS #319. That’s an awful lot of empty dead space to leave at the upper left side of the cover–an area that falls into the “Dynamic Live Area” that is most likely to be visible on racks whether the books are displayed top-third or spine-out. Was something else planned to go in that spot at some point? Couldn’t editor Mort Weisnger have done a call-out for the Supergirl back-up story maybe? It’s an odd choice for an editor who was so cover-conscious most of the time.

This is the second part of a two-part adventure, but as usual, Weisinger has his creative team–in this instance writer Edmond Hamilton and artists Curt Swan and George Klein–recap matters on the fly to the point where you might not even realize that as a reader. In this way, even the youngest audience members wouldn’t be confused by what was going on, a concern that Mort kept his team’s sights fixed upon.

Last issue, Superman pursued his escaped enemy Luthor to the far-off planet Lexor, a world in which Luthor is revered as a great hero. Despite the fact that he possesses no super-powers under Lexor’s red sun, Superman attempted to bring his foe back to face Earth justice. But when he struck Luthor with a regular human blow, the evil scientist’s head smashed into a nearby stone column in the fall, and he was killed. Superman was arrested for murder and sentenced to trial for his misdeed. And should he prove to be guilty, he will be given the death penalty. What’s worth, Superman’s public defenders Vel Quennar and Garn Abo don’t seem to be putting up much of a defense for him. Superman has pled not guilty, so he clearly thinks there’s some Luthor trick involved.

And there is, of course! Having promised his Lexorian wife Ardora that he wouldn’t harm the Man of Steel, Lex instead armed himself with a pill that would put himself into a deathlike coma, then waited for a moment where Superman struck him to play out his gambit. He reasoned that if it looked as though the Metropolis Marvel had murdered him, Lexorian justice would hand him the death penalty. When Superman hears that no autopsy was ever performed on Luthor, the Man of Steel escapes jail, finds Luthor’s antidote and revives him–thus proving his innocence. But the trusting people of Lexor, like a certain political party I could mention, refuse to believe that Luthor was ever guilty of any wrongdoing, and so while Superman is permitted to depart, Luthor remains behind, a free man.

Next up, an Ira Schnapp-designed full page ad for the latest BATMAN 80 Page Giant, this one celebrating the Caped Crusader’s 25th Anniversary. Can you imagine? recent BATMAN collections had been including stories that had run in the short-lived 1940s Batman Newspaper Strip, and this one was no exception.

And then came the Metropolis Mailbag letters page, once again truncated so as to fit in a house ad for the Supermen of America club, an organization that had been operating since 1939, albeit with stretches of inactivity.

And some more Coming Super-Attractions to fill out a 2/3 page filler strip by Flash creator Harry Lampert. Clark Kent isn’t superman? Lois Lane is romanced by an other dimensional monster? A new hero refuses membership in the Legion of Super Heroes? Crazy events were afoot in the Superman titles this month, as always!

The back half of the issue was devoted to Supergirl as usual, though it’s a somewhat more down-to-Earth problem that the Maid of Might is dealing with in this one. Not that this stops her from blasting the problem with a metaphoric Elephant Gun entirely out of proportion to the difficulty. The writer of this tale is uncertain, but the artwork was produced by Jim Mooney, whose long tenure on the strip made the character synonymous with his approach. Linda Danvers by this point is a college student, and it’s interesting to compare the way this series portrays that in contrast to AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. The ACTION COMICS view of college life seems to be rooted in an earlier decade and feels way less contemporary in contrast to ASM.

The story revolves around Linda’s college enemy Donna Storm, a stuck-up rich girl who uses her wealth and influence to cheat on her schoolwork and to remain on top of the social heap. Irritated by Donna’s cheating, Supergirl uses her super-powers on several occasions to even the playing field and give her fellow students a chance to excel and surpass Donna. The more this happens, the angrier Donna gets–especially since Linda’s been revealed in an earlier story to be a friend of Supergirl’s, so the cause of Donna’s misfortune is plainly apparent. In retaliation, Donna frames Linda for the theft of several valuable diamonds and minerals from the college mineral collection. Unable to prove her innocence without revealing her Supergirl identity, Linda is expelled from Stanhope College.

Linda confronts Donna, who admits that she was behind the theft and the framing, but that Linda will never be able to prove anything. But her live confession is broadcast through the school’s PA system thanks to the transmitter earrings that she’s wearing that she’d previously used to cheat by having underlings feed her test answers. Turns out that Supergirl called in her friends in the Legion of Super Heroes from the 30th Century to deal with this problem. So Shrinking Violet journeyed to the 20th Century and rewired Donna’s earrings so that she would broadcast her confession throughout the school. I suppose it was a slow news day in the 30th Century to warrant this overkill solution to the problem.