WC: ACTION COMICS #328

Here was another issue of ACTION COMICS that came to me as a part of my Windfall Comics purchase. It must be said that this series must be among the most misnamed during this period, as action was the aspect of the stories being told that you were least likely to get, at least in the traditional sense. These comics were wildly entertaining even as they were rife with coincidence, ridiculously complicated plots, indirect thinking and the emotional maturity of a young child. But action was not their forte. Even in situations where Superman was forced to contend with some other all-powerful enemy, the conflict was rarely decided by fisticuffs. This was a marked difference from the Marvel titles of this same era, whose heroes would often brawl with whomever showed up on the page with them, friend or foe.

The lead story in this issue was written by Leo Dorfman and illustrated by Al Plastino, and it’s as over-the-top and nonsensically fun as anything every published in these years. It’s all about the Anti-Superman Gang hiring a specialist, Mr. Gimmick, to finally wipe out their nemesis, the Man of Steel. Mr. G intends to do this by coating Superman’s hands with a pair of compounds that, when they’re brought together as the Metropolis Marvel applauds at the Superman Day Parade held in his honor, will detonate explosively, wiping out the city and everybody in it. Even if Superman survives, he’ll be so torn up by the part he played in killing everyone that he’ll be too guild-ridden to stand in their way any longer.

The Gang is able to put Mr. Gimmick’s plan into motion on Superman Day, with two of their members shaking hands with the Man of Steel and using the opportunity to coat his palms with the twin compounds. From this point on, most of the rest of the story is a frustrating waiting game for the criminals, as they watch the proceedings remotely on a tele-viewer,. Every time it looks as though Superman is about to bring his hands together and thus set off the detonation, some quirky thing prevents it from happening. Eventually, though, after more pages than you would guess, Metropolis’ luck runs out and Superman claps–thus destroying the entire city in the manner of the cover image.

Of course, this turns out to have been a trick, a ploy perpetrated by the Man of Steel to make the Anti-Superman Gang and Mr. Gimmick think their plan had been successful before he stepped in and collared them. He’s been ahead of them the whole time, and was just messing with them by contriving all of those instances when his clap was avoided. And he used special effects to simulate the destruction of Metropolis that the Gang saw televised. So it’s a one-sided victory for the Man of Steel–and one that’s really just about without any action whatsoever to speak of.

The Supergirl back-up feature fares a little bit better in terms of its action-quotient, though it too wasn’t a story you’d remember for its awesome action sequences. It was also written by Leo Dorfman and drawn by the Maid of Steel’s regular artist, Jim Mooney. It opens with alien agents from the far-off realm of Dimension Z coming to Earth and accusing Supergirl of actually being an escaped criminal from their land, Serpena. They spend the opening few pages convincing the authorities and even Superman of this, showing how Supergirl has been faking her super-powers (which they remove from her by secretly attaching a device that creates Red Sun radiations on her person) and her many terrible crimes as Serpena. Supergirl herself isn’t certain about the validity of her existence by the end of their accusation, and she allows herself to be taken back to Dimension Z as a prisoner.

But of course, the aliens aren’t really space police at all, a fact that they admit to Supergirl once she’s back in Dimension Z. What they really are is the recruiting committee for the Contest of Peril, wherein different champions must battle a trio of Dimension Z dangers. Supergirl has no choice but to go along with this and compete in the contest–but she quickly realizes that she has lost her super-powers for real in Dimension Z. Regardless, she’s able to overcome the Frost Beast, the Flame Monster and the Energy Creature by using her wits. Crowned as the champion, she must now spend the ay with King Avro, who is suffering under a Beauty and the Beast-style curse: he’s got the head of a lion and considers himself to be hideous.

A quick pause here for a House Ad for another of the 80 Page Giants, this one focusing on Lois Lane and her many rivals for Superman’s affections.

And a different House Ad, this one for one of the SHOWCASE try-out issues for the war feature ENEMY ACE.

Supergirl’s heart goes out to King Avro, and so she isn’t displeased when she learns that, as the winner of the Contest of Peril, she had been chosen to break the spell by kissing him–a ritual that is laid out in the same book of magic as the spell that initially cursed him. But the kiss doesn’t work, King Avro remains as beastly as ever. What has changed is that Supergirl suddenly has her powers back–and a closer look at the description of the spell references the return of what was lost, and could apply to her powers just as easily as to King Avro’s features. So in the end, Supergirl flies home, leaving the King to his sad fate, but setting up the possibility of some future return trip to Dimension Z in which she would succeed where today she failed.

It was growing more rare by 1965 when this issue came out to see any more Coming Super-Attractions ads, but this issue had one! And editor Mort Weisinger had lost none of his salesmanship! The Legion of Super Heroes battle Starfinger, who is one of their own members! Superman agrees to marry any woman who can defeat him in battle! Lois Lane and Lana Lang put themselves into suspended animation rather than be spurned by the Man of Steel any longer! These are maybe not quite as simply high concept as many of Weisinger’s earlier stories, but they still carry some draw-power to them.

Finally, the 2/3 page Metropolis Mailbag letters page brings up the rear. The answers from the unnamed editor, whether written here by Weisinger himself or his assistant E. Nelson Bridwell, try to be a bit snappier, as though somebody was attempting to internalize some of what Stan Lee was doing across town. Unfortunately, as was so often the case when DC attempted to court a contemporary audience, the artifice shines through. These responses feel just a little bit nastier than they ought to.