WC: ACTION COMICS #354

This issue of ACTION COMICS is noteworthy in that it contains one of the first Superman story written by Cary Bates, who would go on to become a regular contributor to the Man of Steel’s adventures in the 1970s. Bates broke into the field by submitting ideas for catchy cover images to editors such as Julie Schwartz and ACTION’s Mort Weisinger. At this time, a grabber of a cover is what sold the magazine, or that was the prevailing wisdom, so great cover ideas were valuable. Eventually–and likely motivated in small part by the success he was having with Jim Shooter, another young writer who submitted stories blind–Weisinger hired Bates to write the stories based on the cover ideas he had been sending in.

This entire story is a bit of a pastiche inspired by a short-loved super hero television series. After BATMAN had proven to be a colossal hit, both rival networks NBC and CBS raced to produce their own knock-off funny super heroes. In perhaps one of the most unfortunate coincidences of scheduling, both networks chose to air them at the same night at the same time–so they wound up competing directly with one another. What’s more, both of them used a similar concept, about a mild mannered guy who would gain super-powers after taking a pill and use them to ineptly fight evil. CBS’s entry was MISTER TERRIFIC, while NBC put forward the (better) CAPTAIN NICE. William Daniels starred as the Captain, and his series only lasted for a single season. Apparently, Mort Weisinger felt that what was good for the goose, and so he commissioned Bates to do a story in which Superman contended with a similarly nebbishy super-character. By the time this issue of ACTION COMICS hit the stands, though, it was kicking a beaten man as CAPTAIN NICE had been cancelled, its last few rerun episodes were coming to an end.

Bates’ creation, Captain Incredible, isn’t human at all. But we’ll get to that. The story opens with Superman engaging in a series of super-adventures, and being aided each time by the surprising appearance of the scrawny Captain Incredible, who seems even more powerful than the Man of Steel and who makes his efforts superfluous. That’s bad and frustrating enough for Superman, but things get worse as the days go on, as suddenly Captain Incredible turns homicidal and attempts to finish off the hero from Krypton. Superman is only able to get away from his more powerful assailant by diving into the timestream. He’s observed a clue that indicates that the origin of his nebbishy nemesis lies in the far future.

In the 27th Century, Superman meets Dr. Dane Gnorr, the creator of captain Incredible. A huge fan of the historical Superman, Gnorr created the Captain and sent him back in time to assist the Man of Steel in his assorted feats. But passing through the timestream loused up the Captain’s programming–he’s a robot, you see–so he’s become a menace to Superman rather than an aid. The solution is to carry Captain Incredible back to the 27th Century, but in order to do so, Superman must first engage him in hand-to-hand combat. This is about as much action as any story in this title has evidenced of late, even though it’s still pretty peril less. In the end, Superman again crashes through the time barrier and this time the Captain follows him. His programming corrected as he returns to his own time, Superman leaves Captain Incredible there, where he can become a super hero in his own right.

Next comes a very fun house ad for the latest 80 Page Giant, this one dedicated to the strange transformations that Lois Lane had been put through in several earlier adventures.

In its usual secondary position is this issue’s Supergirl adventure, written by Leo Dorfman and drawn by the ever-reliable Jim Mooney. It picks up from the previous issue, with Supergirl having been taken prisoner by the inhabitants of the planet Zorkia, who are all bodiless brains in tanks. years ago, the Zorkians were the victims of biological warfare, but they were able to transplant their brains into life support containers even as their bodies were placed into suspended animation in order to save them. They’ve captured Supergirl intending to turn her into a living repository of all of their planet’s history and information, a living library, thanks to her super-memory.

Cerebron, the leader of the Zorkians, hopes to use Supergirl’s super-powers to revive his stricken wife, Queen Neolla, who was so near death that her brian couldn’t be transplanted out of her body, and who exists in a state of suspended animation. Realizing that the Zorkians are ruthless conquerors, Supergirl refuses to help them. She does, however, agree to perform a series of seemingly-harmless tasks in order to win her freedom. But unknown to her, the Zorkians are harvesting her super-energy every time she expends it, and using it to revive Queen Neolla, imbuing her with the Maid of Might’s super-powers along the way.

But the plan is a bust, and not due to anything that Supergirl is done (though she kinda attempts to take some credit for it as she explains.) See, Queen Neolla has not only absorbed Supergirl’s powers, but also her decency. So she isn’t down with the Zorkians’ program of conquest, and she liberates Supergirl. She also decides to leave her fellow Zorkians as disembodied brains until such a time as they’ve given up their desire for conquest. This all seems good to Supergirl, who takes off at this point as the story ends.

Finally, there’s the Metropolis Mailbag letters page overseen by assistant editor E. Nelson Bridwell which includes a response identifying the creative team on this issue’s Captain Incredible story. It also includes a makeshift substitute for the Super Coming Attractions and Direct Currents features, which were crowded out of this issue due to the amount of advertising it carried.