ACTION COMICS continued on in the manner that it had been progressing, seldom my favorite comic that I bought in a given week but always reliable for some basic round-the-bases entertainment. But the fact that editor Julie Schwartz was continuing to target his stories at the same audience that he’d courted since he took over the character meant that the stories weren’t as exciting or progressive-seeming to me as much of what everybody else was doing. And really, they weren’t supposed to be. Superman was a commodity at this point, like a McDonald’s hamburger. The prevailing wisdom is that what the customer wanted was a reliable and consistent experience, and so that’s what Schwartz and his team of creators attempted to provide. In doing so, however, they completely missed the window to capitalize on the massive mainstream appeal of the first two Christopher Reeve SUPERMAN films, whose take on the character was a lot more lively and engaging.
Speaking of sticking to a tried-and-true approach, this issue’s story, the first half of a two-parter, featured returning guest-star Vartox. He was an elder statesman super hero from the far-distant planet Valeron whom Superman looked up to as something of a mentor figure–this despite the fact that Superman himself often came across as being in his forties. But the real problem with Vartox is that he was a contemporary reference that outlived its source material. You see, his first appearance was a bit of a take-off on actor Sean Connery’s strange science fiction film Zardoz. Vartox’s visualization was broadly inspired by what Connery looked like in that role. By the time I had encountered the character, though, Zardoz was a faint memory and I didn’t get the reference. By 1979, I don’t expect that many young readers did.
The story was by reliable Schwartz writer Cary Bates, whose work I was a fan of ever since realizing that his was the hand behind my beloved FLASH issues. Cary was very good at delivering exactly the sorts of adventures that Schwartz demanded, so he was a regular contributor to the Superman titles throughout Julie’s tenure. And of course, the artwork was delivered by Curt Swan, whose style had become the recognized standard for the Man of Steel. Here he’s inked by Frank Chiaramonte, who isn’t the greatest fit in the world for him, though far from his worst inker. But everything is sort of quiet and elegant and beginning to look like a product put together at some earlier time.
This particular story sets up a relationship between Vartox and Lana Lang that will become a recurring feature of the character’s future appearances. The story opens dramatically with Vartox returning to Valeron from a galactic patrol. But as he nears his homeworld, the planet suddenly detonates, killing everyone on it. Like Superman, Vartox is now the sole survivor of his home planet. Accordingly, he seeks out his old friend the Man of Steel on Earth seeking solace–Superman is one of the few who might understand the immense grief that Vartox is dealing with. And indeed, when the pair come across a half-buried spaceship on their way to Superman’s arctic fortress and Vartox attempts to see through its hull with his Hyper-Vision, he’s assaulted by visions of his doomed people crying out in pain and terror at their impending demise.
The spaceship is an ancient drone, and not really material to our story other than to provide a bit of color and action in this issue, and Superman swiftly deals with it. But Vartox’s crisis can’t be so easily remedied. The alien hero has brought along with him rock samples taken from his doomed world. These fragments aren’t like Kryptonite in that they aren’t in the least bit harmful to Vartox, but he’s hoping that by analyzing them, he can learn how and why Valeron was destroyed. Superman agrees to let Vartox use the extensive lab in his fortress, but only if the alien hero also allows Superman to fix him up with an Earth identity, so that he’s not sequestered all along all the time. And so, Vartox goes to work at Galaxy Communications as part of the security squad under the name Vernon O’Valeron.
And Vernon makes a quick impression on Lana Lang, stepping in to school recurring pest Steve Lombard after the jock causes Clark Kent’s food tray to spill all over him in the Galaxy Commissary. He’s Connery smooth and so Lana immediately has eyes for him, and those feelings appear to be reciprocated. The pair wind up spending increasing amounts of time together, much to the chagrin of Superman. And in fact, when a crisis threatens, Vartox streaks to the rescue, making himself appear to be Superman (and thus justifying the cover image) so that Clark won’t need to find some clever way to mask his disappearance in the wake of the situation.
So that’s the state of play as this issue wraps up: Lana and Vartox are mooning for one another and the whole affair is making Superman slightly queasy. Oh, and there’s also one additional last-minute development. Because back at the Fortress, Vartox has concluded that it was he himself that inadvertently caused the detonation of Valeron. And what’s more, by taking up residence on Earth, he’s doomed our world to the same fate! How? Why? All would be revealed in the second chapter. But for now, this story was To Be Continued.
And this issue brought another weekly installment of the Daily Planet promotional page, which included Bob Rozakis’ Answer Man column as well as another cute short comic strip by fan cartoonist Fred Hembeck. This week’s version included the announcement that DC was going to start publishing Digests, a format that up until now had been the providence primarily of Archie Comics. Those Archie Digests were ubiquitous, turning up in supermarkets and other outlets where no other comic books could be found, so you can see why DC would choose to follow suit. (It would take Marvel a few more years before they did the same.) I wouldn’t see the DC Digests that first month, but eventually they became a regular purchase of mine.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 