Action Comics #393 (1970)
cover by Curt Swan
Sadly, the cover story is not about Superman meeting someone literally calling himself Super-Houdini.
“Superman Meets Super-Houdini!”
by Leo Dorfman & Curt Swan
In fact we’re not here for the cover story. It’s about an escape artist…
…who has a far less memorable stage name.
I guess “Superman meets Hairbreadth Holahan” would have made for a lamer title.
No wonder Superman came up with the idea of disguising himself with a pair of glasses if he’s fooled for even a second by a goatee.
I swear regular criminals in Superman stories have the wildest plans.
But the escape artist has gone straight, so he helps Superman spoil the whole plan.
“The Day Superboy Became Superman!”
by Leo Dorfman & Ross Andru
The reason why I’m looking at this issue is that it’s the latest retelling of when Superboy switched to calling himself Superman.
There’s a bunch of these, starting from Superman #125 (which is the one occasionally refenced by Superman stories), and the final one will be a miniseries in 1985 published barely in time to be made obsolete by Crisis.
But THIS one has a truly unique spin… one that I’m not so sure Dorfman is a good enough writer to tackle.
Clark is already old enough to attend Metropolis University, where he has to deal with the crisis of the campus being invaded by *gasp* poor people.
Superboy, who famously operated in Smallville, has just moved to Metropolis and hangs around its university… which is ALSO attended by Clark Kent from Smallville.
If the story was published today, there is no way you wouldn’t have someone speculating that Superboy just followed his boyfriend.
The main conflict of the story is brought by fellow student Marla, who is “always speaking up for the underdog”.
Am I the only one who reads Superboy’s thought bubble as if he considers it a bad thing?
Although Marla is not exactly right either: yes the kids were not being violent, but they DID tear down a fence according to earlier dialogue.
They DEFINITELY commit a crime when they steal food from the cafeteria…
…in order to feed some poor kids.
What would happen in a GOOD Superman story:
1) Superman would tell the kids they went too far
2) he would then bring food to the kids himself
3) in the ending he would convince the cafeteria to donate the extra food, or he would convince the university to get involved with charity
This is… NOT what happens.
Notice he took away the food that the kids were going to eat. And considering that this is THE NEXT PANEL, those kids stay hungry.
Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!
Marla has set up a new school for those kids, complete with stolen books.
The fact that Marla, a college dropout, would be allowed to set up a new school in a soon-to-be-demolished building, sounds far-fetched to me.
But considering the Department of Education wasn’t established until 1979, I’m guessing this depends entirely on whatever state Metropolis is supposed to be in.
What would happen in a GOOD Superman story:
1) Superman would tell the kids they went too far
2) he would then bring books back to the library
3) he would either re-write all books from super-memory himself and give them to the kids, or convince the library to donate some of the books
Instead we have possibly the most elitist Superman panel I’ve ever seen.
And if you think that I’m looking at Superman through a modern approach: in the very first panel we EVER see him wearing the costume in Action Comics #1, he’s supposed to be the “Champion Of The Oppressed”.
You’re making Metropolis sound like 1980s Gotham City or 1970s New York.
This is a common theme in 70s comics, and DC Comics in particular had to struggle to integrate its all-good and all-powerful heroes with social commentary.
By far the most famous example, and arguably the most successful example, is the Green Lantern run by Danny O’Neil.
Going by the cover date, this famous exchange from Green Lantern #76 was published 6 months earlier.
Superboy’s reaction is slightly different from Green Lantern’s.
After Superboy returns from his space mission, which is totally real and not an excuse to get out of a conversation he desperately didn’t want to have, he finds Marla’s school is being demolished.
With her still inside the building!!! Who would have guessed that setting up a school in a place scheduled for demolition would be a terrible idea?
Marla’s dying wish is for Superboy to ensure these kids will get a proper education.
And to honor her wish, Superboy builds a new school.
Which would be completely useless without hiring teachers, but hey that’s a start!
But is that what Marla really wanted? This is not a problem that Superboy, or Superman for that matter, can solve with brute strength and super-speed.
No, what Marla really wanted is for Superman to do absolutely nothing.
Wait, what?
This is the approach that Superman takes in the 70s for how he’s going to deal with social issues.
Which fundamentally boils down to the idea that since Superman can’t do everything needed to fix society’s problems… he’s going to do nothing except give empty speeches.Ther
e’s a far more famous story that is even more direct than this on the subject, and which I will eventually cover that… but spoiler alert: I HATE THIS APPROACH WITH A BURNING PASSION.
Some time later, after the slums are eventually built over (not by Superboy), a new school is dedicated to him.
But Superboy decides to dedicate the place to Marla instead, and this is supposedly when he becomes Superman.
I’ll bet you anything that the poor kids either moved away from the area because now they can’t afford to live there. Or worse, they can’t afford to attend the new school.
Historical significance: 0/10
Both stories are completely ignored.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
Average Superman nonsense.
Does it stand the test of time?
Super-Houdini: 7/10
Interchangeable with a ton of Superman stories, but Curt Swan is particularly great this time.
Superboy: -10/10
At a time when DC struggled to keep its heroes relevant to modern society, Superman took the… questionable approach of arguing that he can’t EVER be allowed to touch any real life problem.
The story is essentially bending over backwards to prove that Superman is completely useless, and as mentioned I absolutely hate hate hate HATE this approach!!!
Yes, obviously you can’t have Superman to fix EVERYTHING, and there are situations where I could see the “if I do everything they’ll depend too much on me” idea working.
But here we have Superboy swearing that he will honor Marla’s dying wish of providing a proper education for the kids… and he kind of shrugs it off, handing the problem over to the general public.
While I can see the idea behind it was probably supposed to be “this won’t be solved until regular people care enough”, it’s missing the key part of Superman inspiring the better part of humanity.
Which is SUPPOSED TO BE WHAT THE CHARACTER IS ALL ABOUT as much as watching a really strong guy punch people!!!
The way Superboy looks down at Marla’s activism or, even worse, the way he judges the slums, to me really go against what should be his core values.
If THIS BALLOON shows up in a story, I would expect the sentence to be said by CLARK KENT and not by the person he’s arguing against!!!
Interesting letters: we have some reactions to Action Comics #389, and they are not kind.
Including pointing out a massive plot hole (that my readers also picked up in the comments).
