Action Comics #241

Action Comics #241 (1953)
by Jerry Coleman & Wayne Boring
cover by Curt Swan

If you’ve only ever read one Silver Age Superman story, it’s probably this one since it’s mandatorily reprinted in EVERY Silver Age collection.

We begin with Lois and Jimmy shopping. That will be a minor plot point later.

The cover calls it “Fort Superman”, but is the first appearance of the definitive version of the Fortress of Solitude.
Superman has had different bases of operations before, but this is THE Fortress.

Like most readers from later generations, for the longest time I assumed the gigantic arrow that opens the Fortress was just a thing from comics.
But giant arrows to guide airplanes WERE a thing… just not exactly the same way we see in the Fortress of Solitude.
From what I could gather, the giant arrow was inspired by the airway beacon used at the time; some of the ones used in America did look like giant concrete arrows on the ground, but I couldn’t find evidence of any that looked even remotely like the Fortress one. Let alone in the Arctic.

In his secret fortress, Superman keeps mannequins of his friends and spends his free time creating gifts for them for the day he dies.
That’s a healthy hobby.

Even Batman has his own room.

There are SO many thing to unpack in that panel.
Like the “Lightning Fingerprint Classifier”: does the name mean that it’s lightning fast, or that it identifies fingerprints by shocking you?
Like the “Crime Probability Predicter”: if Superman has a computer that can predict crimes before they happen, why is he waiting to die before giving one to Batman?
Like their capes. How much wind is there inside a sealed Arctic cave?
Like the fact poor Robin doesn’t get his own room.
But most importantly… the “bad penny crimes” by THE JOKER?
Poor Penny Plunder!

Notice Superman is SO confident nobody could possibly sneak into the Fortress that his only security breach he’s worried about is “some unexpected earthquake”.
Because if there was an earthquake in the middle of absolutely nowhere in the arctic, OF COURSE the first thing people are going to do is think it was hiding Superman’s secret hideout.

I understand the Fortress is full of toys he likes to play with, but in my opinion the existence of this secret place where he can be super and interact even less with regular humans is not a good thing for Superman’s mental health and one of the reason why he slowly becomes just. The. Worst.

The point of the story is that someone infiltrated the Fortress of Solitude to give Superman a puzzle.

I like how Superman considers this a serious issue, even though the message wasn’t an outright threat. After all someone just manage to sneak into his house!

Considering that Superman keeps those alien animals because they no longer have a home and doesn’t let anyone else see them… should we still call this a zoo?

It’s going to take another thousand years or so before someone actually invents Inertron.

Superman’s giant diary makes an appearance, with Superman writing on it in Kryptonese with his fingernails…

…even though the teaser page showed him using his heat vision and start writing in English before switching to Kryptonise.

Before leaving, Superman makes sure to melt the door.

Which is completely useless, because someone STILL managed to get inside and vandalize his painting.

Why does EVERYTHING in the Fortress have to be giant-size!?

Superman discovers a message taunting him: he has 24 hours to figure out the intruder’s identity.
If you count all the “next day” narration boxes, that will be 4 days from the start of the story: keep that in mind for later.

This is really doing a number on Superman’s nerves.

To be fair, NOW he really has reason to panic.

But he immediately figures out the solution to the riddle in the next panel.
Can YOU solve it?

Even assuming you haven’t read this story before… and I expect the vast majority of my readers to have, but you never know… you will PROBABLY figure it out in the next panel.

But then SUDDEN EARTHQUAKE KRYPTONITE!!!

Leading to the official reveal of the intruder’s identity.

If this was a modern comic, you just know Batman would find a way to dig through tons of rocks.

Batman managed to sneak inside the Fortress by getting inside the key, which is pretty clever.

Batman sneaked inside the arrow the day before our story began, so he’s been working at this for FIVE DAYS at this point!

According to the dialogue, Batman hid inside the giant penny while he’s clearly going to hide BEHIND IT, as there’s obviously not enough space.

Superman was just trolling Batman back.

While Superman might have figured out the solution NOW, Batman had to basically give him an additional clue before he could get it.

The reason why Batman did all this was to give Superman an anniversary present.

Don’t you just love the idea of Batman shopping for gifts DRESSED AT BATMAN ?

And so we end with Batman inviting Superman in the Batcave to eat the gigantic cake he’s pretending wasn’t baked by Alfred.

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Historical significance: 0/10
In-universe at least. As mentioned, it’s reprinted everywhere.

Silver Age-ness: 4/10
All things considered, it’s not THAT weird… until you remember that Batman spent FIVE DAYS to give this celebration.

Does it stand the test of time? 8/10
This holds up remarkably well. It’s not a particularly serious story but it does have a bit of tension, and it gives Batman something cool to do without upstaging the series protagonist.
All you really have to do is tone down some of the silliest things Superman keeps in the Fortress and you can rather easily do this story today.
Although you would probably need to add something to counteract Superman’s super-senses and shorten the time Batman spends there.

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Among the many homages, this story was most likely a big inspiration for Alan Moore’s “For the man who has everything”.
In fact, Alan Moore loved this story so much that Supreme #43 is a surprisingly close retelling… even though Supreme manages to be MORE Silver Age than the original.

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What else was in Action Comics #241 ?

Like I said, everyone reprints the main story. The Congo Bill and Tommy Tomorrow ones, not so much.