Action Comics #454 (1975)
by Cary Bates & Curt Swan
cover by Bob Oskner
When it comes to covers showcasing the absurdity of Superman’s Silver Age, few are as recognizable as this one. Despite not being from the 70s.
In fact, the reason why I’m reviewing this issue is to see just how much Superman was stuck in the past.
The villain is going to be the second Toyman. So you can already tell we’re not exactly going for high stakes here, but at least it’s not Prankster.
I remind you that at this point it’s been several years since Superman’s power returned to “at least half of infinity” levels.
The fight was being narrated by Clark Kent as a TV reporter, while Morgan Edge talks business with a potential sponsor.
Because nothing reminds me to buy dog food better than watching a recap of Superman losing to one of his most embarrassing villains.
A news report so boring that even Clark falls asleep!
Clark then spends a fundraising dinner eating and sleeping.
At this point Lois Lane doesn’t know he’s Superman, so I have to wonder… has he pulled so many stunts over the years that she doesn’t find this weird or worrying? At all?
Superman still has his powers, but he gets utterly exhausted whenever he uses them.
As you might have guessed, that’s the reason for why he has to eat a billion burgers.
I do have to wonder why Superman is restricting himself to eating food. We know for a fact he can eat ANYTHING!
I mean we know he can eat inert Kryptonite… I would have at least tried to see if uranium or something was more filling.
It is admittedly kind of funny to see Superman flying around while snacking.
Tired or not, I still have a hard time Superman can’t defeat Toyman in his sleep.
Superman fully recovers his powers as soon as Toyman’s toy shoot him into space, and even Superman acknowledges some of his villains suck.
Superman then visits S.T.A.R. Labs (established a few years earlier), where a random scientist informs him that solar panels across the world are also having trouble.
I wonder if the other supervillains ever discover that Toyman is the whole reason Superman isn’t stuck at being constantly starving.
The cover is quite memorable and, as I have said, very Silver Age.
But if only they had shown Disco Superman on the cover, you wouldn’t have had ANY doubts about what decade this was published!!!
Superman then uses his Disco Suit to get “several miles” underground, where a weird metal has been absorbing solar rays.
I was expecting this to be yet another weird meteor, but nope: there’s just a piece of metal that absorbs solar energy from the whole planet across several miles of solid rock.
Sounds legit.
And the solution is to just wrap the Disco Suit on the metal, cancelling its power… SOMEHOW.
So I guess that for the remainder of the pre-Crisis universe, there’s a piece of solar-absorbing metal just chilling underground wrapped in a Disco Suit.
And we close with Clark and Jimmy visiting the fast food from the cover… MacTavish’s, serving its famous Mac Biggie.
Ah yes, I think I’m familiar with their commercials.
Historical significance: 0/10
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Does it stand the test of time? 3/10
It’s not as bad as the cover suggests, but… ironically given the premise, there just isn’t enough meat in this story.
The Atom was the backup feature in this period. And I think we underestimated the signs that his wife was always insane.
It’s also the story where we learn that Ray Palmer once built a device that can turn thoughts into reality!!!
Did… did the Atom just casually create the Miracle Machine???
Interesting letters: comic book historian Peter Sanderson points out the biggest flaw of this initial attempt to create a legitimate relationship between Clark and Lois.
She has to see SOMETHING in him, and it’s hard to accept when the stories constantly treat him as a wimpy embarrassment.
This comic has a cover date of December 1975. What were the other DC comics doing?
The Superman book was striking a much more serious tone, despite ALSO being written by Cary Bates.
It’s not notable enough to be part of the retrospective, but it’s also not bad enough.
In fact, this is a true rarity: Cary Bates writing a GOOD Superman story.
The other Superman-adjacent books of the month were Superboy #213, during the second Shooter run, and a World’s Finest issue that I think is about Superman eloping with Batman.
By this time Batman had moved WAY out of the Silver Age, to the point it’s weird to think this Batman co-exists with the Superman who has to eat a billion burgers.
Well, up to a point. Batman Family was reprinting actual Silver Age stories, and Brave And The Bold was written by Bob Haney.
We are also in the Kirby era for a couple of books.
No other DC book was giving off Silver Age vibes.
Even leaving out the various horror and war comics, it’s clear that DC was trying its best to diversify its superhero line. And nothing showcases this better than the fact that in the same month both Captain Marvel and the Joker had regular series.
On the Marvel side, it’s clear that they were struggling.
We have Len Wein on Spider-Man and Thor, Isabella on Avengers, Wolfman on Daredevil, Roy Thomas on Fantastic Four, Claremont on Champions… these aren’t exactly BAD, but not the best creative teams for these series.
In general, many Marvel books were struggling to find new stable creative teams after iconic ones. Including Captain Marvel, written by Englehart after the historic Starlin run.
Interestingly, both DC and Marvel had Kirby books out this month.
I would classify only Gerber on Defenders as the only iconic run going on this month. At least for superhero comics.
Although SOME of Kirby’s Captain America does have its charm.
Marvel was also REALLY trying to diversify, with the smash hit of new Conan comics.
Imagine if they had given THIS to Kirby!
Compared to all of that… I think Action Comics #454 really sticks out as Superman still being stuck in the past.
When it comes down to it for me, even if we were to leave Vertigo out of it, DC will always Marvel beat when it comes to diversity of titles. And if we start including imprints, all Marvel has to show are one or two gems like Strikeforce Morituri compared to the wide catalogue of Vertigo and others.
If only Condiment King had been created earlier…
If only Matter-Eater Lad had been randomly visiting his old buddy Clark in the past…
This story could have been much goofier (and meatier).
In the same vein, I think of Superman #293, which was published in the same year.
Why did you put the DC covers with a cover date of December 1975… and the Marvel covers with a cover date of March 1976? They have different publishing dates, with a big 3-month difference?
One Marvel book that was published with a December 75 cover date is Warlock #10… the famous Starlin run. Other interesting series that specialized in Marvel in this era were The Tomb of Dracula and Master of Kung-Fu, both representing the best of the era, in my opinion.
Because even after all these years, I still can’t wrap my head around the difference between cover date and release date… so I ended up looking at the wrong page for Marvel.
*sigh*
I’ll never get the hang of it, isn’t it?
What would you think of reviewing the Wonder Woman crossover story called Judgment in Infinity, published in 1982 and spanning issues 291 to 293 of Wonder Woman’s comic? A crossover with all super-heroines in DC, and a villain wanting to destroy thuer Earths. I wonder if it can be considered a precursor to Crisis.
The Wonder Woman retrospective will concentrate on the Kanigher run and I suspect I’ll be a bit burned out on Wondy for a bit… but I don’t exclude reviewing this one later.
Thanks for your reply.
No argument about this story being stuck in the past, nor that it is silly for the second Toyman to be able of tricking Superman out of the way with a couple of gadgets.
But you made me wonder if nostalgia isn’t a common trait of comics fans these days. After all, this comic was published when Superman had 37 years of published history. I can’t think of too many characters that have been allowed to go through significant changes in the last 40 years or so. Or rather, they go through changes with the understanding that there is a baseline that should be restored at some point.
I don’t think CC ever wrote CHAMPIONS.
He does issue 4.
Am I the only one who speculated where all that food Superman ate went?
It’s either, “Superman’s digestive system achieves perfect mass-energy conversion” or “Metropolis sewer system destroyed”.
*Mcdonald’s cleaning staff weeping quietly in a corner*
This story suffers from a serious problem of misdirection: It does not know where it’s supposed to go. Is it about Supes vs Toyman? Supes with eating problems? Considering the level of cringe of this period, they should have kept the second theme and make a funny episode all the way. Wasted occasion.
Not to mention: of COURSE a sun-radiation eating thing works better well hidden underground. it is a vampire thing!!!