Action Comics #107 (1947)
by Don C. Cameron & Ira Yarbrough
cover by Jack Burnley
Little known fact, one of Superman’s weaknesses in the Golden Age was his inability to use doors.
This is possibly the only Superman story that opens with him spotting a conman rescuing a cat.
This is weird enough to warrant following the man (not a lot of stuff going on in 1947 I guess), where it looks like the he could be a mad scientist.
I think you’re being overly paranoid, there’s nothing weird about a guy being visited by VIPs…
…that bring him a dead cat.
Well they say the cat was “put to sleep”, but he might not be dead…
…he was put into suspended animation during the war!
This is the deal: these people will pay 250,000 dollars EACH to go in suspended animation for the next 25 years.
And if that sounds like a lot of money, consider it’s equivalent to 3.6 million dollars in 2025.
Given that he has four clients, the guy just made about 14,415,470 dollars in 2025 money.
But as you probably figured out, that’s a scam: the guy just switched the dead cat with the one he got from the alley.
Assuming that he really did “put to sleep” that cat five years earlier (he could have lied about it and killed the cat last week)… not only he played the long game, but he waited until the last moment to steal a new cat for the trick.
This leads to one of the most common tropes of the Superman stories of the 40s: he’s going out of his way to provide an incredibly convoluted ironic punishment for criminals.
Step one: move the entire house to a deserted place.
Step two: BUILD AN ENTIRE CITY.
Step three: PAINT A GIGANTIC BACKDROP.
Step four: pay lots of actors! DOUBLE their standard fee, even!
(with what money!?)
Step five: write scripts for everyone.
Step six: plant trees.
Step seven: build furniture.
Step eight: build streets.
Step nine: create enough webs (SOMEHOW) and dust to make everything look old.
Keep in mind that he did ALL OF THAT in 10 to 12 hours, given how much the anesthetic is supposed to last.
But the trick worked: the rich people and the conman believe this is 1972.
I’ve told you that DC Comics goes back and forth on whether Superman ages under a yellow sun.
This is obviously just him pretending to be old, but it’s treated as a realistic outcome.
Turns out that 1972 isn’t as glamorous as 1947 believed.
They missed the mark by about one year.
One of the rich guys is a bank president, and despite having millions of dollars… they’re worthless.
There aren’t even atomic cars!
The reason is that if everyone wants to get rich quickly, nobody actually does anything “real”.
But at the same time, people did apparently invent pills that substitute food.
There might be no more business in this future, but sadly I can think of more than one public figure who would still take the deal if it meant no more gays.
I will buy the idea that the bank president, the manufacturer and even the former Senator would rather “work for a living” than stay here… but the fact that the heiress is willing to work might just be the least believable part of this story.
Superman destroys the fake city, making them believe he’s taking them back in time.
And that’s our happy ending, with the rich and powerful vowing to work hard for the betterment of society.
Sounds legit.
Historical significance: 0/10
I’ve seen this one reprinted in several collections of 1940s Superman stories, but it doesn’t lead to anything.
Silver Age-ness: 4/10
Surprisingly low since in the Silver Age he would’ve really brought them into the future, but still… how did he pay all these people again?
Does it stand the test of time? 6/10
Very much of its time, including the (unfortunately) too optimistic finale. But there’s enjoyment to be made from Superman teaching a lesson to powerful people, something that happened all the time in the 1940s.
Where are they now?
John Armitage. Manufacturer of stuff.
Invested all of his money in the production of vacuum tube radios, slide projectors and reel-to-reel tape recorders under the slogan “Technology will never get any better”.
Declared bankruptcy in 1975.
Taylor Baldwin. Bank president.
Lost his fortune and control of the bank in the stock market crash of 1987.
The Baldwin & Satan Banking Group lost 100 billion dollars in the stock market crash of 2008 and as a result received 250 billions from the US Government.
Gloria Partridge. Heiress.
Founded the Gay Society For Very Good Friends in 1961.
Served as the chairman of the Hypocrites For Jesus Foundation until her death.
Nameless Trent. Former Senator of West Dakota.
Attempted to run for President in 1948 for the Children Are The Future party.
Retired from politics the same year after a scandal exposed he made his money by stealing money from charities.
Wilbur Wolfingham. Conman, swindler and self-professed cat murderer.
Elected President of the United States for two non-consecutive terms on his “I will steal your money and murder your cats” platform.
What else was in Action Comics 107?
As usual for the era we have Congo Bill, in a story where he has to expose a fake magician by using modern science.
Which is a bit ironic considering the next story is by Zatara, who uses ACTUAL magic.
Notice he doesn’t have to talk backwards for his spells on the teaser page, but he does in the story.
We also have Vigilante as usual…
…and the comedy series Hayfoot Henry. We’re a long way from Superman being the only star of Action Comics.
