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.