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| cover art by Curt Swan |
Action Comics #335 (March 1966) starts out with Superman a mental wreck after the events of the last issue. Even though it turned out that Lex's attempt to bring on a new Ice Age was just an illusion projected directly into the Man of Steel's brain, he's now unable to make even the simpliest decisions When another crisis happens, he's totally useless.
So maybe its time to retire from the superhero business and just live out his life as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent.
But quiet retirement isn't in the cards for poor Clark. This story is set during a time that Perry White was serving a term as U.S. Senator. Soon, Clark, Lois and Jimmy are summoned to Washington, where Perry and the president ask their help in rebuilding Superman's confidence.
I'm not sure what Lois and Jimmy were supposed to do. Clark is simply asked to contact Superman and have him come in for some tests. But those tests are rigged. Luthor has teamed up with Braniac, who replace the doctors doing the tests and rig them so Superman fails. His confidence is apparently shattered forever.
But fooling a man with superhearing and X-Ray vision isn't easy. It's a bit of a hole in the story that Lex rigged the tests in such a way that Superman could see that it was rigged. But overconfidence has always been one of Lex's flaws, so perhaps its understandable.
Now that Superman knows what's going on, he's able to turn the tables on the next attempt to drive him to Crazy Town, catching the two villains and revealing that he now knows what's going on.
Lex tries to claim a partail victory by getting away with Braniac and flying the Lexor, where the red sun prevents Superman from coming after him. But remember that Lex was particularly mad at Superman because the hero had told Adora that her husband was a super-crook. So he seems to be returning to a rather uncomfortable domestic situation.
It turns out, though, that Superman has been particularly generous in victory. He had used an amnesia gas to remove the memory of Lex's crimes from Adora. She loves him again.
Next week, we'll take a ride on a wagon train.
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Interesting that this was from 1966. That's the same year that "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman" debuted on Broadway and became a critical if not commercial success. The method for controlling Superman? Mind games again. Instead of Luther, we have Max Menken, a hotshot columnist for the Daily Planet who despises Superman for his powers and his attractiveness to women, especially Lois Lane--whom Max has his eye on. He teams up with Professor Abner Sedgewick (Agnes in the version I directed) to convince Superman that he is a pest and unwanted. So again psychological means are used to control Superman. I directed the play back in 2000. One of the most fun projects I ever did. Before the show, the Daily Planet reporters would interview audience members to find out if anyone knew Superman's secret identity. They were instructed that if anyone suggested Clark Kent, they were to dismiss it as a ridiculous idea. The students in the cast had a blast with it.
ReplyDeleteI knew about the play, of course, but never new the exact plot. It sounds like fun. The pre-show interveiws were a brilliant idea.
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