Home Town Visits and Ghostly Soldiers

 

cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

"The Secret of the Super S" appeared in Action Comics #494 (April 1979). Written by Cary Bates and drawn by Curt Swan, it sends Clark Kent back to his hometown of Smallville in search of a story.

Someone mailed a variation of Superman's S symbol to the Daily Planet. The letter that comes with it promises more Superman secrets to come.

Perry sends Clark and Lois to Smallville (where the letter was postmarked) to find out what's what. They are supposed to be met at the train depot by now-retired Police Chief Parker. But Parker is at Clark's old home, being attacked by a Revolutionary War ghost. 

Parker is unhurt by the ecto-plasmic blade. That night, Superman makes a nostalgic patrol run over Smallville. He stops some vandals from spray-painting buildings, only to discover one of them has painted the alternate-S. The hooligan claims the idea came to him while he was driving on the road that passed the Kent home.

Soon after that, Lois is threatened by the ghost of a World War 2 soldiers.

Various clues bring Superman a partial answer to what's going on. Something was projecting images of soldiers into the heads of Parker and Lois. Parker is a Revolutionary War buff and Lois had an uncle who served in the war. Also, Superman realized that Parker was mentally commanded to mail the S to the Daily Planet. But who or what is behind all this?

Parker and Lois had seen what for each of them was the most powerful warrior-image they could think of. Superman finally sees such an image. But in his case, it's a little more than an image. He's attacked from behind by a Dwalu, a seven-foot warrior that had lived on Krypton centuries ago. They had wiped each other out in a civil war. But now one of them is back with his full powers and his equally-powerful Xaka sword and, as Superman says as he loses consciousness--"With or without super powers, I"m no match for it."

This is a fun issue. Swan's art was always great. It's nice to see Chief Parker in an adult Superman story. The premise is fresh and clever. We'll see how Superman deal with a Dwalu when we look at Action Comics #495 next week.