RETRO REVIEW - Action Comics #406

Given I'm not enjoying much of DC's current Superman output, why not look to the past?Specifically, pretty much the first Superman comic I ever bought, Action Comics #406, November 1971. Given how long it took comics to get to the UK in those days (they generally came as ballast on ships), that was likely when I bought it. 

There's no way a British kid could ignore that Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson cover - Superman in the UK! And confronted by his own ghost at that. I had to have it. The fact the comic promises two more tales was a total bonus. 

Before we get to the cover story, there's 'Master of Miracles', in which Clark Kent, in his brand spanking new Rolling Newsroom, is assigned by GBS boss Morgan Edge to investigate a new cult based 'out west'. 
I love how editor Murray Boltinoff explains the modern world to his young readers. And look at Morgan Edge, recently introduced by Jack Kirby in his Fourth World titles, handing out assignments via a watching eye. Talk about Big Brother! 

Soon Clark has driven across the wide expanse of the good old USA, and as he nears the cult compound, The Sanctuary, he takes a peek ahead with his super-vision and sees...
 
Changing to Superman, he rescues the new arrivals and then eyeballs self-proclaimed messiah The Master - and he has powers too. 
Clark figures that the best way to discover more is to go native, hiding his costume in plain sight. 
He learns that The Master's thing is turning waste into useful metals and plastics, while preaching that the end is nigh. Superman is trying to figure out his game, but is continually distracted by disasters demanding his attention. He finds time to pop into his arctic Fortress of Solitude, where he hopes his 'hyper-computer' can come up with some answers. But another diversion comes up and the Man of Steel isn't pleased. 
I think we can happily file this last panel under Superdickery. I complain about the 2015 oaf going by the name Superman, but the Seventies version certainly had his off moments. I mean, there's a mystery many with super-powers who knows Superman is Clark Kent and we learn that suddenly Kandor can't count its citizens. Even as a seven-year-old I could see where this was going. It's entirely possible that was the intent of writer Leo Dorfman, flattering his readers that they're smarter than Superman. 

Anyway, to make a short story shorter, The Master is a Kandorian enlarged on Earth, who wants to be a Superman with his very own band of worshippers. He plans to take his cultists off to live on another world - he's been transforming waste into spaceship materials with his powers. He does genuinely believe Earth is doomed because this is the early Seventies and, like, pollution. Superman isn't at all sure he's wrong. 
Think on that kids...

The story ends with a bit of subplottery. 
I don't recall whether I was on tenterhooks to learn what Edge's bag was. Modern me is surprised we weren't directed to Kirby's Jimmy Olsen mag, where we'd learn more about Clark's mysterious new boss. 

I loved reading this story again, it took me right back to the times, when Superman's world was changing from the whimsy of the Silver Age to the Relevance concerns of the early Bronze Age. Dorfman's script is melodramatic fun, while the 'Swanderson' art is just lovely - clear and expressive. 
The art on the next strip, I remember, was less to my taste. Then, I didn't know Alex Toth was a comics great, all I saw was scratchy art on a bonkers Atom and Flash team-up reprinted from an elderly Brave & Bold. Now, I know; I'm still not keen on the art here, though - the panels of Barry and Ray in civvies are great, but the storytelling in the action scenes comes up short. 
'Bonkers' will likely have cued you into the fact that writer-wise, we're talking zany Bob Haney - giant statues battling for no reason that makes sense even in a superhero story; massive plant tentacles grabbing a bridge, that sort of thing. It's all rather wonderful, but we don't get the whole story in this 48-pages-for-25-cents issue - happily, I did get the next issue, so saw how our heroes beat the 'Challenge of the Expanding World'. I don't think I liked the art any better then, though. 

Finally we come to the main event, which happens to be the shortest story in the issue.  It's as mad as Haney's tale, but somehow Geoff Browne - that's actually Dorfman again - sells it better; it seems more like a story he's heard than something being made up on the fly. But yeah, it's weird stuff. Clark Kent is making a documentary on London - an awful long way to drive that newsvan - when a Superman-lookalike spook appears at the Tower (this isn't a comic you could accuse of having a misrepresentative cover image). This leads to a classic milksop moment. 
Soon, he meets the ghost, and wouldn't you know it, like The Master, he knows Clark's secret ID! Is it another pesky Kandorian? No, it's former Royal Physician Dr Troy Magnus, still around three centuries after he should have died. 
There follows a sad tale of how one man's attempts to do good damns him - he's able to turn into a phantom and change his appearance, but is basically condemned to a lonely existence as a living mummy. He wants just one favour from Superman. 
Of course, Superman can't end someone's life, even at their own request. Nothing for it but a convenient accident, before the story ends on an irrelevant bit of supposed irony. 
Oh, how the Superman books liked their irony. 

Still, it's a haunting little tale, nicely offbeat and a great opportunity for Swan and Anderson to escape contemporary America. And just look at poor Troy - I've never forgotten this man, more than 40 years on. Kudos to the unnamed colourist for their contribution. 

For sheer variety, these quarter comics couldn't be beaten, and the entertainment level was usually pretty high. I won't be giving up buying new books, but boy, who says you can't go home again?

Comments

  1. Looks like you started reading about a year before I did... my first issue was #314. And it took me ages to get into Toth's art, though now I can't get enough of it!

    Thanks for this great look back to yesteryear!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're welcome. If you ever want to do a retro piece - or indeed, anything - just yell. Only just noticed a rather 'electrifing' cover error!

      Delete
    2. Will do -- and thanks for the invitation! I might just take you up on that!

      Delete
    3. That's the one - but do you remember where. 'Electrifing' appeared?

      Delete
    4. Yep! New Adventures of Superboy #1 -- "First Electrifing Issue!"

      Delete
  2. I think my first (or among them, anyway, I started getting comics in 1972) was Action 417. This was a great period for Swan & Anderson art! And really fun stories.

    It was years before I realized that Morgan Edge was a Jack Kirby creation. All the Superbooks at this point were lively and exciting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When did they introduce Sand Superman? I think that's when I jumped on board and I loved the whole era through to the Byrne years. They've lost me since then, much like they've lost sight of what makes Superman so special. Curiosity got me back for that awful Morrison mess but the truncated Lobdell run is the only time I've been excited to read a Superman comic in years...

      Delete
  3. Weren't they? I think my favourite back then was Lois Lane, with Rose and the Thorn, the Black Racer, mini-JLAs, Melba Manton...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great review and a great time to be reading comics! Thanks for the throwback. You've inspired me to dig this issue out for a re-read. This is what I love about talking comics with people the same age, sharing the common experience of these really fun stories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Maya. Some old guys should get together and do a podcast!

      Delete
  5. 48 pages for 25 cents. Wow.

    Great review Mart!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Alex Toth on Flash and Atom?? Sweet!! I'm totally in! I don't have this one in my back issue bins but it's definitely one I'll be looking for.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm enjoying this older issue reviews Mart! Am I inventing this fact, but did DC get Curt Swan to redraw most of Jack Kirby's Superman heads, as he couldn't capture the likeness on his Fourth World titles?

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's what I heard, Rob. I remember the excellent Brian Cronin did a column on it.

    http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/05/31/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-105/

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think I just purchased this issue. I acquired a complete Bronze Age Superman run recently. . .though I still need Superboy, and this issue may be one of the lot. Won't be digging in till next summer though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, what treats you have in store. Well, apart from the annoying kid with the lynx...

      Delete
  10. Strangely I was in my loft at the weekend putting away some things and started looking through some of my old comics and picked up this very issue for a wee read along with issue 417). It was a great issue of a great comicm 48 pages and 3 great stories , I was about 11 or 12 when I bought this book and like you I initially didn't like the Toth art but loved the story , it wasn't until I got the next issue with part 2 of the Flash/Atom strip that I started to appreciate Toths art more ( I thin at this time they reprinted a lot of his stuff like Eclipso etc), This wasn't my first Superman or indeed DC comic as my older brother and his pals always had comics around that I read , I think the first issue of Action ( that I bought for myself) was issue 402 - love the retro reviews would be nice to see a few more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Paul, I shall do more!

      I certainly like Toth's work generally, but this story just didn't do it for me.. His new Black Canary story in Adventure around is time was much more my cup of cocoa.

      Delete
  11. Great days. My first Superman story was from Superman v1 #288, but it was printed in Italy in the same book with #289, which I preferred a lot. #288 was pencilled by Swan and inked by Schaffenberger (ha! got it right at first shot): Curt and Kurt were huge artists, but they did not really render up very well, together. 289 was a classic Swan/Oksner and their Superman became MY Superman (I was 7, by the way...)

    They were both pretty average stories, neatly written by Cary Bates, with no notable event, villain or link to past and future event whatsoever: fill-ins, almost, but every time I re-read them it's kind of special, you know.

    ReplyDelete
  12. You're so right, 'insignificant' stories can remain enjoyable. I bought both those issues and you have me itching to read then again.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment