Notes about this comic review: As an amateur script writer, cartoonist, and Sunday School teacher, I grade against the curve I know. You may ask what the Sunday School teacher grades against. I’m not trying to be the CCA. As a Sunday School teacher I use metaphors to bridge the gap in our understand of God. My Sunday School grade is based on how good of a Sunday School lesson I could pull out of the story.
December 1972
COVER GRADE: A+
Penciler: Neal Adams, Inker: Murphy Anderson, Photo/Colors: Jack Adler
This cover is the main reasons I chose this as the starting point for the run of Action Comics I wanted to collect. (Once I looked it up I saw that it was the beginning of Julie Schwartz's run as Chief Editor and that sealed the deal.) This image is Superman at his finest. The black and white complexity of a major metropolis overshadowed by the colorful simplicity of the most famous superhero busting skyward. No gimmicks. No razzle-dazzle. Just basic awesome. If there is any complaint I could make about this cover, it's that the cover gives you no hint as to what the story is inside. However having read the story I believe that's not really a problem.
STORYTELLER'S GRADE for "The Most Dangerous Man on Earth": D
Writer: Cary Bates
The story isn't necessarily terrible, but there are so many glaring problems that it's tough to know where to begin. My biggest problem was that "mystery" that drives the plot was far too confusing. It's like a two year old playing connect-the-dots.
Dot #1: After reporting on the new Large Space Telescope (LST) deployment (wait a second? a TV reporter is just casually getting a trip to outer-space I'll just let that go), when Clark Kent returns to terra-firma the ground emits these explosive bubbles. Somehow, Superman is able to follow the scribbled dot connection to hypothesize that he is the cause.
Dot #2: Elsewhere, down-on-his-luck criminal Moe Malloy fishes out a pair of football cleats and a rusted up revolver. Both are contaminated by pollutants in the river, but it's caused both to glow. Moe puts on the cleats because they are in better shape than his current shoes (This is a terrible idea by the way not just because they are polluted by a river so much that they glow. I’ve worn cleats on concrete. Bad idea. It’s like walking on ice.) When he puts on the cleats, the normally unusable revolver becomes super powered.
Dot 3: When Superman confronts Moe Malloy, the shots from the super gun deflect off and destroy what they hit. I believe this is an incredibly subtle dot the writers wanted you to connect. On a normal day, Superman deflecting projectiles is simply common place and not worth mentioning, but after thinking back on this after a few days, I now realize that it is incredibly important as you shall soon see…
Dot 4: When Moe Malloy is lifted off the ground his revolver no longer fires. Now this is finally a real clue!
Dot 5: After lifting Moe Malloy off the ground to subdue him, Superman aids one of Moe Malloy's victims who just happens to have a telescope. With that the mystery is solved. Isn’t it obvious?!?
Final Dot: Superman follows an infra-red trail back to the LST. It had "passed through a cloud of unpredictable cosmic dust" (it's incredibly scientific) as a result "transforming starlight into the mysterious energy that's filtering over Metropolis" (I think I remember Einstein talking about this once). A quick dose of heat vision to clean off the lens and everything is solved! The End.
Wait…what just happened? I mean I understand what happened because Superman blatantly says it in the last two panels, but how did he follow that thread back to its source? After an extended look over the story, I have deduced that Dot 3 was a pivotal moment in the mystery. Working backwards you know something is up with the ground because it’s only when Moe Malloy is connected to it that his revolver works. Because the cleats and gun were polluted, you are led to believe (along with Superman) thought that something also polluted Clark Kent in space so his return to earth also caused an explosive reaction. But the truth is that the ground is the power source and not the catalyst. So just as when Moe Malloy’s shots deflected off of Superman, when Superman touched the contaminated ground, the power it contained also deflected off of him to create the explosions. This made him realize that the problem wasn’t with him, but with the ground. Thus leading him to the telescope. Did you get all that? Yeah, I think it’s a little too complex in the amount of pages they had to really clue you in on the mystery.
So my biggest problem with the story is that it’s overly complex without enough pages to fill it out, but perhaps there is one even more glaring problem: The bad guy is Moe Malloy. Really? A hobo with really powerful gun? Hey, Krypto the Superdog, take care of Moe Malloy for us real quick, okay? Just lift him off the ground and the regular authorities can take care of it from there. Problem solved. No need to bother Superman.
STORYTELLER GRADE for "The Assassin-Express Contract!": B
Writer: Len Wein
I have been introduced to Christopher Chance as the Human Target thanks to the short lived 2010 TV series (not the one with Rick Springfield). As a whole, I love the idea of a private investigator/bodyguard who assumes the identities of clients targeted by assassins and other dangerous criminals. Little bit of detective work and a lot of action. For the limited amount of pages it was given, it’s a simple but fun little story with two great moments (1) Chance has to wear an eye patch to disguise himself and it gives him problems early on, but it actually turns out to save him in the climax when he’s hit by a flash grenade. He can still see thanks to one eye being hidden by the patch. (2) Chance beats the bad guy like this…
BOO YEAH!
ARTIST GRADE for Superman: B
Penciler: Curt Swan, Inker: Murphy Anderson
Where the story failed, the art work succeeded. There is lots of fun imagery that you get to use on a story this ridiculous. There the standard NASA air field blowing up and glowing gun that destroys whole buildings. But wait there's more! How about Superman breaking and entering?
Check!
How about Superman throwing moon rocks through floorboards to catapult a guy in the air?
Check!
How about Clark Kent doing the jitterbug in a zoot suit?
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE!
The art is fun and entertaining. I wish I could go back and blank out all the word bubbles so I’m not distracted by the text. No need to have a story, just enjoy the crazy pictures.
ARTIST GRADE for Human Target: C
Penciler: Carmine Infantino, Inker: Dick Giordano
This artwork feels like it’s out of a Batman comic. It’s not a bad thing. In fact I think it’s a great fit for the mood of Human Target. As I mentioned above there is a lot of great action sequences and it’s visually fun the whole way through. My problem is that it doesn’t seem like there was a template for the characters so when you see them panel to panel they don’t quite look the same. There were also a few noticeable issues with the inking that make Christopher Chance look like he has no hair in streaks on the side of his head. These problems were big enough that at times they distracted from the story.
Who are all those people? And why do they all look slightly similar? Look! Strange bald spot!
SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER GRADE: B+
It took me a while to figure out what spiritual truth I could rip out of these stories, perhaps because I was distracted by the confusing mystery facing Superman. Once I put that all together, there was an obvious connection between both stories: grounding.
In the Superman story, the ground was contaminated. As a result Moe Malloy could twist this power into a destructive force. For Superman, being impervious to the contamination it caused destruction as well. But to the regular people, standing on the contaminated ground didn’t seem to do anything.
In the Human Target, the key to survival was staying grounded on a secure spot. For Mr. Chance he was safety on the train so that when it stopped he was okay. For the bad guy, he wasn’t connected to the train so well, so when things went wrong he went flying.
The Sunday School lesson here is to keep your feet set on the good and know when you standing on dangerous ground. Standing on bad ground leads to destruction. Standing on unstable ground lead to an abrupt ejection. Our direction and desire is a firm foundation. Ephesians 2:19-20 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
With this perspective many of us are like the casual citizens of Metropolis that were standing on the contaminated ground and didn’t know it. Only when we are aware that there is a problem can we avoid contaminated ground and hold on to the train.
EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE:
As I was reading through this comic there were several instances where Superman used his powers in somewhat extreme ways that seemed unnecessary. The pinnacle seemed to come when Superman, attempting to keep up the appearances of Clark Kent, used his freezing breath to starch the clothes he was wearing as Clark Kent and stand them up so from far away it looked like Clark was still standing there. To my utter surprise, Superman completely blew that trick out of the water so much so that I had to dedicate a whole section to it.
As mentioned in the story, if Superman touches the ground it will set off a chain reaction of explosions. So his solution to stay levitating is to continually blow super compressed air out his nose, down his legs, and under his feet so that there is just a little bit of cushion of air floating him off the ground like a hovercraft!
Wait a second. Can’t you just fly Superman? Doesn’t that make more sense? How do you talk while you’re breathing out the whole time? Better yet how do you breathe in? I guess you’re just that amazing. Period. End of Discussion.
Dear Editor (seen in #423):
Interesting tidbits: In the first letter Tom Mitchell of Yakima, Washington says Christopher Chance is a perfect combo of Jonny Double and Mannix. E.N.B. (i.e. Assistant Editor E. Nelson Bridwell) responds "Incidentally, it's odd you should mention Jonny Double in connection with the Human Target. When Len Wein and Marv Wolfman were first working out the idea of Jonny Double, they planned to make him a Human Target - taking the place of people threatened with death. Hence the name - Double! But the plans were changed and Len wound up using the them with Chris Chance."
Bonus Content (seen in #423)!
I have to admit this is kinda cool that not only would Action Comics look to Grumman for help to make a more accurate story, but that Grumman would comply. Thanks, Pete Simmons!
