Action Comics 432 Review (Toyman versus Toyman)

A comic review of art, storytelling, and theology.

Cover Dated: February 1974

COVER GRADE: C+

Art: Nick Cardy

It’s easy to be disinterested in the cover since it features the Toyman. How may average Superman fans have even heard of that villain? He’s a criminal who uses toy-based devices in his various crimes. Am I really supposed to take him seriously? Well, seeing as Toyman was originally created near the beginning of the Golden Age of comics where the medium was only read by kids – hmm… a toy-based super villain sounds really interesting to my 10 year old self. But here’s something interesting about the cover, it’s the first appearance of the second iteration of the Toyman – thus the title stating “Toymen”. So if you look at this cover as an introduction to this new villain, it does a pretty good job. The new bad guy is featured prominently in the top left corner where your eyes are naturally drawn based on normal reading convention. The cover also implies the power of this new Toyman as being able to hurt Superman which is quite a feat. Then in the bottom right we have the old Toyman bring the whole thing around into a nice symmetry.

But… Yeah… I just do not really like this cover. The art is good and clean. The characters and backgrounds are well drawn and detailed. But my gut feeling is meh.

STORYTELLER'S GRADE for "Target of the Toymen": C+

Story: Cary Bates

The Toyman is not exactly the most exciting villain to the average Superman fan, but there’s a little bit of history that’s intriguing. Toyman’s first appearance was in Action Comics 64 in 1943. This is his 8^th appearance and the first in four years. The big question is who is this other guy claiming to be the Toyman?

This new Toyman is shrinking large, expensive, state-of-the-art vehicles like the newest luxury airliner and an experimental solar powered train. He is ransoming the vehicles back to their owners for 100 million dollars. Only this Toyman doesn’t look like the criminal everyone has known since 1943. The original Toyman, Winslow P. Schott, has settled into civilian life. But when he hears the crimes of this new Toyman, he feels like this copycat is tarnishing his old reputation. Old Toyman catches the new Toyman and makes him a deal to work together to complete the crime spree. The Toymen shrink a space shuttle together and take the new prize back to the new Toyman’s hideout. Once there, the new Toyman double crosses the original Toyman just as Superman arrives to save the day. It turns out that the original Toyman and Superman were working together to stop the new Toyman.

I thought it was a good turn of events to have the original Toyman turn out to be a hero, but you could pretty much guess it was coming from a mile away because of how odd the change was when the original Toyman turned from hating the new Toyman to immediately wanting to work with him. There was also no backstory to the new Toyman which was odd – not even a real name – although that is revealed in a later issue. This is his first of four appearances in the 1970s (Action Comics 454 then Superman 299 and 305), but an iteration of this Toyman also appears 3 times in the 2000s.

Overall it was an average story with just enough polish to make it a moderately enjoyable read.

ARTIST GRADE for Superman: C+

Art: Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson

It’s a C+ sweep of the cover, story, and art. For each one I was expecting to give a B grade, but nothing stood out when I tried to look for examples to justify it. It’s all pretty good, but at the same time, nothing special. I felt like I should show at least some of the art, so here’s a page of the two Toymen fighting.

STORYTELLER GRADE for "The Million Dollar Methuselah Contract": C

Story: Len Wein

Henderson Repp is one of the richest men in the world, but also one of the oldest. He suspects his great-great-great-grandnephew is trying to kill him for the money. Chance fills in for the old man against the ex-military mercenary his grandnephew hired to kill him. Chance works with Repp’s beautiful secretary/girlfriend, Deedee, to track down the assassin. In the process Deedee is kidnapped, but Chance saves, Deedee, stops the mercenary, and get the confession to convict the grandnephew.

This is easily the worst Human Target story to date. The attempted killer is known before it even starts. The ex-military mercenary is a surprising good match for Christopher Chance, but oddly that makes the story worse. A couple times Chance tries to trick the assassin, but he isn’t fooled for long meaning Chance’s tricks don’t amount to much.
Sadder still is that this is the note that Christopher Chance, a.k.a. The Human Target, leaves Action Comics. He reappears 4 years later in The Brave and the Bold, and starts a stint as backup stories for Detective Comics (which is probably a more appropriate location anyway) and Batman. He makes one last appearance in Action Comics 641, but not until 15 years later in the DC universe Post-Crisis.
So long Christopher Chance. You will be missed.

ARTIST GRADE for Human Target: B

Art: Dick Giordano

The art is well done and full of action as always, but the layout is missing the playing with the panels as I’ve grown to expect from the previous Human Target stories. The panel layout is rather straight forward and even a little confusing at one point because I missed the arrow pointing me to the panel I should have read next. That said the explosions are epic.

I was pleasantly surprised that Repp’s trophy girlfriend wasn’t over-the-top sexualized, and she even was a strong and capable character herself…

…at least she WAS until the last 3 pages where she’s kidnapped in her skimpy nightgown. Ugh. Oh well.

THEOLOGY GRADE: D

(This low grade is not based on the quality of the content below, but because it was quite a stretch to get there from the material in the comic. High theology grades indicate that the comic brought up an interesting theological question without much digging.)
The main concept that jumps out from our Superman story is a question of how you look at the original Toyman. Did you expect him to go straight back to a life of crime because that’s what comic book villains do? Or did you hope that he would keep it on the straight and narrow? The Toyman had served his prison sentence and deserved a no strings attached second chance.
Forgiveness is a common theme throughout Christianity, but aren't there limitations our requirements or ability to forgive? In Luke 17 we read: “If another believer sins, rebuke that person; then if there is repentance, forgive. Even if that person wrongs you seven times a day and each time turns again and asks forgiveness, you must forgive.” Ok, yeah, that makes sense if someone is trying to take your lunch money, but what if they were severely hurting you or even trying to kill you. We when they did that to Jesus, He said, "Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34)" That seems pretty unconditional. The limitations of our forgiveness are connected to what offends us. When the issue becomes moral or just or righteous then forgiveness is no longer an option. Perhaps it's easy to "forgive" a villain like Toyman because he's a goofy comic book character. But where does your forgiveness end for the villains in real life? Where do you draw the line in the sand? Is that where Jesus drew it? The only line in the sand I remember Him drawing was when He forgave the unforgivable. John 8:1-11.

CLARK KENT’S MONTHLY GOOF:

Not much a goof this month besides the normal accusations of Clark Kent being “delicate” because he disappears when problems happen. Although it was odd that he chose to change into Superman in the open landing gear of a private jet mid takeoff.