Issue Description

For his first story as a TV reporter, Clark Kent covers the growing popularity of Folk/Rock festivals. But he discovers that the young people who attend the concerts promoted by Cy Horkin behave rather... oddly.

1. The Pied Piper of Steel. Morgan Edge has taken over the Daily Planet and Clark is reassigned as a TV reporter. While covering Cy Horkin's rock concerts, he notices that the fans start obeying the lyrics in the songs. Horkin has developed an electronic brain that converts the lyrics into irresistible commands so that anyone listening to the music obeys him. He plans to command a mob to destroy the university that refused to elect him president. Superman pretends to be affected by the music as well and starts leading the mob in its quest for destruction. However, he leads them to Horkin's headquarters and they destroy the electronic brain instead.

2. Spawn of the Unknown. Superman answers a distress call from a gamekeeper and discovers weirdly transmuted beasts in an extinct volcanic crater. The gamekeeper tells him that Professor Bruno, a botanist, experimented with growth hormones and after an explosion, the hormones caused local animals to become plants and take root in the ground. It seems that even Superman isn't immune to the effect, since he discovers a transmuted form of Supergirl. After a side trip to Egypt to foil some tomb raiders, Superman returns and attempts to remove the Supergirl-plant but in doing so he tears its limbs off. Just as he is about to believe he has killed Supergirl, she arrives and reveals that the mutated plants merely attempt to take on the forms of nearby animals rather than affecting the animals directly.

Action Comics (1938)

Publisher

DC Comics

Volume Description

In the early days of comics books, it was not the convention to name comics after specific characters. Rather comics bore generic names such as this one. Although this series featured Superman throughout, it thus bore this name, one which it has become famous for (and the name was kept after the launch of The New 52.) It was the fourth DC Comics title, and the first new one produced after Detective Comics spread beyond the one title (this was after it purchased More Fun Comics and New Adventure Comics.)

Starring: Lex Luthor (starting #890) until #900.

Second Feature: Captain Atom (#879-#889), Superboy (#892), Jimmy Olsen (#893-#896)

(Issues #601-642 are filed under Action Comics Weekly)

Collected EditionsSuperman: The Golden Age Omnibus vol. 1 (#1-31)Adventures of Superman: Gil Kane vol. 1 (#539-541, 545, 546 & #551-554)Superman vs. Darkseid (#586)They Saved Luthor's Brain (#600, #668, #670-673, #676-678 )Panic in the Sky (#674-675)Death of Superman (#683-684)World Without Superman (#685-686)Superman: Funeral For A Friend (#685-686)Superman: Reign of the Supermen (#687-688)The Trial of Superman (#716-717)Transformed! (#729 & 732)DC Comics Presents: Superman #4 (#768, #771-773)Superman: Emperor Joker (#769-770)President Lex (#773)Superman: Our Worlds At War, Book One (#780-781)Superman: Our Worlds At War, Book Two (#782)Superman: Ending Battle (#795-796)DC Comics Presents: Superman #2 (#798)Godfall (Action Comics #812- 813, Adventures of Superman #625- 626 and Superman #202- 203)Superman: The Wrath of Gog (#814-819; backups #812-813)Superman: Sacrifice (Action Comics #829, Superman #218-220, Adventures of Superman #642-643 and Wonder Woman #219-220)Superman: Up, Up and Away! (#837-840)Superman: Back In Action (#841-843, plus stories from DC Comics Presents #4, #17 and #24)Superman: Last Son (#844-846, #851 and Action Comics Annual #11)The Third Kryptonian (Superman #668-670, Action Comics #847, Superman Annual #13)Redemption (Superman #659&666, Action Comics #848-849)3-2-1 Action (Superman #665, Action Comics #852-854, Legends of the DC Universe #14)Superman: Escape From Bizarro World (#855-857)Superman And The Legion of Super-Heroes (#858-863)Superman: Brainiac (#866-870)Superman: New Krypton Vol. 1 (#871)Superman: New Krypton Vol. 2 (#872-873)Superman: Nightwing And Flamebird Vol. 1 (#875-879 and Action Comics Annual #12)Superman: Codename Patriot (#880)Superman: Nightwing And Flamebird Vol. 2 (#883-889, Superman #696 and Adventure Comics #8-10)Superman: The Black Ring Vol. 1 (#890-895)Superman: The Black Ring Vol. 2 (#896-900; Action Comics Annual #13; Secret Six #29)Secret Six: Caution To the Wind (#897)Superman: Reign of Doomsday (#900-904)For Post-Flashpoint refer to Action Comics (Vol. 2)

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Status: Not in Collection