Issue Description

Danger Highway (Superman) -- 2. A Winter Idyl (Hayfoot Henry) -- 3. The Dummy Art Expert (Vigilante) -- 4. Machine Guns -- 5. Dead Men's Falls (Congo Bill) -- 6. The Show Goes On (Zatara)

Cover: a safe falls and hits Superman on the head with no ill effects. Was it an accident or on purpose? 

Superman: Clark is assigned to write up a story about long-distance truckers, so he gets a ride with a cross-country consignment driven by "Gears" Corrigan. Also on board is a new driver, Walt Shade, who is learning the trade from Corrigan. All goes well for the first few hours, but then the truck stops because of what looks like a body lying on the road. The 'body' turns out to be a decoy to force the truck to stop, and a gang of hijackers spring out from the side of the road. Clark manages to slip away to change into Superman, who disarms the hijackers, but before he can capture them, a stray bullet dislodges the truck's brakes and Superman has to prevent the truck from rolling down the hillside, allowing the hijackers to escape. 
 
However, as the hijackers are driving away, Shade picks up a gun they dropped but seems unable to take a shot at them. Corrigan accuses Shade of cowardice, but later, as Shade is asleep in the back of the truck, Corrigan confides to Clark that he thinks Shade might be in league with the hijackers. 
 
When the truck makes its delivery in the next town, Corrigan and Shade are issued with guns to protect themselves from any further hijackers. Suddenly, Clark remembers that he has seen Shade before - as a bank guard some years ago. At the time, the bank was robbed and as the robbers were getting away, Shade also refused to shoot at them. Since there is half an hour before the truck is due to set off again, Clark decides to investigate as Superman. 
 
His first stop is back in Metropolis where he visits gangster Mike Cooley, whose gang carried out the bank robbery where Shade refused to stop them. Despite threats of violence, Cooley denies that Shade had any connection with the gang, and he himself never understood why he let them escape. Next, Superman visits FBI headquarters where he has Shade's fingerprints identified, and discovers that Shade's real name is Walt Brodie, and he is an ex-policeman from Smalltown. On to Smalltown, where the sheriff tells Superman that Brodie left the police after killing an escaping burglar by mistake several years before.  
 
Heading back to the truck stop, Superman discovers that the truck has left without him. On the road, the truck has run into a blizzard, and is again attacked by hijackers. This time, however, Corrigan is felled by one of the gang, and Brodie regains his confidence enough to disable the hijackers. Superman shows up at this point and captures the rest of the gang. Corrigan apologizes for thinking Brodie a coward when he hears his story.

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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