Showcase Presents Superman Vol.1 Review

The Man No Prison Could Hold

Originally from : Action Comics #248
Writer : Bill Finger
Artist : Wayne Boring

While "soaring in the ionosphere", Superman finds a strange little satellite. Our hero follows the thing's radio waves transmissions back to a small uncharted island where he discovers a Nazi scientist, Von Kamp, working on the top secret "Project X". Not one to shy away from a mystery, Supes makes up a plan to investigate on Von Kamp's whereabouts -- he's going to become one of his slaves ! A walk in the park, at least until good old Jimmy Olsen messes everything up...

All in all, this is another great tale featuring some pretty nifty ideas from Bill Finger like

• Superman throwing his costume in the atmosphere so that it falls back down exactly three hours later. Just enough time to become a slave and investigate.
• After having pulled one of his Superman kinda moves, our big guy hollows a ball-and-chain with his finger so that he isn't unmasked.
• Superman making an invisible glass boomerang out of sand to hook an escaping Jimmy Olsen and pull him back to the island.
• Jimmy actually thinking it was the wind that blew him back.
• Supes making a kaleidoscope out of sand and putting it in front of Project X's camera lens so that Von Kamp thinks his invention doesn't work and give up on the whole thing.
• And, best of all, the fact that this trick actually works!

Once again, a great read from Showcase Superman. If you don't already own it, get $10, run to your LCS and buy it. Forget the fact you don't like Superman. This is 560 pages of pure comics goodness.
Grade : A+