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Action Comics Vol 1 242

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"Superman: "The Super-Duel in Space"": Clark Kent and Lois Lane are guest passengers aboard the Columbus – Earth's first manned space vessel. Shortly after breaking the planet's atmosphere, they encounter a strange, alien flying saucer. Th

Quote1 You're only wearing yourself out, Punyman! Even if you threw the Earth itself, it would only bounce off my Ultra-Force Shield! Ha, Ha! Quote2
— Brainiac

Action Comics #242 is an issue of the series Action Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of July, 1958.

Synopsis for Superman: "The Super-Duel in Space"

Clark Kent and Lois Lane are guest passengers aboard the Columbus – Earth's first manned space vessel. Shortly after breaking the planet's atmosphere, they encounter a strange, alien flying saucer. The ship belongs to Brainiac, a self-styled Master of Science. Clark dons a pressure suit and pretends to space-walk back to Earth (supposedly out of fear). However, when he is outside of Lois' view, he changes into Superman and pushes the Columbus back towards Earth, out of harm's way.

Superman flies towards Brainiac's ship, but even his super-strength is not enough to penetrate the villain's Ultra-Force Shield. From inside the craft, Brainiac uses his Hyper-Ray to steal several Earth cities, including Paris, Rome and New York City. He shrinks them down to miniature size and places them inside of special bottles on his craft.

Superman comes up with a plan and flies back to Earth. He arrives in Metropolis, just as the city is hit by Brainiac's Hyper-Ray. Metropolis shrinks in size, and Brainiac places it amongst his collection. Now barely an inch-tall, Superman flies upward pushing the cork out of the top of Metropolis' bottle. Having eluded the Ultra-Force Shield, he is now safely inside his foe's ship.

Superman flies around the laboratory analyzing Brainiac's collection of stolen cities. He learns that he plans on bringing them back to his homeworld, where he will then repopulate his lifeless planet.

Superman finds one bottle without its stopper and flies inside. Surprisingly, the city inside the bottle is Kandor – once the capital city of the dead planet, Krypton. As Kandor's synthetic environment is powered by an artificial red sun, Superman loses all of his powers. Brainiac finds the bottle and replaces the stopper.

Inside the shrunken city, Superman meets a scientist named Kimda. Kimda provides Superman with a one-man rocket and a pet animal to help him escape from the city. As he blasts through the bottle's stopper, he learns that Brainiac has now placed himself in suspended animation for the long voyage home. Superman takes control of Brainiac's Hyper-Ray and restores all of Earth's cities back to their normal size and geographic location. He is then prepared to use the ray's final charge on Kandor, leaving himself diminished, but Kimda exits the bottle and activates the Hyper-Ray on Superman. Superman returns to his normal size, and Kimda explains that he could not sacrifice Earth's greatest hero to remain shrunken for the rest of his life.

Superman gathers together the bottle city of Kandor and leaves Brainiac's ship. He returns to Earth, where he places the bottle inside of a special vault in his Fortress of Solitude.

Appearing in Superman: "The Super-Duel in Space"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • Hyper-Ray (First appearance)
  • Ultra-Force Shield (First appearance)

Vehicles:

  • Brainiac's space saucer (First appearance)
  • Kryptonian Rocket (Flashback only)
  • The Columbus (Single appearance)


Synopsis for Tommy Tomorrow: "The Traffic Cop of 2058, AD"


Appearing in Tommy Tomorrow: "The Traffic Cop of 2058, AD"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Space bandits

Synopsis for Congo Bill" Safari from Space"


Appearing in Congo Bill" Safari from Space"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:'

  • Xov (Single appearance)

Locations:

Notes

Trivia


See Also

Recommended Reading

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