1938 - August

 Action Comics #3, August 1938

Cover: 

• The cover shows a man dressed in a white maritime military uniform. He is lifting a sword behind his head while yelling. He appears to be on the shore of an island or some other tropical locale. In the immediate background there are individuals dressed in stereotypical “native” garb holding shields. It is unknown if the man in white knows the others are there. In the far background there is a destroyed sailing ship sinking in the water.
• The cover has no apparent connection to any of the interior content.
• The cover is signed by Leo E. OMealia, this time without an apostrophe in the last name.
• There is no mention of Superman on the cover.

Story: 

• “Untitled” - 13 pages, credited to “Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster”
• First story in the anthology-style book

Fabulous Firsts: 

• First time Lois Lane does not appear in a Superman story
• First use of “Great Scott” in a Superman story (uttered by Thornton Blakely)

Origin:

• This story contains no mention of Superman’s origins.

Costume:

• The costume is essentially the same as it was in the previous story (blue suit, blue boots, red shorts, red cape, yellow belt, triangular yellow emblem with yellow “S” on the chest, although the “S” is not discernible in this story).
• Oddly, Superman appears in costume in only one panel this entire story.

Powers:

• Superman runs at a “pace that not even the fastest auto or airplane could duplicate!”
• Superman’s physical structure leaves him unaffected by poison gas that affects others.
• Superman continues to exhibit super-strength, including picking up five people at once, at several points in the story

Characterization:

• Superman continues to defend the marginalized and downtrodden, showing little regard for criminals or those who abuse power and privilege. For example, Superman intentionally caves-in the mine while the attendees of Blakely’s party are in it.

Supporting Cast:

• Stanislaw Kober, trapped miner
• Unnamed Telegraph Operator
• Unnamed Editor (called “Chief”)
• Unnamed Disaster On-looker
• Unnamed Police Officer
• Various Unnamed Miners
• Thornton Blakely, owner of the mine
• Two Unnamed Blakely Security Guards
• George, Blakely party attendee
• Other Various Unnamed Blakely Party Attendees

Synopsis:

Superman, dressed as a miner, saves a miner trapped in a cave-in at Blakely’s Mine. Later, Clark Kent learns from the miner that demands to make the mine safe had been ignored. Kent speaks with Thornton Blakely, who assumes no responsibility for the accident.

Superman, dressed as a miner again, crashes a late night party that Blakely is holding at his home. After insulting both Superman and his party guests, Blakely suggests that the party move to his mine, to show his guests something different. While in the mine, Superman intentionally breaks supports in order to cause a cave-in, trapping all the party guests. 

Blakely realizes that all the safety features that were supposed to be in the mine are antiquated. Satisfied that Blakely has learned his lesson, Superman clears the way for rescuers to make it to the trapped party. Afterwards, Blakely pledges to Clark Kent that he will make his mines safe and that he will treat his workers well.

Favorite Quotes:

• ‘Golly! - His condition is pretty serious!”
• “He was referring to us!”

Oddities and Analyses:

• Although Lois Lane does not appear in this story, as previously mentioned, one of the Party Attendees looks an awful lot like her.
• Also as previously mentioned, Superman wears his Superman outfit for only one panel in this story, opting often for his miner-guise (which does contain a lot of blue and red). I wonder if the editors were still wary of how the public would accept a costumed adventurer.
• Clark Kent characterizes his place of work as “a very powerful newspaper.” There is no indication if the newspaper is called the Daily Star (as it was in the first story) or the Evening News in Cleveland (as it was in the second story).
• One of the party attendees references Elsa Maxwell, a celebrity party hostess known for including scavenger hunts and other games in her events. Mostly known in Europe, this reference predates by several years Elsa Maxwell’s U.S. radio program and gossip column.
• It was Blakely’s idea for the party to go down into the mine. What would Superman have done if Blakely didn’t suggest this? It is unclear as to what Superman's plan was after crashing the party.
• Again, Superman intentionally causes a cave-in, endangering several innocent people.
• While speaking to Blakely at the end of the story, Clark Kent thinks to himself that if Blakely steps out of line again, he can “expect another visit from Superman!” However, Blakely has no idea that he has already had a visit from Superman, since he never appeared to Blakely in costume and did all his super-feats while no one was looking.
• There is no mention anywhere in this issue of Superman’s course in “Acquiring Super-Strength”, which was advertised in the previous issue.

Apropos of Nothing:

• In his feature, Pep Morgan is holding an issue of Action Comics.
• Looking at the one-eyed antagonist in the “Tex Thomson” feature gives me a headache.

All comic-related images are the copyright of DC Entertainment.