Action Comics #311-312

Action Comics #311-312

Originally released in 1964

Written by Robert Bernstein

Art by Curt Swan

In plenty of older comics, it seemed as though they were written by having an artist come up with the most ridiculous cover possible (showing a hero in a goofy situation, or doing something wildly out-of-character), and then the writer had to create a story that somehow incorporated that scene into the plot.  Presumably, people would wonder how that could possibly happen and buy the comic to find out.  Throw a gorilla acting like a human onto that cover as well, and you'd have a best-seller!

Such is the case here, where the cover shows Superman ruling over the planet as its king, complete with a Superman-themed Pope hat.  How did this happen?  As it turns out, it's Red Kryptonite, the wildcard of Kryptonites.  Whereas Green Kryptonite weakens Superman while he's nearby it, temporarily removing his powers and gradually killing him, and Gold Kryptonite permanently removes his powers, Red Kryptonite is completely unpredictable - the only consistent thing about it is that it won't affect a Kryptonian the same way twice.

Superman tries to make an elixir using a piece of Red Kryptonite to make himself immune to Red Kryptonite, but naturally, this causes the Red Kryptonite to split him into a powerless Clark Kent and a version of Superman who's stronger than ever.  To make matters worse, Superman's evil and intends to use his superpowers to take over the world. (surprisingly, Lex Luthor's nowhere to be seen - I figured he'd be eager to brag that he was right about Superman all along, or offer his services to kill this dictatorial Superman, though maybe his belief that Superman could be a threat to humanity was established later)

Despite having no powers and being forbidden from using Green or Gold Kryptonite against Superman, Clark still sets up an anti-Superman resistance.  The last third of the issue covers a story involving Supergirl and her horse Comet, who is secretly a shape-shifted young man who's madly in love with her.

This story is disconnected from the main one, where Supergirl is in the future with the Legion of Super-Heroes. (explaining why she can't step in to help stop the evil Superman)  Instead, it's Valentine's Day, and Comet wants to profess his love to Supergirl, but he can't because he's a non-talking horse.

Naturally, to get around this, he travels through time, which is something that he can do, in order to meet with Circe.  Circe was responsible for Comet turning into a horse, though weirdly enough, she didn't do it for a villainous reason.  She was trying to reward Comet for saving her from an enemy sorcerer, but that enemy sorcerer switched Circe's potions so instead of turning Comet from a centaur to a human, he turned from a centaur into a horse.

There's also amnesia involved, along with Comet's human form being mistaken for a criminal, and a few other twists and turns.  It's a lot packed into seven or eight pages, though it doesn't really feel rushed.

In the second issue of this story, Clark's anti-Superman rebellion isn't going well - Superman is fully aware that they're plotting against him (and he tells them that to their faces), and an attempt at finding Green Kryptonite leads to him getting caught.  Thankfully, he had the foresight to bring a spare Superman costume along with him, but even this backfires when the police try to test that he is who he says he is.

In a bit of a surprising move, this doesn't turn out to be a nightmare that Superman was having, or an imaginary story - it actually happens, and while Clark Kent recovers and merges back with Superman, and the world discovers the shocking truth of why Superman took over Earth for three days, people seem surprisingly unconcerned with the idea that Superman could take over the world with ease and nobody could stop him.

This story also has a back-up story involving Supergirl, though it's not as strange as the previous one. (it's about how words with L.L. in them give her bad luck, though, so it's still a little out there)  These were fun, and Curt Swan's artwork is solid.  The list of older comics on DC Universe Infinite has some major gaps in it, but I wouldn't mind going through the list one day and picking a comic purely because of a ridiculous cover.