Action Comics #340-342

Action Comics #340-342

Originally released in 1966

Written by Jim Shooter (#340, 342), Otto Binder (#341)

Art by Al Plastino (#340-341), Wayne Boring (#342)

While I'm quite familiar with Batman and the Flash's rogues galleries, and I'm learning about Wonder Woman's rogues through George Perez's run, there are large sections of Superman's villains that I know very little about.  I've covered his big ones (Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Darkseid...), and I'm aware of others like Bizarro or Mr. Mxyzptlk, but beyond that, I'm largely going off of Superman: The Animated Series from the 90s.

While the DC Universe Infinite app has large gaps when it comes to classic comics, they do have the first issue that featured Parasite.  I'm pretty sure that a few characters have used that identity, but the original one is Raymond Jensen, a lab worker who's quickly established to be both greedy and stupid.  Superman brings radioactive material from outer space to Earth for storage and study, and when Raymond is told to bring it to the storage area, he opens the container up instead, thinking that it's a trick and that there's money inside.

This turns him into a horrifying purple monstrosity that can absorb energy.  His face is disturbing to look at, even in the Silver Age - it's like someone stretched a morph suit tightly over a skull. Along with absorbing energy, he also absorbs strength, intelligence, and knowledge, though the process is only temporary.

Even though he's not the brightest, Parasite quickly puts two and two together when he starts gaining Superman's strength despite the Man of Steel being nowhere nearby, and Clark Kent is visibly weakened as he's doing so.  Parasite makes for a foe who can fight Superman on his own terms, but even if he weakens the Man of Steel, he can't kill Superman or else he'll have no way to get that kind of power again.

While I question his definition of "fearsome", I'm surprised Parasite isn't used more often in shows or movies; he doesn't seem like he'd be too intensive when it comes to special effects.

These issues also have reprinted stories featuring Supergirl, from back when she needed to keep her existence a secret from everyone aside from Superman and Krypto. The story in issue 341 was the highlight from these, as she has to save Krypto, Batman and Robin, and Atlantis (which might be a different Atlantis from the one that Aquaman rules - in another story, she meets a group of Amazons who have no connection to Wonder Woman, though I'm not sure when these stories were originally written) from various threats.

These issues had some fun twists and turns, like in issue 341 when a duplicate of Clark Kent appears with all of Superman's powers. Given comic book science, the explanation made about as much sense as anything else about Superman.

Issue 342 involves Brainiac, who really needs to find a different way to spend his free time.

However, he's attacked by another villain, Grax, who wants Brainiac's force field technology.  I'm not sure if Grax had appeared before or if this was his debut, but he comes across as a transparent attempt to try and introduce a villain who's like Brainiac but better, only for him to turn out to be much less interesting.

Superman doesn't even seem to know who Grax is, but that doesn't stop the alien menace from strapping a bomb to Superman that will explode after a set amount of time or if it's tampered with. News gets out to the world, and people respond by throwing bricks at Superman, which seems like it would risk setting off the bomb.

Nothing that Superman can do is able to prevent the bomb's timer from moving forward, and even offering for Grax to kill him in exchange for Earth's safety doesn't get Grax to say how to deactivate it.

These stories were fun romps - a little rushed (since they were single issue plots that were covered in fifteen pages - less than a full issue since they also included back-up stories), but in an era where seemingly every story arc is spread out over at least five or six issues, self-contained stories like these are nice every once in a while.  Parasite's debut was the highlight for me, with his design seeming like one that could easily be made into something haunting and disturbing at the hands of different artists.