Super DC - The Uncollected Text Adventures : Super DC #7 "Bolts From The Blue"
The rundown of the Legion of Superheroes continues, this time covering reservists and substitutes Lana Lang, Kid Psycho, Polar Boy, Fire Lad, Night Girl, Stone Boy, Chlorophyll Kid and Colo(u)r Kid. Comedian Ken Dodd and actor Alfred Burke receive profiles, there's a two-page feature on Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), a profile of runner Roger Bannister, and a competition to win a radio by coloring a picture of Jimmy Olsen.
Batman and Robin jostle with the Joker in "The Joker All At Sea." If the Dynamic Duo is lucky, Super DC's editors will ignore this letter from Alan Cliffe of Burslem, which calls for the extermination of the Caped Crusader and his teen pal.
The following adventures are reprinted in Super DC #7:
The Lady and the Lion Action Comics #243 (August 1958)
The Boy Who Hoaxed Superman Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #31 (September 1958)
The Ghost of Jor-El! Superboy #78 (January 1960)
The Four Helpless Heroes! Action Comics #270 (November 1960)
Robin's Robot Detective Comics #290 (April 1961)
Three Nights in the Fortress of Solitude! Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #14 (January 1960)
This Issue's Text Adventure:
The Toyman returns to bedevil Superman in his British-born adventures, and once again fails to use any toys in the commission of his crimes. In fact, toymaking is sort-of portrayed as his hobby, what he gets up to in his spare time when he isn't committing crimes. He's a wel-rounded man.
Among Superman's many super-powers, the one which gets the most workout in this text adventures seems to be his "super-intuition," which is a power that comes in real handy when you need to economize your storytelling. I'd harbored some hope that these text adventures would veer so broadly off-model that we'd also get some new Superman powers out of the deal, above and beyond "having a super-hunch."
And now, Bolts From The Blue ...
* * *
A huge hairy paw grabbed the metal box from the Professor's lap. He made a futile grab for it. "Give it back!"
"Sit down, Pop, before I brain ya!" snarled Ape as he handed the thunderbolt machine to his boss, Toyman.
Professor Zowski was scrambling to his feet again, tugging at Ape's sleeve. "You are a thief! I shall report this as soon as the plane lands at Metropolis!" he cried.
Ape hit the old man in the face. "I got news for you-this plane ain't going to Metropolis!" snarled Ape.
Professor Zowski wiped blood from his face. "But we must go to Metropolis! I have a meeting with Army officials."
Ape raised a huge fist. "Easy Ape!" warned Toyman. "We need him to show us how it works."
"I'll never do that-you crook!" quavered the old man.
"Stop that!" Toyman whipped out a gun and held it against the Professor's head. "Hurry, Ape! Get into the flight cabin and go to work on the pilot." ...
The big thug grunted and went shambling down the aisle of the Boeing. Ape kicked open the dividing door. Two huge strides took him to where the pilot and first officer were at the controls. They turned, startled, from their pre-landing flight check.
"You're not allowed in here, sir!" rapped the pilot.
Ape's answer was to grab both men and bang their heads together. "Get this!" he growled, "We aint landing at Metropolis. You're gonna set down this plane just where I tell you!"
The pilot launched a powerful blow that bounced off the other's rock-like chin. Ape picked him up bodily and tossed him aside. The pilot's head hit the radio equipment, and he lay crumpled on the floor of the cabin. "Now, you!" roared Ape, shaking the first officer until his teeth rattled. "Get ready to land this plane right now!"
The other gasped for breath. "You're crazy! We're 7,000 feet from the ground."
Ape grinned. "We ain't landing on the ground," he said. "We're gonna do a Superman trick!"
Some time later, Clark Kent, a reporter on the Metropolis daily paper, The Planet, saw a news flash: "Jetliner vanishes crash feared ... Prof. Zowski and invention on board."
There was more, explaining the Professor's thunderbolt machine, but Clark did not wait to read it. He slipped out of a back door of the Planet building and dived behind some rolls of newsprint. In a moment he had switched from mild-mannered reporter to – Superman!
"My super-intuition tells me that this is no crash," he said to himself as he leaped into the air. "The jetliner has been hi-jacked! Whoever is behind this must be after Professor Zowski and his thunderbolt machine."
Arms extended like a diver, he shot through the sky. "A jetliner needs plenty of space to land," he thought. "I'll check the abandoned airstrip on the outskirts."
Meanwhile, in the office of the Commissioner of Police of Metropolis, grim-faced officials were studying a note from Toyman.
"I have hi-jacked the jetliner. Don't bother to look for it; you'll never find it. I have persuaded Professor Zowski to show me how to work his thunderbolt machine. Leave $50,000 in sacks in the middle of Metropolis Central Park by mid-day today, or I shall demonstrate my new powers by wiping out the War Memorial."
The Commissioner slammed the desk with his fist. "We can't take any risks!" he exclaimed. "We must evacuate the whole area around the War Memorial."
As the meeting dispersed, Lois Lane of The Planet hurried in with cub reporter Jimmy Olsen. "Hello, Commissioner," she said, "can we get a picture of this note you've received?"
"Of course, Miss Lane," he said, and handed her the note.
As she read the note, Lois gave a sudden start of surprise, but she said nothing until she was outside in the street. Then she grabbed Jimmy by the arm. "Listen, Jimmy, I think I recognised the writing in that note!"
"Gosh!" cried Jimmy. "Whose is it, Lois?"
"Toyman!" she confided. "And I'm going round to that factory where he makes rubber toys, to see if I can pick up any clues. You get back to the office with this picture. Tell the editor I'll be along shortly." She turned and ran to her car.
"Hey, Lois, be careful!" called Jimmy.
He set off towards the newspaper building. Buses loaded with people from the evacuated area passed by. Soon he found his way blocked by a police barricade. A burly patrolman dragged him towards a doorway. "Get under cover!" he ordered. "It's nearly mid-day."
They crouched in the doorway, looking towards the War Memorial. Crack! With an ear-splitting roar, the thunderbolt struck; the great granite pillar on the Memorial toppled like a tree, and the base was shattered into a thousand pieces, leaving a gaping hole in the ground.
"Great jumping horn-toads!" gasped Jimmy, picking himself up from the ground where he had been flung by the blast.
The patrolman was running towards the disaster scene. Jimmy slipped into a nearby alley and pressed the button on his watch-the watch which Superman had given him, and which emitted a supersonic signal. The alarm was inaudible to human ears, but it could be picked up by Superman's super- hearing.
Within seconds the Man of Steel arrived and Jimmy poured out the story of Lois's hunch. Before he had finished, Superman was launching himself into the air. "I'm going to Toyman's factory to bring Lois back!" he cried.
When Superman reached the factory, he found it deserted. He raced through the sheds stacked with huge sheets of rubber, from which Toyman made his toys.
"Lois!" cried Superman. "Where are you?" He stopped as he spotted her notebook and pencil lying on the ground. His X-ray vision picked up signs of a struggle. Then he saw a scribbled word in the open notebook. "Cloud ... " Superman stared at the word. "Cloud?" he repeated. "Yes, of course," he said, looking around him at the masses of rubber sheeting.
"Toyman must have made a rubber cloud big enough to land the jetliner on. No wonder he can hurl his thunderbolts with such devilish accuracy!"
He sped back to Metropolis and the office of the Commissioner, where he found that a second note had been received. "The price is now $100,000. You have seen what my thunderbolts can do. I shall aim the next one at City Hall if the money is not in the park by three o'clock.
*What can we do, Superman?" asked the grim-faced Commissioner.
"Evacuate the City Hall and leave the rest to me, Commissioner," said Superman.
Speeding to a nearby beach, the Man of Steel began to pulverise the sand with all the forces of his super-strength. "Sand contains silicon which super-friction and super-pressure convert into molten glass!" he said to himself. "And with molten glass, I can make a giant magnifying glass!"
He worked with desperate haste, blowing the molten glass into an enormous lens through which he could observe every cloud floating above the city.
By three o'clock he was ready. His giant viewing-glass was propped against two massive dockside cranes which he had borrowed for the job. He crouched behind the glass, watching. "There!" he cried suddenly. A brilliant blue flash from one great cloud told him that Toyman had launched another thunderbolt.
Superman took off. With the speed of light he flashed towards the descending thunderbolt and met it head on with a shock that shattered windows in the city below. A mad wrestling match with the tremendous force of nature followed. But Superman won. He guided the thunderbolt out into the harbour and watched it raise a towering column of water.
"Now to get that cloud out of the way before Toyman decides to fire another thunderbolt," he said. He drew a deep breath and began to blow through pressed lips. A howling gale sprang up. The gale swept the sky clean above the city. When he saw that Toyman's cloud-island was over the water, Superman rose into the air, but as he neared the cloud, the voice of the enraged Toyman, shouting through a loud-hailer, made him pause.
"Better not come any closer, Superman! I've got Lois Lane here on the cloud. If you try to land, I'll have her killed!"
Superman dropped back to the ground and sped to the steel stockyards. With his super-human strength, he began to weld together lengths of pliant steel into a giant bow and arrow. He strung the huge arrow, and slowly pulled back on the steel-cable, aiming at the underside of the cloud.
Twang! The arrow sped to its mark. It pierced the rubber and the cloud island began to deflate with a roar
Down, down, down plummeted Toyman's cloud. When it neared the sea, Toyman, Ape and the rest of the gang leaped into the water but before the deflated cloud sank, Superman shot beneath it. With his mighty arms he cradled the flabby mass and flew back to the shore. Gently he set it down on the beach. His strong arms then reached out to help Lois Lane and Professor Zowski to safety.
He smiled at them. "Right now I must go and pick up some floating rubbish. Will you ask the Commissioner to get a few prison cells ready, please?"
* * The End * *
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