Boo!perheroes Week, Part 4: Action Comics #415, Superman in "Meet the Metropolis Monster!"

It all begins innocently enough...

I just hate when people hover over me at work! But it turns out Handsome isn't there to wash the windows, he's got another agenda as he bursts into Clark's office and rips open his shirt, and it ain't romance. Soon a no-holds barred superfight is in progress...


Dollface falls back out the window and gets embedded in the ashphalt. I'm going to assume Clark didn't superspeed to rescue him because...it all happened too fast? But anyway, the creature yet lives!

Only it's real...in a comic book. Soon the always copyright-conscious Daily Planet is reporting on events and admitting a similarity of the creature to an established icon.

Later, the monster is seen on a rooftop with an attractive female with him, making like King Kong. Superman uses his super-sniffer to track down the musty smell he caught earlier, except...
Yes, all he finds is a human male lying in an alley next to the title of this blog. The man appears to have a connection to Herman Munster, as he relates that he created the monster and that it has mortally wounded him so he could not stop it. The man dies, even as the monster appears to be rampaging around the city, terrorizing the always self-reliant Metropolis police force. Ah, the days before the SCU.

Superman, meanwhile, has flown the apparent inventor of the monster to his Fortress of Solitude, where he slaps together a Bring People Back To Life Machine, only I think some of the instructions are in Japanese so it might not work. But note the blog title has followed them all the way to the North Pole! I'm everywhere, man!

Supes does some mad scientist stuff, jolting the body back to life, and just then the monster breaks into the Fortress with a CRRAASSSHHHH.

They have another tussle, only now the monster can speak and chastises Superman for allowing the humanoid to escape, because it's the real menace.


At no point is it mentioned that the monster creating a hole in the wall might have helped the
humanoid escape, because now it's flashback time. The waviness around the panel below means flashback, not that you have cataracts. Whew, that's a relief!


You get the gist. It's the old "alternate dimension where monsters are regular people" gag, and this particular monster created an artificial humanoid. In an interesting inversion of the Twilight Zone "Eye of the Beholder" concept, the uggos in that dimension somehow know they are hideous, despite there being no one to compare themselves to...hmm...and so the inventor that Superman has been assuming is a monster on a rampage attempted to create beautiful specimens. He explains that he was unable to explain before, because his vocal cords had not adapted to the earth atmosphere. I have no zinger for that. The logic is sound.

But anyway, somehow due to the way Superman revitalized it, the humanoid is breaking down into giant cells, which are going to multiply and presumably swallow the earth.


But stopping the cell-being is really not too difficult, they're still in the North Pole so all it takes is some freezing. Later, Superman apologizes to the "inventor" for judging him solely based on his appearance (and that he ripped off Clark's clothes upon first meeting him).


Oh, yeah, and the girl the monster had been seen with earlier was actually another of his humanoid creations. I often refer to my friend's wives as their "female humanoid", which may be one reason I don't really have friends. The inventor goes with her back through the dimensional portal, promising he'll create a mate for her. Yeah, that's the first thing I'd do. Well, I think we've all learned an important lesson about tolerance, bringing the dead back to life, and skirting copyright. It's a cool issue, a fun story, and I like the various tributes to the Frankie mythos, even having Superman in the role of mad scientist. It's alive!