ACW #602 – Superman

Action Comics Weekly #602 – Superman
“They Can Run but They Can’t Hide!”
Writer – Roger Stern
Pencils – Curt Swan
Inks – John Beatty
Letters – Bill Oakley
Colors – Tom Ziuko
Editor – Mike Carlin

Hey, is it my “day off” already?


That’s right, it’s time for our weekly Superman strip… wherein, well… not a whole lot happened last week.  Let’s see if this time out we get a little more forward momentum!


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Picking up right where we left off, Superman arrives at the scene… where he is pumped full’a lead.  Well, he would’a been if he wasn’t Superman.


The baddies flee, leaving two of their number behind.  One called Charlie attempts to chase after the car, while the other (Dave) throws himself on the hood of the car and tries to hold on for the getaway.


He ain’t so lucky… his “partners” hit a hard swerve… sending poor Dave bouncing onto the nearby train tracks… where he lands, twisting his ankle.  Wouldn’tcha know it… the trains are on schedule in Metropolis!


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I made the joke last week (if you could even call it a “joke”) that these two-page Superman strips pack in just about as much story as a “current year” comic book… and, ya know… while that’s a bit of an exaggeration, I’m not sure it’s entirely untrue.


We get a nice bit of action here… and some questions we can ask.  We don’t know who this poor dude being held up is… nor do we know just why the goons were about to attack him.  I suppose at this point, we could just assume it was a failed mugging attempt… but, we all know that’s very unlikely.


The art here is really good, though it kind of feels as though Swan is struggling with the post-Crisis Superman’s face.  It doesn’t look quite as Swanny as the pre-Crisis stuff… and I don’t think he’s found the right “look” just yet.


Tomorrow: We’ll actually meet the new Secret Six!