ACW #615 – Superman
Action Comics Weekly #615 (Superman)
“Fatal Flaw?”
Writer – Roger Stern
Pencils – Curt Swan
Inks – Murphy Anderson
Letters – Bill Oakley
Colors – Tom Ziuko
Editor – Mike Carlin
It’s Superman Day… which means there’s next to nothing to actually talk about. And so, I’ve decided that maybe during each of our “Superman Days”, I’ll start sharing with you all some of my Action Comics collection.
I recently started bagging-and-boarding my Action-run… something I’d kinda neglected to do over the past several decades. Part of that reason, at least of late, had to do with ease in flipping through when deciding which books I wanted to review… as well as photo-ability of the books. As you’ll see when we get into the pics, polybags sometimes refuse to cooperate with the camera. Any time of day, any amount of light… I have a heckuva time snapping pics of bagged books!
Now collecting Action Comics is… I’m not gonna lie… probably the easiest thing you can do as a comic collector. For whatever reason, they just aren’t perceived as having much value (at least in my neck of the woods… and, it should go without saying, excluding a couple’a hundred “key” issues). If you’re ever thinking about having a “go” at collecting a decent-sized run, Action might just be the way to go. As it stands now, my uninterrupted-run of Action Comics begins with issue #530 (April, 1982) and continues on to today. As of this writing, the most recent issue is (I believe) #1010.
Today, I’ll share with you all my relatively-meager pre-400 issues of Action Comics… in wonderful/awful glare-o-vision.
Of course, I included issue #0 (the first one) and the LootCrate reprint of Action Comics #1 that I found in a quarter-bin a couple years back. From there, my (legit) earliest issue is #207 (August, 1955), which we discussed on the blog some time ago. From this picture, we also covered issues #319, #329, and the (relatively) iconic #345 (featuring Candid Camera’s Allen Funt). You can see here that a few of these are in pretty shoddy condition… which, is to be expected with their age (and the fact that I found them in buck-and-below bins).
Rounding out the sub-400 collection are these issues… of which, we’ve only discussed one here at the blog: #371 (1969). I’ll try and include this sort of thing during these nothin’-happenin’ ACW Superman Days… I’ll also try and find a better place to snap pics! I’ve tried in three rooms already, and it’s like they just refuse to be photographed!
Anyhoo, I’ve vamped long enough. Let’s see what happens after Superman… opens a door!
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Superman manages to stop the orderly from smothering Culpepper with a pillow, and in so doing, pushes the fella into a conveniently-placed wheelchair… and into the wall.
A Doctor rushes in and confirms that Culpepper survived the attack… unfortunately, a Security Guard also enters… and confirms that the fella Superman hurled into the wall is dead! Uh-oh.
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So… involuntary manslaughter, eh? Well, this might not be the first time Superman can be charged with such a thing during this slog of a serial. If you recall, he nearly destroyed a train back in the second “chapter” of this thing… I don’t doubt there could’ve been a casualty or two during that mess.
I guess the “good news” is that Culpepper survived… and, maybe… just maybe… we’ll eventually start getting some answers, and maybe… just maybe… actually finally flex the gearshift outta neutral. Then again… at this point… fifteen weeks in… I honestly don’t care either way.
Tomorrow: Nightwing checks in with his Titanic Pals!
