Action Comics Vol 1 242

Clark Kent and Lois Lane are guest passengers aboard the Columbus – Earth's first manned space vessel. Shortly after breaking the planet's atmosphere, they encounter a strange, alien flying saucer. The ship belongs to Brainiac, a self-styled Master of Science. Clark dons a pressure suit and pretends to space-walk back to Earth (supposedly out of fear). However, when he is outside of Lois' view, he changes into Superman and pushes the Columbus back towards Earth, out of harm's way.

Superman flies towards Brainiac's ship, but even his super-strength is not enough to penetrate the villain's Ultra-Force Shield. From inside the craft, Brainiac uses his Hyper-Ray to steal several Earth cities, including Paris, Rome and New York. He shrinks them down to miniature size and places them inside of special bottles on his craft.

Superman comes up with a plan and flies back to Earth. He arrives in Metropolis, just as the city is hit by Brainiac's Hyper-Ray. Metropolis shrinks in size, and Brainiac places it amongst his collection. Now barely an inch-tall, Superman flies upward pushing the cork out of the top of Metropolis' bottle. Having eluded the Ultra-Force Shield, he is now safely inside his foe’s ship.

Superman flies around the laboratory analyzing Brainiac's collection of stolen cities. He learns that he plans on bringing them back to his home world of Colu, where he will then repopulate his lifeless planet.

Superman finds one bottle without its stopper and flies inside. Surprisingly, the city inside the bottle is Kandor – once the capital city of the dead planet, Krypton. As Kandor synthetic environment is powered by an artificial red sun, Superman loses all of his powers. Brainiac finds the bottle and replaces the stopper.

Inside the shrunken city, Superman meets a scientist named Kimda. Kimda provides Superman with a one-man rocket and a pet animal to help him escape from the city. As he blasts through the bottle's stopper, he learns that Brainiac has now placed himself in suspended animation for the long voyage home. Superman takes control of Brainiac's Hyper-Ray and restores all of Earth's cities back to their normal size and geographic location. He is then prepared to use the ray's final charge on Kandor, but Kimda exits the bottle and activates the Hyper-Ray on Superman. Superman returns to his normal size, and Kimda explains that he could not sacrifice Earth's greatest hero to remain shrunken for the rest of his life.

Superman gathers together the bottle city of Kandor and leaves Brainiac's ship. He returns to Earth, where he places the bottle inside of a special vault in his Fortress of Solitude.

Appearing in "The Traffic Cop of 2058, AD"

Featured Characters:

Tommy Tomorrow

Supporting Characters:

Brent Wood

Villains:

Unknown

Other Characters:

Unknown

Locations:

Unknown

Items:

None

Vehicles:

None

Synopsis for "The Traffic Cop of 2058, AD"

Synopsis not yet written.

Appearing in "Safari from Space"

Featured Characters:

Congo Bill

Supporting Characters:

Janu

Villains:

Other Characters:

Xov (First and only known appearance to date)

Locations:

Africa

Republic of the Congo

Items:

Vehicles:

Synopsis for "Safari from Space"

Synopsis not yet written.

Notes

"The Super-Duel in Space" is reprinted in Superman (Volume 1) Annual #2, Superman (Volume 1) #217, Superman: From the Thirties to the Eighties, Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Archives, Volume 1 and Showcase Presents: Superman, Volume 1.

Superman appeared last in World's Finest (Volume 1) #95. He appears next in Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #30.

Brainiac's earliest chronological appearance takes place in Superboy (Volume 1) #106. He appears next in Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #17.

Koko's earliest chronological appearance takes place in Superboy (Volume 1) #106.

Lois Lane appeared last in Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane #3. She appears next in Superman (Volume 1) #123.

This issue contains flashbacks to Superman's origin - first revealed in Action Comics #1.

Trivia

This issue is the first appearance of Brainiac as well as the bottled city of Kandor.

This issue establishes that the Pre-Crisis Colu is one-hundred light years from the planet, Earth-One.

On the cover of this issue, Brainiac is shown wearing electrode implants across his head, however he does not wear them inside the main story.

Links and References

Action Comics Vol 1 242

From DC Database

Appearing in "The Super-Duel in Space"

Synopsis for "The Super-Duel in Space"