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    Action Comics #42

    Action Comics » Action Comics #42 - Superman: "The Empire in the Sky" released by DC Comics on November 1941.

    Short summary describing this issue.

    Superman: "The Empire in the Sky" last edited by GMRahim on 08/15/21 08:50PM View full history

    “THE EMPIRE IN THE SKY.” A series of strange disappearances of prominent men in the city of Metropolis makes Clark Kent believe the kidnappings weren't under ordinary circumstances, and he decides this is a job for Superman!

    1) Untitled Superman story (Siegal/Nowak): Several prominent men have disappeared from Metropolis. Eventually, a ransom demand is received for one of them, Carl Bransom, a scientist. When Clark goes to Bransom's home to cover the story for the Daily Planet, he discovers that the ransom is to be dropped under a bridge. As Superman, he goes to the drop site and captures the man who arrives to collect the ransom. Before the man can say anything more than the leader of his gang (Dirk Chadwick), however, he is destroyed by a mysterious death ray that shoots down from the sky.

    Superman pays a visit to Chadwick, only to discover that he has no idea where Bransom is - he just put out the ransom demand to take advantage of Bransom's disappearance. Again, before he can say more, Chadwick is killed by the same death ray from the sky.

    That night, Clark is kidnapped from his home and taken in a helicopter to a floating sky city, where he finds the missing men. They all seem happy to be there and have no desire to leave. Finally, he is taken to meet the leader of the city, who claims to be Zytal, a being from a distant planet, who has built the city in order to seek out knowledge from the universe's brightest men. However, later, Clark discovers that Zytal is really Luthor in disguise; his plan is to learn the men's secrets and then kill them.

    As Superman tries to capture Luthor, Luthor hypnotizes him using electricity and forces Superman to do his bidding, which is to return to Earth and cause havoc to divert attention from Luthor's activities.

    Eventually, Superman is able to throw off Luthor's hypnotism and return to the sky city to defeat him.

    2) Untitled Vigilante story (Weisinger/Meskin): The first appearance of the Vigilante.

    3) Untitled Black Pirate story (Moldoff)

    4) Untitled Three Aces story (Fox/Grothkopf)

    5) Untitled Mr. America story (Fitch/Baily) featuring Tex Thomson

    6) Untitled Congo Bill story (Ray)

    7) Untitled Zatara story (Fox/Sulman)

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    Story Arcs

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