Action Comics #89

“THE KING OF COLOR!” Clark Kent decides to change the mind of a wealthy young boy who doesn’t believe in Superman!

Superman: The story begins at the Hillcrest Boys' Club, founded by S. Andrew Bascomb for the boys of rich families. When Brick-top Boyle, a poor boy from the wrong side of the tracks, tries to get into the club, he is chased away by the doorman. As he is leaving, he meets Lois and Clark on their way to the club to do a story for the Planet, and tells them his story.

Lois and Clark take Boyle with them back to the club, where they convince the doorman to let him in because they are writing a story on the club. Inside, they meet Mortimer Riggs-Biddle III, a snobbish boy who is the son of a man with a large gem collection. Mortimer's friend at the club is Herbert van Gilder, son of a wealthy banker. Mortimer is droning on about how everything bores him, and how he doesn't believe any stories adults tell him, such as streets being paved with gold, the moon being made of green cheese, or the existence of Superman.

Clark decides to teach Mortimer a lesson, and slips away to change to Superman. He uses some rather dubious physics by moving at super-speed to generate the precise frequencies needed to create light of specific colours. He makes the street outside the club appear golden yellow, then flies into the upper atmosphere to make the moon appear green (by the way, although the wavelengths quoted in the story for the other colours are correct, that for green should be around 550 nanometres, not 250).

On returning to the club as Clark, he is nagged by the notion that he has seen Bascomb somewhere before. While he is thinking about this, news gets to the club that Mortimer's father's gem collection has been stolen, so Clark suspects that someone at the club is using the boys to case their parents' houses.

Finally he remembers that Bascomb is actually Slippery Andy, a notorious thief, and tracks him to his hideout where he discovers that Andy is planning on using information from van Gilder to rob his father's bank.

Superman foils the robbery by scaring the crooks away from the bank when he makes everything look eerily blue. The crooks return to the club to try to pretend they were there all along, when Boyle spots them coming into the club carrying guns. Bascomb knocks Boyle unconscious, but is seen doing it by Superman, who raids the club and captures the crooks, making Mortimer a believer in Superman in the process.

Contents

1. The King of Color (Superman)
2. The Elephant's Homecoming (Congo Bill)
3. An Ill Wind Blows (Hayfoot Henry)
4. The Curse of the Khabod Q (Vigilante)
5. River Cruise
6. Race Against Rogues (Zatara)