The worst - EVER!
This issue of Superman has to be the single worst I have ever read. In fact it may be the worst issue of any superhero title I've ever read. I would give it zero stars if that were possible. It seems to be a 'quickie' issue that was rushed out probably at the request of Orson Welles publicists. It features Orson Welles and Superman teaming up to stop a Martian Invasion. Still not convinced? O.K. I'll go into more detail...
Welles dressed in his costume from the movie 'Black Magic' is in a car with actress Nancy Guild. Driving through the mountains they find a rocket ship. Welles gets on it and is sent to Mars. There he meets "Martler", the Martian Hitler (I am not making this up), who plans to have his Martian Nazis invade Earth. Welles somehow figures out how to use Martian technology to broadcast a warning to Earth, but nobody believes him because of his 'War of the Worlds' broadcast. Nobody that is except Superman, who flies to Mars and teams up with Welles (who uses stage magic) to defeat the Martians.
Incredible coincidence is piled upon incredible coincidence - half of them being Deus Ex Machina solutions: the Martians happen to speak fluent English, Welles arrives just before the fleet is about to leave and they tell him this, Welles happens to have magic tricks up his sleeve, etc. And it's not just Welles that pulls rabbits out of hats here - Superman for his part does things like pulls up a Martian spaceship runway (which just happens to be long enough, strong enough, and flexible enough for him) to whip at a Martian moon, snare it an fling it at the Martian fleet sucking them all into its gravitational pull - with enough backspin for it to boomerang back into its proper orbit, of course!
I would literally rather do physical harm to my own body than have to read this again - I'm serious, I'll cut my hand with a pen knife or bang my head on the floor 20 times before I'll read it again. It's that bad. If this issue from Jan. of 1950 is any indication, the 50s are going to be a really bad decade for the Man of Steel.
-Etragedy, Comicvine's original back issue reviewer!