Description

Action Comics, Vol. 1 #445
Count Ten, Superman — And Die! / Find Black Canary, Dead… Or Alive!

DC Comics
Release: 31 Dec 1974
Cover: 01 Mar 1975

Plot: After helping blast through a mountain on a construction project 2200 miles west of Metropolis, Superman quickly flies to the Metropolis Civic Center for a lecture given by actor Gregory Reed dressed in a Superman costume. Reed recounts his disfigurement and miracle surgery performed by Superman where the actor now resembles the hero he portrayed on television.

After the lecture, Reed takes questions from the media in the Civic Center garden and is struck by a puls-bolt from a spaceship of the Superman Revenge Squad. The crew’s leader, SR-Ozega, chastises his men for targeting an impostor. The crew correct their mistake and successfully target the Man of Steel. According to SR-Ozega, the puls-bolt will lethally poison Superman after he performs ten feats using his powers. After flying Reed to the hospital, Superman is seen rescuing a group of skydivers from a vengeful pilot, stopping an avalanche, and repairing a railroad trestle.

When Lois Lane visits Reed at the hospital, she finds Clark Kent already there and oddly emotional. The Revenge Squad sees Kent’s emotional behavior on their monitor screen and credit the loss of emotional control to the puls-bolt. They also see the Superman actor comatose – another result of the puls-bolt. Later that night, Superman takes a giant shark out of Metropolis Harbor, puts out a warehouse fire, stopped a robbery, and saved an airliner from crashing. This leaves only two more super feats before the pulse-flow becomes toxic.

The next morning, Clark encounters fellow anchor Steve Lombard at work. Lombard sees Clark openly weeping and also notes it as odd. Shortly afterward, Superman prevents a head-on collision between two cars and then saves a boy who has fallen out of a high-rise window. Upon landing, the Man of Tomorrow falls to his seeming death and the Superman Revenge Squad leaves Earth orbit for home.

After the spaceship leaves, Superman reveals that Gregory Reed performed five of the super feats using a super-power pill, which temporarily grants humans Kryptonian powers. With the puls-flow now drained out of his body, Superman and his actor friend fly away. Upon learning of the failure, SR-Ozega’s spaceship is destroyed upon its return to the Revenge Squad Base in a remote part of the galaxy.

As Cherry Noller leaves an underground casino, she is confronted by Green Arrow who asks for her help in finding Black Canary. The Emerald Archer tells Noller how his partner came to be captured and possibly killed by Max Lucker, owner of the underground casino and suspected American head of the Four Horsemen drug cartel. Noller quickly agrees to help and soon phones Green Arrow with information about Lucker’s operation.
Green Arrow breaks into the casino and fights off a number of thugs before finding Black Canary alive. With Canary now free and Lucker captured, Cherry Noller appears and reveals that she is the Fourth Horseman…

Creators: Mike Grell | Cary Bates | Elliot S! Maggin
Main Characters: Lois Lane | Steve Lombard | Green Arrow (Oliver Queen)

Age: Bronze
Genre: Action | Adventure | Super-Heroes
Cover Price: 0.25
Language: English