Puppet Posting: Action Comics #5: Superman and the Dam

Nearly a year ago now, leading up to the release of Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus volume 7, I started reviewing Siegel and Shuster’s early issues of Action Comics. I haven’t gotten around to buying that omnibus and the project only got two issues deep, but I am starting it up again, posting weekly.

Superman and the Dam continues Siegel and Shuster’s efforts to expand the title’s storytelling possibilities, with another less polemical story that centers on Superman’s physical capabilities. Here, he deals with a natural disaster, as a flood pushes the Valleyho Dam to its breaking point. It’s a clever formula that would often be repeated, and the climax of the 1978 Superman film bears a couple of similarities to this issue, with Superman up against the forces of the Earth itself. Many other golden age stories would go on to use this template as well, thinking up creative ways for Superman to use his ever-growing array of powers to help shield populations from geographic destruction. It also has a very visual opening, showing the disaster itself and news travelling across telephone lines rather than opening primarily with dialogue in a newsroom.

Such an effective 4 panel intro

It’s interesting that these first few issues show so little of Metropolis itself. The first issue does a lot to establish the setting, but #2 is in a war zone, #3 is out of town, #4 is pretty vague about where exactly it takes place, and here once ago Clark follows a story that takes him away from home. The Daily Star serves as a jumping off point for Clark to hear about a story and go off on an adventure, rather than focusing the book on the city itself. Thankfully, Lois gets a bit more to do here, working against casual sexism by sending Clark on another wild goose chase and trying to follow the story herself. Of course, ultimately Superman has to save her from the flood, but they have a fun interaction, and this introduces the trope of the female lead being in a love triangle with the hero and the hero’s secret identity, which would be shamelessly copied in countless comics for years to come.

One thing this story has a bit of issue with is communicating the scale of the danger. Superman is saving people in the abstract, but Lois is the only real embodiment of that. There’s not much in the way of other civilians shown, even though the dam collapse could kill thousands, and we see after Superman fixes the train track that Lois is not the only one on the train. We understand that Superman’s actions are saving people, but we don’t see it in concrete terms. The recurring image of Superman running faster than a locomotive does pop up again though, which is fun. Minor quibbles aside, it’s an effective story than broadens the book’s scope far more effectively than the previous issues’ attempt.