And comets, meteors and rogue planets! Here's another thing I noticed in my reading of the Action Comics starting with #200. Superman seemed to spend half of his time saving Earth from one asteroid or other bit of cosmic debris after another.
Action #204:
It took awhile for the next one to come along, but after that it was Katie bar the door. Action #221:
Action #222:
And #223:
Action #227:
#229:
Action #232 featured not one, but two near impacts:
In some cases, these asteroids/comets/meteors performed functions similar to Red Kryptonite later in the Silver Age. For example, the comet in #221 imparted to Superman a magnetic power that was handy at times, but gave him headaches in his secret identity as Clark Kent. The meteor in #232 ended up giving Superman the powers of Superman Junior. The meteorite in #204 appeared to force Superman to perform all his super-feats while standing on his head. And the comet in #227 was thought to have caused his X-ray vision to become uncontrollable.
I'll see if there are any further examples of this. I seem to recall that one of the episodes of the Superman TV show in the 1950s also featured Superman saving Metropolis from an asteroid.
More about →
Action #204:
Action #222:
I'll see if there are any further examples of this. I seem to recall that one of the episodes of the Superman TV show in the 1950s also featured Superman saving Metropolis from an asteroid.
