A Sense of Doubt blog post #4185 - Last Day of Blog Vacation: Action Comics 499 via Tom Brevoort - Comic Book Sunday for August Second 2026
This is not a reprint of one of MY previous blog entries, but I am still officially on blog vacation for one more day, today.
ACTION COMICS was pretty much the first title that I read with any regularity; it and THE FLASH. And that was due to the fact that, as opposed to SUPERMAN or JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA or most of the DC line, ACTION was published monthly. That meant that there were new issues arriving more regularly than other titles. As Superman had been my gateway into reading comics, ACTION COMICS was comfortable, a known quantity. By 1979, that formula, being overseen by editor Julie Schwartz, was beginning to feel a bit stale to me. But I kept on going with the series anyway. It was reliable, even if it never quite reached the heights of my favorite books of the time.
This was another story that featured Superman’s interstellar hero-friend Vartox, a take-off on Sean Connery in the film Zardoz. Since his earliest appearances, he’d evolved into a recurring presence in the Superman stories, a kind of elder statesman hero from the far-off planet of Valeron who had been in the hero game longer than the Man of steel and who could function as a bit of a mentor to him (though Superman, being the lead character, was always the one to help out Vartox with his difficulties in the end.) He’d also developed a bit of a loose relationship with Superman’s childhood sweetheart Lana Lang, which gave him a reason to come back into the Man of Steel’s orbit from time to time.
This was the second part of a two-part story. In the opener, Vartox had come to Earth after his own world of Valeron had been destroyed before his eyes. A sympathetic Superman had helped Vartox to establish a civilian identity on Earth, that of Vernon O’Valeron, newly-hired security officer for the GBS Building. In this role, he’d caught the eye of Lana Lang, who began to pursue him. But Vartox has come to the belief that he was somehow responsible for the demise of Valeron, and he’s now convinced that Earth will be next. As this story opens, he seeks out Superman to tell him about what he’s discovered, but they’re both interrupted in the Store Room where Clark changes clothes by one of the secretaries. and then before the two heroes can download further, Lana shows up to pull Vartox away. So while this is a planet-threatening matter, it’s going to have to wait.
While Vartox is revealing his true identity to Lana and giving her and the audience a helpful recap of the events of the first chapter, Clark Kent’s attention is caught by a news bulletin coming over the teletype indicating that the entire population of the town of Corlyville, Wisconsin is convinced that the Earth is about to come to an end. He becomes Superman and checks this out, finding the story to be accurate (and justifying this issue’s cover.) Mobbed by citizens begging him to take them to some other planet, Superman is forced to return to Metropolis, where he discovers that bulletins are coming in from other parts of the country as well, where people all across the world are experiencing the same phenomenon. At this point, Vartox is finally able to catch up with his super-friend. He tells Superman that he believes that he is responsible for the mass hysteria–that his powers are innately psionic, and he fears that his own dread is being subconsciously broadcast all across the planet.
Superman and Vartox head to the Fortress of Solitude to examine Vartox’s hypothesis. He believes that he must have picked up some alien substance in space that combines violently with oxygen, eventually causing a chain reaction that wiped out Valeron. It’s only the lower oxygen levels in Earth’s atmosphere that has saved Earth so far–but by Vartox’s calculations, in ten hours the chain reaction will hit. However, when both Superman and Vartox use their individual microscopic vision to examine the oxygen in the air around them, there is no sign of any impending catastrophe. Superman tells Vartox that he’s suffering from a paranoid delusion due to having watched his entire planet be destroyed, at which point Vartox attacks his friend, intent on forcing him to heed his dire warning.
There’s a brief battle between the two heroes, but Vartox with his greater experience is able to overcome his friend Superman. When the Man of Tomorrow revives, he’s presented by a ridiculous pantomime: Vartox is suited up in the manner of Superman’s father Jor-El and parrots Jor-El’s warnings about Krypton’s impending destruction before a Science Council made up of mannequins. This makes it seem as though Vartox has truly gone around the bend–but it also brings back enough trauma for Superman to fly ff the handle, He smashes the makeshift Council, and breaks through the outer wall of the Fortress in doing so. Vartox follows, hoping that he hasn’t completely caused his friend to snap. But outside of the Fortress, an examination of the atmosphere confirms Vartox’s story–there is a chain reaction building up that will destroy the Earth. So why was it not apparent inside the Fortress?
The answer turns out to be that Vartox carried the remedy for the catastrophe. This turns out to be fragments of Valeron, which have been transformed by the destruction of the planet into a counteractive X-Element. Superman and Vartox are able to journey out into space and gather up the remains of Valeron. They then pulverize the fragments, scattering them into Earth’s atmosphere in order to neutralize the chain reaction and save the planet. (I’ll admit, my memory of this story before reading this second part again was that Vartox’s vision of Valeron being destroyed was an illusion caused by something he’d encountered in space, and that his planet was actually safe and well the whole time. But I must be conflating it with some other story.) At the issue’s end, Vartox makes the decision to say goodbye to Earth and to Lana and seek out some other planet who might benefit from having a hero such as himself in residence. Which feels inauthentic, especially after how much work the guy had put into establishing an Earth identity and hooking up with Lana. But I guess Vartox is just a love-’em-and-leave-’em kind of a fella.
This issue of ACTION COMICS didn’t carry the regular weekly Daily Planet promotional page. In its place was a feature detailing the answers to the assorted trivia questions put forward by Bob Rozakis, the Answer Man, as part of the second Superman the Movie contest as well as what back issues they were pulled from. I don’t know that I liked this as much as a Daily Planet page, but if there had to be a substitution, this was a relatively good one in my eyes.
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- Days ago: MOM = 4049 days ago & DAD = 703 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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