Action Comics Weekly #601-641 (May 1988-March 1989)
Action Comics Weekly #601-641 (May 1988-March 1989)
Superman comes across a cult of people in California who worship him like a god. That would be weird enough, but they also gain superpowers from adoring his red trunks (actually, any part of his person, but I am choosing to focus on his trunks). Meanwhile, there’s also a group of loony businessmen who think Superman is the Anti-Christ, and they’re trying to kill the cultists with futuristic weapons. The S-lovers and the S-haters fight each other for a while with Superman awkwardly stuck in between, until it’s revealed that both sides are unknowingly powered by Darkseid, as part of a plan to instigate a holy war. Having more or less accomplished that (the “holy war” is basically some hair-pulling in an empty field in California), Darkseid reveals himself and takes the loony businessmen to languish for eternity in Apokolips. Superman tells the cultists to think for themselves and they’re like “whoa, we should do that.”
While Superman was in California, some Quraci terrorists blew up a few American people, creating tension in the “Little Qurac” section of Metropolis. Then Superman manages to resolve the situation pretty quickly, because the comic got cancelled.
Plotline-Watch:
After hitting issue 600, Action Comics turned into a weekly anthology series featuring different stories and characters, with a two-page Superman serial in every issue. It would be a pain in the ass to cover the issues individually since they’re so short and nothing happens in them, so I just lumped them all together here.
We never heard about the Superman cult again after Action Comics Weekly reverted back to Action Comics (EDIT: I was reminded in the comments that we very much did, in “Reign of the Supermen”!), but I wonder if the villain Saviour, a Superman-obsessed serial killer with reality bending powers, was originally one of these guys. That would explain where he got those powers: Darkseid gave them to him and forgot to take them back! It would also account for his facial hair if he was from California.
Creator-Watch:
The whole series is written by future Superman writer Roger Stern and past Superman artist Curt Swan. Stern will take over writing duties when John Byrne suddenly fucks off and Swan will be back a bunch more times, including on another story set in Little Qurac.
See comments on Tumblr: https://superman86to99.tumblr.com/post/67873311797/action-comics-weekly-601-641-may-1988-march#disqus_thread
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