Review: Action Comics #514

With House of Brainiac starting this week, I thought I'd dive into the back issue box to cover Action Comics #514, on the racks in September of 1980. 

I will admit that this was a recent purchase out of the bargain bins at my local store which had just about filled a long box with very late Bronze Age Superman. I had been on the lookout both for Brainiac issues and issues from this time period, a sort of hole in my Superman collection.

It doesn't hurt that one of the main plot points of this issue is Brainiac returning  since his 'death' in Superman #338, a book I covered on this site nearly 16 years ago. It is also an issue that has one of the most bad-ass Supergirl moments in history. Readers get a decent tour of the Fortress. 

The book also has a pretty wild ending, one that warrants a little more investigation! First off there is a heavy dose of comic book science. And then a crazy turnabout to close things. Throw in some usual Bronze Age insanity and you get a decent issue. 

Art is by the legendary team of Curt Swan and Frank Chiaramonte. Swan clearly is a master, spinning a Superman story that feels like a Superman story. It doesn't hurt that Swan was the Superman artist for me in the formative years of comic reading.

So settle in for some craziness. On to the book.

"The Countdown of the Killer Computer" starts with Superman needing to use his powers creatively to save two Metropolis trains which have somehow ended up colliding head-on. 

It is a classic Superman rescue, including a mix of super-strength and super-breath. Swan does his usual solid job of the action even if I think his Superman is a little stiff in places.

That isn't the only crazy accident. Hitting closer to home, Superman has to stop the Daily Planet elevator from plummeting in its shaft, nearly killing Lois.

But things progress. Nuclear missiles from Russia and the US seem to auto-activate and launch.

I love the scene of the President telling Superman he has to save the day. 

I also like the Swan cloaks the President in shadows. No likenesses here. This could be any President, even today's.

And how great to see the military at the Pentagon compliment Superman for his heroism. All to often these days, the government and the military are portrayed as villains.

While Superman stops the American missiles from vaporizing Russia, the JLA has to step in and save America from the Soviet accidental bombardment.

It doesn't take long for Superman to realize that the cause of all these emergencies is a worldwide avalanche of computer glitches. How very 80's ... or perhaps prescient ... that computers could cause havok.

If computers are causing disasters, a super-computer could cause super-disasters. So Superman flies off to his Fortress to make sure that his own PC isn't corrupted.

But it is corrupted. The Fortresses defenses are not only active, they are even more potent, and they attack Superman as an intruder. His robot security troops attack him and nearly throw him into the Atomic Cauldron.

The Atomic Cauldron !!!

After escaping, our hero tries to get to the super-computer. One thing I like about this story is that Wolfman actually shows us how the rest of the heroes are chipping in to quell the computerized carnage. How often in comics do we say 'why doesn't HERO X just call HERO Y to help?' 

Serious kudos here to Wolfman.

On his way Superman has to ward off some over-powered weapons, including a Luthor statue armed with Green K eye beams. He has to capture the animals from his interplanetary zoo who have been freed. He has to bash through a T. Rex robot trophy. 

So Wolfman is also giving us a little tour of the Fortress itself.

The path to the computer is blocked by numerous weapons from the Fortress collection all which seem to be operating remotely and all fire on our hero.

Shades of Black Canary!

Superman screams to destroy them all!

"I WON'T GIVE IN !!!!"

I have heard Superman yell before but I don't think I have seen it with such concussive force!

It certainly is an interesting page layout.

Finally Superman makes it to the super-computer to find that Brainiac has plugged himself into it. And from that computer, Brainiac has warped all the world's computers as well as somehow changing the Fortress weapons and robots.

I linked to Superman #338 above, the issue where Superman finally enlarges Kandor. It also is an issue where Brainiac gets hit by his own ray and shrinks to nothingness. It is a powerful scene with Brainiac begging for his life.

Here Wolfman says Brainiac had always had a built in reversal for just such an emergency, sort of weakening that scene. At least he says that the shrinking did damage to Brainiac, forcing him to come to the Fortress super-computer for a tune-up. 

 That issue came out a whole year before this one meaning Brainiac stayed dead for 13 whole months.

Now you have to just let Bronze Age stuff wash over you sometimes. Like how did Brainiac get into the Fortress? How did linking to the computer allow him to remotely activate those weapons? How did he turn a Luthor statue into a green-k weapon? 

That's a lot. But okay ... possible if I don't think too hard.

But then there's this. Somehow Brainiac is able to focus all the Fortress' power into Superman's body, making him a sort of bomb. Now even I can't explain this.

Luckily, Superman knows a star that is dying out, thus killing life on several planets. So why not put the Fortress' power to good use. He flies into that sun and reignites it.

So very very Bronze Age. 

But wait, there's more.

When he flies back into the Fortress, we see Superman using his super-vision on the computer. Somehow his simply looking at the computer wrote a new program downloaded into Brainiac, making him forget his evil ways and become a force for good.

Now that is some special super-vision trickery! I can't even imagine how this works. That makes even less sense than the 'fortress energy made you a bomb' trick!

I have to say, in Action Comics #544, Wolfman recreates Brainiac in the more updated silver skull model. I'll have to see if there are appearances in between where Brainiac remains a good guy.

That's a lot of Bronze Age cotton candy for one issue. But for me, seeing the explanation of Brainiac's return as well as a recap of the Supergirl moment made this issue worth the price.

Overall grade: C