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Action Comics Vol 1 498

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"Superman: "The Catastrophic Man!"": Vartox's home planet, Valeron explodes without any warnings, and the only survivor is the invulnerable hero. Grief-stricken, he goes to Earth to meet with his last remaining friend, Superman. The Man of Steel understands his pain,

What on Valeron--?!? My hyper-senses detect a violent vibratory flux spreading rapidly across the planet! There is nothing I can do... To prevent... The end of the world!
— Vartox

Action Comics #498 is an issue of the series Action Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1979.

Synopsis for Superman: "The Catastrophic Man!"

Vartox's home planet, Valeron explodes without any warnings, and the only survivor is the invulnerable hero. Grief-stricken, he goes to Earth to meet with his last remaining friend, Superman. The Man of Steel understands his pain, and shares the Fortress of Solitude with him; he also provides him with a civil identity as Vernon O’Valeron, a security guard at WGBS. At WGBS, Lana catches Vartox’s eyes, and the two quickly get close, providing some respite for the ‘Hyperman’, but this is short lived, as Vartox deduces that he was the culprit in destroying his home planet.

Appearing in Superman: "The Catastrophic Man!"

Featured Characters:

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Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

    • Automated alien probe ship

Notes

  • This story is continued in the next issue.
  • Steve Lombard resumes his old campaign of pranking Clark Kent at work, after having been mostly absent from Clark's life since Superman #301. Clark notes that he had falsely believed Steve had tired of the practice.
  • Vartox (in his Vernon O'Valeron identity) and Lana Lang fall in love with one another in this issue. Clark mentions the end of Lana's romantic pursuit of Superman, which occurred due to an intervention by Superman and Lois Lane in Superman #334.
  • Josh Coyle makes note that this is an unusual occasion when Clark is early for the 6 o'clock news broadcast but Lana is almost late. Usually, the reverse is true.



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