Action Comics Vol 1 657

"There's A Happy Land... Far, Far Away"

Cover

There's A Happy Land... Far, Far Away

Editors

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Perhaps you are right... I pray that you are. It is a terrible thing to be lonely... a terrible, terrible thing.

— The Toyman

Action Comics #657 is an issue of the series Action Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of September, 1990.

Synopsis for "There's A Happy Land... Far, Far Away"

Clark Kent arrives at the house of a kidnapped girl. The scene shows no sign of forced entry, and apparently, nothing else is missing, except the little girl's teddy bird. That rings a bell on Superman's memory and links this kidnapping to a criminal he faced in the past: the Toyman.

The kidnapped girl turns out to be the daughter of a LexCorp employee, and a hologram sent to Lex Luthor shows the Toyman taking credit for this kidnapping, claiming this is his revenge against Luthor for destroying his career. After the news is out, more kids of LexCorp's employees are kidnapped and taken to the Toyman's lair, who's been working for Intergang developing armament based on Apokoliptian technology. Mannheim, Intergang's head, complains with Schott about the risk of bringing too much attention to Intergang through these kidnappings, but the Toyman dismisses his complaints urging them to stay out of his personal affairs.

Luthor sends the remaining kids to a secure compound in the forest, but the Toyman already has his toys there to kidnap the kids. Superman interferes and manages to save one, but the rest of the toys with the kids escape through a sudden Boom Tube, to Superman's surprise. Before the tube closes, Superman catches a glimpse of the abandoned Happyland Amusement Park and heads there hoping to find the Toyman.

In the abandoned park, Superman encounters a squad of armored Intergang soldiers. Being defeated with ease, one of the soldiers runs to the Toyman's lair to evacuate him, but Schott is not planning on abandoning the kids, and the kids want to stay with "uncle" Winslow too. The soldier slaps a kid in the face, to the Toyman's discontent, who disables all of Intergang's armors and weapons and threatens to kill the intrusive soldier. Superman urges him not to hurt the kids and return them to their homes, but the Toyman refuses to let them go, saying they are better with him than with their parents because they are too busy to care for their children. Their argument is interrupted when the parents of the children arrive at the scene thanks to Superman's call to the authorities, and all of the children run to their families. The Toyman sits heartbroken, renouncing his vendetta and reflecting on his feelings of loneliness.