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"The Invulnerable Enemy": This story is reprinted from Action Comics #226.

Superman Annual #2 is an issue of the series Superman Annual (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1961. It was published on November 10, 1960.

Synopsis for "The Invulnerable Enemy"

This story is reprinted from Action Comics #226.

A petrified man from outer space is dug up by archeologists and restored to life accidentally by Lex Luthor. The being, dubbed the Petrified Spaceman, wreaks havoc in Metropolis with his super-powers until Superman deduces that the Spaceman is in search of ice. When Superman surrounds him with ice, the Petrified Spaceman recovers his memory and his ability to communicate, and tells Superman he is an explorer from an ice world who was rendered immobile by Earth's heat. Superman builds him a "spaceship" of ice blocks and hurls him back to his homeworld.

Appearing in "The Invulnerable Enemy"

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Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

  • Princess Jena (Single appearance)
  • Rog (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

Locations:

  • Adoria


Synopsis for "The Menace of Metallo!"

This story is reprinted from Action Comics #252.

John Corben is an unscrupulous reporter that works in the Metropolis area. Aside from his mustache, Corben is practically the spitting image of Superman. While driving his car, Corben gets into a terrible accident and is nearly killed. His broken body is taken to the laboratory of Professor Vale who replaces Corben's failing limbs with a super-strong metallic alloy. He replaces his heart with a surrogate pump made of Uranium and covers the endoskeleton with a foam-latex sheathe resembling human skin. The operation is a success, but soon after, Professor Vale suffers from a mild stroke.

Dubbed "Metallo", Corben begins his new life – a life of crime. Metallo's Uranium heart will only last for one day before it needs to be replaced, so Metallo begins breaking into various facilities to steal more Uranium. Whenever he feels his Uranium stores running low, Metallo becomes weak and dizzy.

Corben gets a job at the Daily Planet and begins courting Lois Lane. Lois is enamored with Corben due to his physical resemblance to Superman – a fact that invariably irritates Clark Kent.

Professor Vale meanwhile, discovers that Green Kryptonite can work just as effectively at powering Metallo as Uranium, but with the added benefit that it will no longer need to be recharged. Metallo steals a Kryptonite rock from a local exhibition hall and has Vale implant it into his chest. Metallo learns that Kryptonite can also destroy Superman. Certain that Superman will likely try to arrest him for his recent crimes, Metallo decides to use the power of his Kryptonite heart to strike the first blow against the Man of Steel.

He baits a trap for Superman, but Superman manages to avoid exposure to Kryptonite and pursues Metallo. He chases him back to Lois Lane's apartment when suddenly Metallo begins to feel weak. What neither Vale nor Metallo realize was that the Kryptonite that had been used to power his heart was actually fake. It was nothing more than an ordinary rock painted green to resemble Kryptonite. Unable to recharge himself, Metallo falls over dead from a heart attack.

Appearing in "The Menace of Metallo!"

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Synopsis for "Titano the Super-Ape!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #127.

During a televised talent show, Lois Lane has Superman show off his ability to turn coal into diamonds, and then introduces a new act: Toto the chimpanzee. After Toto shows off his proficiency with numbers, Lois easily befriends the ape when she cleans him up after he's struck by a pie thrown by a comedy routine. Toto's owner then tells Lois to join them at the Cape Rocket Range where Toto is going to be launched into space in a satellite as part of a publicity stunt.

Lois and Superman both show up, and when the rocket doesn't launch, the Man of Steel lends a helping hand. while in space, Toto's satellite passes two meteors, one made of uranium and the other of Green Kryptonite, colliding, their energies bombarding Toto. Upon arriving on Earth, Toto appears alive and well, but suddenly grows to a gigantic size. Renamed Titano the Super-Ape by Lois, the creature captures her. When Superman tries to save her, he finds that the creature can fire beams of Green Kryptonite energy from its eyes, weakening the hero.

Stuck as Titano's prisoner, Lois can only witness as Titano causes mischief and unintentional destruction of property. Using a lead shield, Superman manages to save Lois Lane, but the hero is still hard pressed over what to do about Titano. Trapping the creature in a cage, it still poses a threat to the Man of Steel due to its Kryptonite vision. Superman soon learns that the creature will try to imitate anything that Lois does, and so the two trick the gigantic ape into putting on a pair of specially made glasses that block its Kryptonite vision. Superman then sends Titano through the time barrier to prehistoric Earth, where the gigantic ape can live a happy life.

Appearing in "Titano the Super-Ape!"

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Synopsis for "The Thing from 40,000 A.D.!"

This story is reprinted from Superman #87.

Appearing in "The Thing from 40,000 A.D.!"

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Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Dr. Johnson (Single appearance)
  • Private Mullins (Single appearance)
  • Harry (Single appearance)

Locations:

Items:

  • World's Largest Synthetic Diamond
  • Time Machine

Synopsis for "The Boy of Steel vs. the Thing of Steel!"

This story is reprinted from Superboy #68.

When a defective duplicating ray created by Professor Dalton strikes Superboy, it creates a grotesque, stupid, imperfect duplicate of the Boy of Steel which nonetheless possesses all of his incredible power. Moreover, it is not affected by Green Kryptonite. Superboy remarks that the creature is "bizarre", to which the creature replies, "Him call me...(mumble)...Bizarro! Is...is that my name?" Bizarro is basically good-hearted, but cannot control his powers very well, and proves dangerous to Smallville. However, he is befriended by a blind girl named Melissa, who senses his benevolent nature. Superboy is unable to defeat Bizarro by conventional means, but finally senses that the metal of the demolished duplicator ray itself can destroy him. Bizarro deliberately flies into the piece of metal Superboy holds, destroying himself, but creating a vibration that restores Melissa's sight. Superboy muses that Bizarro may well have understood what effect his destruction would have on Melissa's eyes and, as the Boy of Steel flies away, he hears Melissa say "I never saw Bizarro myself, while blind! But I know, from his gentle voice, that he must have had a kind face!"

Appearing in "The Boy of Steel vs. the Thing of Steel!"

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Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Professor Dalton (First appearance)
  • Zookeeper (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • Citizens of Smallville
    • Four Member Posse (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
    • Three Gym Class Boys (Unnamed) (Single appearance)
    • Sculptor (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • Smallville Police Officer (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • Hilda (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • Hiram (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • Melissa (Single appearance)
  • Melissa's Guide Dog (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • Aunty (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • Airplane Pilot (Behind the scenes) (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • United States Army
    • Brigadier General (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
    • Three Flamethrowers (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
    • Two Tank Crew Members (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • Three Guided Missle Range Personel (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
  • Prince Charming (Mentioned only)

Locations:

  • Earth-One
    • Space
      • Krypton (Flashback only)
      • Saturn
      • Earth's Moon
      • Earth
        • Smallville
          • Professor Dalton's Laboratory
          • 321 Maple Street
            • Kent Farm
              • Kitchen
              • Clark Kent's Room
                • Secret Closet
          • Hiram & Hilda's Farm
          • Park
          • Smallville High School
            • Room 102 Braille Classroom
            • Gym
          • Sculptor's Studios
          • Smallville Museum (Mentioned only)
        • Lead & Zinc Works (unknown location)
        • Mountainside (outside of town)
          • Carved Face of Superboy
        • Army Base (Unnamed) (nearby Smallville)
        • Metropolis
          • Metropolis Zoo
        • Florida
          • Guided Missile Base (Unnamed)

Items:

  • Duplicator Ray (First appearance) (Destroyed)
    • Glowing Metal Pieces
  • Radium
  • Duplicate Radium
  • Geiger Counter
  • Jewel
  • Duplicate Jewel
  • Superboy Robots (Cameo)
  • Punching Bag (Destroyed)
  • Green Kryptonite
  • Lead-lined Suit
  • Melissa Puppet (In ruins)
  • Artillery Guns
  • Flamethrowers
  • Atomic Bomb (detonated 240,000 miles away on the Moon)

Vehicles:

  • Tank (Destroyed)

Synopsis for "The Super-Duel in Space"

This story is reprinted from Action Comics #242.

Clark Kent and Lois Lane are guest passengers aboard the ColumbusEarth's first manned space vessel. Shortly after breaking the planet's atmosphere, they encounter a strange, alien flying saucer. The ship belongs to Brainiac, a self-styled Master of Science. Clark dons a pressure suit and pretends to space-walk back to Earth (supposedly out of fear). However, when he is outside of Lois' view, he changes into Superman and pushes the Columbus back towards Earth, out of harm's way.

Superman flies towards Brainiac's ship, but even his super-strength is not enough to penetrate the villain's Ultra-Force Shield. From inside the craft, Brainiac uses his Hyper-Ray to steal several Earth cities, including Paris, Rome and New York City. He shrinks them down to miniature size and places them inside of special bottles on his craft.

Superman comes up with a plan and flies back to Earth. He arrives in Metropolis, just as the city is hit by Brainiac's Hyper-Ray. Metropolis shrinks in size, and Brainiac places it amongst his collection. Now barely an inch-tall, Superman flies upward pushing the cork out of the top of Metropolis' bottle. Having eluded the Ultra-Force Shield, he is now safely inside his foe's ship.

Superman flies around the laboratory analyzing Brainiac's collection of stolen cities. He learns that he plans on bringing them back to his homeworld, where he will then repopulate his lifeless planet.

Superman finds one bottle without its stopper and flies inside. Surprisingly, the city inside the bottle is Kandor – once the capital city of the dead planet, Krypton. As Kandor's synthetic environment is powered by an artificial red sun, Superman loses all of his powers. Brainiac finds the bottle and replaces the stopper.

Inside the shrunken city, Superman meets a scientist named Kimda. Kimda provides Superman with a one-man rocket and a pet animal to help him escape from the city. As he blasts through the bottle's stopper, he learns that Brainiac has now placed himself in suspended animation for the long voyage home. Superman takes control of Brainiac's Hyper-Ray and restores all of Earth's cities back to their normal size and geographic location. He is then prepared to use the ray's final charge on Kandor, leaving himself diminished, but Kimda exits the bottle and activates the Hyper-Ray on Superman. Superman returns to his normal size, and Kimda explains that he could not sacrifice Earth's greatest hero to remain shrunken for the rest of his life.

Superman gathers together the bottle city of Kandor and leaves Brainiac's ship. He returns to Earth, where he places the bottle inside of a special vault in his Fortress of Solitude.

Appearing in "The Super-Duel in Space"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

  • Hyper-Ray (First appearance)
  • Ultra-Force Shield (First appearance)

Vehicles:

  • Brainiac's space saucer (First appearance)
  • Kryptonian Rocket (Flashback only)
  • The Columbus (Single appearance)

Notes

  • Also includes "Superman's Super Vision" (a text feature), a glossary of Kryptonian names and "How the Super-Family Came to Earth" (an illustration of the routes by which Superman, Supergirl and Krypto arrived on Earth from Krypton).



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