Superman Annual (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1961. It was published on June 22, 1961.
Synopsis for "The Super-Prisoner of Amazon Island"
This story is reprinted from Action Comics #235.
Lois Lane and other members of the Super Sorority are shipwrecked on an island of Amazons. When Superman arrives to rescue them, he discovers that the Amazons have an antidote for Green Kryptonite, and decides to stay until he discovers what it is.
Appearing in "The Super-Prisoner of Amazon Island"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Other Characters:
- Super-Sorority (Single appearance)
- Betty Dunn
- Edna Blaine
- Elsha, Queen Of The Amazons
- Julia Johns
- Sonya Sophia
Locations:
- Amazon Island
Items:
Synopsis for "Superman's New Face"
This story is reprinted from Action Comics #239.
After a nuclear mishap brands Clark Kent's name from a metal press card into Superman's forehead in tiny chunks of Green Kryptonite, Superman must mask his face when appearing in public, and speculation grows that he has become disfigured.
Appearing in "Superman's New Face"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Other Characters:
- Doctor Norton (Single appearance) (a scientist)
Locations:
Items:
Synopsis for "The Ugly Superman"
This story is reprinted from Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #8.
Perry White assigns Lois Lane to cover a wrestling match so that it can be reported from a "women's angle." As she watches the matches, she comes to realize that this form of wrestling is not a sport per-se but sheer sensationalist entertainment. She focuses her attention more closely when the next match features a wrestler named "The Ugly Superman". Although he is winning the fight against the "Dutch Devil," the Ugly Superman is booed due to his physical appearance to the point where the crowd is throwing objects onto the stage after the Ugly Superman wins the match.
Lois Lane takes pity on the man and decides to visit him in his dressing room. There she praises the gentlemanly Ugly Superman for his performance which delights the man. Unfortunately, he takes things too seriously and appears at the Daily Planet the next day with a dozen roses and a box of chocolates for Lois. He also shows Lois a tattoo he got expressing his love and tells her that he has two tickets for the opera for them to see. When Lois tries to blow him off by saying that she and Clark Kent have to cover a play for the Daily Planet, the Ugly Superman becomes violent and tries to beat Clark up. In order to cover his double identity, Clark uses ink to make it appear that the Ugly Superman has blackened his eyes and caused him to have a nose bleed.
The Ugly Superman takes Lois to a diner where he tells her that he wants to show her off to her wrestler friends. When she refuses, the Ugly Superman believes that Lois has another "date" with Clark Kent and threatens to beat Kent up again if she doesn't go. Lois then has to sit through the opera with the Ugly Superman, who is embarrassing her by eating his snacks loudly. Unbeknownst to Lois Lane, Clark Kent has secretly been following them, amusing himself with Lois Lane's predicament, and now decides to intervene as Superman.
Disguising himself as an old man, Superman goes to the gym where the Ugly Superman is showing off his superior strength to try to impress his fellow wrestlers. However, with each feat the Ugly Superman pulls off the "old man" reveals them to be "hoaxes" by using his super-powers to make it appear as though the Ugly Superman is a fake. Suspicious, the Ugly Superman disrobes the old man revealing him to be the actual Superman. The Ugly Superman tries his best to harm the Man of Steel, but his attacks succeed in nothing more than making himself look foolish. The Ugly Superman, now thoroughly demoralized, admits that he's not worthy of Lois Lane, but vows to some day win her heart.
Months later, when Lois and Clark are watching a wrestling match they are surprised to find that the Ugly Superman had gotten plastic surgery to change his appearance and is now calling himself the Gorgeous Superman. When he tries to hook back up with Lois, she turns him down gently, saying that it doesn't matter if he is ugly or gorgeous, Lois only has feelings for the REAL Superman.
Appearing in "The Ugly Superman"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Superman
- (also disguised as Methuselah)
Other Characters:
- Daily Planet Sports Department (Mentioned only)
- Wrestlers
- Hairy Sam (Single appearance)
- Injun Ike (Single appearance)
- Sinbad the Sailor (Single appearance)
- The Gladiator (Single appearance)
- The Dutch Devil (Single appearance)
- Ugly Superman (Formerly) (Single appearance)
- (became known as the Gorgeous Superman)
- Wrestling Fans (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
- Ring Announcer (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
- Manager (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
- Opera Audience (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
- Opera Singer (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
- Twp Gym Weightlifters (Unnamed) (Cameo) (Single appearance)
Locations:
- Metropolis
- Daily Planet
- Perry White's Office
- Metropolis Arena
- Waterfront
- Harry's Hash House
- Opera House (Unnamed)
- 344 Clinton Street
- Clark Kent's Apartment
- Metropolis Gym
- Daily Planet
Items:
- Daily Planet Newspaper
- 500lb Weight (Destroyed)
- Metropolis Gym Office Safe (Destroyed)
Synopsis for "The Lady and the Lion"
This story is reprinted from Action Comics #243.
After putting on a show for children, Superman returns to his Fortress of Solitude where he places his newly awarded plaque with the others. He then spots a woman in trouble in the Mediterranean with his x-ray vision and goes to her rescue. Saving her from her crumbling ancient home, Superman soon learns that this woman is a descendant of Circe and she comes from a different planet. Inviting Superman in for a drink, she asks the Man of Steel to marry her. Rejecting the offer, Superman leaves, but not before she tells him that she put an evolution potion in his drink and that if he will change into an animal-man, she tells him that he has until dawn to come back and accept her marriage proposal or she will leave him in that state.
True enough, Clark Kent changes into a man-lion while at work at the Daily Planet, and has to quickly change into his Superman outfit. Everyone is mortified (especially Lois) that Superman has turned into a beast. Rushing back to where Circe's spaceship was parked, he finds her gone telling him that he will never find what planet she escaped to.
After a series of adventures in his lion form, Superman returns to his Fortress of Solitude to try and figure out a solution to his problem. It's at that moment that his Kryptonite detector goes off, and he realizes that one of the base ingredients in the potion must have been Kryptonite -- just enough to allow the transformation with no ill effects. Deducing that this Circe must have had some ties to Kryptonite, or even be a Kryptonian herself, Superman searches the records in the bottle city of Kandor. He quickly finds the antidote, and is able to cure himself. Returning to Metropolis, Superman surprises Lois with the good news.
Appearing in "The Lady and the Lion"
Featured Characters:
- Superman (First appearance as Super-Lion)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Circe II (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Circe (Mentioned only)
- Great Caesar (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Africa
- Greece
- Aeaea
- Temple of Circe (Destroyed)
- Aeaea
- Fortress of Solitude
- United States of America
- Metropolis
- Daily Planet
- Metropolis Zoo
- Metropolis
Synopsis for "The Superman of the Future!"
This story is reprinted from Action Comics #256.
A number of reporters have gathered to witness Professor Wright test his Time-Cabinet - a time travel device. Superman has agreed to help test the invention and seemingly disappears when the professor sends him to the year 100,000 A.D. When the Man of Steel reappears, his head is much larger and his fingers are longer - this man claims he is the Superman of the future and that he is taking the place of his contemporary counterpart for a day. He tells everyone present that he has come to the past in order to prevent four disasters from coming to pass.
The first three disasters come to pass as ordained, and all who were present during the Time-Cabinet display travel with this Ultra-Superman to see if he can prevent them from happening. All three times he fails to stop the disasters from happening, proving to himself that he cannot change the past and revealing that the final disaster is the assassination of the President of the United States.
When the intended assassination occurs, the culprit, Dirk Folgar, exposes himself as a spy when it turns out the Future-Superman was the only one riding the car and was uninjured. The Ultra-Superman turns out to be the modern day Superman, and that the whole Time-Cabinet display was a hoax perpetuated by Superman with the aid of Professor Wright to expose the spy, and that all the three previous disasters were additional hoaxes that were prepared by Superman. With Folgar's plot foiled, he is arrested by the police.
Appearing in "The Superman of the Future!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Dirk Folgar (a foreign assassin)
Other Characters:
- Captain Saunders (a US Navy submarine captain)
- Professor Wright (a famous scientist)
- The President of the United States
Locations:
- Metropolis
- Professor Wright's laboratory
- Bay Bridge
- Washington, D.C.
Items:
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "The Oldest Man in Metropolis"
This story is reprinted from Action Comics #251.
Clark Kent is sent to the the Metropolis Research Center to interview Professor Vance, a scientist who is trying to invent a serum that will increase a human's life span, but is afraid to test it on a person to see what will happen. Clark brazenly consumes the serum figuring that his Kryptonian biology would prove immune to the serum's effects, and keeps a small sample to analyze at his Fortress of Solitude. The scientist is commends Kent on his bravery and hopes nothing goes wrong. However, after Clark leaves, the scientist checks on one of the guinea pigs he experimented on previously, and finds that it has rapidly aged.
Changing identities and going to his Fortress of Solitude, Superman examines the serum and finds that it has isotopes in it that resemble Kryptonite, making him worry if it will nullify his immunity and have an effect on him. Waking up the next day, Superman finds that he has been rapidly aged into an old man. Rushing to the scientist's lab as Clark Kent, Superman learns that the serum will wear off in 72 hours' time. Rushing into work, Clark's taxi is caught in a traffic jam, and so he decides to go the rest of the way as Superman to save time, but finds that using his super-powers is very exhausting to his elderly body, and that they are slowly fading. Reporting to the Daily Planet, he shows Perry and Lois his condition, Perry decides to only send Clark on easy assignment until the effect of the serum wears off, telling him that he will assign him to a charity event, where Superman is scheduled to appear.
When the would-be pirate Captain Cutlass attacks the S.S. Opal, Clark breaks his walking stick as an excuse to get out of work. He then returns to his apartment and tries to send out one of his Superman robots to do the job, but finds that his elderly voice is too different now for the robot to understand his commands. Trying to cut his beard, he finds it's just as super strong as his hair. Superman instead comes up with a new idea: traveling out to sea with his fading flight powers, he disguises himself as the Old Man of the Sea and manages to trick the superstitious Cutlass and his crew into surrendering to the authorities.
Later put on assignment at a retirement home, Kent's x-ray vision detects some crooks hiding out in a department store. Taking a job as Santa Claus in the store, he uses his wits and remaining powers to capture the crooks, who had dismissed him as a crazy old man in a Superman costume. After helping a 100-year-old man blow out his birthday cake candles, Clark returns to the Daily Planet and learns of a lead on the criminal known as the Clock. Tracking the clock aficionado to his hideout, Superman disguises himself as Father Time and uses his fleeting powers to convince the Clock that he's the genuine article. The Clock is soon convinced that Superman is Father Time, and surrenders to the police.
Having to perform being shot out of a cannon for the charity as Superman, the Old Man of Steel decides to wear a helmet to conceal his face, but fears that he will be killed because in his advanced age his super-strength is nearly all gone. However, he realizes that he drank the serum 71 hours previous, and stalls for time. Naturally enough, after being shot out of the cannon an hour later, Superman finds that his youth and powers had been restored. Later, as Clark Kent again, he bemoans the idea of Lois taking him to go see a musical based on Rip Van Winkle.
Appearing in "The Oldest Man in Metropolis"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Captain Cutlass (Single appearance)
- The Clock (Single appearance)
Other Characters:
- Professor Vance
Locations:
Items:
- Green Kryptonite
- Vance's Secret Vitamin Formula
Vehicles:
- S.S. Opal
Synopsis for "The Two Faces of Superman"
This story is reprinted from Superman #126.
Lois Lane is stuck going out on a date with Chet Hartley, a blind date a friend of hers has asked her to see as a favor, on the same date that she has a date with Superman. With two hours between the scheduled dates, Lois decides to make herself as unappealing as possible to Chet so she can get out of the date and get ready for Superman's scheduled date. Seeing Lois out with bad hair and an ugly dress as Clark Kent, Superman realizes what Lois is trying to do.
In order to teach her a lesson, when he arrives at her apartment he tells her that he plans on "revealing" his secret identity to her. Taking her back to an apartment he's rented as part of this ploy, Superman "reveals" to Lois that he has secretly been wearing masks of a handsome man, and shocks her when he removes his mask to reveal an ugly face. He then asks her to marry him, hoping that she isn't basing her attraction on his appearance. Lois is torn between the Superman she thought she knew, and the one that apparently looks hideous.
Going out with the ugly Superman on a date leads to laughter from her peers, but Lois takes it on stride, and later during a quiet stroll in the park and a moment of romance, Superman proposes to Lois, who decides she has to think about it. Getting suspicious when Superman goes into action to stop some crooks, Lois comes to realize the truth. Deciding to catch Superman at his own game, she accepts his "appearance" the next day and tells him that she will marry him. Realizing he caught himself in a trap, Superman then tells her to be at the Justice of Peace the next day at 12:00 sharp, if she's even a minute late he will think she had second thoughts and leave. Of course, when Lois shows up, Superman uses his x-ray vision to weld her car doors shut until 12:01.
Freeing her, Lois admits that she realized that Superman was teaching her a lesson for how she treated Chet, and she reveals that she figured it out when she saw Superman shielding his face from bullet fire the night before, making her realize he was wearing a mask.
Appearing in "The Two Faces of Superman"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Chet Hartley
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Notes
- This issue also features a schematic to Superman's Fortress of Solitude and a Pin-Up of Superman, as well as a list of sixteen "Famous Superman Stories [...] voted by most popular by fans of yesteryear."
See Also