Lois under arrest? Now Casey, you know better than to suspect Lois of espionage. Release her or the Daily Planet will publish an extra that will ... 
- — Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter
Superman #9 is an issue of the series Superman (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1941. It was published on January 3, 1941.
Synopsis for "The Phony Pacifists"
Lois Lane investigates some suspicious nocturnal activity at Metropolis' cargo wharves, at one particular freighter, but she snoops into an off-limits area and gets herself arrested, and locked up aboard the ship, by Sergeant Casey. Superman has been shadowing Lois and is lurking nearby, and he takes up the investigation. He discovers a foreign submarine, surfacing in the harbor. A deck gun is unlimbered and opens fire on the freighter; Superman intercepts the second shot, and before there's a third one, he bends the cannon barrel back on itself. But there IS a third shot anyway, which explodes the weapon and kills the gun crew. The subs hatches slam shut, it dives, and immediately fires a torpedo towards the shore. This distracts Superman for a moment, but soon he dives after the sub, and yanks off its propeller. He taps out a morse code ultimatum on the hull, and the submarine surfaces, but when he attempts to enter it, a suicide explosive charge is set off, destroying the sub. Superman returns to shore and resumes his reporter identity then hastens back to the wharf to secure Lois' release. Kent takes a surprisingly hard-edged tone in negotiating with Sgt. Casey, who quickly agrees to release Miss Lane.
The next day Lois and Clark meet Major Lester to tour the Military Reserve Depot and follow up on some questions from the prior evening. Clark's super senses detect a bomb-planting team at work, under the building. He makes an excuse, gets out of sight, changes identities, and dives thru the earth to bust the bombers. He apprehends four of them and allows a fifth, the leader, to seem to escape. Superman leaves the four small fry atop a tall telephone pole, and pursues the fifth as he attempts to escape in an airplane. Superman stealthily follows him to Washington, D.C., and then to the Senate Office Building, at Senator Galsworthy's office. There he eavesdrops on a meeting between the spy leader and his colleagues, where many incriminating things are said. Superman races thru the room, too fast to be seen, turns on a dictograph machine, and leaves. Outside the office, he encounters Senator Galsworthy, who turns out to be not a co-conspirator, but a dupe. Once he's wised up, the pacifistic Galsworthy personally attacks the spies meeting in his office, which goes badly for him, until Superman intervenes, hurling the traitors in all directions. Derwing climbs out a window and tries to shinny down a drain pipe, but it breaks and he falls, almost to his death, but is rescued by Superman, so that he can stand trial. Superman then zips back to Metropolis, changes clothes, smooths out the busted sod where he'd dived into the ground earlier, and rejoins Lois and the Major.
Later, Lois is amazed at the details Clark has been able to learn about this case, and Clark is pretty smug about it too.
Appearing in "The Phony Pacifists"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Derwing, Chairman, Committee Against Militarism ((only))
- his four bomb planters
- his four colleagues
- foreign submarine crew (all die)
Other Characters:
- Major Lester (Single appearance)
- Senator Galsworthy (Single appearance)
Locations:
- Earth-Two
- Metropolis
- Waterfront
- Military Reserve Depot
- Daily Planet
- Washington, D.C.
- Airport
- Senate Office Building
- Metropolis
Vehicles:
- Military freighter
- Foreign submarine (Destroyed)
- Derwing's small airplane
Synopsis for "Joe Gatson, Racketeer"
Judge Crane attempts suicide and Superman prevents it. Crane's daughter has been kidnapped, and the ransom for her release is a declaration, from the judge, that racketeering defendant Joe Gatson is not guilty for his crimes.
Superman does some detective work, starting with the Telephone Company and working his way out to a remote swamp, where he observes and overhears a man make a threatening call, to Judge Crane. Superman stealthily trails this man, and his accomplice, thru the swamp, despite having brief problems with some quicksand and an alligator. This leads him to their shack, where young Sylvia Crane is being held. Superman bursts in and soon the girl is free while the thugs are trussed up. He leaps away, carrying Sylvia, who doesn't handle it very well, but soon faints. This makes Superman appreciate Lois a bit better; at least she never gets all hysterical about flying.
Superman carries Sylvia home to Judge Crane's house, where a tense situation has developed between the Judge, Joe Gatson, a corrupt bailiff, and Lois Lane. When Superman arrives with Sylvia, Gatson attempts to ambush him and has his henchman shoot Miss Crane. But instead Superman grabs Gatson and deliberately flings him into the path of the speeding bullet. Gatson dies and his flying body knocks out the bailiff. Picking up the handgun and tossing it to Lois, Superman tells her to keep the bailiff covered, and abruptly leaves.
Shortly later, Clark Kent arrives, with the Metropolis police.
Appearing in "Joe Gatson, Racketeer"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Joe Gatson
- two kidnappers
- Bailiff
Other Characters:
- Judge Crane
- Sylvia Crane
Locations:
- Metropolis
- Courthouse
- Telephone Company Building
- Daily Planet
- Judge Crane's House
- Lakeland
- San Columbo
- remote swamp
Synopsis for "Mystery In Swasey Swamp"
Two mysterious situations develop on the same day: 1/ At Lamson Laboratories, in Rovertown, where a score of scientists labor to develop new technologies, a gunman gets inside this place and shoots one of the workers. That evening an attempt is made to blow open Lamson's office safe with a bomb. Whoever is doing this is trying to get access to the W-142 Formula. 2/ Hundreds of miles away, on the border of the Swasey Swamp, powerful electrical discharges, of unknown origin, are interfering with radio reception and telephone service all over the area. Editor White sends Clark Kent to Rovertown and Lois Lane to Swasey Swamp, to get to the bottom of these mysteries.
Lois hires a foreign secret agent, Tom Jepson, to guide her into Swasey Swamp, despite the fact that none of the local men knows this guy or will vouch for him. And in Rovertown, Clark is attacked from the air by a fighter plane! Pretending to be frightened, Kent races to the lab and and pounds on the door, but when it opens, a pistol is stuck into Kent's face! Kent is shot in the chest and the door slams shut, then is opened moments later by Krawl, Lamson's assistant. Kent gets his interview, and Lamson is very excited about the potential applications of W-142, it will revolutionize industry! Just then a large airplane lands right outside the building, and gunmen garbed in metal outfits and head-covering helmets leap out to attack the lab. Just then Superman shows up and counterattacks them. One gunman runs back to the plane, reaches inside, and throws a switch. Suddenly all the metal in the area flies directly at Superman, and a lot of it hits him, until he smashes the airplane, which shuts down the magnetic field. Seeing this, two of the attackers leap out the window to their own destruction. Krawl tries to shove Superman out the window, gets dodged, falls out himself, and on his way to the ground swallows poison, and dies.
Lois meanwhile has been abducted by a squad of the metal-clad gunmen, hundreds of miles away at Swasey Swamp! Superman races there. In a secret chamber beneath a huge boulder, Superman finds tied-up Lois, the spy team's leader, and his magnetic field device, which he now activates. The entire metal chamber begins to collapse inward toward Lois, but Superman braces all of it in place for long enough for the magnetic field inducer to overload and break down. The leader, standing in the same room as all this, is killed. Tom Jepson is arrested alive, whisked back to Metropolis, and turned over to Sergeant Casey. Lois races to the Planet to file her story about all this, only to find that she's been beaten to the punch by Clark Kent yet again. How does he do it?
Appearing in "Mystery In Swasey Swamp"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Tom Jepson
- Krawl (Dies)
- foreign secret agent boss (Dies)
- Metal-clad foreign agents (Some die)
Other Characters:
- Lamson
- his scientists and other employees
- Swasey Station Agent
- Sergeant Casey
Locations:
- Earth-Two-A
- Rovertown
- Lamson Laboratories
- Bus Terminal
- Swasey Swamp
- Swasey Station
- Grady's Grocery Store
- Metropolis
- Daily Planet
- Railroad Station
- Rovertown
Items:
- W-142 formula
- (W-142 is a new substance capable of yielding energy equal to 5,000,000 pounds of coal in a single pound of it.)
- magnetic field induction weapon (Destroyed)
Vehicles:'
- bus
- fighter plane
- 2-engine attack plane (Destroyed)
Synopsis for "Jackson's Murder Ring"
Morton Carling is killed with a blow to the head, then thrown out of a high window at the Metropolis Tower. Clark Kent and Lois Lane witness this, and investigate the matter. They soon learn that a murder syndicate is using the Jackson Jewelry Company as a front, and laundering their blood money in the form of jewelry payments.
This section of the article does not provide a complete profile of the subject. You can help out by providing additional information, expanding on the subject matter in order to bring this article to a higher standard of quality.
Appearing in "Jackson's Murder Ring"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Lois Lane
- Sergeant Casey
- his cops
Antagonists:
- Jackson
- Mr. Lassiter
- George Steele (Mentioned only)
Other Characters:
- Mr. Nelson
- Marjorie Farnsworth
- Morton Carling (Appears only as a corpse)
- City Prosecutor
Locations:
- Metropolis
- Metropolis Tower
- Nelson & Lassiter, 20th Floor
- Jackson Jewelry Company
- James Street
- Prosecutor's Office
- Metropolis Tower
Notes
- Published bi-monthly by Superman, Inc.
- This issue is reprinted in The Superman Archives Vol. 3.
- "The Phony Pacifists":
- Clark Kent gives Sgt. Casey a hard time about arresting Lois Lane. He is a lot less mild-mannered when she is not around.
- Another submarine and its crew are destroyed.
- "Joe Gatson, Racketeer":
- Superman deliberately kills Gatson.
- Superman bare-handedly picks up the handgun with which Gatson was killed, and tosses it to Lois, who bare-handedly catches it.
- In the final panel, Superman breaks the Fourth Wall to directly address the readers, and remind us to never miss an issue of Action Comics.
- "Mystery in Swasey Swamp":
- Lois Lane is kidnapped for the 11th time.[1]
- Lois Lane faints.
- Also appearing in this issue of Superman were:
- "Daisy Superman Krypto-Raygun" (full page ad for Superman licensed toy from Daisy Manufacturing)
- "Superman: America's Greatest Adventure-Strip Character" (frontispiece) by Paul Cassidy
- "Supermen of America" (full page text ad for the fan club) w/ art by Joe Shuster and Paul Cassidy
- Henrietta by Fred Schwab
- Sports: "Spotlight on Surprising Veterans" by Jack Burnley
- "Superman Keeps Good Company!" (full page ad for Action Comics)
- Statement of the Ownership, Management, Circulation, Etc.
- "A Bombing Flight" (text story) by Frank Cooper
- "Hourman" (1/2 page ad for Adventure Comics)
- "Super-Strength by Superman" (fitness tutorial) by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
- "Coming at You!" (1/2 page ad for Batman)
- "Superman Is on the Radio" (1/2 page ad for "The Adventures of Superman")
- "At the Top of the Field!" (full page ad for More Fun, Flash, Adventure, All-American, and especially All-Star Comics #4)