By early 1970 my family had moved from Stanmore, England, to Fort Walton Beach, Florida. I was settling in, sort of — it was quite an adjustment — but I was still in the long interregnum where I wasn’t buying comics. Except occasionally. Like the issue below, Action Comics #388.
I’ve no idea why I bought it, any more than I know why I picked up Teen Titans #32 a couple of years later. Was it the oddball scene on the Curt Swan cover? Random chance? Did someone give it to me, which I know happened a couple of times in the next year or two. I’m glad I did because “Puzzle of the Wild World” by Cary Bates and Curt Swan is one goofball tale.
Returning from a space mission, Superman discovers Earth’s continents have all turned different colors and finds this a little odd. He doesn’t know that’s mundane compared to everything else he’s going to encounter.
•He and Lois are engaged, which was a shocker back in that era. And though he doesn’t remember doing it, he’s engraved their marriage license on a building near his apartment, giving away his secret identity.
•Bizarro’s on Earth for revenge because the last time Superman visited Htrae “he helped the Frito Bandito clean out my pantry.” (for anyone too young to remember the Frito Bandito, here’s the scoop). He’s wielding a giant fountain pen as a weapon because “I remembered a line from my literary studies, that the pen is mightier than the sword.” Which as we all know, is not how Bizarro talks.
•Jimmy Olsen’s nickname for Perry White is now “chef.” To which Perry’s response is “Don’t call me chef, just because I cook your goose.”
•Sgt. Rock is still fighting WW II with his Easy Company team including Ice-Bag Soldier and Little Half-Shot (I suspect Bates was taking a shot at war comics with that one). Rock, however, calls a time-out and stops the war when his former girlfriend Lois sends him a Dear John letter. The plot of the story, other than Superman standing around in slackjawed amazement, is Rock’s attempt to destroy the Man of Might with his three weaknesses — Brussels sprouts, chocolate and three-day-old garbage!
Superman editor Mort Weisinger liked reusing ideas if they sold well. I’ve no doubt this was inspired by “Night of March 31st” in Superman #145. That story featured similar absurdities — Superman’s foes know all his secrets from reading his comic books — explained in a text panel as being an April 1 joke. Weisinger then challenged readers to spot all the errors and goofs in the story.
That happened with “Wild World” too — except, as one reader pointed out, almost none of the mistakes were goofs. A scientist has accidentally replaced Earth-One with an Earth from another dimension; the “goofs” aren’t errors because on Earth-Silly (my name, not theirs) all this stuff is simply the way things are. The only mistake is showing our Superman wearing a bandage on the splash page.
Oh, in case you were wondering, Superman and the scientist get things back to normal and the other Superman and Lois do indeed get married, despite the Legion warning Supes that in the future she’ll lose his uniform and he’ll be stuck at home (can’t go out naked, you know. Wouldn’t do).
This story is silly as hell, but I love it to death.
Oh come on Fraser and Superman, Brusselss Sprouts are delicious. I like them a lot. A lot of people in Holland do.
I like Sprouts, thinly sliced and fried with Bacon.
Anything tastes good fried.
You guys are clearly in the tank for Big Sprout! No hard feelings about it, TYG loves them too.
It’s entirely possible it was eating them in childhood (Mum wouldn’t become a good cook until I was in my teens) that gives me such a gut-level distaste for them.