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"Superman: "Puzzle of the Wild World"": The experiment of Prof. Farlow Nurd creates a distorted duplicate Earth which displaces Earth-One into another dimension while Superman is in space. He returns to find a whacky parody-world in which Sgt. Rock is still fighting [

Quote1 Kryptonite? What good would that do? Everybody knows about your three weaknesses -- chocolate, Brussels sprouts, and five-day-old garbage! You musta become immune, somehow! Quote2
Sergeant Rock

Action Comics #388 is an issue of the series Action Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of May, 1970. It was published on March 26, 1970.

Synopsis for Superman: "Puzzle of the Wild World"

The experiment of Prof. Farlow Nurd creates a distorted duplicate Earth which displaces Earth-One into another dimension while Superman is in space. He returns to find a whacky parody-world in which Sgt. Rock is still fighting World War II, but seeking revenge on that Earth's Superman for beating him out for Lois Lane's hand; where Lex Luthor's hair grows when he gets mad; and where Bizarro is a genius while Mr. Mxyzptlk is a dummy. Superman restores Earth-One to its normal plane and displaces the distorted duplicate Earth into another dimension.

Appearing in Superman: "Puzzle of the Wild World"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Professor Farlow Nurd (Earth-One)
  • Lois Lane (Earth-388)
  • Perry White (Earth-388)
  • Supergirl (Earth-388)
  • Superman (Earth-388)
  • Justice League (Earth-388)
    • Aquaman
    • Batman
    • Flash
    • Jimmy Olsen/Green Lantern
    • Wonder Woman

Antagonists:

  • Easy Company (Earth-388)
    • Sgt. Rock

Other Characters:

  • Bizarro (Earth-388)
  • Brainiac (Earth-388)
  • Easy Company (Earth-388)
    • Ice Bag Soldier
    • Little Half Shot
  • Krypto (Earth-388)
  • Legion of Super-Heroes (Earth-388)
    • Cosmic Boy
    • Lightning Lad
    • Saturn Girl
  • Alexis Luthor (Earth-388)
  • Mister Mxyzptlk (Earth-388)

Locations:

Items:

  • Green Kryptonite
  • Professor Nurd's World Duplicator (Destroyed)
  • A duplicate of the World Duplicator (Destroyed)

Vehicles:


Synopsis for Legion of Super-Heroes: "Sunboy's Lost Powers!"

This story is reprinted from Adventure Comics #302.

Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Sun-Boy make a trip to Metropolis where the people are unveiling the first of a series of statues in honor of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The first statue is revealed to be of Sun-Boy, who has to use his powers to destroy the statue when it begins to topple, threatening to crush spectators of the event. Flying back to headquarters later, Sun-Boy realizes his powers have run out when he cannot use them to illuminate a city going through a black out.

This prompts Sun-Boy to try and restore his powers, using a similar atomic device that first gave him his powers, and later a volcano, however both attempts fail to restore them. When an entomologist visits the Legions base to gift them with insects from other planets, Sun-Boy's powers briefly come back. Later when Ultra-Boy and Superboys arrive for a scheduled meeting, Sun-Boy asks them to help try to restore his powers using a mirror device and both heroes x-ray visions. This attempt also fails. After giving up, Sun-Boy accepts the fact that his powers are gone, and he is asked to resign from the Legion, he cleans out his locker and supplies and leaves.

Later, while watching the Legion in action, Sun-Boy is visited by Bouncing Boy who has come to take his Legion monitor. Later, Kranyak, a villain which Sun-Boy helped incarcerate, learns of the news about Sun-Boy's powers escapes from prison. Reuniting with his gang, Kranyak attacks Sun-Boy to learn if the stories are true. Learning that they are indeed true, Kranyak tells Sun-Boy that he is going to destroy the other Legionaries. Realizing how to finally restore his powers, Sun-Boy travels to the planet Lurna. There he makes a flame-beast blast him with it's flame breath, this miraculously restores his powers.

Sun-Boy then returns to Earth where he stops Kranyak and his gang from crushing the Legion's base with a giant chunk of ice and easily defeats the crook. After Kranyak has been turned over, Sun-Boy explains to the Legion how his powers were restored: That the only way his powers could be restored would be exposure to sufficient heat energy from living creature that has heat-based powers. He goes on to explain he figured it out when he touched a firefly from the planet Lurna, and so went there find a creature with stronger flame powers. He also explains that the reason why his powers weren't restored by Superboy and Ultra Boy is because they are really robots.

This was figured out while Sun-Boy watched the Legion in action and the two heroes were drawn towards Cosmic Boy whenever he used his magnetic powers. When revealed as robots, the Legion checks out their inner workings and learn that they were sent to the future by Ultra Boy and Superboy, who were busy in the 20th Century celebrating the birthday of Pete Ross. The robots were sent to the future to take their place, and they caught caught in a storm during their travel through the time barrier which caused them to forget they were really robots. With all the loose ends tied up, Sun-Boy is welcomed back into the ranks of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Appearing in Legion of Super-Heroes: "Sunboy's Lost Powers!"

Featured Characters:

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:


Antagonists:

  • Kranyak (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Professor Harding (Single appearance)
  • Pete Ross

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

  • None

Notes

  • "Sunboy's Lost Powers!" was reprinted from Adventure Comics #302
  • The issue said a list of the "errors" would appear in the next issue of Action. The list actually appeared in Action Comics #390 as "Mistakes in 'Puzzle of the Wild World'"
  • Aquaman’s face in Puzzle of the Wild World resembles Alfred E. Neuman



See Also


Links and References

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