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"Superman's Hunt for Clark Kent": Given two weeks vacation from the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, Superman decides to spend the time in his Fortress of Solitude trying to come up with an antidote for his weakness to Kryptonite. However, his experiment goes wrong and

Superman #126 is an issue of the series Superman (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1959.

Synopsis for "Superman's Hunt for Clark Kent"

Given two weeks vacation from the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, Superman decides to spend the time in his Fortress of Solitude trying to come up with an antidote for his weakness to Kryptonite. However, his experiment goes wrong and literally blows up in his face. The result causes Superman to get amnesia and forget who he is. As Clark Kent's land lady hires painters to repaint his apartment (risking discovering Superman's hidden room) Superman flies to Metropolis where he learns all about who he is -- at least as Superman, but cannot make the connection between himself and Clark Kent.

In the interim, Superman decides to established a new secret identity, and develops the guise of Clarence Kalvin, and taking on a British accent (getting the idea from the British tourist who's clothing he purchased for this guise.) He then ironically seeks employment at he Daily Planet, where he's given a job and in another ironic twist is temporarily given Clark Kent's desk while Kent is away. Using flimsy excuses to dart out and preform super feats as Superman, "Clarence" begins arousing the suspicions of both Lois Lane and Perry White, who begin to believe that "Kalvin" is really Superman.

Worried about restoring his memory so that he can maintain his original secret identity, Superman seeks out the aid of Professor Blake, who tries a series of experiments to restore Superman's memory, however none succeed. Superman then decides to try and figure out another solution. Viewing a recording of his arrival on Earth as Superbaby which was recorded by collecting light rays, Superman decides to do the same thing to look into the past and figure out who he really is. Learning that his secret identity is Clark Kent, Superman rushes back to his apartment, just as the painters are about to open up his secret closet, however manages to secretly stop them from uncovering his hidden room.

Afterwards, Superman decides to further deceive Lois and keep her from guessing his true identity by having "Clarence Kalvin" reveal himself as Superman. That way when Clark Kent returns to the job, Lois is still convinced that Clark Kent is not Superman.

Appearing in "Superman's Hunt for Clark Kent"

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Other Characters:

  • Doctor Galton
  • Professor Blake
  • Professor Harkness
  • Sir Sedgwick

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Synopsis for "The Spell of the Shandu Clock"

When Shandu the Mystic is exposed as a fraud by Superman, the fake mystic vows to get revenge against the Man of Steel. Days later, when it's learned that Shandu apparently died at sea and leaving a prophetic message of doom directed at Superman, Superman agrees to take Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson to check out the story. They go to Shandu's home where they find a giant goblin faced clock waiting for them. When it strikes twelve o'clock, a Superman statue pops out and hits a gong, upon doing so the real Superman is suddenly caught in a trance and flies into a rock face.

Each time the clock tolls, the Superman statue inside exhibits a different power causing Superman to go into a trance and mimic the exact same thing; when attempting to destroy the clock, Superman finds that some force is preventing him from doing so. When the Fallon Gang learns of this, they decide to leave their lead lined hideout in order to rob the Metropolis National Bank during one of Superman's trances. The gang is shocked when the metal statue from the clock comes to stop them and is revealed to be the real Superman, who quickly captures the gang and turns them over to the authorities.

Returning to the site of the clock, Superman reveals that Shandu is alive and well and was helping Superman catch the Fallon Gang, and that while the real Superman posed inside the clock, it was a Superman robot that was in the "trances."

Appearing in "The Spell of the Shandu Clock"

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  • The Fallon Gang

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  • Shandu

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Synopsis for "The Two Faces of Superman"

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"

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  • Chet Hartley

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