Action Comics 242 Coverless

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Action Comics 242 Coverless:
$289.00

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Worldwide QC (Quality Comics)

Superman 242 - Brainiac Appearance

First appearing in ActionComics #242 (July 1958), Brainiac was a bald, green-skinned humanoid whoarrived on Earth and shrank various cities, including Metropolis, storing themin bottles with the intent of using them to restore the then-unnamed planet heruled. He is originally notable only for his having shrunk the bottle city ofKandor, for having a shrinking ray, and for using a force-shield.

In subsequent appearances in thisearly period, Brainiac was used mostly as a plot device rather than as afeatured villain of the month. Brainiac\'s next appearance was mostly behind thescenes, when he tries to kill Lois Lane and Lana Lang, prompting Superman togive Lois and Lana super-powers. But the villain remains unseen except as aplot twist at the end of the story. Brainiac\'s next appearance in\"Superman\'s Return to Krypton\" in Superman #141 (November1960) displays how the villain stole the bottle city of Kandor, which isironically and tragically the only city on Krypton that believes Jor-El\'swarning of doom for the planet, and had already built a space-ark within thecity to save the population. Brainiac\'s next present-day appearance is in ActionComics #275 (April 1961), which shows the villain planning to defeatSuperman by exposing him to both Red and Green Kryptonite, giving Superman athird eye on the back of his head, forcing him to wear various hats to hide it.Superman soon defeats Brainiac and sends him off into the distant past. Thiswas the first in-story appearance of Brainiac\'s iconic red diodes atop hishead, which had previously appeared on cover of his first appearance in ActionComics #242 (July 1958), but were not shown in the actual story. In\"Superboy\" #106 (July 1963), Superman as a baby meets Brainiac and itis explained that Brainiac looks the same as he has a 200 year life span. It isrevealed that he came from a planet called Bryak and after a voyage in space,he returns to find everybody dead from a plague. He intends to get people fromother planets (in shrunken cities, and he has a growth ray) to repopulateBryak, and he will rule them.