80-Page Thursdays: DC Special Series #5!

Or, as the cover puts it, Superman Spectacular! From 1977, "The Second Coming of Superman!" Written by Cary Bates, with an assist from Marin Pasko, based on an idea by John Lamartine; pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Vince Colletta.

The cover says it's an 80-pager, but the title page puts the lie to that immediately, describing it as "an all-new, 63-page epic starring the amazing Man of Steel!" Which might've been the longest single-issue Superman story to date, but it goes in a more unusual direction than the cover--featuring Brainiac and Luthor congratulating each other over Superman's body--would lead you to believe. It's Superman Day in Metropolis, and the usual supporting cast--Lois, Jimmy, Perry, Steve Lombard and Morgan Edge--are part of the parade, having made bets on what Clark's lame excuse for no-showing would be. But, there's a strange visitor to the city: an alien girl, with unusual eyes, and a somewhat familiar-looking S-shaped necklace, which glows as the big man approaches. While Superman races through the sun on his return flight to earth, an earthquake strikes, knocking the head off a massive Superman statue, which nearly crushes some onlookers. Supes arrives in the nick, launching the head of the statue into the ocean--where it lands near Lori Lemaris's Atlantis, which donated it to the surface!

As Lois and everyone chat with Superman--and badmouth Clark a bit--the strange girl feels they aren't showing the proper deference, and uses some invisible power to force them to kneel. We then see, in flashback to the previous day, the Atlanteans sending the Superman statue, as a small UFO passes by, with a pilot with unusual eyes, who is giddy that "the sacred scriptures" were coming to pass. He lands at an island in the Pacific, Quorxa, an alien city protected by a "vibratory shroud" making it invisible. Although, they had a recent visitor, that they were keeping under lock and key...They also had some unusual weather problems, which I wonder if they weren't caused by the vibratory shroud, since "thunder-bomb storms" don't sound normal. Also somewhat abnormal: the giant grotesque Superman effigy "Sonzrr" that protects the city. When the alien pilot delivers his news, he feels they had been worshipping a fraud; but the girl is a true believer: Sonzrr was an idol, in their savior's likeness. Not a true believer: Quorxa's visitor, none other than Lex Luthor! With a teleporting device microscopically implanted in his head, Lex helps himself to their "grkom," or "bible," then heads out to find a translator...

The Quorxans had been on earth over a hundred million years ago, and so was Superman--on a time-travelling visit, anyway. He investigates a mysterious "water-volcano", that was launching millions of tons of material into space, then generates a colossal monster, while draining his power! The psuedo-science explanation involves ectoplasm and prana, so it's more suspect than usual; but Superman had to let himself by swallowed by the monster created from his own imagination so he could re-absorb his own life-essence. Sure. Two Quorxans had witnessed the whole thing, which inexplicably left their people immortal, which led over the centuries, "fascination became infatuation! Puzzlement became blind faith!" Brainiac translates the grkom for a bemused Luthor, who has discovered the ore expelled by the water-volcano was what changed the Quorxans, but could be of a different use for them.

Disguised as a human, the alien girl follows Clark around, wondering why the savior would change clothes and hang around the humans, but they had a version of "the Lord works in mysterious ways" too, and she was open enough to accept humans as his children as much as the Quorxans were. On the other hand, when Steve Lombard tries to splash Clark from his new sports car; that sacrilege will not stand, and she launches him nearly into space! Superman has to make a difficult rescue, which involves saving a popped hot air balloon on the way; but Steve is left sunburned like a lobster. The alien girl realizes she might've gone too far; but then gets a message from home: a Quorxan had died, and others were sick. They need Sonzrr, so Ryla introduces herself, which involves a giant glowing 'S.' Superman has to duck out at super-speed, grab her, and heat-vision the 'S,' before she outs him as Clark. She isn't sure why her god doesn't recognize her, and Superman is quick to tell her, he wasn't a god. But, being Superman, he was still willing to help, so Ryla uses her tech to send them tunnelling at incredible speed through the earth! (Which had caused the earthquake earlier when she arrived!)

The weakened and desperate Quorxans beg 'Sonzrr' to save them, holding up their little glowing crucifix-like 'S's, while Superman tries to figure out what they were on about, but is interrupted by the return of the water-volcano. Concentrating against ectoplasmic drain, Superman thinks he can wrap it up easily enough, but catches a little chin-music first: a Lex Luthor power-glove punch, followed by Brainiac's force field protecting the water-volcano. Oh, and they had set up a jammer, so the ectoplasmic drain was in full effect! The Quorxans watch with a mixture of dread, rapture, and confusion; as the volcano spits chunks of that ore on their island, rejuvenating them. But Superman has a battle on three fronts, since if the water-volcano continued, it could hollow out earth completely...!

After bouncing some rocks off Brainiac into Luthor, the power-drain on Superman becomes critical, and he loses even flight. As Brainiac holds him up by the cape, Luthor blasts Superman with his power glove, launching him to the shores of Quorxa. They then turn off the water-volcano, a good 15 seconds before it would've damaged the planet beyond repair: their science had figured that one out beforehand. But Luthor is then surprised by a mysterious, glowing device; that seems to have absorbed a lot of power...The Quorxans lament the death of their god, as they receive a final, bad sign: their glowing 'S's, have all gone black. Meanwhile, the Luthor/Brainiac team has hit one of their trademark rough patches, as Brainiac has Lex in a headlock, and was going to use the energy siphoned from Superman, to power his shrinking ray: he would now have the power to shrink entire worlds for study. (What Brainiac was trying to discover or learn from shrunken worlds is unclear, although he apparently gets a kick out of it as well.)

The Quorxans had returned to their city, leaving only Ryla mourning over the fallen Superman. But he wasn't quite done yet: he had realized their 'S's had been draining his power already, and had to reabsorb it, which is why they had gone black. He also had been able to hear Brainiac boasting to Lex, and was able to rally enough to beat the shrinking ray into space and retake his power from that, then lay down a mighty thumping on them. Witnessed only by Ryla, who writes a new book of the Quorxans' scripture...

The Quorxans were never seen again after this one, but they weren't even the only invisible city on pre-Crisis earth, were they? Gorilla City, Paradise Island, Nanda Parbat...there's probably a half-dozen more. Also, I didn't immediately recognize it from the cover, but I'd read this one before, in the Best of DC #59 digest, which has a cover playing up Sonzrr and the god angle. That one also features "Let My People Grow!" So I had read this one years ago, which might explain why I'm fine with it, even if I find the Christ-imagery in the later Superman movies incredibly heavy-handed.