Random Happenstance

If you had to guess what was on at any given time at my house, "Star Trek" is a pretty safe bet. And even though I've seen the Original Series dozens of times, and sometimes the same little nitpicks come up every time, I keep watching them. The crewmen beamed into space in "And the Children Shall Lead" drives me up the wall, as does the transporter malfunction in "The Enemy Within": sure, maybe they couldn't use the shuttles since those hadn't been established yet, and they couldn't beam down heaters because they duplicated and malfunctioned. Did you maybe beam down a blanket!? What, did they duplicate and get itchy or something? How about a tent? Or fire? I assume that technology still existed. Dinosaur Comics recently brought up another one: where Nomad erases Uhura's mind, in "the Changeling." Well, she could maybe be re-educated...back to the level of a Starfleet officer, but would her personality and memories be gone? Wasn't the Uhura we knew basically dead, then? Yeah, Superman probably hasn't considered that either, in today's book! From 1972, Action Comics #408, "The Hero Superman Doomed to Die!" Written by Cary Bates, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Murphy Anderson.

The space program had lost a solo astronaut, Carter, on a mission to the moon; so good thing Superman was around to bail them out. Except, when Supes heads into space to get him, halfway there he's inexplicably compelled to turn around and go back! The press, spurred on by Morgan Edge working for Darkseid, portrays Superman as actively leaving Carter to die, even as he continues saving lives around the world. There's a lot of Monday-morning quarterbacking going on, as everybody seems to think they could do Superman's job better...I'm sure we don't do that around here. Hopefully. Frustrated, Supes tries again, but not only can he not fly out there, he can't even use his telescopic vision to see what's going on in the section of space Carter had last been seen in.

With Carter's air running out, Clark Kent has to read Morgan Edge-written copy on the news, that lambasts Superman: does he have the right to decide who lives and who dies? (Up to here, I honestly thought the point to this one was going to be humanity has to stand on its own two feet at least a little: nope, I was way off!) Still, a movie poster gives him an idea, and he builds a spaceship, suits up as an astronaut, and tries flying out there that way. He finds Carter's ship in a strange energy vortex, and receives a telepathic message from him. Wait, telepathic message? The energy had evolved Carter, about 700,000 years into the future: then, he had telepathically compelled Superman not to rescue him, because he wanted to see how far he could evolve. He telepathically messages all of earth, clearing Superman's name, letting everyone know that was on him; but now he was starting to get too evolved, and was getting worried.

Superman tries to fly in, but the evolution effect worked on him as well, which could be a problem if he stayed in it. While Carter is evolved about eight million years worth--we better be pure energy by then, or we're slacking off!--Superman makes tongs out of his ship, to fish Carter out of there, but too late: the effect had either reversed or cycled through, and Carter was now a caveman. Superman has to leave him in a bit longer, to cook until he's more-or-less a modern man again, but one completely erased by the ordeal, with no memory of his experience, or his life before. I'm sure NASA and his family will be thrilled to get a colossal, stubbley baby back: maybe he's not completely wiped out, but it doesn't look encouraging. Oh, like I've never ended an evening going "Gaa! Thatha! Dohgu!"

The conceit of evolution was pretty hard-wired at DC by this point, and seemed to happen fairly often across a variety of books: if you either went really far into the future, or turned someone into a future-man, you were going to get a big-headed, feeble-bodied weirdo. It's basically science-fact!