Just about everybody who knew Superman acquired his powers at one time or another, whether accidentally or deliberately — Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Lana Lang, Ma and Pa Kent, Lex Luthor, Batman and Robin, etc.
His editor was no exception, in a tale reminiscent of the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
“Clark Kent’s boss, Perry White, gets the spotlight, and more, with Action Comics 278 (July 1961) featuring The Super Powers Of Perry White by Jerry Coleman, Curt Swan and Stan Kaye,” noted Dave Marchand.
In fact, Super-Perry had Superman on the ropes.
“Perry White finds a strange fruit in his garden, and, after eating it, gains super powers, where he decides to become Masterman,” Marchand recalled. “Really, the fruit was a delivery system for an alien named Xasnu, who has taken over Perry’s body, and uses his new powers to try to finish off Superman to prepare Earth to be invaded.
“Xasnu, as Perry, learns Superman’s secret identity as Clark Kent, even following him to the Fortress of Solitude to attack the Man of Steel, who would have been doomed, except for the quick thinking of Supergirl.”
The alien gave Masterman powers beyond Superman’s — he was telepathic — and in fact overpowered Superman in a showdown, armed with a green kryptonite sword, a red kryptonite spear and heat vision powerful enough to melt Superman’s lead armor.
Although Superman had forbidden Supergirl to interfere, presumably in order to protect her, she disobeyed and saved his life by bursting into the Fortress with white kryptonite just as Perry was melting Superman’s leaden armor.
As in 1951’s The Thing from Another World, the invader had a plant-based biology, and white kryptonite — introduced six months before in Adventure Comics 279 — is fatal to all plant life in the universe.
“I’m sorry I disobeyed you,” Supergirl says. “But I was so certain my plan to destroy him was foolproof, I flew into space and searched till I found that fragment of white kryptonite!”
“I can’t scold you for saving my life and thinking so brilliantly!” Superman replies, thinking to himself, “I’ll reward her by letting he world know about Supergirl… Very soon!”
That would happen eight months later.
“This was a very early Action purchase for me, maybe the first,” Alfred Walker recalled. “When I think of a Perry White cover, this is the one I see. A strong month on the stands: Superman 146, Supe grilling on the beach with the beautiful Lana and Jimmy as King of the Giant Ants.”
“There’s a lot of information to be absorbed on this cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye,” noted Paul Kupperberg. “Even as Masterman, Perry retains his literary/journalistic instincts, understanding the importance of symbolism in a story… or, more likely, as some convoluted plot point.”
Although the Superman of this era is often dismissed as being boringly all-powerful, it’s worth noting the several times he has to be rescued by somebody else in these stories.
And it’s Supergirl who gets the last word in this one, observing, “Isn’t it ironic that what defeated Perry White was white kryptonite?”
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