Action Comics #353

Action Comics #353 (On Sale: June 29, 1967) has Wayne Boring's last cover for DC, and in fact, only his second cover in the past 10 years. Boring's style never quite left the 40s and 50s. Starting with DC in 1940, he drew these chunky characters with their rigid torsos that just oozed old "gone but not forgotten" DC clunk. Pencils by Wayne Boring, inks by George Klein.

Inside we continue last month's story with, "The Battle of the Gods" by Otto Binder and Wayne Boring. While returning to Earth after a mission in space Superman is blocked by his enemy Zha-Vam. Zha-Vam uses the shield of Orion to prevent Superman's passage back to Earth. The Man of Steel circumvents the obstruction by traveling back in time to the days of the Greek gods. He visits Mount Olympus and discovers Zha-Vam's origins.

The Oracle has told Zeus that one day the gods will be forgotten and Superman will be hailed by the people. Angry, Zeus orders the construction of a pseudo-man powered by the gods themselves. He then sends the newly created being, Zha-Vam, into the future to battle Superman.

The back-up Supergirl story is "The Cosmic Collectors" by Otto Binder and Jim Mooney. Linda Danvers takes a part time job a the school library where she discovers Joe Trent checking out several science books. When he returns the next day for more books, Linda becomes suspicious. She watches him take the books to an alien spacecraft.

The following day, Linda intercepts Joe and takes the books to the ship as Supergirl. Inside the ship she finds a group of disembodied brains that form the Living Library of Zorkia. They are traveling the universe absorbing knowledge to take back to their home planet.

The brains then want to use Supergirl in their living library. When she refuses, the brains stun her with Kryptonite. They then force her super brain to absorb all the stored knowledge and take her to their homeworld. Supergirl is then forced to serve as a living library for the people of Zorkia.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.