Action Comics #384

Action Comics #384 (On Sale: November 26, 1969) has a nice cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. I particularly like the cop on this cover.

We begin with Superman in "The Forbidden Costume" by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and George Roussos.  Continuing from last issue, Superman is confronted at the Fortress of Solitude by two mysterious costumes, which he places on two Superman robots to see what will happen. The two robots begin fighting each other and when the dust clears the robots have been destroyed and the costumes are gone. We learn the costumes come from an interstellar prison transport that was caught in the tail of a comet, killing the convict and the enforcer that was transporting them, but not before they both transferred their essence to the suits.

Later, at the Daily Planet, Clark is forced to put on the criminals's costume. The costume knows Clark is Superman and uses his body to crash a luxury liner, but Supergirl shows up to make thing right again. back in Metropolis, Clark helps a convict by hiding him in the Daily Planet globe, but Batman shows up and rearrests him. The next morning the suit is furious, learning that Superman knew Supergirl and Batman would be showing up and only pretended to create havoc. The suit frames itself for multiple crimes and Superman is unable to take it off so he puts his suit on over the top. The suit then forces Superman to attack a few cops and demand that he be x-rayed. Yeah, it makes little sense, but it does lead us to the cover shot.

The enforcer suit shows up and takes Superman away where the two essences to fight each other, ending up with Superman wearing both suits. He flies into space and under the rays of an orange sun the essences leave the suits and Superman returns home.

That is followed by the Legion of Super-Heroes in "Lament for a Legionnaire" by Jim Shooter, Winslow Mortimer and Jack Abel. This is Jim Shooter's last story for DC for about five years. He will work at Marvel for a week or two and then leaves the comic book industry for a while, returning to Pittsburgh. After Dream Girl dreams that Mon-El will die in five days. He tries to find a cure but eventually accepts his fate. Wishing to be helpful to the very end, Mon-El goes on a three-day mission and while gone Dream Girl reveals that Mon-El will battle a band of inter-dimensional invaders on Friday.

When the day comes, Mon-El seems to stop the invasion only to be revealed as Eltro, a relative of Mon's from Daxam, having drugged the real Mon-El and left him on a planetoid. When they go to retrieve him they find his serum has worn off and the lead in the planetoid's rocks has killed him. Eltro scoops up Mon's body and flies to Earth. The LSH follow and find that Eltro has built some sort of exchanger that transfers his life to Mon-El's body, sacrificing himself so that Mon-El may live.

Edited by Mort Weisinger.