Action Comics #103

“THE ROAD TO HAPPINESS.” Lois and Clark take a trip to Central America to cover the opening of an ancient Mayan temple. What they find inside will call for a little help from Superman!

Cover: Superman reprimands a man for dropping a safe on him - compared to the cover of issue #87.

Superman:

Lois and Clark are in Central America to cover the opening of a 1000-year-old pre-Mayan pyramid by a team of archaeologists. The morning of the scheduled opening, however, the expedition leader arrives to announce that all the workers ran away during the night, fearing the curse inscribed on the pyramid's seal. Clark decides that Superman should investigate inside the pyramid before the team goes in, so he slips away and burrows underground, entering the pyramid's subterranean chamber. There, he discovers several hundred ancient people in what appears to be suspended animation. However, Superman's use of a flashlight (in the days before his "infra-red vision" could see in the dark) has triggered the awakening of the ancient civilization. The first to awaken are Haxtl, chief of the Council of the Wise, and their ruler, Empress Nara. Haxtl tells Superman that the pyramid contains a device that will return the entire world to the way it was 1000 years ago, and in the process obliterate everything that has happened since then.

Meanwhile, on the surface, the expedition has succeeded in opening the pyramid at the top, and they, together with Lois, descend the staircase to the room where Superman is. In that room, the awakening of the ancients continues, and Nara's cousin and co-ruler Quexo, head of the army, has awakened and decrees that the interlopers should be killed. Superman, of course, easily defeats the soldiers, but the machine has already started the process of regressing the Earth to 1000 years earlier. Haxtl tells Superman that if he tries to stop the process by smashing the machine, he would need to kill all the ancients. Superman refuses to take life, so asks if there is any other way the process can be stopped. Haxtl says that not only does the machine regress the Earth, but it also grants all the ancients immortality, so if it was broken they would grow old and die. Superman makes a deal with Haxtl that if he can convince him that there is enough goodness in modern civilization to make it worth saving, the ancients will consent to become mortal.

Superman then takes Haxtl, Nara and Quexo on a tour of Metropolis, showing them all the technological wonders that have happened in the past 1000 years. Haxtl and Nara are becoming convinced, but Quexo believes them deluded and tries to kill them during a tour of an electricity-generating station. Superman saves Haxtl and Nara, but in the fight, Quexo stumbles into an electrical grid and is killed. With Quexo gone, Nara and Haxtl agree to become mortal and allow Superman to destroy the time machine.

Contents

1. The Road to Happiness (Superman)
2. The Postman Never Rings (Zatara)
3. The Sea of Missing Ships (Congo Bill)
4. Dog's Life (2-page text story by Stan Carter)
5. The Policeman's Rival (Hayfoot Henry)
6. The Rainbow Man's Return (Vigilante)