Action Comics #25
Action Comics #25 (June 1940) is a rich capsule of the early Golden Age anthology format at its fullest: eight separate features across 68 pages, all published by Detective Comics, Inc. at a dime a copy. Its Superman lead story is notable for staging one of the earliest on-panel moments in which Lois Lane actively pursues Superman's secret identity — she consults a hypnotist specifically to unmask him — a narrative tension that would define the character's dynamic for decades. The villain of that lead strip, Medini, stands as a notable early example of a de facto superhuman opponent for Superman, one whose hypnotic powers actually succeed in temporarily incapacitating the Man of Steel, a storytelling development that pushed the creative team to expand the hero's vulnerability and recovery in ways the strip had not previously explored. The issue also continues the Black Pirate serial, one of the very few swashbuckling adventure strips in DC's Golden Age lineup, demonstrating how broadly the anthology hedged its bets across genres well beyond superheroes.
"Amnesiac Robbers" kicks off in Action Comics #25 (1940), a landmark issue featuring Superman’s early adventures drawn with bold clarity by Joe Shuster, whose distinctive art defines the character’s first golden age. The story unfolds amid a promotional spread for the Superman radio show, spotlighting eight East Coast states and encouraging fans to write their local stations to tune in—sponsored by Force cereal, a nostalgic touch from the era.
When a string of bank guards and messengers wake up with no memory of their high-stakes money runs, Superman steps in to uncover the mystery behind the amnesia—before the next transport goes missing.
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The issue carries a cover date of June 1940 and a recorded publication date of April 24, 1940, with cover art by Wayne Boring, who was then an assistant in the Shuster studio and would go on to become one of the defining Superman artists of the 1940s and 1950s. The Superman lead was scripted by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Paul Cassidy, with Cassidy's work appearing under the Joe Shuster studio byline — a standard practice of the era as Shuster managed a ghost-art operation to meet the anthology's monthly demands. Gardner F. Fox contributed both the Three Aces script and the Zatara script, while Sheldon Moldoff handled art on both the Black Pirate and Clip Carson installments; Fred Guardineer both wrote and drew the Zatara story, and Bernard Baily drew Tex Thomson. Whitney Ellsworth and Murray Boltinoff served as editors.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: June 1940; publication date: April 24, 1940; published by Detective Comics, Inc. at a cover price of ten cents for 68 pages of full-color content.
- Cover art is by Wayne Boring; the Superman lead story ('Amnesiac Robbers') was scripted by Jerry Siegel with art by Paul Cassidy, credited under the Joe Shuster studio name.
- The Superman story introduces Medini, a hypnotist villain who actually succeeds in temporarily incapacitating Superman with hypnosis — an early instance of a de facto superhuman foe for the character, predated in that regard only by the Ultra-Humanite.
- Lois Lane visits Medini specifically to learn Superman's secret identity — one of the earliest on-panel efforts by Lois to unmask Clark Kent in the comics continuity.
- This issue marks the final on-panel appearance of Gargantua T. Potts; the next issue's caption explains he has joined the French Foreign Legion, but he is never seen again.
- The Black Pirate (Jon Valor) segment — created by Sheldon Moldoff and introduced in Action Comics #23 — continues here as a multi-part serial; the strip ran in Action Comics through issue #42 before migrating to Sensation Comics and All-American Comics.
- The Pep Morgan story features a Nazi U-Boat in its first appearance in the strip, reflecting the European war's growing intrusion into even the non-superhero features of American comics in mid-1940.
- The Superman lead story has been reprinted in Superman: The Action Comics Archives Vol. 2 (1998), The Superman Chronicles Vol. 3 (2007), and Superman: The Golden Age Vol. 2 (2016).
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↩ Reprints Superman #5 (1940)
Reprinted in Superman in Action Comics #1 (1993), Superman: The Action Comics Archives #2 (1998), The Superman Chronicles #3 (2007), Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus #1 (2013), Superman: The Golden Age #2 (2017), DC Finest: Superman: The First Superhero #[nn] (2025)
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