Time and Time Again. Again.
Superman meets Mr. Z again for the first time, and also the Legion of Superheroes again for the first time. It's a little confusing.
Superman #54
Last issue, the Spectre teleported Superman to the Warsaw ghetto, where in this issue he meets Mr. Z (from Superman #51) for the first time. Superman has been hesitant about doing anything that could possibly change the future, so he tries to keep a low profile while fighting the Nazis. This issue lets readers enjoy a more subdued Man of Steel, closer to how he acted in the comics of the 1940's. In an iconic moment, he derails a train of prisoners headed to the death camp and recognizes the aftermath as the train wreck that Mr. Z had previously shown him in a photograph. The Nazis drop an experimental atomic bomb on the city, but Superman catches it and carries it to a safe distance to detonate, leaving no trace of the Man of Steel.
We get one page in each issue to catch up with the supporting cast in the present. Bibbo is giving away a lot of drinks at his new bar, Jimmy's mom comes home and interrupts his date with Lucy Lane; Lexcorp is working overtime trying to discover the identity of Lex's mysterious illegitimate heir; and Lois wonders if Clark will ever return.
In a back-up story, the clones of the Newsboy Legion and the Guardian fight a Jimmy Olsen clone as the DNAlien.
Adventures of Superman #477
The Linear Man observes that the Man of Steel has been ricocheting through time and seems to want to find a way to help Superman get back to his own time. Superman presently finds himself in the future on a dead alien planet covered in ice and his first priority is to find more oxygen so he can get to an inhabitable world. At the same time, a slightly older Legion of Superheroes discovers that the Sun Eater has returned. The Sun Eater is a mindless, living cloud of gas that literally devours stars for fuel. The last time the Legion encountered a Sun Eater they only managed to stop it thanks to the noble sacrifice of Ferro Lad (Adventure Comics #353, 1967). They attempt the same plan as before, this time with Wildfire trying to detonate an absorption bomb in the Sun Eater's core, but they miss their target.
From the other world, Superman watches the Sun Eater destroy a star and deduces that this is what killed the planet on which he is now stranded. Fortunately, under the ice he finds a functioning space ship left behind by the planet's former inhabitants, which provides him breathable air and a way off the planet. Superman finds this Legion, but while he recognizes Lightning Lad, they don't seem to know of the previous Legion members he's met, like Blok (back in Superman #8). Superman helps the Legion destroy the Sun Eater, but he disappears in the explosion that follows.
At this point in their own series, the Legion has had several soft retcons as a result of Crisis on Infinite Earths and their current stories are set 5 years further into the future. In fact, the Legion of Superheroes logo used on this cover hasn't actually been seen in the comics since 1987, so this issue is a nostalgic throwback. Superman will meet that version of the Legion next month, which will have major ramifications to be continued in their own book. Superman and the rest of the DC Universe will encounter a Sun Eater again in the Final Night crossover of 1996.
On our single page in the present, the Lexcorp board has still made no progress, while Perry and Alice White decide they have to do something to save their marriage.
Action Comics #664
Superman finds himself on prehistoric Earth with dinosaurs. Months later, Superman has grown a beard as happens from not shaving. One day he hears something he never expected to hear, a human scream! He finds the villain Chronos is also stranded in the primitive past. After Superman shares his story of how he got there, Chronos hypothesizes that his body may have absorbed chronal energy, which may explain why he bounces through time after each explosion. Chronos says he believes he can get them both back to the present, but Superman doesn't quite trust the villain. His mistrust is warranted, as Chronos does in fact try to betray the Man of Steel. He uses his heat vision to destroy the machine before Chronos can get back to his own time without Superman, and the explosion sends him slightly forward to the Pleistocene Period. Fortunately, Superman remembers from the forgettable story in Superman #6 that an alien race called the H'v'Ler'n were on Earth during this period. It's kind of impressive that multiple footnotes this month are still referencing stories from 1987 several creative teams later. Superman miraculously finds them on the day they were leaving Earth. He simply positions himself under their rockets as their ships take off and the explosion jaunts him forward to medieval Camelot on the last page.
Back in the present, Jimmy's mom shows Lucy his baby pictures and he decides it's time to get his own place. Perry and Alice decide to take the honeymoon they never really had.
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