Action Comics#42(1941)

Four influential men, science lecturer Carl Bransom, writer Nick Flaherty, politician John Standing and industrialist Freeman Chase, all vanish mysteriously. Clark Kent contends that these are no ordinary kidnappings, as all four have been missing for weeks without a ransom demand. Just then, Bransom's family receive a ransom demand for $50,000. Clark goes to report on it. Although the press are being kept out, he hears that Mrs. Bransom wants to pay the ransom. Changing to Superman, he stakes out the drop location. When a man picks up the ransom, Superman stops his car and interrogates him. He finds out that the man, Jake Mobray, works for the Dirk Chadwick mob, and he doesn't know where Bransom is. Just then, a ray of light comes down from above and blows up Mobray. Superman visits Chadwick, and finds that he didn't kidnap Bransom, he just tried to extort the money. The ray comes back and blows up the building, killing Chadwick. Failing to find the source of the ray, Clark goes home, and goes to bed. That night, Clark is kidnapped and taken to a vast city in the sky. He meets the other kidnapped men, and finds that they don't want to leave. He is brought before the leader, Zytal, who tells him that he is an interplanetary explorer who is gathering the brightest men to assist in his quest for knowledge, including Clark. Not satisfied with this explanation, he changes to Superman once alone, and investigates. He sees Zytal ripping away a face mask, revealing himself to be Luthor. He attacks Luthor, who uses a device to hypnotize him. Luthor sends him out to cause chaos. But when he sees Lois Lane being kidnapped by Luthor's hirelings, Superman rescues her. However, he delivers her to Luthor himself. When Lois and Luthor mention Clark, Superman changes back. Luthor dumps them both into a pit with a strange beast, after knocking out Lois. Superman defeats the beast and confronts Luthor, the hypnosis having worn off. Luthor shoots out the city-supporting anti-gravity device, and jumps off. Having no choice but to let Luthor go, Superman catches the city before it hits the ground. Back at the Daily Planet, Clark gets the story written up ahead of Lois.