I wrote awhile back that I had read all the Action issues from #230-#240 and could not really note any discernable change in the editorial style until #241, the first issue that bore the unmistakable imprint of Mort Weisinger's heavy hand.
Well, I was wrong, and I was wrong because I had not read many of the issues that came before #230. Looked at in context, it is easy to see that Weisinger was intimately involved in the Superman stories of 1958 (and even earlier), and that these stories presage the Silver Age Superman to a very large degree.
Let's start with Action #231, from August 1957:
This was an unusual story for Action, as it heavily featured Jimmy Olsen, who despite his billing as Superman's Pal in his own magazine, was definitely second fiddle (or possibly fifth clarinet) to Lois Lane as a supporting character in any of Supe's main mags. Weisinger regularly published stories in Action and Superman that featured Jimmy and Lois, stories that clearly belonged in their own mags. But he was cross-selling; making the Superman readers more interested in the other characters as well.
Although it is not mentioned in #232, Jimmy Olsen's signal ring started popping up in Superman stories starting with Action #236:
The DC Wikia says that Jimmy's signal watch
first appeared in Action #238, which is clearly wrong; aside from the earlier mention above, it was actually mentioned in every story of Jimmy Olsen #1, which came out three years earlier, and used in Jimmy Olsen #2>
Superman had used occasional robots over the years, but this was probably the first serious one:
But even that one required Superman to control it remotely with his X-ray vision. Far more independent robots were coming soon.
So I was wrong to say that Weisinger's touch was not evident in Action #230-#240.
