Third and last part of the Superman vs. Zha-Vam story.
Zha-Vam is made of clay, something taken from ancient mythology that was also used in the origin of Wonder Woman.
Like Captain Marvel, Zha-Vam gets his powers from pagan gods, actually some of the same ones, because he is basically another version of Captain Marvel. But this time, the motive of the pagan deities is revenge, so it is clear that they are up to no good. Dale remarked that getting power from pagan gods wasn't much different than getting power from the Devil anyway.
Like Zha-Vam, Superman gets help from some of the pagan gods in this story. But they are a different group than the ones who are responsible for Zha-Vam. Those guys were in the wrong, and the implication is that the ones that help Superman are on the side of right.
Using the power of Atlas to beat the power of Hercules has a kind of logic about it, but Hercules was supposed to have held the world on his shoulders in place of Atlas in one story. He just didn't do it all the time.
Zha-Vam returns to the clay from which he came, and the pagan deities whom he served are themselves no more by the story's end.
A
