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This is one of many stories that may or may not have ever happened, post-Crisis, but as it is the first (I believe) story to bring the Global Guardians into the DCU continuity (as opposed to being only in the Superfriends continuity), I choose to believe that it happened post-Crisis.
Superman gets a message from Dr. Mist to meet him to deal with a great threat. Superman shows up at Dr. Mist's HQ, where he is told of the villainous Thaumar Dhai. Dhai was an Atlantean sorceror 12,000 years ago (I should check to see if this contradicts the Atlantis Chronicles...) in fact his six talismans made him the mightiest. These talismans consisted of: a silver armlet, a crown with a diamond in it, a gold necklace, a scepter with a pearl in it, a breastplate with a meteoric fragment imbedded in it, and a belt with a buckle made of orichalcum, a metal mentioned by Plato as being used in Atlantis. (You can tell this is an E. Nelson Bridwell story, can't you?)
Escaping from Atlantis 600 years before Dr. Mist's time, Dhai lost his belt. When Dr. Mist and Dhai fought in Kor (where Mist ruled), Mist, unable to defeat Dhai, banished him from Kor. Dhai, however, went on to do evil in the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria), losing his breastplate in what is now Israel. Dhai continued to travel the world, losing talismans wherever he went. His necklace was lost in Ireland before the Celts arrived, his armlet was lost in Greece during the heroic age, his crown was lost in a pre-Inca city, and his scepter in Japan, a mere 1700 years ago.
Without his talismans, Dhai was destroyed, though it is possible to revive him with those six lost items. Looking into the future, Mist can tell that nothing can stop certain wizards from reviving Dhai! Yet, he sends Superman out to team up with the Global Guardians (see Who's Who entrys or the updated ones at the FTP site) one at a time. (This is before the Global Guardians formed as a group, but I will refer to them as such.)
So, Superman and the Seraph fly out and encounter Seraph's old foes Ashtoreth and Moloch, who "bear the names of ancient deities", as opposed to *being* ancient deities. Superman flies at Moloch, who hurts Superman with his flaming body before punching him with his "mighty, magical strength." Then Ashtoreth blinds Seraph with her moon-amulet, causing Seraph to cry out, "Joshua's shofar! You never used THAT spell before! I'm as blind as Samson in slavery!" While the villains are distracted with Seraph, Superman has apparently found the breastplate which the villains seek, and arrives holding it. Ashtoreth, however, pulls it from his grasp with magical magnetism, and teleports herself and Moloch away. One down, five to go.
Superman then arrives in Greece to team up with the Olympian. They encounter Echidne, an old foe of Olympian's. (She has no relationship to any other Echidne or Echidna in the comics.) Her upper half is that of a beatiful blonde woman in armor; her lower half is that of a snake, at least 40 feet long and spiky. She uses the teeth of the dragon slain by Kadmos (also known as Cadmus) to cause warriors to spring up from the earth. Superman and Olympian easily battle them, despite Echidne's complaint that being magical they should be able to hurt Superman. (However, as they have no magical powers, they cannot.) Superman finds the armlet, and shows it to the Olympian. Echidne then summons forth the Hydra which snatches the armlet from Superman's grasp, as Echidne teleports herself and the Hydra away. Two down, four to go.
Superman arrives in Denmark to team up with the Little Mermaid, and they swim down to "one of the Atlantide cities that *didn't* survive the sinking of the continent." (Oops. I'm almost certain that'll contradict the Atlantis Chronicles...) They discover the Little Mermaid's old foe, Søtrold the Sea Troll. Søtrold causes the skeletons of the city's original inhabitants to rise up and attack. These skeletons are hard to defeat, as they won't stop even when smashed completely. Supes and the Little Mermaid have to spin at top speed to throw the skeletal parts in all directions. Supes finds the belt, and Little Mermaid swims away with it, allowing Søtrold to punch her out and take the belt. The Sea Troll is gone by the time Superman arrives to help her. (?) Three down, three to go.
In Ireland, Superman teams up with Jack O'Lantern and his friend Fergus of the Sidhe (pronounced Shee). Actually, Fergus is a fir dhearga (whatever...). They fly towards one of the "fairy hills" some of which "still hold relics of ancient times." At midnight, when Jack's powers are at their height, they fly through a hill into a cavern where they meet Jack's old foe, Dubh Magus, who has already found the golden necklace. (D'oh!) Superman's supersuction breath pulls it from Magus' grasp, but Magus' pet wolf Lupus attacks Superman; being magical, Lupus can harm Superman and can't be banished by Jack's lantern. However, Jack can and does teleport Superman away. Lupus is sent to sniff out Superman (the wolf flies through the wall), as Dubh Magus conjures up the imps of the inferno with the power of his Blackthorn stick. Narrowly defeating the imps by creating a flaming cross with his lantern, Jack is helpless, as Lupus drags back Superman through the wall, along with the necklace. Magus grabs the necklace and teleports himself and Lupus away. Four down, two to go.
In Brazil, Superman teams up with Green Fury, whose magical powers include Instachange, Flight, Flame Project, Cold Project, and Hypnotism, unlike the post-Crisis Green Flame/Fire. They fly towards the pre-Inca city, where they encounter El Dorado. El Dorado is *not* the Superfriends TV show character; instead, he is one of Bushmaster's old foes. He conjures up spirit jaguars which can hurt Superman, yet Superman can't touch them (thanks to a Dispersal power). However, since Green Fury's fire is magical, it can hurt the jaguars. Superman finds the crown, but a jaguar snatches it from his grasp. El Dorado takes it, and teleports away with his jaguars. Five down, one to go.
In Japan, Superman meets up with Rising Sun; they travel to Mt. Fujiyama, where they encounter Rising Sun's old foe, Yuki-Onna the Snow Woman. She conjures up a fubuki (a blizzard) to stop them, and not even Superman's superbreath can defeat it. However, Sun knows that she is vulnerable to his heat powers. Before he can make use of this fact, she conjures up her giant friends the Oni, whose "strength is great, as is their magic--but their intelligence would shame a monkey!" Rising Sun uses Flash on one Oni, while giving a bad sunburn (?) to the others with ultraviolet rays. While they are distracted, Superman finds and snatches the scepter. Yuki-Onna sends the Oni after him; Supes flies into the sea, but they follow and wrest the scepter from him. They return to Yuki-Onna who teleports all of them away. Six down, none to go.
Have the villains won? Then why does Rising Sun say "But--our plan worked!"
On Easter Island, the villains use the six talismans to revive Thaumar Dhai. After they finish, the heroes, hiding behind those big head statues, rush out to stop them. Dhai animates the statues, but his magic is weak, and they are easily defeated. Superman reveals why Dhai's magic is weak: he substituted fake versions of the talismans for the real ones; the villains all got away with the fake versions, while the real ones are safely with Dr. Mist!
Jack and Fury use thier magical attacks on Dhai, and the spell which revived him is undone. (The fate of the talismans is unclear.) The magical villains are then easily defeated: Seraph's Staff of Moses deprives Magus of his Blackthorn Stick; Little Mermaid knocks together the heads of Ashtoreth and Yuki-Onna; Olympian punches out the Sea Troll; Rising Sun absorbs Moloch's heat; and Superman ties up El Dorado with the tail of Echidne.
Then Dr. Mist shows up and turns these international heroes into a group called the Global Guardians.
