DC Finest - Superman Family

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I haven't been looking forward to this collection quite as much as the upcoming Superboy one, but still I'll likely get around to reading it sooner rather than later, hence the stub. (If anyone else wants to delve into it ahead of me, please feel free to do so.) This one includes Action Comics #266 & #277-278, Adventure Comics #287, Superman #142-143 & #147, Superboy #87, #90 & #92, Lois Lane #19-28 and Jimmy Olsen #47-56. I don't know why these issue in particular, but at least their choice demonstrates that someone has put some thought into it.

I used to like those b&w DC Showcase and Marvel Essential collections... at least I liked the idea of them. Although I would have preferred color, I bought the ones I didn't have and didn't expect to see reprinted in color any time soon, including the DC Showcase edition  of Superman Family. I am pleased to report there there is very little duplication between the  DCF volume and the four Showcase editions:

• Vol. 1 - Jimmy Olsen #1-22 and Showcase #9
• Vol. 2 - Jimmy Olsen #23-34, Showcase #10 and Lois Lane #1-7
• Vol. 3 - Jimmy Olsen #35- 44 and Lois Lane #8-16
• Vol. 4 - Jimmy Olsen #45-53 and Lois Lane #17-26

That's only 15 issues of duplication, and only with Showcase volume four.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I couldn't wait. First up is...

ACTION COMICS #266 - "The World's Mightiest Cat" by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney

This is the one in which one of Linda Lee's fellow orphans is a young Bruce Banner. We already covered this in the "Supergirl Archives" discussion. Here's what Bob had to say about it.

^{1) We open with Superman and Krypto doing stunts to amuse the orphans, which is nice of them.  One boy, Paul, imagines what it would be like if Streaky had super-powers.  (Side Note: I notice that we only see Streaky when there’s a Streaky-centric story. Once they’d established him, they could easily have thrown in the occasional shot of him sleeping in the background, something that cats do about 90% of the time, anyway.)}

 ^{2) Streaky finds the X-Kryptonite and drags it into the orphanage cellar and gains super-powers again.  He sets out to show his powers to Paul.  We get the old cliché of Paul being the only who sees Streaky using his powers, with Supergirl racing around to cover up for him.}

 ^{3) Supergirl and Streaky go to Africa where they help some natives deal with hostile animals. So, I guess it’s OK for her to reveal herself to “primitives”, knowing that “civilized” (i.e., white) men won’t believe them?}

 ^{4) Supergirl feels bad for Paul because everyone’s calling him a lying scumbag, so she summons Krypto and, with his cooperation, “frames” him for Streaky’s misdeeds.}

 ^{Overall:  An OK gag story, I suppose. That cover was kind of misleading, though.}

This edition of DC Finest begins in 1960.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Next up is...

SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND, LOIS LANE #19:

This issue has three stories, all drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger and written by three different writers. The cover story, "Mr. and Mrs. Clark Kent" by Jerry Siegel, was previously covered in the "Imaginary Stories on Infinite Earths" discussion. The other two are...

• "The Day Lois Forgot Superman" by Robert Bernstein - Lois agrees to have herself hypnotized to forget Superman. The ending is telegraphed on page three.
• "The Superman of the Past" by Otto Binder - The scent of a certain "rare cave blossom" knocks Lois out and cause her to dream of Samson (and Caesar). "Not a hoax, not an imaginary tale... a drug-induced hallucination."