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.
(All covers illustrated by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye unless otherwise noted.)
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A letter column comment in "Batman Family" (in #3-5, not sure where) reveals that the Batgirl-Robin story was originally meant for "First Issue Special", so we do know that it was written as a proposal for regular team-ups.
SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND, LOIS LANE #23:
"The 10 Feats of Elastic Lass!" by Otto Binder and Kurt Schaffenberger - Lois convinces Jimmy to allow her to use Professor Potter's stretching serum to allow her to get a scoop. Jimmy gives her enough for only ten stretches, and just like that, the story's formula is set as she frivolously wastes them until the end, when she needs them most.
I'll give her this: She usually "wastes" her 10 stretches helping people in minor ways. So, as I have said before, these stories don't do Lois any favors in a lot of ways, but she is generally shown to be a good person. OTOH, her snap decision that Raphael Byron is the bomber, then deciding to stalk him, and commit B&E on his studio, is unconscionable. And Jimmy gets police to break the door down with no evidence. Those cops would have needed a warrant, and none of what they found would have stood up in court. Lois is darn lucky her hunch was correct, or she'd probably be facing charges. Byron would probably win a civil suit against her anyway.
And I'm just amazed that Jimmy Olsen somehow finds the competency and the maturity in THIS ONE STORY to not only be the adult in the room for Lois' unethical request, but to measure (and get right) exactly enough serum to give Lois exactly 10 stretches. He'll go right back to being a boob after this. So weird to see a no-nonsense Jimmy. You'd think he'd jump right in with her. Maybe he was still using the "grown-up" serum on the sly, measuring it out so that he didn't outgrow his clothes.
"The Curse of Lena Thorul!" by Jerry Siegel and Kurt Schaffenberger - the first appearance of Lex Luthor's sister, Lena "Thorul." She doesn't know she's the sister of a notorius criminal, and Lex is determined to keep her from finding out. He uses super-science to put Lois off the trail, but the gullible girl reporter thinks it's witchcraft.
Wait, Lex Luthor's plan is to convince Lois and Superman that his sister is a witch? Lex Luthor? The scientific genius? THAT'S HIS CUNNING SCHEME?
Also, even as a child I realized instantly that Thorul was an anagram of Luthor. They could have come up with a more subtle anagram. Lorhut? Rulhot? Ulroth? But really, next time they should just rename themselves "Smith."
"The Wife of Superman!" - by Jerry Siegel and Kurt Schaffenberger (cover story) - "No. 3 of an Imaginary series." - Lois Kent is jealous of Lana Lang.
There's a problem with these stories in that the central conflict of the series is resolved: Lois has landed her man. What they've done is replace that conflict with another: Be careful what you wish for. In some ways, I find that more satisfying.
Also, it's of note that Perry suddenly thinks a woman's place is in the home, and other newspapers won't hire her because her first priority is her children. Lois' inability to get work is because of story needs, of course, but the reasons ussed here aren't that different from the arguments conservatives have been making for decades, and still use today.
Lois is darn lucky her hunch was correct...
She's also lucky he just blurts out a confession: "Uh... all right, I confess! I had the materials hidden in that hollow statue! My scheme was to blow up all the statues in the park! Then the mayor would have put my great works of art there! I'm a genius, you know." Yes, a very stable one. Those were the first words out of his mouth. Dude, you have the right to remain silent. Maybe his lawyer will be able to get him off because he was not Mirandized.
They could have come up with a more subtle anagram.
Lois even thinks, "What a strange name! It's almost like the name of a girl from another world!"
Also, it's of note that Perry suddenly thinks a woman's place is in the home, and other newspapers won't hire her because her first priority is her children.
Yes, a married woman. The other editor goes on to say, "If your kids caught the measles, you'd quit us to take care of them at home!" The measles... how timely. What's old is new again. And yeah, that does sound a lot like the rhetoric of one J.D. Vance.
They could have come up with a more subtle anagram.
Lois even thinks, "What a strange name! It's almost like the name of a girl from another world!"
Next, Lois probably thinks “Why don’t both of her names start with L?”
The other editor goes on to say, "If your kids caught the measles, you'd quit us to take care of them at home!"
Time for a PSA. When I was a kid, I had measles. Which kind? The immunizations didn’t exist then, so I recently wondered if I needed the shot. My doctor told me that they have a test to determine whether I have the antibodies or not. The test told us that I was already immune to Measles, Rubella (formerly called German Measles) and Mumps.
It's a good thing that getting up for work is no longer a thing with me, for I was just about to turn in when I tumbled to this thread and, of course, I had to read it through. Early into it, my Silver-Age emergency signal went off, but as it turned out, mostly it was a false alarm. Let's go with the triggers . . .
I have a question about this one. Jimmy is frequently referred to as a “boy” throughout, and is not fully grown. How old is he supposed to be?
The only specific benchmark I can provide as to Jimmy's age is "Jimmy Olsen's Wildest Adventure", from Jimmy Olsen # 61 (Jul., 1962). This story---as the text and Jimbo's thoughts and dialogue directly state---takes place on the day he turns twenty-one. Just how old he was in "Jimmy Olsen Grows Up" would be a matter of conjecture, but certainly he wouldn't be any younger than eighteen or nineteen.
Lana makes another appearance, a little cattier about Clark than usual. When was she established as a “TV newscaster” (her description in the Super-Lana/Super Lois story)? Was there ever an establishing story of her moving to Metropolis and becoming a thorn in Lois’ side? Or did she just start showing up in stories like these?
I spent a good twenty minutes going through my issues containing the earliest adult Lana Lang appearances, making notes . . . only to then continue reading the thread and discover that my pal Jeff provided the same information that I'd found and in impressive chapter-and-verse detail. Good on him.
[B]ut when Batgirl debuted, she was clearly post-college (maybe post-grad school) and Robin was in junior high or high school. I always thought of her as considerably older . . .
Luis Olaro de Moura Dantas provided quite a detailed rundown on the significant events and relationships in Barbara Gordon's life, with regard to the ups and downs of her age. The only thing I have to add is that her level of formal education was established when she was introduced in "The Million-Dollar Debut of Batgirl", Detective Comics # 359 (Jan., 1967). Barbara's own thoughts nail it down: "I made my Ph.D. at Gotham State University! I graduated summa cum laude!" Unless you're a Sheldon Cooper, even a fast-tracked post-graduate programme wouldn't get you your doctorate before you were twenty-four or twenty-five. Most folks are a lot older before they get to put initials at the end of their names.
So, I really wasn't needed here. Heh, maybe it's time to turn in my Silver-Age signaling device since you fellows are getting sharper and sharper.
Thanks for the input, Commander.
One of the things that attract me to mainstream comics is their effect on the perception of the passage of time. Sometimes I feel like galleries of covers might almost as well be representative samples of marketing and anthropological expectations across the decades.
We have just discussed how that applies to the perception of the age of Barbara Gordon. Now I want to consolidate some thoughts about the change in perceived age of Robin. Something in the back of my mind for the time being.
Dick Grayson is identified as "nineteen" in Crisis on Infinite Earths. This struck me at the time as too young, even given the problematic passing of time in comics. It felt like he should be in his twenties as Nightwing.
That really seems too young to me, too.
I think there's a lot of interesting work trying to reconcile canon and pin down the details of things -- ages, locations, etc. But I'm also of the opinion that sometimes the people who established the canon -- who have numbered in the hundreds at this point, if not thousands -- can be just plain wrong. And we've all got to decide for ourselves whether any particular fact makes sense for our own undertanding of the narrative. (Or, as is sometimes the case, which particular fact makes sense -- because often two facts will contradict each other.)
In his last few years as Robin, Dick had become increasingly mature and adult, no doubt, particularly after he settled as the leader of the New Teen Titans in the early 1980s. He was shown to handle multiple activities and responsibilities, to have moved from the Wayne residence, to be in a serious relationship and to be a capable and reliable team leader.
Batman #217 and Detective #397 (late 1969) famously show Dick finishing High School and entering Hudson University as the Batman leaves the Batcave and enters his "Detective" phase. Of course, this is shortly after the TV show, which showed a Robin that could not be much younger than 16, ended.
As noted above, he had a weird thing going on with Barbara between 1975-1978, while simultaneously being in a serious relationship with Lori Elton from Detective #450 (mid 1975) which was definitely resolved in #483 (1979).
Detective #495 (late 1980) has a Jack C. Harris story where Robin realizes that he can't keep trying to balance Hudson University with his life as Robin. Batman #330-335 (by Marv Wolfman; late 1980 and early 1981) show Robin and Batman clashing about his dropping out of Hudson University and their degrees of trust in Talia Al Ghul. Dick and Bruce are also clashing in DC Presents #26 (first New Teen Titans appearance, late 1980) and New Teen Titans #1 (late 1980/early 1981) and #37 (late 1983), the latest being the first part of a crossover with Batman and the Outsiders.
The crossover continues in Batman and the Outsiders #5, where Dick actually puts Bruce down a peg by pointing out that he is a far more experienced team leader than Bruce and ought to be listened to when they decide their joint strategy. This was before the Invincible Bat-God era that continues to this day, so Bruce does listen.
So it was with shock, but definitely not without understanding, that we saw him leave the Robin identity (New Teen Titans #39) and assume that of Nightwing in Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (1984).
I suspect that Dick's age was a main immediate motivator for Crisis. It was a convenient reason to disregard previous dating and leave the past in flux.
Post-Crisis, Batman #408 (mid-1987) has a flashback establishing that he was nineteen years old when last using the Robin identity. Meanwhile, "The Flash" Vol 2 #1 (also mid-1987) establishes that Wally has just turned twenty. The team book is still "The New Teen Titans" (Vol 2) up until #49 (late 1988).
Of course, Rob Staeger just above is correct as well.
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