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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SUPERMAN'S GIRLFRIEND, LOIS LANE #25:
"Lois Lane and Superman, Newlyweds!" by Jerry Siegel and Kurt Schaffenberger (cover story) - "No. 4 of an Imaginary Series" (See "Imaginary Stories on Infinite Earths").
Maybe Lois wouldn't be so miserable if Superman had created a protective vehicle that had a little style. And what kind of idiot thinks his wife wants to be locked in the Arctic every day? But he has to carry the idiot ball in these stories or they don't work.
Also, the robot's suggestion that he and the other robots wrestle alien zoo creatures for Lois' amusement ... is just weird. Do robots not know about television? Books? Movies? I'm a lifelong sci-fi fan, and I'm not into robots vs. imprisoned-animals wrestling. It just sounds cruel.
"Lois Lane's Darkest Secret!" by Robert Bernstein and Kurt Schaffenberger - Lois Lane uncovers a blackmail ring and sets up a sting operation to nail them. She learns that the drug they are using, diamethytribensol, can be nullified by drinking a pint of milk beforehand, but the blackmailers find out that she is wise to them and is setting them up. In the meantime, Lois learns that the Metropolis Museum has obtained a large kryptonite meteor. the blackmailers again subject her to the diamethytribensol gas, but without having drunk a pint of milk first, she reveals the existence of the meteor which could spell doom for Superman.
This story immediately made me think of a later Lois story that I actually own:
It's an entirely different story, by Otto Binder. Cross fingers that DC Finest will reprint this one, too. Because another story in this issue is part two of a Lois vs. Catwoman story -- the second Catwoman story of the Silver Age!
"The Three Lives of Lois Lane!" - by (unknown) and John Forte - While researching an article on "Famous Women of History," Lois is involved in a "minor auto accident" which causes her to believe she is, in turn, Florence Nightengale, Betsy Ross and Queen Isabella of Spain. Superman plays along with her delusions "so she won't suffer a complete mental breakdown." for some reason, he takes her into the past and beats up cavemen and dinosaurs. when none of his tricks work, he shows her Sylvia, her Kandorian duplicate, Bizarro Lois, and the "Lois Lane Room" of his Fortress. Finally [SPOILER], he writes Lois Lane herself into Lois's article, and when she reads it, it snaps her out of her delusion. [END SPOILER]
The scenes with the "bush men" are cringey from today's perspective, but nothing unusual for the time. Earlier in this thread a convo suggested what Superman should have done: Hit her in the head! That trick always works to restore memory.
This is the second issue of Lois Lane in a row that has Forte drawing the third story. I haven't looked ahead, so we'll see if that becomes a regular thing.
"Lois Lane's Darkest Secret!" by Robert Bernstein and Kurt Schaffenberger -
The more we have discussed the Weisinger stable of books, the more I’ve been surprised by the number of stories penned by Robert Bernstein. When he was scripting Thor and Iron Man stories as R, Berns in the infancy of Silver Age Marvel, I wasn’t impressed. Now I see what a long comics career he had:
Robert Bernstein (comics) - Wikipedia
Evidently we followed the same path, Richard. I remember seein "R. Berns" in early Thor and thinking, "Who?" And I wasn't very impressed. At some point I learned he had done some Superman work, which made sense, because those Thor stories were pretty Silver Age Superman-esque. But they didn't fit the character, and I was relieved when Stan and Jack returned in Journey into Mystery #100.
Then sometime later I learned just how extensive his comics work had been, and developed a new appreciation. Those early Thors still stink, but his Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen stories, as we have seen in this thread, were downright fun.
Stan Lee gave work to quite a few out-of-work DC writers, Robert Berns, Jerry Siegel and Gardner Fox among them.
His work with Ramona Fradon was the highlight of the Aquaman DC Finest for me. When he was replaced by Jack Miller, I felt like the stories took a big hit, even with Fradon still on board for a while.
SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #53:
This issue contains not only three stories drawn by Curt Swan, but three stories written by Curt Swan and drawn by Jerry Siegel.
Superman's "Space Missions": 7
Merlin was a 5th dimensuonal imp! Dpn't tell the Shining Knight that!
And, does that really mess up rereading Camelot 3000!
One of the stews looks like Lucy, so he (naturally) asks her to be his girlfriend. She turns him down because she is already married, explaioning, "Here in Kandor, rocket stewardesses can still keep their jobs after marriage." Was that true at the time? I working in the airline biz for 30 years and I never heard that.
Aye, friend Jeff, that was true at the time. Until the late 1960's and early 1970's, airlines required their stewardesses to be single. (I'm old enough to remember that---my first few times on a commercial aeroplane, there were no security screens or even metal detectors; it was just like you see in the old movies---we walked out onto the tarmac and boarded by going up the gantry stairs. On the other hand, I was too young to hit on those unmarried stews and have them take me seriously, alas.)
That requirement was vitiated in 1968 and 1970, when lawsuits resulted in Federal courts ruling against the no-marriage policy. The airlines had a grace period in which to make the change, but by 1973, every airline permitted its stewardesses to be married. (And, presumably, its stewards, as well. Although men had served as stewards on aircraft as early as 1912, by the end of the 1920's, they were phased out in favour of women, who were exclusive to the job until----aye, you guessed it---a Federal decision in a 1971 lawsuit required the position be open to men, again. By the late '70's, there were stewards on commercial aircraft.)
Hope this helps.
"The Boy in the Bottle!" by Jerry Siegel and Curt Swan - Supeman asks Jimmy to exchange places with Van-Zee in Kandor so that the scientist can assist him with his experiments to enlarge the bottle city. No sooner do they exhange places than the exchange ray craps out, standing Jimmy in Kandor and Van-Zee on Earth... "forever."
The story focuses on Jimmy Olsen, of course, and no doubt we kids in the '60s reading this would expect no other. But as an older man now reading this story, it occurs to me that the greater tragedy is Van-Zee being isolated from his wife and children, and they from him.
Also, my sense of proportion was always disturbed when Superman would pick somebody up with tweezers in Kandor or look at them through a magnifying glass. There were supposedly millions of people in Kandor, and that is not a very large bottle. I would think they wouldn’t be ant-size, as depicted here, but microscopic. At least in the Superman Emergency Squad story, they tossed in a line about how the Squad had to be enlarged enough to be the tiny size they were in the story.
What do y’all think? Were Kandorians ant-size, or microscopic, or something in between?
Jimmy decides to get a job, but working on a newspaper would remind him too much of working on the Planet, so he takes a job as an "earth monitor." He's supposed to be monitoring Earth's scientists, but he almost immediately tunes in on Lucy Lane instead. That's driving him nuts, so he quits and takes a succession of jobs, but each one reminds him of his old girlfriend.
Stories like this made little me think Jimmy was kind of shallow.
Point of information: Jimmy learns Kryptonese in this story, and retains that knowlege in some stories to come that I vaguely recall from my childhood. I think Lois learns Kryptonese at some point, too. Anyway, it’s rare for a story of this era to advance a character like that, and for it to stick.
[ASIDE: One of the jobs he took was "rocket-ship navigator." I wouldn't think that Kandor would be big enough to allow for "rocket-ship" travel, but whatever.
It looks like the rocket ship they’re in isn’t for travel—where would they go?—but for sight-seeing or commuting. Maybe “rocket ship” is what they call a commuter train in Kandor. I know, I’m stretching a bit, but I’m no-prizing away here.
One of the stews looks like Lucy, so he (naturally) asks her to be his girlfriend.
This is perfectly normal behavior … for children on a playground. It helps to think of Jimmy and Lois in those terms sometimes.
She turns him down because she is already married, explaining, "Here in Kandor, rocket stewardesses can still keep their jobs after marriage." Was that true at the time?
The Commander dealt with that in his usual thorough way, so all I can do is add that this rule did, in fact, exist, and was mentioned enough in sitcoms or comics that I knew of it, too.
Note: The stewardess’ name is Lona Lemais, because if you’re a girl in a Weisinger story, your initials are going to be LL. As Richard Willis said, if they weren’t LL, it would raise questions.
Further note: All those people in the theater pursing their lips in an air-kiss was vaguely disturbing. Thank God actual sex didn’t exist in Weisinger stories, or they’d be packing them in for Debbie Does Dallas, and I fear what the audience would do in response.
Finally, in desperation, he goes to a Kandorian "mind-technician" to have his memories of Lucy removed.
Isn’t that the plot of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?
After his memory is restored, Jimmy rushes right over to Lucy's to explain and apologize, but she says "now that you're your old self again... you bore me."
God almighty, Lucy Lane was such a rhymes-with-witch in some of these stories. Even as a kid I knew her treatment of Jimmy wasn’t normal dating behavior.
"The Giant Turtle Man!" by Jerry Siegel and Curt Swan (cover story) - Here is another story also reprinted in The Amazing Transformations of Jimmy Olsen tpb. the most unbelievable thing about this story is that co-workers Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen took a ten-day cruise to the West Indies together! When someone takes a vacation from work, he does not want to spend it with his co-workers... especially these co-workers.
What stuns me, as a lifelong newspaper employee, is three people from the same department taking vacation at the same tine. Every place I’ve ever worked, vacation tine has to be coordinated so that two people who do the same job can’t be gone at the same time.
True to form, though, Clark is "accidentally" left behind on an island so that superman can go off on one of his "space missions." (The more I think about Cap's theory the more it makes sense, especially in this context.)
If you worked with Jimmy and Lois, wouldn’t you want to get away from them now and then?
Note: Jimmy has found an enlargement ray. Um, Kandor, anyone? Anyone? Superman?
Best line: "What on earth is his huge, twisted turtle-mind up to?" I try to work that into casual conversation at least once a day (which is actually easier than you might think since the election).
I do the same thing! Only the line I use is “CRRGGG! CRRRGGG! CRRGGG!” Probably doesn’t work as well your line. Maybe I’ll switch to “my former mermaid sweetheart” from page 7. Is she a former sweetheart? Or a former mermaid?
"The Black Magician!" - by Jerry Siegel and Curt Swan - Mr. Mxyzptlk shows up again, still Conveniently, Jimmy was already dressed in medieval garb as they were attending the Daily Planet's annual costume ball.
That is convenient!
This is a very "Dark Shadows" example of time travel, as all of the main cast has a lookalike counterpart in the past: Perry White is the town crier;
I had to laugh when the ancient Perry said, “Do not call me Chief, accursed invader!”
Everything Jimmy brought back with him from 1961 further convinces King Arthur that Jimmy is a black magician.
Isn’t that a variation on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court?
Quinevere: “Show him mercy! He has a kind face!”
Jimmy: “Th-that’s just what Lucy would have said!”
Anyone who’s read Jimmy Olsen: “I beg to differ, good sir knight.”
Jimmy finally deduces that Merlin must be a fifth dimensional imp (because "no person of this world can work magic"), the "great-great-great ancestor of Mr. Mxyzptlk, and tricks him into reading his name backwards.
Nilrem sure is a lot easier to say than Kltpzyxm.
But I have to wonder at the line “no person on this world can work magic.” Once again, Jimmy is denying the existence of magic—at least for people or our dimension. But why? Certainly the Arthurian legends are full of magic—not just Merlin, but the Lady of the Lake, Morgan le Fay, Excalibur itself … was this all the work of imps? I don’t really have an answer for any of this, I just notice it, because the Weisinger books’ strange hostility to magic keeps coming up.
And, of course, from here on out, every time we see Merlin in a DC comics story we'll all know that he's really an imp from the fifth dimension!
What do you suppose Jack Kirby’s Demon has to say about that?
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