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.)
Replies
"Elastic Lad's Wrestling Match!" by Robert Bernstein and Curt Swan
Easily the most disturbing image in this story is that of Jimmy defeating one of the wrestlers with his elongated tongue.
Take that, Elastic Lass, and your elongated lips!
First of all, that's not "an old trick they use in the movies," and second, if it's insulated it doesn't "give off smoke," and if it does it's not insulated. I'm surprised this scene even passed the CCA, without even as "Kids, do not try this trick at home!" warning. Putting dry ice in your mouth is extremely dangerous, and I can more easily imagine a kid putting a piece of dry ice in his mouth than I can one tying a bath towel around his neck and trying to fly.
I didn’t know any of this. I don’t even know where you’d get dry ice. I am a dry ice ignoramus! But thanks to Jeff of Earth-J, I know better than to put any in my mouth, should I find any.
Guest-starring "The Ugly Superman."
This is pretty silly story. The wrestling manager could simply call foul because a super-powered guy entered the ring, and the crooked ref would back him up. But what the heck – the point is silly scenes of stretching wrestlers, and we get plenty of that. Thumbs up!
"King of the Giant Ants!" by Robert Bernstein and Curt Swan
Jimmy laments not having enough money to buy Lucy a present for her birthday party tonight, but he just bought a whole box of silly hats from a masquerade shop.
Yes, and told the manager to add any he forgot, which could get pricey if the manager wants to unload some old stock! But it isn’t a bug, it’s a feature: It’s just more evidence that Jimmy plans poorly, because he's immature.
Little does he know, however, that Mr. Mxyzptlk's hat has blown off his head and into the box, granting him all of Mxy's powers. Flying off to save Professor Lang from a colony of giant red ants in Brazil, Jimmy soon falls under their power. Not to worry, though: the whole thing turns out to be a dream brought on by Red Kryptonite dust secretly concealed by Mr. M. in his hatband.
The ants’ leverage on Jimmy didn’t make any sense anyway. He knew where Superman was, so he could zip there at super-speed and take away the kryptonite before the ant could react. Or melt it with heat vision. Or save Superman a bunch of other ways that we’ve seen before. Let’s call it dream logic, since it was a dream.
If you thought humans could not be affected by Kryptonite, just ask the post-Crisis Lex Luthor about that.
Pre-Crisis, kryptonite didn’t affect humans. The reason the red K affected Jimmy – as Superman explains – is because he’d wished for super-powers, and in Weisinger world, super-powers = Kryptonian. He got Superman’s powers, and also his weaknesses. Remember, he had to specifically wish away being affected by green kryptonite ... but didn't wish away red.
"Baby Jimmy Olsen!" - by (unknown) and Curt Swan
This is one of those stories that doesn’t work if people have a grown-up conversation. Mainly, when Perry Olsen catches baby Jimmy at his desk. “Perry, it’s me! I have had yet another bizarre transformation, this time as a baby! Can you help me find my notes on Professor Potter’s growth serum?”
If he does that, the story’s over. Heck, he could have done it earlier by telephone. “Hello, Clark? It’s Jimmy. I’ve been turned into a baby. Can you come to my apartment and help me find a cure? I can’t reach the elevator buttons.”
But I can forgive all that, because Jimmy’s baby adventures are funny.
But I do have two questions:
Why did Perry back off when he found out the person rifling Jimmy’s desk was an adult instead of a baby? That’s even worse!
And second: Lucy never finds out that it was Jimmy kissing her face over and over, so that’s good. But the story she does receive is that the baby is really Superman in a baby body … who kissed her an awful lot. Does she think Superman’s a perv?
It is the day before Jimmy's birthday (but the story doesn't reveal which one).
It must be his 20th, because he has his 21st in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #61, seven issues later.
When Lucy goes on a date with a Naval Commander, Jimmy decides to give Prof. Potter's aging serum another try [see "Jimmy Olsen Grows Up!" (Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #47, page one of this discussion), because it worked so well the first time].
Well, at least they remember it. A lot of these stories go right down the memory hole! And of course Jimmy tries it again, despite the previous catastrophe, because he is an idiot.
His signal watch falls off, so he leaves it behind (rather than using it, y'know, to call Superman for help).
Yet another way this story ends instantly if Jimmy just owns up to his mistake and asks for help.
Instead, he dresses up in a midget's Superman costume he just happened to have on hand (don't ask) and steals a tricycle to pedal across town to go the Daily Planet
I bet the whole point of this story is to have a baby Jimmy Olsen in a Superbaby suit on a tricycle. I don’t know that for a fact, but I’d bet money on it.
Once there, he steals a basket and some other baby items from storage in the basement and leaves himself on Lois's doorstep (even though the's, like, five years old).
Also, how did he haul all that junk up from the basement with his tiny baby arms and legs? And how did he know it was there anyway?
Always willing to implicate herself as accessory to a felony in pursuit of a "scoop," Lois complies.
Because she, too, is an idiot.
Then she leaves the "baby" alone in her apartment while she goes to srcounge up a playpen, a highchair and some nursery toys (again, he's approximately five years old) from the cellar.
That is one well-stocked basement.
Lucy returns from her morning date and tries to feed Jimmy some spinach. He agrees, only if she gives him a kiss after every spoonful.
This is the scene I meant. Baby REALLY loves kisses and later Lucy finds out it’s Superman in a baby’s body (as far as she knows). From her perspective, he’s a Super-creep. And what does Lois think about Superman macking on her sister?
Then Commander Wilson returns, and Jimmy pulls off his fake goatee, revealing him to be the "Masquerade Mobster... the crook who always uses a different uniform to pull a job."
Another pretty consistent element of Silver Age Superman family stories is that Lois, Jimmy and Clark know every criminal in Metropolis on sight.
"It's happened before! A few years ago, Superman went into the past through a time warp which effected an amazing switch in time! Superman wound up in the past in Smallville while Super-Baby entered the present in Metropolis!"
Is this an actual story that we’ve seen before? It doesn’t sound familiar.
Here is another example, BTW, of Superman letting Jimmy keep a dangerous formula rather than taking it away from him in the first place.
And yet, despite Superman’s best efforts, Jimmy survives anyway.
How Lois and Lucy can believe this, I have no idea. Baby Jimmy looks nothing like Super-Baby, plus, earlier, he was wrangling kisses from Lucy in exchange for bites of spinach.
Evidently, stupidity runs in the Lane family.
After the Masquerade Mobster has been apprehended, Superman whips up an antidote to the serum with "chemicals from [Jimmy's] medicine chest." (I don't know what Jimmy has in his medicine chest, but I'd hate to think if Superman ever needed to concoct such a formula from what's in mine.)
Well, it is JIMMY OLSEN’s medicine cabinet. There’s probably growth serum in there, and Elastic Lad serum, dozens of hair dyes, and God knows what else.
Then Superman explains that he covered for Jimmy with the girls as a gift because tomorrow is Jimmy's birthday. Only in the Silver Age ...
… can you see baby Jimmy Olsen in a Superbaby outfit ride a tricycle!
There were a couple of Giant Ant stories from this period. Ants are no Gorillas but they are a credible threat! Just see THEM! (1954)!
It would not surprise me if the giant ant story wasn't inspired by Them!, which came out seven years before.
"It's happened before! A few years ago, Superman went into the past through a time warp which effected an amazing switch in time! Superman wound up in the past in Smallville while Super-Baby entered the present in Metropolis!"
The closest I can find is Lois Lane #57, with its creepy AF story in which Lois and Lana end up with Superbaby. However, it turns out to be a Superbaby from another dimension, so that doesn't really work.
There were a couple of Giant Ant stories from this period. Ants are no Gorillas but they are a credible threat! Just see THEM! (1954)!
The DCU had its own version of THEM! They were aunts, not ants, but they were a credible threat. Also, creepy AF.
ACTION COMICS #278 - "The Super-Powers of Perry White!" by Jerry Coleman and Curt Swan:
One day Perry White finds an odd-looking plant in his garden bearing fruit. Naturally, he eats a piece.
So that’s where Lois and Jimmy get it! “Jimmy, a good reporter is never afraid to eat or drink anything weird! It’s how you get scoops!”
BTW, Perry, the strange plant is as large as a man AND HAS A FACE. No alarm bells? No uneasiness? Nothing? All right.
Suddenly, BANG! On page four, Chekov's gun fires right in my ear, almost deafening me.
Bwah-ha-ha!
Perry gets himself a costume (as one does) and begins fighting crime.
Funny because it’s true!
Shortly after that, though, he turns against Superman and it is revealed that his personality has been taken over by the alien plant.
Last issue has a story seemingly inspired by Them! This one seems inspired by Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I don’t blame Bernstein, Binder, et al, for a little light thievery. They had to come up with an awful lot of plots every month.
It is actually Supergirl who, against Superman's express orders, saves his life by fetching a piece of White K.
It’s bizarre to the modern reader that a 16-year-old would apologize for “disobeying orders” and doing the right thing. But as I’ve often said, what the ‘60s were really rebelling against was the ‘50s, which had attitudes like that.
Then he takes the White K and uses it to kill the plant, a sentient lifeform.
Again: This was a different era. I doubt anyone gave a second’s thought to the possibility that killing plant life might be murder. They didn’t treat animals much better.
I first read this story in the "Special All-Kryptonite Issue!" of Superman (#227), a great comic to have as a kid.
Me, too! And it reminded me of these “classics,” which I actually own:
I didn’t know any of this. I am a dry ice ignoramus!
Dry ice is the solid form of carbon dioxide. When it warms it doesn't melt into a liquid, but sublimates directly into a gas.
Dry ice can be dangerous. It is not safe to consume, and eating or drinking anything with dry ice can cause significant damage to your mouth or throat. The extreme cold of dry ice can cause frostbite injury. In confined spaces, the gas from dry ice can build up and lead to unconsciousness or even death. Additionally, dry ice can trigger carbon dioxide buildup, displacing oxygen and causing asphyxiation. The pressure from sublimation of dry ice can also rupture internal organs.
I don’t even know where you’d get dry ice.
We used to get it at the dairy. It comes in a block and was cut off into slabs by a bandsaw. It must be handled with tongs or gloves. It should never be touched by bare skin; I cannot imagine putting even an "insulated" piece in my mouth. One thin you can do with it it press a penny into its surface with a hammer. It squeals like a stuck pig during the process.
Let’s call it dream logic, since it was a dream.
I tend not to criticize dream stories to harshly, but this one kinda snuck up on me.
Pre-Crisis, kryptonite didn’t affect humans.
Post-Crisis didn't, either... unless you had a piece made into a ring and wore it 24/7.
Is this an actual story that we’ve seen before? It doesn’t sound familiar.
It has the ring of truth to me, but I don't know. Perhaps Commander Benson can tell us if he's reading this.
Well, it is JIMMY OLSEN’s medicine cabinet. There’s probably growth serum in there, and Elastic Lad serum, dozens of hair dyes, and God knows what else.
Good point.
BTW, if I ever start doing a count like you’re doing on space missions, I’d do it on “Lois falling out a window and Superman catching her.” There’s two in this issue alone.
Then you will appreciate the following exchange between Superman and Lois from Superman: UIp in the Sky.
Set-up: Superman is about to depart on a "space mission"...
LOIS: Okay, fine. Go. And, as a favor, while you are gone, I will try not to fall off any buildings.
SUPERMAN: Appreciate that.
LOIS: I said try. I'm not making any promises.
SUPERMAN: I understand.
LOIS: It's kind of my thing. My whole brand. So if I have to, I have to.
SUPERMAN: Just saying thank you for making the effort.
LOIS: Well... okay. You're welcome.
And it reminded me of these “classics,” which I actually own
I had Action Comics #436 and it made me really wish I had #302 so I could get the whole story. So far, I have never been able to read it, but here's hoping DC will get around to reprinting both of these stories some day soon.
Perry White had his moments like this one!
Also read Jimmy Olsen #76 (Ap'64) "The Death March! (Featuring Perry White)" which I did in Superman Family #164 (My'74)! No matter what the motivation, it's a messed up story!
I was going to say that Krypto would know Superman by scent, but a synopsis told me that this is one of a series of nightmares induced by Red-K.
Then Commander Wilson returns, and Jimmy pulls off his fake goatee, revealing him to be the "Masquerade Mobster... the crook who always uses a different uniform to pull a job."
I know that in the 60s, the Army allowed a mustache as an alternate to being “clean shaven.” I understand that in the Navy, one had to have either a full beard or be clean shaven (mustache not allowed). Presumably, a goatee wouldn’t be acceptable if not a full beard. Masquerading as a member of the Navy with a goatee would be a way of getting caught. Commander Benson may have a clarification on this.
SUPERBOY #90 - "Pete Ross' Super-Secret!" by (unknown) and George Papp
I have "always" known that Pete Ross discovered Superboy's secret identity, but this is the story in which it actually happened. What I didn't know is the extent to which this story is charged with gay subtext.
"Here's your hot dog," indeed!
The whole story is like this.
Now that you mention it, Pete learns that Clark is Superboy by secretly watching him change clothes in the middle of the night! It could be a Bara-Komi manga!
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