Superman from the Beginning

Jeff of Earth-J October 18, 2025 at 2:25pm

SUPERMAN #59:

"Lois Lane--Queen of the Amazons!" - At a jewelry exhibit, Lois tries on a necklace and becomes posessed by it. She quits the Planet and charters a plane to Venezuela. Bailing out over the jungle, she is captured by Amazons who put her to two tests: the trial of fire and the trial of water. For the fire test, she has to walk a tightrop over a volcanic valley; for water she has to swim upstream against rapids or be sucked down a whirlpool. Meanwhile, Superman follows and meets a girl cast out of the tribe for being a weakling. Superman arrives in the village in time to secretly help Lois pass her trials. But he is found out, and escapes with Lois. It is then he discovers that the necklace is "a miniature receiving set" that has hypnotized her. He gives the necklace to the weak girl, then pretends to be defeated by her in battle, reasoning "this girl has other qualities--like kindness--that will make her a good ruler." It is not explained why the Amazons have such a necklace nor how it come to be in Metropolis.
"The Man of Steel's Super Manhunt!" - Sergei Kravinov Alan Shotwell, the "World's Greatest Hunter," sets his sites on the Man of Steel, with the twist that Shotwell wants Superman to hunt him. In order to force him to do so, the hunter sets a bomb to explode somewhere in Metropolis in 72 hours time. In order to prevent its discovery, he puts the bomb in a lead-lined, soundproof box, which stymies Superman. If I were Superman, I'd use my x-ray vision to search for a lead-lined box someplace it shouldn't be (and, indeed, the bomb ended up being planted in the cornerstone of city hall). The most unbelievable thing is when Shotwell rigs up coconuts to drip on a drum to perfectly mimick the sound of his own heartbeat. The ending makes even less sense.
"The City that Forgot Superman!" - Everyone forgets Superman because of... Mr. Mxyztplk (his 10th appearance).

Jeff of Earth-J October 20, 2025 at 9:03am

ACTION COMICS #136 - "Superman, Show-Off!"

Superman performs crazy stunts, presumably for publicity, but actually he has another purpose in mind: to avoid mass hysteria if it should become known that a meteor swarm is heading directly for Metropolis. For one stunt, he moves Bald Peak, atop which sits Eastern Astronomical Observatory, which necessitates the astronomers to spend several days recalibrating their telescopes. For another, he builds a giant electromagnet to attratce the meteors, which are composed mostly of iron.

The Baron > Jeff of Earth-J October 20, 2025 at 9:30am

I'm guessing that he was not yet at the point where he could've just flown off into space and diverted them himself.
Jeff of Earth-J > The Baron October 20, 2025 at 12:29pm

It occurred to me as I was reading it that Superman has not yet been shown flying through outer space under his own power. He discovered the meteor swarm while "returning from a mission" (but not a space mission) as he was "flying through the stratosphere." I'll keep my eyes peeled for when he first flies into space under his own power, but I suspect that is more of a Silver Age phenomenon.

Captain Comics October 20, 2025 at 5:21pm

It had never occurred to me to even wonder when Superman started flying through space on his own power. He just always did, as far back as my collection went, which is early Silver Age. Now I want to know! And did Superboy start doing so concurrently?

Philip Portelli October 20, 2025 at 7:44pm

Four years after this issue, in the 1953 second season episode "Panic In the Sky" of The Adventures of Superman, the George Reeves Man of Steel flies to an asteroid twice. It seems likely that Superman flew into space before that in the comics.

Jeff of Earth-J October 21, 2025 at 9:42am

WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #42 - "The Alphabetical Animal Adventure!"

Superman helps the Uranians gather specimens for their interplanetary zoo. They started out by abducting animals alphabetically from a children's book: Aligator, Bear, Cat, Dog, Elephant, Fox, Giraffe... They got as far as "Horse" before Superman caught up with them. Unfortunately, they were abducting people's pets, circus animals and even the National Comics version of "Lassie." Superman offers to replace the animals they have taken with more exotic wild animals, and the Uranians agree. Then they reveal the stipulation that two of the "animals" must be a Man and a Woman. Superman takes this opportunity to get rid of Lois Lane, but then reveals that all "human beings" are actually robots. To prove this assertion, he lets them fire weapons at him. But the Uranians remain unconvinced, so Superman beings removing his own libs... first an arm, then a leg.

Yesterday we discussed that Superman has not yet flown in space. He came this close to using a robot duplicate of himself for the first time today, but it was actually a dummy which he manipulated so quickly that he himself was rendered invisible. He made it "speak" through ventiloquism (which he has used from time-to-time in the past already). The story begins with an acrostic poem.

P is for potto... and paradox, too.
E is for echidna... and escape for two.
R is for ratel... and rarities from all about.
I is for ibex... and identity kept in doubt.
L is for lemur... and Lois, a gal of sorrow.
S is for saiga... and Superman, Man of Tomorrow!

Commander Benson October 21, 2025 at 6:01pm

I'll keep my eyes peeled for when [Superman] first flies into space under his own power, but I suspect that is more of a Silver Age phenomenon. -- Jeff of Earth-J

It had never occurred to me to even wonder when Superman started flying through space on his own power. He just always did, as far back as my collection went, which is early Silver Age. -- Captain Comics

Four years after this issue, in the 1953 second season episode "Panic In the Sky" of Adventures of Superman, the George Reeves Man of Steel flies to an asteroid twice. It seems likely that Superman flew into space before that in the comics. -- Philip Portelli

I can't state the first time that Superman flew into outer space on his own power in the comics, but I can narrow down the envelope of when it occurred. In the story "The Case of the Second Superman", from Superman # 58 (May-Jun., 1949), the Man of Steel flies to the planet Uuz, "far beyond Pluto's distant orbit", to aid Regor, the super-hero of that world. During the course of the tale, Superman also flies into space and converts Uuz's two dead moons into a sun (comic-book science).

So we know, at least, by the spring of '49, Superman was shown flying in space. When I get a moment, I'll see if I can determine an earlier instance.

Hope this helps.

Jeff of Earth-J > Commander Benson October 22, 2025 at 6:44am

So we know, at least, by the spring of '49, Superman was shown flying in space.

Well, this is embarrassing. I had read that story just six days earlier when I posted that.

This does raise the question, however, that if Superman could fly into space under his own power and create a sun, why couldn't he have simply destroyed the meteors himself without putting on such an elaborate charade? Because there wouldn't have been a story in that, obviously!
Jeff of Earth-J > Jeff of Earth-J October 22, 2025 at 9:36am

Actually, I just re-read the story in question. It is not specified exactly how Superman gets to Uuz and back. In panel five of page six, Superman says, "Let's be off to Uuz," and in panel six they are already there. Regor arrived on Earth in a spaceship, so it's possible they both used it to fly to Uuz as well. At the end of the story, Superman says, "So long, Regor! If you ever need help again, send me a rocket in care of Earth!" Again, exactly how he returned to Earth is not specified. Granted, at one point in the story Superman did "[hurtle] out into the interstellar void," but he went only as far as the orbit of Uuz's "two little moons."

I am going to conclude that at this point Superman's powers are roughly equivalent to those he had immediately post-Crisis, namely that he could exisit in the vacuum of space for a limited time, but interplanetary travel was still beyond his capability.

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Superman from the Beginning

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