This painting by pulp artist H.J. Ward, best known for his Spicy Detective covers, hung for years in the DC offices.
FREQUENTLY RECURRING CHARACTERS / VILLAINS:
LUTHOR:
- Action Comics #23, 42, 43, 125, 131,146
- Superman #4, 5, 10, 12, 13, 17, 18, 20 (cameo), 31, 34, 38, 48, 57
- World's Finest #28
MR. MXYZPTLK:
- Action Comics #80, 102,112
- Superman #30, 33, 36, 40, 46, 51, 59, 62
THE PRANKSTER:
- Action Comics #51, 57, 69, 77, 95, 104, 109
- Superman #22, 37, 41, 50, 52, 55, 56, 61, 64
TOYMAN:
- Action Comics #85
- Superman #27, 32, 44, 47, 49, 60, 63
- World's Finest #20
WILBUR WOLFINGHAM:
- Action Comics #79, #104 (behind-the-scenes), 107, 116
- Superman #28, 35, 39, 42
- World's Finest #16, 43
HOCUS & POCUS:
- Action Comics #83, 88, 97
- Superman #45
SUSIE:
- Action Comics #59, 68, 110
- Superman #40, 47
ULTRA-HUMANITE: Action Comics #13, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21
TELEPHONE BOOTH MOTIF:
- "Mechanical Monsters" - Max Fleischer cartoon, 1941 (Also, "Bulleteers," 1942)
- Sunday page #165 - first comic strip instance, late 1942
- On radio - ?
- Action Comics #99 - first comic book instance, Aug 1946
- Action Comics #119 - second comic book instance, Apr 1948
- Superman #60 - third comic book instance, Sep 1949
- Superman #69 - fourth comic book instance
Replies
Hopefully the WCOD Cod and the WKRP Carp can get into a fistfight in a public bathroom.
"As God is my witness, I thought Superman could fly!"
WORLD'S FINEST #44 - "The Revolt of the Thought Machine!"
I was hoping this would be a cautionary tale about "AI" from 75 years ago, but it's really just about a giant robot running amok. The robot does learn Superman's secret, though, and reveals it to Lois. Clark doesn't even bother denying it, just changes to Superman right in fron of her. i was wondering how they were going to get out of this situation when, disappointingly, the majority of the story ended up being... a dream.
ACTION COMICS #141 - "Luthor's Secret Weapon!"
Luthor learns how to make synthetic Kryptonite, but the ingredients are inaccessible. So he kidnaps Lois Lane in order to force Superman to gather them for him. the ingredients include: a pearl from a giant oyster a mile deep in the ocean; dust from the"Dark Side of the Moon"; pollen from "the man-eating homocessandi plant deep in the Asiatic jungles"; and the rare chemical Binarium, buried in the frozen ground deep beneath an Antarctic glacier. Superman's Kryptonian origin is recapped. Late in the story, Clark Kent succumbs to the effects of the synthetic-K, and Luthor, suspecting that he is Superman, moves to jab him with a pin to verify his invulnerablity. (In modern continuity, Superman inexplicably loses his invulnerability while suffering the effects of Kryptonite.) Luckily, circumstances conspire to remove the synthetic-K from the vicinity with no one the wiser, and Clark avoids being stuck.
This is the story I was alluding to when I said, "We won't have to wait quite as long for the next 'important' Superman story," in my comments on "Superman Returns to Krypton," Superman #61. Now there are a totel of three pieces of Kryptonite on Earth: two actual and one synthetic. We apparently won't have to wait long at all for the next significant story in Superman's ever-tightening continuity. Clark wonders if the synthetic-K will ever be seen again, and the final blurb reads: "It will turn up again, Calrk, in the hands of someone who may use it to bring about the defeat of Superman! See the next issue Action Comics for the smash story, 'The conquest of Superman!'"
Also of note: Superman flies to the Moon under his own power in this story. This is consistant with the power level he has displayed so far (notably in "The Case of the Second Superman," Superman # 58). I suspect his ability to achieve indepentent interplanetary travel will develop gradually over time, as did his ability to fly rather than "leap tall buildings at a single bound."
"Leap tall buildings AT a single bound."
Quite so. Corrected.
I suspect his ability to achieve indepentent interplanetary travel will develop gradually over time...
OTOH, perhaps we won't have to wait as long as I thought.
SUPERMAN #62:
Here's what happened: while working undercover to infiltrate a gang of smugglers, Clark learns the date of the big meeting but his identity is exposed. He runs into a shack where he finds Lois, sho folowed him. She tells him that she left word for superman to follow her, but the smugglers are at the door. Thinking they are both about to die, she kisses Clark on the lips. Using super-ventriloquism, Clark makes Lois believe that Superman is outside. When Clark goes through the door, "Superman" closes it and "kills" Clark in a fit of jealous rage. Lois enters the room just in time to see Superman throw Clarks empty suit out the wondow, which she mistakes for Clark.
Lois is chief witness at the trial and Superman is found guilty. He promises not to escape. On the 19th of the month, using his telescopic vision from his jail cell, Superman observes the meeting of the smugglers in which their leader, the "Ace", finally reveals himself. Then, using his x-ray vision to cause the "invisible picture" of himself he painted on the gang's hideout to "floresce" and appear, and using "long distance ventriloquism", he causes the smugglers to think he's there in person. Superman also uses ventriloquism to make his voice come from a police car radio summoning them to the scene.
When the crooks reports that it was Superman who caught them, they immediately go to his cell only to find... Clark Kent! Clark explains that, after Superman threw him from the window, he swam to safety. The two later secretly changed places, and it was Clark, "disguised" as Superman, who was locked up all along. He takes pains to justify that he did not lie, because he never said he wasn't Clark Kent disguised as Superman. He kept his word not to leave his cell and, in a thought balloon, explains to readers that he told the truth about being Clark all the time because Superman is Clartk Kent. Lois is miffed because she thought Superman really was jealous over her.
ACTION COMICS #142 - "The Conquest of Superman!"
This issue's story picks up the day after #141's. Unwittingly, Lois had been carrying the piece of synthetic Kryptonite in her purse when it was lifted by a pickpocket named "Danny the Dip." (In mid-20th century American slang, a "dip" was someone who "dipped his fingers" into others' pockets.) In it's first appearance, the synthetic-K was either wite or clear and crystaline; in this issue it is green. While going about his daily duties, Superman spots Danny working a crowd, but when he flies in to apprehend him, his is overcome by a mysterious illness. Later that same afternoon, Danny ties the piece of synthetic-K to a balloon and floats it in front of Superman while he is attempting to move the old Municipal Building to a new location.
Upon the successful completion of this test, Danny approaches a gang and offers protection from Superman for a 30% cut. The gang's boss witnessed the first time Superman was overcome and readily agrees. After that, they set out on a crime spree but there is little superman can do to stop them. Danny has affixed the synthetic-K to a projectile with a cable attached and can now fire it through a bazooka. After shooting, he can reel it in and shoot again. Eventually they pull a job near a construction site, and Superman is able to bat the synthetic-K away with a steel girder and disable the gangsters' car with rivets.
Later, Perry assigns Clark and Lois to get a look at the synthetic-K at police HQ. Clark begs off at the last minute, claiming a headache, but Lois brings it to him in an effort to prove whether or not he is Superman. The rock has no effect, and Clark concludes that its effectiveness must have worn off. now, with the other two pieces of real Kryptonite at the bottom of the sea, Superman never has to worry about Kryptonite again!
WORLD'S FINEST #45 - "Lois Lane and Clark Kent, Detectives!"
Perry White assigns Clark Kent and Lois Lane to pose as detectives in order to solve a string of detective murders. At first, Superman spands all his time keeping Lois out of trouble. Then a client arrives, a rare person of color in a story of this era (a non-villainous one, anyway) arrives: the son of the Maharajah of Rajpan. A painting which contains a clue as to the whereabouts of their family treasure has been stolen, but every detective he has approached for help has been murdered by the thieves. (So much for that Maguffin.) Clark scoops Lois by reporting on the capture of the thieves, but Lois gets the final laugh as the green sunglasses she is wearing (due to writer's fiat) reveal a hidden image in the painting which leads to the treasure. Highlight: A "slow motion" sequence spread across two pages as Superman stops a bullet using super-speed.
ACTION COMICS #143 - "The Bride of Superman!"
Okay, it's a hoax, but can you answer the question posed on the cover? It is revealed right off the bat that "European glamour girl" Nikki LaRue, but in reality she is Madame Nicolai, the world-famous atomic scientist, and superman is her bodyguard.
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