Those Pagan Kryptonians!

A rather surprising response from Weisinger, who generally portrayed Krypton as far more advanced than Earth. Of course, you can see the problem; if he responds that they had some different kind of religion (or no religion at all), he's implying that's superior. So he almost had to come up with the answer that he did.

It does raise an interesting point, though. Surely Clark was brought up in whatever religion the Kents practiced, most likely some form of Protestantism. And yet his creators and longtime editor and publisher were all Jewish (which is probably why, after the Golden Age, there were almost no stories that mentioned Christmas or any other religious holiday).

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Jor-El's Life Story

Although the story is well-known to us today, kids in the 1940s and 1950s would be forgiven for not knowing it by heart, as it was seldom mentioned in the comics. Indeed, the first detailed origin of Superman beyond the very basics came in Superman #53, the tenth anniversary issue.

Well, that is if you ignore the Superman radio program, from which the Krypton part is largely copied. It was on the first episode of that program, in February 1940 that Jor-El's name first appeared.

The origin is pretty much as we know it today; Krypton was doomed, Jor-El was the only one to understand this, and other scientists scoffed at his prediction. In the origin as of Superman #53, we first learn the detail that the core of the planet consisted of uranium, and thus:

This seems obviously inspired by the actual atomic bomb which had been dropped on Japan only three years earlier. Interestingly, when Jor-El suggests rocket ships to Earth, another scientist laughs at the primitive Earthlings and points out that "They do not even have X-Ray vision."

This highlights a common problem with researching Krypton; at this point the writers and editors had not settled on exactly how Superman got his powers. There are stories which indicate that the Kryptonians were super even on their own planet, although this causes obvious problems (like why they didn't just fly away under their own power when the planet exploded).

Jor-El tries to coax Lara into joining their son in the rocket, but she insists on staying with her husband, and they launch their baby into space as their world ends.

In Superman #61, Superman finds himself suddenly experiencing weakness whenever he's around a pair of meteorites. He tracks them into the past and discovers they came from the planet Krypton. He sees a man who looks a lot like him, explaining to his wife that the planet is doomed. He follows the rocket to Earth and is stunned to realize when the Kents come upon the baby that it is his own past he is viewing. This is the first that he knows his own origin (and his first experience with Kryptonite).

Of course, both those aspects of the story were later retconned, as Superboy often encountered Kryptonite and (it was explained) he had nearly perfect memory and could recall many significant details of his life on Krypton.

In Superman #65, we learned that Jor-El was the leader of the Science Council which governed Krypton:

Although making Jor-El a leader was a natural desire for the writers and editor, it does cause some cognitive dissonance. Does it make sense that warnings of doom from such a respected elder would be greeted with the hoots of derision that Jor-El faces?

Note as well the Saturn-like symbol on his chest. This was pretty much the symbol for Jor-El before Weisinger standardized things in the Silver Age, although the colors of his uniform often changed. This story introduces one lasting element of Jor-El's mythos: the banishment of criminals into space in suspended animation:

Until the advent of the punishment ray (aka Phantom Zone projector) this would be Krypton's method of dealing with major criminals. Again, this is problematic from a logical standpoint; if Krypton had developed rocketry, why were they unable to send more than one baby boy off into space before the planet exploded?

In Superman #74, we see the first of Jor-El's many dangerous inventions. Luthor invents a ray that will pull objects from Krypton to him. Of course, his intent is to get a giant chunk of Kryptonite, but by chance he gets Jor-El's weapon cache. Included are a ray that turns people into stone (including Superman himself), levitation bombs, invisibility spray, a lightning projector, a magnet that attracts humans, and a weapon that will give anyone power over all men. This last dread device is finally used at the end of the story, but:

Up to this point (1952) Jor-El had been used sparingly, but afterward he became a frequently recurring character, appearing in many stories. In Superman #77, he met Professor Enders, an Earth scientist whom he teleports to Krypton and who reveals:

In many other stories, however, it is common knowledge among Jor-El and other scientists that they would have super-powers on Earth, although this does appear to be the first mention that some of the powers would come from the sun. And the story does raise more questions than it answers; if Jor-El is able to teleport Professor Enders back to Earth (as he does), then why doesn't he do the same with his family?

In World's Finest #69, Jor-El appears only in a brief flashback, but we learn that he had sent a will along with the rocket ship that his son traveled in. In that will he describes many inventions which Superman soon realizes (after testing them) are too dangerous for Earthlings. But one invention is a nuclear fission tester. When Superman builds it, he learns that Earth is undergoing the same reactions that destroyed his home planet, and he takes steps to quell the coming explosion. Thus, even though Jor-El was unable to save Krypton, he does prevent Earth from suffering the same fate.

Jor-El created many other inventions, including his famous land, sea, air and underground vehicle:


We don't know much about Jor-El's youth. In Superman #141, we learned that his father was named Jor-El I. His brother Zor-El of course is well-known as the father of Kara, aka Supergirl. But did you know he had another brother? Nim-El appeared in Adventure #304, in which we learned that he was the keeper at the Armory of Forbidden Weapons.

Many of the stories in the Jor-El canon concern his courtship of and marriage to Lara. These stories tend to be wildly inconsistent. In Lois Lane #39, we (apparently) learn that Lara got him to stop paying attention to his computer and pop the question by cooking him a rainbow cake:

However, at the end of that story it's revealed that this was just a dream that Lois had, and thus we don't really know that's how they became engaged.

In Lois Lane #59, Lois travels in time and space on a mission of mercy, with plans from a scientist who has invented a device to prevent a nuclear explosion. She hopes to save Krypton from destruction and, using Professor Potter's experimental time machine, she brings the blueprints to Jor-El. But inevitably fate intervenes as it happens that Jor-El constructs the device in Kandor and it disappears with Brainiac's abduction of that city. When Lois discovers that the time machine is out of order, she decides to make the most of a bad situation by stealing Jor-El from Lara:

Yuck. Terrible characterization for both Lois and Jor-El there, especially when Lois reacts to the stealing of Kandor by splitting in the time globe, which suddenly works again.

Of course, Lara got even worse characterization in Superman #170. In that story, Luthor goes back to Krypton, and woos and wins Lara. As they are about to be married, however, fate intervenes as a battery wears down on a device Luthor is wearing to prevent him from being crushed by Krypton's greater gravity. He confesses that he had lied about his planet of origin and (after the battery is replaced) flees. Lara marries Jor-El on the rebound:


In Superman #123 we learn that Jor-El and Lara, as a young couple not yet married, worked as agents for the KBI (Krypton Bureau of Investigation) and had infiltrated a plot to install a dictator on Krypton:

Note the reversed swastika on the wall and the name of the dictator; Weisinger and Otto Binder weren't much for subtlety.

However, as always seems to happen in such stories, the only person who knew they were playing a role has died, and thus they are sentenced to 100 years in suspended animation in a prison satellite. Superman frees them, defeats Kil-Lor, and provides them with proof they were working against the dictator. Flush with victory, Jor-El proposes:

Superman sends them back to Krypton with his best wishes, apparently not realizing that this will result in their deaths.

Even after their marriage, things occasionally got rocky for the young couple, as when Krypto got shot into space:

Although in the original Krypto story in Adventure #210 she was much more understanding about the need to test his rocket ship.

Jor-El won several awards during his scientific career. For starters, he was awarded his seat on the Science Council for inventing the Phantom Zone projector (aka Punishment Ray). His greatest award however was described in Adventure #323:


Of course, even a busy scientist must take some leisure time, and when Jor-El wanted to relax he enjoyed a game of Interplanetary Scramble:

And when he played Robot Wars with his son, he let the tyke win:


Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Grand Comics Database, without which this post would be much less comprehensive. I also thank several friends who were kind enough to scan in copies of the issues I was missing.

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Message from Jor-El

One of the more interesting tragedies of Superman's existence during the Golden Age was the fact that he really didn't know his birth parents at all compared to the Kents. But that changed amazingly in the Silver Age, as Jor-El became a virtual guest character in the magazines edited by Mort Weisinger.

And when he couldn't appear in person, he had an amazing habit of sending objects to his son over the years, well after his own death. For example, Krypto, Superboy's dog:


But that was far from the only time that Superboy received a communication from his father. In Adventure #232, an entire city block of Krypton lands (improbably) within walking distance of Smallville. Even more unlikely, it includes Kal-El's childhood home, where he discovers a plea from his father:


He easily handles the first two tasks, but is unable to locate the books that his father wanted him to read. So upset is he, that:

It turns out that the Kryptonians were so advanced that they had their books in movie form. One of them turns out suspiciously to be like Moby Dick, while the others sound even more sleep-inducing.

Apparently these missives from the past were popular with the readers, and so in Adventure #240, we got another one:

Of course as we know, the end of Krypton came unexpectedly early, and so it had taken the super-teacher all that time to locate Kal.

The letters from home continued into Superman's adulthood. In Superman #113, he discovers tapes from his father:

The tapes revealed that Jor-El had been the first Superman.

In Action #314, Aquaman discovers another set of tapes from Jor-El to his son, at the bottom of the ocean:

I talked about that story here.

Those are the ones I know; anybody aware of any others?

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Fifty Years Ago Today

This comic, one of the true Silver Age "keys" appeared on the newsstands on March 31, 1959. Although DC had toyed with the idea of a female version of Superman on several occasions, this was the first that they decided to accept such a character on an on-going basis.

It was also the first time since about 1939 that the cover of Action featured a story that was not the Superman story. Yep, Supergirl did not appear in the Superman story, rather she popped up in her very own feature.

The Superman story in this issue featured Metallo. Although I didn't know it at the time, the concept of Metallo had appeared on a few occasions in the past; indeed when one was encountered in an early World's Finest, Lois Lane referred to it as "a Metallo" as if there were quite a few out there. The concept in the DC universe always amounted to a man inside a robot's body, and such was the case here.

John Corben, a reporter, has just committed the perfect crime, murdering the only man who knew he was guilty of being an embezzler. But in a moment he is shattered when his car crashes off a hillside. Fortunately a professor happens by who can save his life, but at quite a cost:



The only thing that can keep his body ticking is uranium, or another element. Unfortunately the professor keels over of a stroke before he can tell Metallo of the second source of power. Corben discovers that he has super strength with his new body. He gets a job at the Daily Planet, where he astounds Clark with his steel grip. But Lois is less impressed when Corben tries to hustle her.

Corben commits several robberies to build up a reasonable stockpile of uranium, but he'd rather have the second element which can last indefinitely. Fortunately the professor has recovered and advises Corben that what he really needs is Kryptonite, a small sample of which he has in a safe. Corben takes the Kryptonite, intending to use it to kill Superman. He wedges it near some pipes in a museum where Superman is about to make an appearance, and puts another sample of Kryptonite which he found in the museum in his body to power it.

But Superman manages to stay alive by focusing the heat of his x-ray vision on the Kryptonite, melting it. And Metallo finds out that the sample of Kryptonite at the museum was phony, and dies.

Comments: Clearly this story was inspired by the famous Atom Man story from the Superman radio show, where a German was injected with Kryptonite which gave him tremendous powers. The young man joined the staff of the Daily Planet and attempted to kill Superman.

The second story features Congo Bill as Congorilla. Congo Bill was a longtime DC character, having debuted in More Fun Comics #56. He switched over to Action with #37, and thus this was his 216th appearance in that magazine. A few years earlier he had gained the power to exchange bodies with a golden gorilla, giving him great strength. In this story, Congo Bill foils a plot by some French Foreign Legion mutineers.

Now we come at last to the reason why this comic is so highly prized by collectors: the debut of Supergirl! Here's her first in-story appearance:



A rocket from Krypton has landed on Earth, and the above is what Superman sees.

Now the decision to make her a girl caused some plot problems. Since Superman was a baby when Krypton exploded, it should be obvious that anyone so much younger than he could not have been born on that planet. Supergirl explains a chunk of Krypton called Argo City was thrown off into space when the planet exploded, with a group of survivors and sufficient atmosphere to support them. However, they did have one problem; the ground had turned into Kryptonite:



That scene of the workers rolling out the lead would be shown many times in the Silver Age; along with the shrinking of Kandor, it was one of the most-reprinted sequences. Zor-El and his wife would eventually have a daughter, Kara. Unfortunately a meteor shower punctured the lead, dooming the residents of Argo City. But Zor-El saved his daughter by sending her to Earth in a small rocket.

The echoes of Superman's own origin are obvious, but the pair discovered another link between them:



As a new relative for Clark would attract suspicion, Superman puts Kara into an orphanage in the town of Midvale, with instructions not to let anybody know that a Supergirl exists. She adopts the name Linda Lee and a brown, pigtailed wig as her disguise.



Comments: It is difficult to overstate the importance of Supergirl. Although DC had made fits and starts towards introducing female counterparts for their male heroes, such as Batwoman, Lady Blackhawk and Miss Arrowette, this was the only time between the late 1940s and the late 1960s that a new female superhero was given her own feature right off the bat. And she appeared in Action Comics, one of the biggest-selling comic magazines in the country. In addition, Supergirl got a big boost from being part of the Superman family, as she very quickly began making guest appearances in Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen (especially after her existence was announced to the world).

Supergirl is, by a wide margin, the most important female character in comics during the Silver Age. Only Wonder Woman even has an argument, and given the wretched state of that feature during the 1960s, I don't think many people will make the case.

Update: Superman was not the only major DC character who got a significant addition to his family 50 years ago today.

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Single Issue Review: Superman #159

This was an issue I did not have in my collection as a kid, so my review of the story is not colored by my childhood memories. It's an Imaginary Story, which means that it takes place outside the normal continuity of Superman stories. In this tale, Krypton is saved from exploding by Jor-El (yay!), but Earth is destroyed when the sun goes supernova (gulp!).

Fortunately Lois Lane's father is a scientist, and he sends her to Krypton, after giving her a potion that turns her into a super-powered woman. She lands there, and is adopted by a couple, who name her Kandi Kan (Candy Cane?). They live near young Kal-El and another boy named Len Landor. Kandi assumes another identity as Supermaid (she even does windows!) and true to LL form, Len turns out to be a secret identity pest:



As time goes on we see more mirror images of Superboy's life in Kandi's. She discovers that fragments of her home planet, called Earthite, are poisonous to her, but that she can block them with silver. Her parents die of Virus X, and so she decides to leave Kryptonville for Kryptonopolis.

The story skips ahead a few years, where we learn that Kal-El has become a doctor, while Kandi Kan is a nurse. And the people they work with seem a bit familiar:



Another doctor in the hospital is named Lu Thoria, and we discover that she's got a crush on Kal, but he only has eyes for Supermaid. And when Supermaid defeats Brainiac in his attempt to steal Kandor, she tries to steal his space ship, but is foiled by Kal and Supermaid. Perhaps inevitably:



However, Lu Thoria escapes and she knows that Supermaid is vulnerable to Earthite. Meanwhile Kal has been working on a ray that will give him superpowers, but will shorten greatly his lifespan. He resolves to take the treatment anyway so as to protect Supermaid. But it ends up not doing much in the story, and Jor-El actually saves Supermaid by coating her with silver before she faces Lu Thoria. After subduing her, they discover that she was turned evil accidentally, by a ray. Jor-El has come up with a cure and a hair restorative as well. But in the end, a new form of Earthite has the oddball effect of transferring Supermaid's powers to Kal-El, and the story closes with this bit of humor:



Comments: One of the oddest aspects to the DC universe in the Silver Age is this sense of destiny, which has popped up in other stories. I mentioned before the Batman story where it turned out that Bruce Wayne would have become Batman even if his parents had never died. There's also a story (in Superman #132) where Kal-El would have turned out to be Superman (albeit on Krypton) if Krypton had never exploded.

On the one hand these stories have a very interesting symmetry to them. On the other, as was pointed out in the comments to that Batman post by Thelonius Nick, it tends to undercut much of what was special about the origins of both Batman and Superman.

In this particular story, there are several plot threads that do not get developed adequately. Early on it appears that Len Landor will be a competitor for Supermaid's affections, but that never happens. In addition, Kal's intended sacrifice to save Supermaid amounts to nothing; indeed, it appears mostly so that they could have a scene of her saving Kal-El from falling from a great height, as yet another role reversal. And the ending is far too abrupt and belies Kal's supposed love for Supermaid; are we to believe he only cared for her because she was super?

The artwork is the usual excellent (if slightly sterile) job by Curt Swan.

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Coming In May--A Celebration of Superman

Not only is May the 70th anniversary of Superman, but it's also the 50th anniversary of the Silver Age Superman. In 1958, Mort Weissinger took over responsibilty for the Superman family of magazines. This resulted in a remarkably different character than had been the case in the Golden Age comics or the TV or radio series. It is an amazing saga that has stood the test of time, and I am going to attempt to take a look at key events, people and places that made the Silver Age Superman such a delight to read.

To start, perhaps I had better have a little discussion of the Golden Age Superman. The origin is well-known--Krypton exploding, Jor-El and Lara sending their baby off to Earth, where he is raised by the Kents. The early Superman stories, reflecting somewhat the pulp fiction novels of the time, were pretty gritty. Remember, at this time the concept of comic books as entertainment for adolescent boys had not yet taken hold. But over time, the sheer power of Superman necessitated a change.

The change was handled differently in the comics versus the radio show. In the comics, the character and his adventures took on a more whimsical tone. Oh, Superman had some serious villains that he foiled, but he had a lot of more buffoonish enemies as well: Wolfingham,, the Toyman, the Prankster and Mr Mxyztplk for example. In the radio show, which was hugely influential, the series over time developed into "Clark Kent, Detective", with Superman often reduced to mop-up work.

This came about simply because the character was far too swift and strong. Nobody could compete against him physically and so they were forced to rely on guile and cunning. Even Luthor was usually portrayed as operating behind the scenes; in many Golden Age and early Silver Age stories he is not shown until the last page.

The TV show, which was in its final year in 1958, was somewhat similar to the radio show, with Clark doing all the brainwork, and Supes showing up at the end to show off his abilities and corral the villains.

This was the Superman that Weissinger inherited. What he did with the character starting in 1958 was historic:

1. Introduced new major and minor characters. Supergirl, the Legion of Superheroes, Lucy Lane, Pete Ross, etc., all made their first appearances early in the Silver Age.

2. Introduced new locales: Kandor, Krypton (not technically a new locale, but it was rarely used as the setting for a story before the Silver Age), the future, outer space, the Fortress of Solitude, the Phantom Zone, etc.

3. Added new villains to the roster (Brainiac), while developing the characters of older ones (Luthor) as well as resuscitating defunct ones (the renamed Mxyzptlk).

4. Developed Lois Lane into a character who could sustain her own comic.

5. Added continuity between stories, so that characters and relationships would evolve over time.

6. Added letters columns to create a sense of community between Superman fans.

7. Developed new weaknesses for Superman, creating more of a balance between the Man of Steel and his enemies.

I hope you enjoy this month-long project!

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Those Brilliant Kryptonians

Here's a hilarious bit from Superman #170:



Um, that's quite a clock; each hour represents a billion years? And there are no smaller hands? If we accept that the clock is broken down into tenths or so, that still means 100 million years between each tick. In other words, there is no sense building any kind of mechanism to count the time; the clock might as well be a painted hand on a cave wall.

I had always remembered this particular story as imaginary, but reading it now, I realize that the only "imaginary" sequences are when Luthor fantasizes about his future as Superman's father. Luthor came within a moment or two of marrying Lara, but once he was gone, she quickly fell into the arms of Jor-El. Pretty lousy characterization!

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