Time Travel, Jesse James and a lot of Accidental Deaths (maybe).

 

cover art by Curt Swan

I'm okay with the rules about Time Travel--DC was reasonably consistent about that even during the often-inconsistent Silver Age.

But what the heck are the rules for Jimmy's Superman Signal wrist watch?

"The Gunsmoke Kid," a story from Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #45 (June 1960) raises this question. In fact, it does sort of raise a time travel question as well. The strength of the story is in the fact that we can still enjoy it as over-the-top fun and asking questions about internal logic just adds to the fun.

The story's author is unknown (though I would guess Otto Binder) and the art is by Curt Swan.

Jimmy and Clark are interviewing Professor Potter about his newest invention--a time machine. The professor hasn't perfected it yet--you can travel back in time, but he hasn't figured out how to return you to the present.

Jimmy, who is wearing a Wild West costume because he's attending a costume party later on, plays with the machine. This is unwise and after 45 issues of bizarre adventures and previous encounters with Potter's various inventions, he really SHOULD know better.

He's teleported back to the Old West. Here's where the time travel logic becomes a bit skewed. He appears in a prison cell and is mistaken for an outlaw called the Gunsmoke Kid. So did he replace the REAL Gunsmoke Kid? If so, where is the real Kid? And why didn't anyone recognize him as NOT being the Kid? Unless the Kid is Jimmy's double? Did the sheriff just decide to accuse anyone who mysteriously appears in his jail of being a dangerous outlaw? Is the sheriff just really bad at his job? WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

The Gunsmoke Kid--er, I mean Jimmy Olsen--is busted out of prison by Jesse James, who promises Jimmy a chance to kill the three most famous outlaws in the West: Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickcock and Bat Masterson.

Jimmy tries to miss on purpose all three times he ambushes one of the lawmen, but each time it appears that he's accidentally killed them anyways. He also is mysteriously able to cheat at poker (something he has to do to keep Jesse from shooting him), dealing himself four aces after dealing other players four kings and four queens respectively. Jimmy is both concerned that he's inadvertantly committed murder AND wondering if he's changing history.

It's at the poker game that the signal watch issue arises. The watch normally sends out an ulta sonic sound that only Superman can hear. But Jimmy uses it as an audible alarm to distract the losing poker players. So is there a second alarm set in the watch that is audible to normal humans--which I don't think was every mentioned either before or after this story? And wasn't the Superman signal able to penetrate the time barrier on other occasions, even though we are told here that it can't? (I can't think of an example--please comment if you do know of one.)

Eventually, the three supposedly dead lawmen are spotted. Jesse decides to kill Jimmy, but Superman does turn out to be nearby, blowing up a dust storm to rescue Jimmy without being seen. (The story is consistant with the DC Comics Time Travel rule that you can't change the past.)

It was Superman in disguise who posed as the lawmen and faked their deaths, as well as Superman fixing the poker game. He's recorded all this, so Jimmy has some awesome film foogage of himself to show at parties. I guess that was worth the mental agony of thinking you were a murderer, Jimmy? Superman? What about that, huh? Is emotional anguish a fair trade for party bragging rights?

I am, of course, making fun of the story. But I do so without rancor or any heartfelt criticism. With some comic books, imaginative fun should be preferable to narrative consistency. Superman's Pal is a prime example throughout its run of when this is true. Its a fun story and if I could time travel, replace Mort Weisinger as editor and change history--well, I just wouldn't. In Weisinger's universe, YES, mental anguish is a fair trade for party bragging rights! I mean, of course it is! The story is perfect just as it is. 

Next week, we'll begin a five part visit with the Avengers, then the X-Men, then (eventually) both groups.

Jimmy Olsen--Mind Reader!

 

cover art by Curt Swan

We began our story-by-story journey through Superman Family #182 (April 1977) with a Jimmy Olsen story. I was critical of that story because, though Jimmy was the nominal protagonist, is was purely Superman saving the day in the end.

Well, we finish up with this issue with a much better Jimmy Olsen story. Written by Cary Bates and drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger, it follows the long-established tradition of Jimmy Olsen being temporarily granted a superpower.

In this case, while filling in as host of a talk show, a guest who can read minds transfer that power into Jimmy. Later, the original mind-reader is kidnapped. 

It turns out the guy had sensed he was in danger, but couldn't get the cops to believe in his ESP. (Though, if any police department in the world should be open to the existence of superpowers, it SHOULD be the Metropolis PD.)  So he transfered his powers to Jimmy, so that Jimmy could then jump in to help.

There's no physical evidence at the scene of the kidnapping. In fact, even Superman turns up nothing when he does a superspeed/super-senses search of the apartment. But Jimmy soon realizes he can track residual brain waves. Going off on his own (which was actually kind of dump), he soon finds Heller (the mind reader) and his kidnappers in a junkyard. He overhears enough to realize the crooks have kidnapped Heller to force him to find out bank safe combinations. 

Unfortunately, Jimmy doesn't realize that a third kidnapper is lurking about. Soon, he's also a prisoner.

And here's where the story shows itself to be much better than the early Jimmy Olsen tale in this issue. Jimmy is a prisoner, but he's still clever and proactive. Realizing that he can transfer the mind-reading ability into someone else (just as Heller did), he moves it into one of the crooks. Then he begins thinking that Superman will be here within seconds.

It's a bluff, but it works. The crooks begin to run off in a panic. Jimmy and Heller quickly subdue two of them.

The third crook looks like he's getting away. But Superman (who has followed his own clues to the junkyard) does indeed arrive to catch him.

The bad guys are captured and Heller gets his mind-reading power back. How he does this isn't explained. Can he just reclaim it or did the crook who had the power at this point have to agree to give it back? 

But that's a nitpick. Yes, Superman does swoop in to catch the last crook and show his own cleverness, but Jimmy gets to be a smart and proactive protagonist. This is a Jimmy Olsen story as they should be.

Next week: What's better than hunting dinosaurs? How about hunting alien dinosaurs on another planet?

Jimmy Plays Hockey---OR DOES HE?

 

cover art by Curt Swan

Today, we'll begin a story-by-story look at Superman Family #182 (March-April 1977), This will be an every-other-week feature, mixed in with other comic book reviews. I have no delusion that my blog will ever have more than a small readership, but I appreciate the readers I do have (and, hey, feel free to leave comments a little more often) and I want to make sure my comic book reviews cover a variety of genres and characters. If one of you doesn't care for the Man from Krypton, don't worry. We'll visit someone else next week.

Anyway, Superman Family was a continuation of the Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane books, both of which folded into Superman Family in 1974, with that book continuing with the numbering from Jimmy's book. Issue #182 features two tales starring Jimmy, along with individual stories about Lois, Krypto, Supergirl and Superbaby. There's also a tale from ancient Krypton. It's typical of the Family book--giving us a nice variaty of yarns set within the vibrant Superman mythology.

The first story we come to, though, is a little weak. "Death on Ice," written by Murray Boltinoff (using the name Bill Dennehy and drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger, begins with a teaser splash page that shows us Jimmy playing goalie in a hockey game. But this teaser proves to be a DARN, DIRTY LIE! 

I can never trust anything ever again!

Schaffenberger's art on a Superman story is always fun to look at, but the story has a few flaws in the script. After the teaser page, it begins with Jimmy covering a hockey game for GBS, with Clark as his guest in the press room. After the game, Jimmy mentions an article he had just read that claimed that we are dreaming while we are awake and that our dreams are the real world. He then goes to the home team locker room to interview the goalie. 

But the player now refuses to talk to the young reporter. What's more, Jimmy sees a couple of known thugs walking away. These thugs, in turn, recognize Jimmy as a reporter and decide to kill him.

They try to bag Jimmy in the parking lot and during the ensuing chase, Jimmy sees Clark changing into Superman. This is why the earlier dialogue about the dreaming-while-we-are-awake article was there earlier. Jimmy, influenced by that article, will eventually decide that this was a daydream and Clark is not actually Superman. It's a weak subplot that could have been left out entirely without affecting the rest of the story.

Superman saves Jimmy by flying off with the thugs, weaving their car through Metropolis traffic until they get arrested for reckless driving. The next night, Jimmy confronts the goalie again after finding 25 grand in cash inside the guy's locker.

The goalie claims he turned down a bribe to throw the game, but the thugs had planted the cash in his locker anyway to get him to change his mind. He's afraid Jimmy will go to press with a story that makes him look guilty. Jimmy is afraid the player is attacking him and accidentally knocks him out.

The thugs, who apparently made bail, show up again, so Jimmy puts on a hockey uniform as a disguise. This was the point of the teaser--to make us think that Jimmy would end up playing in the upcoming game. But when the game begins, the guy wearing the goalie's mask makes one spectacular save after another and it's not hard to immediately guess that this is Superman. When the other team, who are in on the bribe and expecting the goalie to throw the game, attempt to gang up on him, the ice beneath their skates mysteriously melts. The thugs and the dishonest players all end up in jail.

This conclusion, while fun if taken on its own, is another weakpoint in the story. The best Jimmy and Lois tales involved them having adventures when Superman wasn't necessarily around to help them out. They are meant to showcase the fact that the other members of the Daily Planet (or, by this time, Galaxy Broadcasting) staff were great reporters in their own right. In "Death on Ice," though, Jimmy has to step aside and let Superman save the day.

Oh, well, Schaffenberger's art is still great and when we return to this issue, we'll look at a Superbaby story that is as fun as it is absurd. 

That's in two weeks. Next week, we'll jump to the Marvel Universe to find out whether a tough-as-nails Old West lawman can hold his own against the King of Vampires.

Cover Cavalcade

For a book with the title "Superman's Pal," there were a very high percentage of covers that featured Jimmy trying to kill Superman or Superman tormenting Jimmy.

From 1961, with art by Curt Swan. This cover was inspired by this 1938 pulp cover painted by Howard V. Brown.

Cover Cavalcade

Even for someone living in a Comic Book Universe, Jimmy Olsen lives an odd life.  From 1959, with art by Curt Swan.

The Average Day of a Newspaper Reporter

Perry White fires or threatens to fire Jimmy Olsen an awful lot, but Jimmy always ends up staying with the Daily Planet. This is just as well, because if he ever had to look for another job, I'm pretty sure his resume would be roughly the size of the unabridged War and Peace.

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #83 (March 1965) provides evidence of this. It shows that even setting aside whatever role Jimmy may have had in other Superman books, we can see he has a busy month. He prevents Metropolis from being looted by thieves, visits an alien planet and helps foil a mass murder attempt. Any one of those accomplishments are worth mentioning when hunting for a new job.























"The Nostradamus of Metropolis" involves (apparently) the real Nostradamus, who was put to sleep by a magic spell and only now wakes up. He meets Jimmy and then starts making odd predictions: All the water in Metropolis will freeze; all the trees will suddenly fly into orbit; etc. When these come true, everyone immediately believes Nostradamus when he predicts the city will be destroyed by an earthquake. But it's all a trick--a crook working with Luthor is using a power crystal to make the weird predictions come true so that they can loot the city after the populace flees.

It's Jimmy who saves the day, realizing the guy is a fake after seeing him recognize and use a piece of modern technology. Superman traps the gang and the day is saved. Oddly, the normally verbose Luthor has no dialogue.


"The Great Miss Universe Contest" is one of those stories where providing a plot summary simply can not do justice to the glorious silliness of the tale. Suffice to say that Perry White is accidentally rendered invisible, Jimmy falls for a girl who turns out to be an alien, then gets taken to another planet and turned into a protoplasmic creature. Fortunately, Invisible Perry rescues him and brings him home.

Apparently, piloting a flying saucer across interstellar space is something Perry can list on his resume.

"Jimmy Olsen's Captive Double" begins when the Daily Planet staff receives a bomb threat while Superman is away on a mission in space. But the Daily Planet staff has an established procedure for this sort of thing: call the Kandorian L.A.S. (Look Alike Squad) to take their place until the bomber is caught. Since the Kandorians have superpowers while under a yellow sun, the bomber can't hurt them.

But it's all a trick. Ar-Rone, Perry White's double, is a traitor working with the Superman Revenge Squad to kill the Look Alikes. He uses a Super-Hypnotic beam to command Jimmy to kill the Squad. Jimmy promptly does so.










Except that's a trick also! Kandor's Espionage Squad had been on to Ar-Rone all along and the whole Mad Bomber thing was just a sting to get him to give himself away.


And, remember, this all happened within the space of a single month. Jimmy was doing this sort of thing all the time.

I wrote once before that I think of Jimmy Olsen as the Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyon of the DC Universe, living out stories that are tall tales even within the confines of a comic book universe. At their best, the Jimmy Olsen stories stretched Comic Book Logic to its breaking point, but never failed to entertain us. These yarns are textbook examples of pure fun.

{Writer and Artist credits for this issue can be found HERE.}

Cover Cavalcade

So Jimmy gets a chance to film a monster movie and his idea is to lure two REAL monsters together and get them to fight. Gee whiz, Jimmy, that's a great plan! What could possibly go wrong?

Cover Cavalcade

Isn't Jimmy cheating here? He's in the stands--not a player in the field!

The Heart of Superman

As much as I love black-and-white photography, I would normally agree that color works better for superhero-oriented TV shows and movies. After all, the superhero business is literally one of primary colors.

But there's always exceptions to this. The Adventures of Superman ran for six seasons from 1952 to 1956. The first two seasons were filmed in black-and-white--it's these two seasons (most especially the first season) that are the best. And this is in no small part because of the black-and-white photography.

In part because of the legacy of the radio show and in part because of special effects limitations, Superman didn't fight supervillains and only occasionally ran into super-scientific threats. His opponents were gangsters and spies. The plots were constructed as mysteries--this meant there was stuff for Clark Kent to investigate and figure out before Superman could swoop in and punch everyone silly.

These early episodes were often gritty and dark, with a very high likelihood of a few corpses turning up before the end credits rolled. They were photographed and lighted in a very Film Noir-ish style that fit these types of stories perfectly. Consequently, The Adventures of Superman looked better and worked more effectively in black-and-white than it did in color. The Film Noir influence is particularly apparent in three of the best Season One episodes: "The Haunted Lighthouse," "A Night of Terror," and "The Evil Three."

What balanced out the grittiness and kept the show fun was its cast. George Reeves brought a personable confidence to both Clark and the Man of Steel. Lois Lane, whether played by Phyllis Coates or Noel Neill, was brass and brave. John Hamilton was magnificently crouchy as Perry White.

But I think it was Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen that really brought heart to the show. Jimmy was often over-eager and naive, but Larson's performance combined these traits with an inherent courage and a determination to stand by his friends. In later seasons, Jimmy was reduced more and more to being comic relief and nothing more. But in the first season--well, take a look at the clip I'm including. It's a scene from "A Night of Terror." Jimmy, Lois and one other character are about to be shot to death by gangsters. Notice that Jimmy is standing protectively in front of the two women. He's obviously terrified and helpless to do anything really effective. But by golly, he'll take a bullet before he allows either of the women to be hurt! Take note of this, modern-comic-book-writers-who-have-no-idea-how-to-deal-with-Superman's-traditional-supporting-cast. That's the way to write Jimmy Olsen!

Superman's Pal

The mind boggles when you think about what the Human Resources manager at the Daily Planet must have to deal with. If you're turned into a werewolf while on the job, does this come under Workman's Comp? How about if your top girl reporter gets knocked on the head, turns evil and blackmails Superman into marrying her? Does time off for that count as Vacation time or Personal time? Does it constitute harassment? And why the heck does Clark Kent spend so much time ducking into that janitor's closet? That's not in his job description, is it? If you are turned into a baby, is the Planet suddenly in danger of violating Child Labor laws? If an employee turns into a giant turtle man and destroys most of the U.S. Navy's Atlantic fleet, is the Daily Planet liable in any way?

I think the most heroic people in the DC Universe probably work in H.R. Just look at what those poor people had to deal with.

But Mort Weisinger and his writers never worried about that. They simply tossed the Daily Planet workers into one bizarre danger after another--and consequences be darned!

Jimmy Olsen started out as a nameless copy boy back in the 1940s, but was soon given a name and became a regular part of the cast as a cub reporter. In 1954, he got his own book--Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. Here we discover that young Jim has become quite a skilled investigative reporter and a disguise artist. That set the stage for stories pitting Jimmy against gangsters and con artists, which was fine by itself.

But Jimmy lived in a universe ruled by Mort Weisinger, so before long he was also confronting aliens, traveling through time and frequently getting transformed into strange creatures such a werewolf, a porcupine boy, and a boy with six arms. He occasionally drank a formula that turned gave him stretching powers and fought crime as Elastic Lad. He became a member of the Legion of Super Heroes. He fought crime in the bottle city of Kandor as Flamebird. He had a watch that could emit a hyper-sonic signal that only Superman could hear. Jimmy had an awesome career as a newsman--and all before he was old enough to vote.




The Jimmy Olsen stories couldn't have been sillier and often made no sense even in the context of a comic book universe, but they were told in a straightforward manner that still allowed them to fit easily into Superman's reality. Normally, fantasy and SF stories are strengthened by having a solid internal logic. In the case of the Jimmy Olsen stories, the silliness and lack of consistent logic worked to their advantage. It wasn't a case of "turning your brain off" in order to enjoy them. Instead, the best of Jimmy's yarns become tall tales in which their absurdities are simply a part of what is supposed to happen. Jimmy is essential the Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed of the DC Universe.

There's so many examples of bizarre yet entertaining Jimmy Olsen stories, it's hard to pick a typical example. I think we'll just go to the most famous example--"The Giant Turtle Man."

Written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Curt Swan, this story appeared in Jimmy Olsen #53 (June 1961). Jimmy is on a vacation cruise in the Caribbean when he finds an enlarging ray in a chest washed up on an island beach. This turns out to be the first part of a trap laid by a criminal merman from Atlantis named Goxo.

Jimmy accidentally sets off the ray, which passes through a turtle before hitting him. He grows to several hundred feet in height and mutates into a giant turtle boy. Goxo then takes telepathic control of him, forcing him to destroy bridges and Navy ships, then dumping the metal scrap this creates into an island volcano.

You see, Goxo was being exiled to the surface world for his crimes. He had discovered a cache of pirate gold on the island. Wanting to save this for his exile, he had to prevent geologists studying the volcano from stumbling across it. So he came up with the Giant Turtle Boy plan to clog the volcano with molten metal and prevent it from erupting. Because no geologist would be interested in studying an artificially clogged volcano.

Superman is on a mission in space during the initial part of Giant Turtle
Boy's rampage, but he soon returns to put a stop to it. Mermaid Lori Lemaris explains Goxo's evil plan and everything is now apparently all right. Well, the Navy has lost several hundred million dollars worth of warships, but no one mentions that. Maybe that pirate gold was used to pay for them? Maybe the Daily Planet just has really good insurance?

Well, Goxo's plan is just a tad bit absurd. (Its main failing is depending on whomever finding the ray being

clumsy enough to use it on himself.) But that's okay, because Goxo is a crook and we can assume he's just nuts.

As for the story's other inconsistencies in logic--well, like many of the Jimmy Olsen stories, the story is told in such an unpretentious and convivial manner, that it's impossible to complain. You find yourself simply accepting everything that happens at face value and enjoying the tall tale for what it is. If an insane merman criminal wants to leave an enlarging ray on the beach as part of his plan to recover pirate gold, then that's just fine by me. The world can never have enough of that sort of thing.


I was going to review a Lois Lane story in this post as well, but I've droned on about Jimmy far too long. So we will end our systematic look at the Weisinger-era Superman universe next week when Lois really gets on the Man of Steel's nerves by... being ethical?