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?
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