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

 

A superb Walter Baumhofer cover from 1936. 

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Getting Killed Twice by Chuck Connors.

 

Chuck Connors played the Rifleman. And you don't mess with the Rifleman if you want to live to see the sunrise tomorrow. Vic Morrow played Sgt. Saunders on Combat and, if you were a German soldier and wanted to see the sunrise tomorrow, you prayed on your knees not to run into Saunders.

A few years before becoming Sgt. Saunders, Vic Morrow twice guest-starred on The Rifleman. In both cases, he played an outlaw who had the same toughness that Saunders would have, but without Saunders' strong moral center. In both cases, my mind connects the characters he's playing with black sheep ancestors of Saunders. Toughness runs in the family, but not all of them recognize right from wrong. It's a silly and unnecessary connection, but I'm going to go with it anyways.

[By the way, I found it impossible to write about thess episodes without including spoilers. The Rifleman streams for free on IMDB TV, so you might want to pause here and watch the two episodes before reading on.]

In the first season episode "The Angry Gun" (12/23/58--written by Samuel A. Peeples), Morrow is Johnny Cotton. Lucas McCain and his son Mark are heading back to North Fork after selling some cattle. Cotton is a prisoner being transported on the same stagecoach. When two friends of Cotton stop the stagecoach and free him, he steals both the money and McCain's unique rifle.

So McCain pursues. Cotton, we find out, is utterly rotton and perfectly happy to see the two men who rescued him die so that he doesn't have to divide the loot. Eventually, McCain catches up with Cotton, only to get pinned down by gunfire from his own rifle. Cotton knows he's out of range of the six-gun McCain has acquired off the corpse of one of the other outlaws, so he takes the time to gloat before taking that final shot. And that gives McCain time enough to improvise a way to get Cotton first. I have no idea if McCain's plan makes real-life sense, but it sure looks cool.

In "Letter of the Law" (Season 2, 12/1/59--written by George W. and Judy George), Morrow plays Brett Stocker, a wanted killer who is identified and captured by North Fork's marshal because he carries easily-identifiable custom-made pistols. Marshal Micah Torrance has to take Stocker to federal authorities in another city, so he deputizes McCain to watch the town. But Stocker's gang kidnaps Micah, telling McCain they'll kill the marshal unless Stocker is released.

The episode is exceptionally good on several levels. First, it deals effectively with the morality of the situation. McCain knows he is sworn to uphold the law and that the letter of the law is important. But if he does this, Micah will die. Of course, McCain knows he's likely to be killed anyways even if Stocker is released, but shouldn't that chance be taken?  McCain's conversation about this with the town banker is intelligent, fits into the episode contextually without being preachy and adds to the overall tension.

Also, there's a mini-drama involving the captured Micah and a young outlaw who is shying away from the idea of actually committing murder. Paul Fix, the excellent character actor who played Micah, really shines in this scene, building a sincere rapport with the young man. This ends with a mini-tragedy within the story, as the outlaw ends up giving his life to allow Micah to escape.

And, finally, those hand-crafted guns of Stocker's work as an effective "Chekov's Gun," as McCain is able to use them to lure Stocker back into a trap after letting him go. Overall, "Letter of the Law" is one of The Rifleman's strongest episodes. 

Spies and Gladiators

 

Mr. Steed and Mrs. Peel were Britian's top spies, but in the first of two stories in their only Gold Key comic book appearance, they stumbled into a case purely by accident. 

Because Marvel already had a popular comic book titled The Avengers, Gold Key titled their book John Steed Emma Peel. It was cover dated November 1968 and called John Steed Emma Peel. Perhaps the title change to something awkward (a simplier Steed and Peel might have been better) was one of the reasons it didn't catch on. But, regardless, the stories in this issue were a lot of fun.

The issue leads off with "The Roman Invasion." (Writer and artist both unidentified.) As I mentioned above, Steed and Peel stumble upon this case. They are on a picnic when they spot two men dressed as ancient Roman soldiers fighting each other. One of them is knocked unconscious, forcing our heroes to intervene to save that man's life. The fight scene that follows, by the way, is entertaining and allows both Steed and Peel to show off their fighting skills.

They load both Roman soldiers into their car and drive to a hospital, but one of them wakes up and makes a break for it. He's soon calling in a warning to his mysterious bosses.

We gradually figure out what's going on along with Steed and Mrs. Peel, but here's a brief summary. A movie with a Roman Empire setting is being filmed in England. A foriegn power (East Germany, perhaps, to judge from the Germanic names used by the bad guys) is smuggling in agents by having them pose as extras in the film. A British agent found out about it--he's they guy who is still in the hospital at this point.

While Mrs. Peel remains at the hospital to question the agent, Steed checks out the film set, where he's soon roped into becoming another extra. Because he forgets to take off his bowler at first, the bad guys soon spot him. While an arena fight is being filmed, Steed ends up in an actual to-the-death fight with one of those bad guys.

Fortunately, Mrs. Peel has questioned the now-conscious agent and finds out what's going on. By stealing a scooter and then stealing a chariot, she arrives in the nick of time to save Steed. The enemy agents are rounded up and the day is saved. Steed and Peel continue their picnic with the chariot rather than their car.

The art work and the fight scenes really are fun, with the above image of Mrs. Peel charging in on a chariot being a highlight of the tale. "The Roman Invasion" does a pretty good job of catching both the humor and the sense of adventure inherent in the TV series.

That's it for now. Next week, we'll begin a journey through an issue of Superman Family. In the first story, Jimmy Olson plays hockey and dodges killers.

Cover Cavalcade

 

A great cover from 1954.

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