Superman Robots

[Jon Clark]

The big mistake that Superman made during the Weisinger Era was revealing too much information about himself. Maybe he was trying to impress Lois Lane--and having all the information about him gave the Superman Museum a lot of material to work with. But Superman should have kept mum about most of his background and his methods of operation. Then no one would know he had robots. No one would even think he had a secret identity. His origins on Krypton would be unknown. And no one would know that there was such a thing as Kryptonite.

While I agree Superman did have a problem with letting all his secrets out, it wasn't as if some of them wouldn't have come out anyway. The existence of the robots could be revealed if they were damaged or once someone like Lex realized they weren't battling the real Superman. And IIRC there was a Silver Age story where someone exposed Superboy to kryptonite publically which is how it became known to the world.

And to be fair if you wanted the public to trust you it probably would be better if you told them things yourself rather than risk it being revealed in a way that made it seem like you were hiding stuff. Imagine the reaction if Superman was revealed as an alien who'd been here for decades and hid that fact. Or if the mysterious Superman was revealed as a robot after Titano ripped an arm off of it?

[Jim Kelly]

The thread is about running off tangents. . . .



Ha! I looked up a picture for Superman and Santa and there's already a story with Christmas in danger. I don't know where is it from.

This is from "The Man Who Hated Christmas," ACTION COMICS No. 105 (February '47). Never reprinted (in the USA), I don't know why.

Christmas stories seemed to be a regular thing in the '40s. SUPERMAN'S CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE was a promotional comic given away in various stores in 1940. The story was illustrated by Jack Burnley. It was re-released again as a giveaway in 1944 and it's been reprinted in LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION C-43 (February-March '76) and in A DC UNIVERSE CHRISTMAS (2000).

The SUPERMAN-TIM giveaway comics from the 1940s have never been reprinted, but from the covers they seem to have been timed to appear during significant holidays, including Christmas--and the stories probably had someting to do with the holiday.

[Soubhagya]

Superman has quite a history with Santa Claus.


The great thing about DC Comics Presents, like Action Comics #584-599, is that it was a completely random team up series. So you get these awesome stories back to back purely by accident, Demon and Santa Claus, haha. And the scenes you posted are from Action #105.



It will still be a while before Kelex resurfaced, if you're at the end of Byrne. He was the lab assistant from Krypton in Man of Steel who later returns.

The story of Kelex is the story of the eradicator... like most things, haha. The Eradicator is THE literal plot device: it has an extensive storyline running from the end of 1988 to the beginning of 1993. Technically, it's a robot, too.

Anyway, the eradicator starts in Annual #2 and the storyline leading up to the return of Kelex and the fortress go up to Adventures of Superman #461. "July" of 1988 to "Dec" 1989.

DC Comics Presents is a good idea. I wonder why it stopped. And why it has not been tried again. I loved the the Action Comics part when it turned into a team up book.

Keelex is literally the same robot whom i saw in Man of Steel #1! Now that's something interesting. There's a lot of stuff to read indeed.

Its a story idea for anyone reading this. Santa Claus' s workshop has stopped functioning. Santa Claus is out sick. Enter Superman who saves Christmas as he is Super Santa for real. From making the gifts in his Fortress to going around the world delivering presents. The making presents can be done by the robots. Maybe make some robotic reindeer as they are out of action too.

[Soubhagya]

When I was a kid reading comics, I always wanted everyone to be happy and not have too much bother in their life. So I spent a lot of mental energy thinking how the heroes could achieve a nice existence and not have all these annoying things happening to them all the time. But I guess a lot of kids are like that--they look at all the suffering in the world and think it shouldn't be like that.

Later on I figured out that this is how stories work and that I was reading comics in order to get upset about stuff and see people facing these problems. Yet when I was a kid I couldn't understand what was going on with stories--I just saw that they disturbed me and it was better not to get disturbed.



In the early '70s, Superman didn't suffer the full effects of Relevancy but they did impact him. Clark went to WGBS which was more relevant--this was modern technology and he was often covering stories that had some relation to real life. Swan and Anderson drew the stories with greater realism and Clark dressed like a man of his times--with longer sideburns and updated glasses. The Sand Creature stole Superman's powers, so he had to deal with things on a more human level. Morgan Edge was a sinister sort of boss and more like the communications executives in the real world--rather than the cranky teddy-bear editor Perry White. Lois and Superman had relationship problems. Supergirl had her own problems with her powers and lived a modern life with modern problems. Although there were the Tales of Krypton, there was less of the big concept stuff--like super-pets, robots and Bizarros. The Legion of Super-Heroes was going through a down period between 1970 - 1972, where they didn't get a lot of stories.

The Relevant Period or Relevant Era or Relevancy is what people started to call the comics from DC around 1970 - 1974--because "relevant" was a buzz word at the time. The stories were supposed to be more relevant to real life. The most obvious example is the Green Lantern-Green Arrow stories by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams, where Hal and Oliver travelled in Search of America and encountered situations ripped from the headlines--like ghetto life, murdering biker cults, racist politicians, exploitation of Native-Americans, drug addiction and drug lords.

But Relevancy could be found in many DC titles between 1968 and 1976: Mike Sekowsky's WONDER WOMAN has Diana Prince losing her powers and operating as an ordinary human being--where she also dealt with corrupt politicians and drug crme. The O'Neil and Mike Friedrich runs on JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA often featured real world problems like corruption, the Vietnam War and pollution. The dark and gritty Batman detective stories had real life criminals rather than costumed idiots. Batgirl's boyfriend, Jason Bard, was a Vietnam vet, who'd come home with a bad leg. Titles like HAWK AND DOVE, THE CREEPER, BROTHER POWER....THE GEEK, Wein and Wrigtson's SWAMP THING all portrayed the sinister underbelly of society. TEEN TITANS had the team give up their costumed identities and operate as civilians to deal with real world problems. AQUAMAN went through his own odyssey in the Search for Mera.

All the DC mystery-horror titles featured stories of human tragedy and nightmare. The war titles--now edited by Joe Kubert--were less about glorifying war and more about exposing the dark realities of war. War titles featured the Enemy Ace, the Losers, the Unknown Soldier--there was even the short BLITZKRIEG run that showed war from the enemy side and dealt with the Holocaust. You had Jonah Hex in WEIRD WESTERN TALES squaring off against hatred and violence, reviled by people who judged him on his appearance. Deadman travelled through a world that looked more like the world of the late '60s and early '70s, not divorced from reality. The League of Assassins, as led by Ra's al Ghul, wanted to create an idyllic paradise--al Ghul hated what man had done to the Earth and wanted to obliterate all these modern horrors.

But the comics gradually got away from Relevancy because, as Julie Schwartz observed, it didn't sell. While the effects of Relevancy on Superman weren't great, they did last out the period. Clark was still working at WGBS and it took a long time for all the things from the Weisinger Era to come back--like Krypto, Bizarro World and Titano the Super-Ape. Elliot Maggin broke into comics at the peak of the Relevant Period and he crafted the famouse "Must There Be a Superman." Whereas Denny O'Neil's Sand Superman drained powers from Superman, the new limit that Maggin put on Superman was psychological and philosophical. Superman had to temper his actions for fear of the effect he might have on the real world.

I can appreciate these kinds of story ideas. I used to make them too as a kid. I am ready to read some of it. But i guess they can't last long. Both as sales would go to the ground. Also, such stories have much of conflict resolved. The story would cease to exist pretty soon.

Thank you so much for your informative post! It took effort and time to answer my query. I appreciate that.

[Soubhagya]

While I agree Superman did have a problem with letting all his secrets out, it wasn't as if some of them wouldn't have come out anyway. The existence of the robots could be revealed if they were damaged or once someone like Lex realized they weren't battling the real Superman. And IIRC there was a Silver Age story where someone exposed Superboy to kryptonite publically which is how it became known to the world.

And to be fair if you wanted the public to trust you it probably would be better if you told them things yourself rather than risk it being revealed in a way that made it seem like you were hiding stuff. Imagine the reaction if Superman was revealed as an alien who'd been here for decades and hid that fact. Or if the mysterious Superman was revealed as a robot after Titano ripped an arm off of it?

You make a good point. Superman has to be more open. I did not think in this way. I did not know about him being exposed to Kryptonite in public was how this was known to the world. Thanks for the cool info!

[Soubhagya]

This is from "The Man Who Hated Christmas," ACTION COMICS No. 105 (February '47). Never reprinted (in the USA), I don't know why.

Christmas stories seemed to be a regular thing in the '40s. SUPERMAN'S CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE was a promotional comic given away in various stores in 1940. The story was illustrated by Jack Burnley. It was re-released again as a giveaway in 1944 and it's been reprinted in LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION C-43 (February-March '76) and in A DC UNIVERSE CHRISTMAS (2000).

The SUPERMAN-TIM giveaway comics from the 1940s have never been reprinted, but from the covers they seem to have been timed to appear during significant holidays, including Christmas--and the stories probably had someting to do with the holiday.

Thanks again! Your posts are really informative. I vote for their reprinting. And more Christmas stories. I loved the Superman stories in Christmas Special. Especially the one by Max Landis.