The Super-Men (and -Women) of All-Planets

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 50 (January 1961)--2nd story, "The Weirdest Asteroid in Space" by Binder, Swan and Sheldon Moldoff:

Reporters Olsen and Kent are accidentally launched into space aboard a rocketship--they eject from the runaway rocket and land on a small asteroid. However, as they explore the asteroid they discover it has weird features before it's revealed to be a giant space dragon. When Jimmy blacks out, Clark is able to assume his Superman identity and return the cub reporter to Earth.



SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 60 (April 1962)--3rd story, "The Fantastic Army of General Olsen" by Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan and George Klein, cover by Swan and Forte:



On the planet Xar, the inhabitants have built a super-computer brain, which has gone rogue and used a transfer ray to come to Earth, to build an invasion force of machines. An army from Xar enlists the aid of Olsen as their general, to lead them into war against the machines.

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 77 (June 1964)--3rd story "Jimmy Olsen, Super-Thief" (writer unknown), art by John Forte and George Klein:

Sent on an interstellar good will tour by Superman in a rocketship laden with his trophies as gifts, Jimmy visits many new planets--including Shalzor in galaxy K-4L and Paratopia, where no crime exists--before he's forced to land on an unknown world, to recharge his ship's batteries. Killing time, Jim dons a uniform outfit of the inhabitants and begins to gather loot, before he's cornered. Rather than arrest him as a thief, they honour him. This is a planet settled by outlaws from other worlds and the belt buckle on their uniforms nullifies any conscience. They see that, on his rocket, he has many of Superman's trophies and believe he must be a great thief indeed to have stolen from the Man of Steel.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 79 (September 1964)--2nd story, "The Menace of Insect Island" by Leo Dorfman and George Papp:

One day, in the Flying Newsroom, Jimmy and Lucy land on an island of red Ant-Men. Their leader Vorax explains how they were once humanoids on their own distant planet, but a renegade scientist polluted the water supply to turn them into Ant-Men. The scientist reasoned that as Ant-Men they would have far superior mental powers.



As the population was divided among itself between armies of red Ant-Men and black Ant-Men, they fought an unceasing war for supremacy. Facing near extinction, on both sides, a squadron of red Ant-Men piloted a rocketship away from the devastated planet, landing on Earth. There they stayed in seclusion, despite their monitors showing that the conquering red Ant-Men of their planet had begun to rebuild their civilization, as their rocketship's batteries were depleted--and so they need Superman's help to recharge. When the Man of Steel returns to Earth, Jimmy is able to signal him with his watch.


SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 84 (April 1965)--2nd story, "Jimmy Olsen's Day of Disgrace" (Dorfman and Forte):

Plim, from the distant planet Antron, is one of Jimmy Olsen's biggest fans and an aspiring reporter himself. However, he arrives on Earth at an inopportune moment as Olsen has been busted down to a delivery boy by Perry White. When they hear of the escape of three hardened criminals, the two young reporters decide to track them down. Prim dons a disguise to hide his alien appearance (a blond wig over his baldpate) and they enlist the aid of a Snork, an electronic bloodhound (like one of them from BLACK MIRROR). Although the Snork does its job, Jim's bad luck lets the felons go free. He's downcast, but Plim is happy with the photos he caught of Olsen in action--as his crying, his hair standing on end and his swatting a fly would all be considered super-powers on Antron.



SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 85 (June 1965)--1st story, "Love Me, Love My Beast" by Bill Finger, Swan and Klein; r. SUPERMAN FAMILY 172 (August-September 1975):



The red-headed Shara and Gnor, from the planet Salan where all are red-headed, come to Earth and select Jimmy (with his splendid hair) to be their guide on their visit. Olsen is attracted to the beautiful Shara, of course, but he doesn't care for her companion animal, Gnor, who is a killjoy on their dates. Being literal-minded, whenever Jim wishes for something, Gnor's powers manifest exactly what the cub reporter asked for.

However, all is not as Jimmy believes. In fact, Gnor is the master and Shara is an android slave. The creature built her to provide a constant supply of energy through her leash. Before she dies on board her ship, Shara reveals the whole truth to Lucy--confessing that though she's an android she truly loved Jimmy. Superman tricks Gnor into using the leash to feed off his energy--but absorbing so much energy from the Man of Steel proves too much for the alien and Gnor disintegrates [note this seems to be against Superman's no-kill policy].

[Jim Kelly]

ADVENTURE COMICS 198 (March 1954)--"The Super-Carnival From Space" (writer unknown), art by Curt Swan and Sy Barry:

One day, a circus of amazing creatures arrives in Smallville. Everyone else believes they are fakes, but Clark knows that they are actually from other planets--including an eight-armed man from Jupiter. When the Ringmaster sees Superboy in action, he wants him to join his interplanetary circus, and when the Boy of Steel refuses, the Ringmaster sets some of the circus freaks upon him. Superboy is undaunted until he confronts the Jensha, from a planet with a much larger gravity and under the telepathic control of the Ringmaster.



The matter-eating Jensha could devour Smallville, so the Kid from Krypton agrees to be a part of the circus until he devises a plot to shield telepathic thoughts from reaching the great beast.


SUPERBOY 33 (June 1954)--2nd story, "The Pet From Outer-Space" by William Woolfolk, Curt Swan and Sy Barry:

A small capsule splashes down in one of Smallville's rivers and, when the Boy of Steel recovers it, he finds a small, green alien creature inside. The affectionate extra-terrestrial can change form to any other animal, but like Garfield Logan it always retains its green colouring.



In the end, Superboy sends the green shape-shifter back to its home planet.




ADVENTURE COMICS 206 (November 1954), "The Impossible Creatures" by Otto Binder and John Sikela:

When Lewis Lang and Superboy unearth fossils from millions of years ago, the professor's contention that these creatures once roamed our world is questioned by the archaeological community, as that would mean creatures unlike anything we've ever known had existed on Earth. Determined to prove Lang right, the Boy of Steel scours the universe for a planet where such creatures may have originated, until he finds a world that fits his theory. Evolution has changed the creatures since, but Superboy is able to show a link between the present day animals and their predecessors.

In truth, what Prof. Lang and other scientists are doing in this story would not be called archaeology, it's paleontology, but Binder calls it archaeology, so Otto gets the last word.

[Jim Kelly]

ADVENTURE COMICS 230 (November 1956), "The Secret of the Flying Horse" by Otto Binder, Curt Swan and John Fischetti; r. SUPERBOY 138 [G-35] (May-June 1967):

A horse from another planet, where horses are the higher life form, lands on Earth and goes in search of intelligent life, when he meets Clark Kent who needs a horse for the junior derby.



Although the horse is telepathic and can read Clark's mind, he's unable to communicate with the boy. Having won the race, Kent discovers that his steed can fly. The horse is intent on finding Kryptonite, which makes Superboy believe he means him harm. However, the Kryptonite is for fuel, as the flying horse's spacecraft has run out and needs more.


SUPERBOY 81 (June 1960)--1st story, "The Weakling From Earth" by Otto Binder and George Papp; cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye:



The Boy of Steel is stranded on the planet Xenon, where the heavier gravity and red sun make him a weakling. Most residents of the planet have super-powers and anyone who doesn't is wanted by the law and to be imprisoned on the Weakling World. Ral Quorz and Jinnia Quorz take Clark in and have him pose as their son, Jal Quorz, covering up the fact that he has no real super-powers--their own son Varl was a weakling and was sent to the Weakling World.

Eventually, though, Jal Quorz is revealed to be a weakling and sent to the Weakling World, where he meets other weaklings, including Varl Quorz. When Jal gets in a fight with one of the other boys, he's hit with a rock, which happens to be Red Kryptonite and has the effect of giving him back his super-powers.

Superboy then heads over to the main world of Xenon and attacks the dictator, Zozz, and his underlings. A uranium ray blasted at a flying mountain causes a chain reaction, creating a cloud of Xenonite which envelopes the world, causing all the super-powered inhabitants to lose their abilities, normalizing everyone. The dictatorship is overthrown and the Boy of Steel institutes a democratic government. Ral and Jinnia are reuntied with their son, Varl. And Superboy returns to Earth.

Xenon is close enough to Krypton that many artefacts landed there, such that the people adopted Kryptonese as their own language. This would also account for why there's Red Kryptonite on Weakling World--although, Red K. has no effect on Kryptonians under a red sun as a rule. Maybe this is a different isotype of the stuff.

[Jim Kelly]

ADVENTURE COMICS 274 (July 1960)--1st story, "The Thing That Stalked Smallville" by Robert Bernstein and George Papp; r. 80 PAGE GIANT MAGAZINE 6 (January 1965):

One day Superboy befriends a big hairy beast that uses the pink rays from its eyes to turn random people into stone. People in Smallville are panicked, until the truth comes out.

Some years ago, on the planet Zaron, ten evil scientists unleashed a radioactive nerve gas bomb that was supposed to mentally enslave the population. Instead, the explosion killed half the population and nine scientists were arrested and sentenced to death, but managed to escape the planet in a rocketship and landed on Earth.

They hid out in Smallville, as ordinary citizens, plotting to kill Superboy and explode another bomb on Earth.

After the scientists had left Zaron, the effect of the radioactive nerve gas took full effect and the population were transformed into hairy beasts. Zaron sent one of their own, 6-3KX, to track down the nine murderers on Earth.

The one called 6-3KX discovered that he could emanate pink rays from his eyes which would turn anyone from Zaron to stone, while anyone else was not affected.



Thus, he enlisted the Boy of Steel's help in tracking down the nine Zaronians in Smallville and turning them to stone. It seems that this stone-state is an actual death, so Clark aids 6-3KX in executing the nine scientists for genocide.

***

SUPERBOY 88 (April 1961)--1st story, "The Invader From Earth" by Jerry Coleman and Al Plastino:

One day, flying through outer space, the Kid from Krypton happens upon a planet with highly advanced technology, yet the crimson inhabitants lead a relatively primitive existence. They are immediately frightened of the flying boy, perceiving him as a dragon of some sort.

Every time that Kal-El tries to do something good for them, it backfires. The Red Ones ward him off with their staffs. Magic symbols and stones decorate these staffs--the stones are what they call Thaldek, yet Superboy knows them as Kryptonite.



However, in the end Clark gets through to them. He has discovered that this planet was not originally theirs. The Red Ones had lived on another planet, while other humanoids lived on this one, but found that the environment was unsuitable to them--whereas, this planet suited them and their planet much better suited these primitives--so they put the Red Ones to sleep and made a trade. Now the Boy of Steel is able to educate the scarlet beings on how to use the advanced technology available to them.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERBOY 77 (December 1959)--1st story, "The Space Adventures of Krypto" by Jerry Siegel and George Papp:

Krypto travels to one planet where he's treated like a king and another world of dog-eating plants. [I feel like I already posted about this story.]





SUPERBOY 87 (March 1961)--2nd story, "Krypto's First Romance" (Siegel and Papp); r. SUPERBOY 134 (December 1966):

The Superdog rescues a pink, alien dog named Kolli, after she is launched into space by scientists in the country of Lanthia, on the planet Mogar. Wishing to give her super-powers like his, Krypto takes her to another nearby planet, Zena, where he knows that the waters from a certain, glowing pool will endow her with his abilities.



However, once Kolli has her powers, Krypto is weakened every time he comes near her. Although he's in love, he opts to leave her and return to Earth.

[Jim Kelly]

ADVENTURE COMICS 293 (February 1962)--"The Legion of Super-Traitors" by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan and George Klein; r. SUPERBOY 147 [G-47] (May-June 1968):

The Brain Globes (literally brains in floating globes) from the planet Rambat are intent on pulling the planet Earth out of its orbit and bringing it to their solar system. At first, they use their mental powers to control Superboy but are unsuccessful and then enlist Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy from the 30th Century to defeat Superboy. After the Legionnaires have subdued the Boy of Steel and are released from the Brain Globes' control, they realize that the cerebral czars have no control over non-humanoid creatures, like Krypto the Superdog. So the Legion Three use their time spheres to gather Beppo the Super-Monkey, Streaky the Super-Cat and Comet the Super-Horse (his first appearance anywhere) to join Krypto as a "Legion of Super-Pets" and defeat the Brain Globes from Rambat.



Superboy being unconscious is prevented from knowing what happened, as it would reveal too much of his personal timeline.


SUPERBOY 122 (July 1965)--3rd story, "The Fugitive Krypto" (Siegel and Papp); r. SUPERMAN FAMILY 168 (December 1974-January 1975):



One day, the Superdog decides to visit a planet that orbits the "Dog Star," Sirius. There he finds the inhabitants all have dog heads and worship him. However, when he proves vulnerable to pain, they believe him to be a fake. They do not know that the red glow from their moon has weakened the Dog of Steel.

Meanwhile, another dog, Bonzor, who is given bones that grant temporary powers by his dog-headed master, poses as Krypto to gain treasures for his master. Krypto colludes with Bonzor to get one of those bones so he can defeat the criminal master and prove to the dog-headed people that he's the true Superdog.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERBOY 131 (July 1966)--3rd story, "The Dog From S.C.P.A." by Otto Binder and George Papp:

The Superdog is too late to save Mammoth Mutt as he comes under attack in space, but as the balloon-powered dog expires he tells Krypto of the others in the Space Canine Patrol Agents, who are being held captive by the Canine Caper Gang on a world of dog-headed people.



Getting himself captured, the Dog of Steel--assuming the identity of "Air-Daile"--meets the other S.C.P. Agents in prison: Tail Terrier (the Top Dog), Tusky Husky, Chameleon Collie, Hot Dog, Bull Dog and Paw Pooch.



When they escape their prison, the S.C.P.A defeat the band of dog-headed bandits and Krypto delivers them into the paws of the Space Cat Patrol Agents--Atomic Tom, Crab-Tabby and Power Puss.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERBOY 132 (September 1966)--1st story, "Krypto's Cat-Crook Caper" (Binder and Papp):

The next time Krypto joins the S.C.P.A., led by Top Dog (Tail Terrier), they are doing a fund drive to support the team (the fund is treasure bones), but the Cat Crime Club are intent on stealing the funds. The Cat Crime Club counts as its cohorts Kid Kitty, Gat-Cat and Purring Pete.




SUPERBOY 136 (March 1967)--2nd story "Decoy of the Doom Statues" (Binder and Papp):

In the third (and final?) gathering of the S.C.P.A, Mammoth Miss, the girl friend of the deceased Mammoth Mutt, takes his place on the team.



Applying to be a new agent is Prophetic Pup, whose three predictions must come true in order to be admitted into the group. The Agents are confounded by the Black Cat Gang, who are aided by the phantom pet cats (Phanty Cats) of the Phantom Zone, in setting a trap for Krypto and Superboy.

[Jim Kelly]

Icon of Terminus (Arnus a.k.a. Augustus Freeman IV)

I'm going to make an attempt at summarizing Icon's crossovers with Superman as best I can, without going into too much detail. I'm sure others know these stories better than me--so please post any corrections or additions that are needed. All of this is in memory of the late Dwayne McDuffie (February 20, 1962 – February 21, 2011).

So, who is Icon?

Published under the Milestone imprint, parts of Icon's origin are in ICON issue 1 (May 1993) and issue 7 (November 1993), but the most complete version is in issue 8 (December 1993)--"Entelechy" by Dwayne McDuffie, M.D. Bright and Mike Gustovich:

An alien from the world Terminus, named Arnus, he was on vacation aboard an interstellar cruiser, headed toward a resort planet, when a disaster caused damage to the ship and he escaped in a life pod which landed on Earth in 1839.





Taken in by an African-American woman who was a slave on a cotton plantation, his alien form adapted to hers. As her own child, he grew up in slavery, fought on the union side in the Civil War, met and married his wife during the Harlem Renaissance, fought on the allied side in World War Two, mourned his wife's death, faked his own death several times and returned as his own son each time.

In the city of Dakota, he works as lawyer Augustus Freeman, before an encounter with Raquel Ervin convinces him to assume the identity of the super-hero, Icon, and she as his sidekick, Rocket.

Among Icon's powers are super-strength, stamina, flight, super-speed, invulnerability to extreme harm, super-healing and energy blasts.

(continued in next post)

[Jim Kelly]

During the run of his own comic, Icon lived in a parallel universe to Superman's--in the Milestone universe (i.e., the universe of characters from the Milestone imprint), also known as the "Dakotaverse." However, at one point these worlds collided.

"Worlds Collide" in:

SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL 35 (July 1994)--"Afterburn" by Louise Simonson, Jon Bogdanove and Dennis Janke.
HARDWARE 17 (July 1994)--"No Rest for the Weary" by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan and Prentis Rollins, also Joe Brozowski.
SUPERBOY 6 (July 1994)--"Changing Realites" by Karl Kesel/Steve Mattson, Tom Grummett, Doug Hazlewood/Dennis Janke.
ICON 15 (July 1994)--"Living in a Dreamworld" by McDuffie/Bright/Gustovich.
STEEL 6 (July 1994)--"Collision Course" by L. Simonson, Chris Batista and Rich Faber.
BLOOD SYNDICATE 16 (July 1994)--"Toys of the Gods" by Ivan Velez, Jr., Christopher Williams and Rober Qujano.
WORLDS COLLIDE 1 (July 1994)--"How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You're Not Anywhere at All?" by writers: Robert L. Washington III, McDuffie, Velez; pencillers: John Paul Leon, C. Williams, Bright, Batista, Grummet, Cowan; inkers: Quijano, Bobby Rae, Art Nichols, Romeo Tanghal, Rollins.
SUPERBOY 7 (August 1994)--"Menace 2 Societies" by Kesel/Grummett/Hazelwood.
HARDWARE 18 (August 1994)--"You Shouldn't A Bit, Fish" by McDuffie/Cowan/Rollins.
SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL 36 (August 1994)--
ICON 18 (August 1994)--"Ain't No Such Thing as Superman" by McDuffie/Bright/Gustovich.
STEEL 7 (August 1994)--"Worlds Collide" by L. Simonson, C. Batista/H. Ramos, R. Faber/S. Woch.
BLOOD SYNDICATE 17 (August 1994)--"Mirror Faces Mirror" by Velez, Williams, Quijano/Rollins.
STATIC 14 (August 1994)--"After Worlds Collide" by McDuffie/Cowan/Rollins.

Fred Bentson, a letter carrier, for all of his life would wake up in Dakota, go to work, come home, go to sleep, wake up in Metropolis, go to work, come home, go to sleep, and so on. Like in the 2012 T.V. series AWAKE. But Fred wasn't too troubled about this life, until one day when monsters came out of his subconscious and became real. The greatest monster he fears is some huge indistinguishable thing.

When he comes into contact with heroes--like Superboy and Hardware in these different worlds--he has the power to carry them over from one reality to the other. In the Dakotaverse, all the other world characters--like Superman, Superboy and Steel--are believed to be fictional characters from comic books.

As Bentson's power grows, he takes on the form of a imposing being called Rift that can remake reality. As Dakota and Metropolis have both suffered major damage to their cities, in SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL 16--



and carrying over to ICON 16, Rift tells Icon and Superman that he will restore one of their cities, based on who wins a fight between the two of them.

Setting up the match, the big bad Bentson helpfully gives us a summary of origin stories for the Last Son of Krypton--



And the Lost Scion of Terminus--



(continued in next post)

[Jim Kelly]

However, in the end they are two evenly matched and their battle has no decisive outcome.



Instead, the letter carrier of two worlds decides to collide both worlds together to make one world.

As seen in STATIC 14, in the integrated Dakota-Metropolis, Bentson has imposed a classic super-hero look on some of the younger characters, like Superboy and Rocket.



(continued in next post)

[Jim Kelly]

In the calamity of having two worlds combined together to make one, the heroes of the amalgamated Dakota and Metropolis seek to find a way to defeat Rift, using a hyper-machine carried by Superman and Icon. When Bentson sees this, he recognizes it as the beast he always feared.



In the end, with Rift defeated, the two worlds go back to how they were before--with the heroes in both Dakota and Metropolis wondering if the others really ever existed or were just the products of Bentson's imagination. As for Bentson, he's stuck in a void between the worlds, forever asleep and dreaming.

Immediately after this, there was the ZERO HOUR event which rewrote the timeline, so Superman and his friends may have forgot this ever happened.

(continued in next post)

[Jim Kelly]

Then, years later, there was the INFINITE CRISIS event and another change which amalgamated the two universes into one, so the city of Dakota is now on the same Earth as the Superman (of New Earth)--as revealed in another "Worlds Collide" type event, but this one contained to just the issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA during Dwayne McDuffie's run as writer.

What I'll call the "Starbreaker Crisis?" in:

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA
27 (January 2007)--Be Careful What You Wish For . . ." by Dwayne McDuffie and Ed Benes, with inkers Robert Hunter, Norman Rapmund, Drew Geraci.
28 (February 2007)--"Shadow and Act" by McDuffie, Jose Luis and J.P. Mayer.
29 (March 2007)--"Star Struck" by Len Wein, Christopher Williams and Rob Stull.
30 (April 2007)--"New Moon Rising" by McDuffie/Luis/Mayer.
31 (May 2007)--"Crisis of Confidence" by McDuffie, Shane Davis and Sandra Hope.
32 (June 2007)--"Nyctophobia" by McDuffie, Rags Morales and John Dell III.
33 (July 2007)--"Metathesiophobia" by McDuffie/Morales/Dell.
34 (August 2007)--"The Dharma Initiative" by writer: Dwayne McDuffie; pencillers: Ardian Syaf and Eddy Barrows; inkers: Don Ho, Ruy Jose, Daniel Green, Jack Purcell, Mark Propst.


As of issue 27--cover by Ed Benes--



Superman and Icon already seem to remember each other as old friends.

The Shadow Cabinet, Hardware and Icon are trying get the remains of the old Dr. Light (the bad guy) to give to the leader of the Shadow Cabinet, Dharma, for a power up.



(continued in next post)

[Jim Kelly]

Continuing into issue 28, Superman and Icon get into a fight or two--



--but it's all an act. They have their own plans, unknown to their teams.



Meanwhile, there's Starbreaker. His original trilogy--by Mike Friedrich, Dick Dillin and Joe Giella, in JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 96, 97, 98 (February, March, May 1972)--is given a refresher course by Wein, Williams and Stull in issue 29.

Starbreaker is using the Shadow Thief as his escape route out of the shadow prison where he was incarcerated by the Guardians of the Universe. The Cosmic Vampire portals through Shadow Thief and onto Earth and begins doing what he's famous for--eating up energy--but not yet Earth's sun. Dharma has the tasty cosmic energy Starbreaker desires and so he feeds on him.

(concluded in next post)