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

[L.R Johansson]

Awesome thread Jim Kelly! = ) Keep up the good work! Great resource for reading up on all these superman-analogues - I had no idea DC had so many of their own!

This super-league of all planets would be hecka' big tho'! : O

EDIT:

I started work on a graphical guide to these heroes! ^^ Check it out dude - it's not complete, but I figure it's a work in progress.

[Jim Kelly]

That graphical guide is awesome. I'm always impressed with the mad skills of my fellow posters. Cheers!

[Jim Kelly]

The supra-universal rays from a passing asteroid give a boy on Mars super-powers much like those of Superboy on Earth. The boy fashions his own costume and takes the name of Marsboy.

So begins “The Boy from Mars,” by William Woolfolk, Curt Swan and John Fischetti in SUPERBOY No. 14 (May-June ’51).



After being the champion of Mars for some years--Marsboy is sent by the leaders of his planet on a mission to Earth, to retrieve the Sphinx. It seems that, in ancient times, these Martians once lived on Earth, in Atlantis on the lost continent of Mu, but they escaped to Mars when their land was doomed. Inside the Sphinx is a secret formula for making water--something the Martian people very much need on their dry, dying planet.

Arriving on Earth, Marsboy runs afoul of Superboy when he attempts to take the Sphinx back to Mars. Evenly matched, their battle is a stalemate and so Marsboy withdraws to plan another strategy for accomplishing his goals.

Adopting the identity of Joe Mars, the boy gathers information on Superboy. When both Clark Kent and Joe Mars discover each other’s true identity with their x-ray vision--the Boy of Steel realizes that, unlike him, Joe Mars can see through lead.

However, it turns out that Marsboy's x-ray vison can’t penetrate copper. Superboy spots the secret formula inside the Sphinx, hidden inside of copper within the ancient wonder, which Marsboy can’t see. Using his x-ray vision, Superboy tells Marsboy the formula inside the Sphinx so he doesn’t have to haul it over to Mars.

Marsboy turned up again in SUPERBOY No. 16 (September-October '51), “Superboy on Mars,” once more by the team of Woolfolk, Swan and Fischetti. The story suggests that after their first meeting, Superboy and Marsboy have kept in touch and become good friends. Also, we finally learn that the real name of Marsboy is Sutri.

Each believing that the other has an easier job on his planet, they decide to trade places to see what life is like on each other’s homeworld. Superboy adopts the identity of Marsboy, while Marsboy becomes Superboy. However, their lack of familiarity with each other’s planet leads to unforeseen consequences.

Marsboy was featured in yet a third story, “Lana Lang’s Romance on Mars,” ADVENTURE COMICS No. 195 (December ’53)--with art by Curt Swan and Sy Barry (writer unknown). I haven’t access to this story; however, the blog Babblings About DC Comics has a summary:

[Marsboy] enlists Superboy’s aid in tracking down an escaped felon from his home planet.

Lana Lang overhears their conversation, and promptly blackmails Marsboy, threatening to reveal his identity to the criminals unless he will pretend to be in love with her. Her goal is to make Superboy jealous, and have him declare his love for her.

Superboy figures out her plan, and turns the tables on her, taking her to Mars so that she can be [with] her new flame, and even pretending to find a Martian girl himself. Lana confesses her ruse, and all goes back to normal.

The story was rehashed as “Lana Lang and the Legion of Super-Heroes,” by Otto Binder and George Papp, ADVENTURE COMICS No. 282 (March ’61)--the first story to feature Star Boy, whose original origin had him being a near copy of Marsboy (with powers similar to Superboy).

The Legion of Super-Heroes angle in the rehashed adventure seems almost an after-thought. There’s not much reason for this tale of romance and jealousy to be set in the future and the Legion is shoe-horned into the story, yet plays no active role.

[Jim Kelly]

The 1960s run of SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE was always full of surprises, with issue No. 18 (July ’60) being no exception. In this comic, Otto Binder and Al Plastino craft quite a whopper with “Lois Lane Weds Astounding Man.”



Lois is spirited away in a flying saucer where she is romanced by Astounding Man.

Having spent years observing Lois Lane from afar, the handsome suitor confesses his deep love for the girl reporter. Once having arrived on his home planet of Roxnon, Astounding Man shows off the shrine he has built to Lois.



Tired of rejection from Superman, the newswoman decides to accept Astounding Man’s offer of marriage. However, now that Lois has promised herself to him, there is one more secret that her fiancé must reveal.

SPOILER SPACE

SPOILER SPACE

SPOILER SPACE

Astounding Man is, in reality, an android under the control of an old man named Oogamooga. It is he who really lusts after Lois and the android is simply the proxy through which he hopes to have her hand in wedded bliss.

Lois, nevertheless, will go through with the ceremony and Superman is invited to witness their bonds of matrimony on Roxnon.

Yet Lois Lane has had the last laugh on Oogamooga, for in her place is a look-alike Lois Lane android that exchanges vows with the Astounding Man android. Unbeknownst to the old man Oogamooga, the android Lois Lane herself is the proxy for an old woman on Roxnon named Geena.



While it’s easy to look at this yarn as another one of those goofy plots from the Weisinger era, I find this story quite shrewd and fascinating in its foresight.

Otto Binder was a prolific science fiction writer--both on his own and also, with his brother Earl, under the pen-name Eando Binder (E. and O. Binder). It was as Eando Binder that they wrote the stories of the robot hero, Adam Link, in the I, ROBOT series (not to be confused with Isaac Asimov’s I, ROBOT).

The ironic ending, with two old people using technology to have a long distance romance in some kind of virtual reality, never knowing the identity of the other, anticipates our own world as it exists now (and may, on an even greater level, mirror our world in the near future).

In other words, Binder (along with his editor and long time friend, Mort Weisinger) was no dummy.

END OF SPOILER

[Rod G]

I must admit, the whole Super Men and Women of All Planets sounds like a fascinating notion to me.

[SuperCrab]

The 1960s run of SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE was always full of surprises, with issue No. 18 (July ’60) being no exception. In this comic, Otto Binder and Al Plastino craft quite a whopper with “Lois Lane Weds Astounding Man.”

That giant shrine he built to Lois isn't creepy at all. Yikes. I think most women would run screaming from something like that.

[Jim Kelly]

From WORLD’S FINEST COMICS No. 124 (March ’62), by Jerry Coleman, Curt Swan and John Forte, “The Mystery of the Alien Super-Boy” combines elements of Marsboy and Skyboy.



On Durim, the young man Logi and the older scientist Hrothguth are exposed to the rays of a passing asteroid, which gives them super-powers. While Logi resolves to fight crime on Durim, Hrothguth swears to seek power for himself.



Along with his pet tracking beast, Quisto (who looks like a cross between a horse and a lobster), Logi has followed Hrothguth and his two minions, Sklur and Hansh, to Earth. At first the green-skinned youth is mistaken for an ally of the alien trio on a crime spree outside Gotham City; at the same time, Logi mistakes Superman, Batman and Robin for Hrothguth, Sklur and Hansh in disguise.

When both realize their error, they join forces to stop the alien trio. Hrothguth is bent on obtaining an Earth element to power a device that will sap Logi of his powers. However, in the end, it is he whose powers are drained by the machine.

[Jim Kelly]

A couple of additional notes about the Logi story--

Some say John Forte inked Curt Swan, while others say George Klein. Sheldon Moldoff inked Swan on the cover.

A caption refers to Superman as "The World's Mightiest Mortal." I wonder if Clark got that written into his legal settlement with Billy Batson.

[Jim Kelly]

Regor of Uuz



The first Superman from another world than Krypton, in terms of publication history, is Regor in “The Case of the Second Superman,” SUPERMAN No. 58 (May-June ’49), with art by Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye. Not only that, but it’s the first appearance of the Fortress of Solitude. There were other secret headquarters shown before this, but this was the first time that such was called “Fortress of Solitude”--and in the arctic at that!

The epic adventure begins by showing yet another visual depiction of Krypton’s demise and how an infant was rocketed to Earth to become the Mighty Superman. Then the story shifts to the fate of a different infant, on Earth. The son of scientist James Flint and his wife, living on the island of Barrios, the baby is rocketed from the island when it is destroyed by an erupting volcano. The hope of his parents is that the rocket will deliver him safely to America.

However, the rocket zooms off course and heads out into the void until it finally reaches the icey planet Uuz, far beyond the orbit of Pluto, where the child is discovered by a kindly couple. With the lighter gravity of Uuz, the Flint baby is a mighty mite. Leaping about the planet, the growing super-hero can see through the world’s glass structures, which are opaque to the natives of Uuz.

When the Earth-born son reaches maturity, he adopts the costume and identity of Regor, champion of Uuz. Meanwhile, he maintains the alias of Winki Lamm, a TV interviewer. As with Clark Kent and Lois Lane, Winki’s co-worker is a pretty blonde who despises him but admires Regor.

A new crime boss, Bantor, uses his wits against Regor--conditioning himself and a band of super-men with powers as great as Regor himself. Defeated, Regor skulks off to the rocketship that brought him to Uuz and departs the planet in ignominy.



His rocket speeds out of control through Earth’s atmosphere and Regor is rescued by the Man of Tomorrow. Hearing his tale of failure, Superman decides to assist Regor against Bantor by training him in his arctic Fortress of Solitude, under Earth’s heavier gravity.

Once Regor has finished the rigorous training regime, the Man of Steel disguises himself as Regor’s exact double and the two fly off to Uuz. The real Regor waits in hiding in his mountain citadel, while Superman poses as the champion of Uuz--limiting himself, given Regor is not nearly as powerful as Superman.

However, Bantor gets the best of the ersatz Regor by trapping him in a plastic prison, which the real Regor is powerless against. Superman could escape, but he doesn’t want to blow his cover.



When the actual Regor sees the predicament on TV, he leaps to Superman’s assistance and as the two move at super-speed it seems as though there’s only one Regor not two.

Once the Bantor gang is mopped up, Superman heads out into space and creates mutliple atomic explosions by colliding the two moons of Uuz until he has fashioned a mini-sun to heat up the planet. You would think this would destroy the enviroment of Uuz or at the very least make its inhabitants uncomfortable given they’re used to -90 degree temperatures. But everybody’s fine.

When the two Super-Men make their farewells, there’s the hint that the Man of Steel could return if Regor ever needs his help again.

Thare is also a fan fiction blog by Dan Swanson--The 5 Earths Project--with some of Swanson's own embellishments to Regor's story.

[Jim Kelly]

Kell Orr appears in a three-part novel length adventure--a rare thing at the time--as Superman goes on an epic quest to save Krypton’s sister planet, Xenon. Edmond Hamilton, Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye tell the story of “The Second Superman” in SUPERMAN No. 119 (February ’58), on sale December 17th, 1957.

An astronomer has discovered a distant planet that seems like Krypton and, when Superman investigates, he finds that the planet, Xenon, is an escaped moon of Krypton. On Xenon is a scientist Zoll Orr who looks just like Jor-El, while Zoll’s son, Kell Orr, bares a striking resemblance to Superman.

Because Xenon is smaller than Krypton, Superman still has super-powers there. However, as Xenon is larger than Earth, Xenonians would still have super-powers on Earth--just not so great as Superman’s. Remember that at this time gravity was still being used to explain Superman's powers--it would be a few more years before the colour of the sun was added as another reason.

And so Kell Orr and Superman trade places, as the Xenonian doppelganger plays the part of Clark Kent and Superman on Earth, while the Man of Tomorrow tries to find the answer to why Xenon is experiencing violent quakes and volcanic eruptions.

Superman discovers that the planet has a uranium core just like Krypton, which threatens to cause the same doom that struck his birth world.


However, should enough Kryptonite be injected into the core it would neutralize the nuclear reaction and save the planet. And as Xenonians are immune to Kryptonite’s effects, Superman enlists Kell Orr’s aid as the two return to the debris field where Krypton exploded all those years ago.

There they gather sufficient Kryptonite to neutralize Xenon’s core.

However, because of the presence of Kryptonite now in the planet’s make-up, Superman can never return to Xenon again.

[Jim Kelly]

Kral of Titan’s story comes from Bill Finger, Curt Swan and Sy Barry.

His story appears in ADVENTURE COMICS No. 205 (October ’54), as well as in 80 PAGE GIANT No. 10 (May ’65) which reprinted “The Journey of the Second Superboy” from that issue. Kral arrives on Earth in a rocket which is discovered by the Boy of Steel and the Kents, who take him in.



Kral says that he escaped from Titan, sent by his parents, before the moon exploded internally. He also says that Titan is a moon of giant Jupiter--which it is not, it's a moon of Saturn. But since he's new to Earth, maybe his command of English isn't perfect. In the GIANT reprint this is corrected to Saturn.

A lot of Kral's story is not right. The boy has actually been sent by the evil people of Titan on a spy mission, in advance of an invasion. Kral later confesses to Superboy, but this is also just a ruse to get Superboy to come with him to Titan so that they might kill him with Kryptonite. At the last minute, the Second Superboy has an epiphany and sides with his new friend over the inhabitants of his home planet.



The powers of the Second Superboy include flight, heat radiation and telepathy. Since Saturn Girl is also from Titan, I wonder if the story of Kral didn't serve as a prototype for Imra Ardeen. Given that Kral returned to Titan to teach others the same lessons of friendship and kindness that might explain why in the 30th century the people there are less belligerent (Saturn Queen being an exception).

[Jim Kelly]

Vidal made his bow in ADVENTURE COMICS No. 260 (May ’59), in the “The Kents’ Second Super-Son” by Jerry Coleman and John Sikela.



While Superboy is away on a mission in outer space, in Smallville the Kents adopt an orphan boy named Allen Greene, on a temporay basis for a month. The shy boy reveals to his adoptive parents that he is in reality Vidal, an alien from an unidentified planet in another solar system. He has powers similar to Superboy but not super-vision and super-hearing.

For reasons known only to himself, whenever Vidal is called away on a mission, he disguises himself as Superboy.

In fact, Vidal is not an orphan, but he belongs to an Inter-Galactic Patrol, with other super-powered people in his solar system. They, feeling sad for the orphaned Superboy, have sent Vidal to Earth in search of the right parents to adopt Superboy. They are unaware that Superboy has already been adopted by the Kents. Vidal has used his telepathy to manipulate the Kents into adopting him, so he might test them, but he never guesses that their son Clark Kent is in fact the Boy of Steel.

[Jim Kelly]

“The Power-Boy from Earth,” SUPERBOY No. 52 (October ’56), is by Otto Binder, Curt Swan and Stan Kaye.



On the asteroid world Juno, Superboy discovers a super-powered youth dubbed Power-Boy.



Ten thousand years earlier, as Atantis faced its doom on Earth, a scientist sent his infant son in a rocket ship to the far away asteroid. There the infant’s life-pod kept him in suspended animation until he was discovered ten millenia later by a Junoan archaeologist named Vorne. Reviving the baby, Vorne and his wife adopted the Atlantean foundling and named him Zarl Vorne.



Superboy makes friends with Power-Boy on Juno, but discovers that his physical presence weakens Zarl--and so he leaves Juno, never to return.

[Jim Kelly]

Otto Binder returned to familiar territoy when he revealed “The Mystery of Mighty Boy,” with art by George Papp, in SUPERBOY No. 85 (December ’60).

The story of Mighty Boy combines some of Power-Boy’s history with that of Regor.

Charles Keith was living with his wife and infant son, Thomas, on a small island when they faced imminent destruction from a tsunami. Keith put the baby in a rocket ship and fired it toward the U.S.A. However, the boy’s pet puppy, Rovo, had got into the rocket and his extra weight set it off course so it arrived on Zumoor, a planet with a lighter gravity than Earth’s.

Adopted by Chad and Vela Kazzan and named Zarl, the boy gains super-powers thanks to the lighter gravity and the golden energy rays from the planet’s moon.



Once Superboy arrives on the planet, he becomes fast friends with Mighty Boy, whose life resembles his in many peculiar ways. However the moon’s golden energy rays cause Superboy to have an effect on Zarl like that of red Kryptonite. And so the Boy of Steel leaves never to return.

[Jim Kelly]

From SUPERBOY No. 65 (June ’58), “The Super-Weakling from Space” is by Jerry Coleman and George Papp.

Dworn is the last survivor from a planet where he had super-powers, yet Earth’s greater gravity makes him a weakling. On Earth, Dworn demonstrates that the advance science of his homeworld allows him to change any substance into gold.



He stays with the Kents for a short period, assuming the name of Alan, Clark’s pen-pal. But once exposed to Kryptonite, it has the reverse effect on him, granting him super-powers once more.

Dworn elects to leave Earth, in search of another planet to live on. Superboy hopes they will meet again.



For someone who has lost his entire planet and everyone he loved, Dworn is quite the upbeat guy. Too bad he never met the Legion of Super-Heroes--he would have fit right in.