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

[Jim Kelly]

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERBOY 53 (May 1984) - 54 (June 1984)--"To Slay a Superboy," "The Dumbbell That Saved the Earth" by Paul Kupperberg, Kurt Schaffenberger and Joe Giella:

Above a ringed planet called Jkeron, light years from Earth, Superboy and Krypton are at play. However, they are called into action to save the planet when debris starts to fall from the rings. This is no natural occurrence--it is a plot by a gang of brutish aliens from Drulok, out to destroy their enemies on Jkeron.



The commander of the Drulok starspanner, Herzz, is not too happy about the Boy and Dog of Tomorrow having spoiled his scheme.



When he hears that beings from all over the universe have banded together as a "Superboy Revenge Squad," Herzz decides to throw in with them.



[continued in the next post following . . .]

[Jim Kelly]

The allied forces set out for our solar system.



Herzz bombards the Earth with plasma bombs causing seismic eruptions all over the planet, spewing volcanic ash into the upper atmosphere. Of course, Superboy will remove this ash, but just as he does so, Herzz will ignite solar flares from the sun--and without the protection of the ash layer, all life on Earth will be destroyed.

But the Smallville Wunderkind fashions a giant dumbbell that extracts the plasma energy from the Earth and the sun and then boards the Revenge Squad ship. Rather than try to kill the Boy of Steel, the Squad leader kills Herzz who was never one of them and did not deserve the honour of killing Superboy.



Reality Check: Issue 54 was the final issue of this run. In the letter column, a new series is announced called DC DOUBLE COMICS. Superboy and Supergirl are supposed to appear in this 48 page comic book, yet there never was such a comic published.

After this, the only place that Superboy could be seen was in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES and TALES OF THE LEGION--his final pre-Crisis appearance being in LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES 23 (June 1986). The last issue of SUPERGIRL was 23 (September 1984).



Tomorrow: The Superman Revenge Squad.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 286 (March 1962) - 287 (April 1962)--1st stories, "The Jury of Super-Enemies," "Perry White's Manhunt for Superman" by Robert Bernstein, Curt Swan and Stan Kaye; cover art by Curt Swan and Sheldon Moldoff:



The Superman Revenge Squad from Wexr II, led by Rava, abduct Krypto and test different specimens of Red K. on the Canine from Krypton. They discover that one isotope has properties that induce dreams--which the Squad have the capability to monitor.



They then go to Earth and expose Superman to this same Red Kryptonite, after which he has a series of dreams that all take place in the future, either in the distant future or the not too distant future.



[continued in the next post following . . .]

[Jim Kelly]

In one such dream, the Action Ace is judged by his most lethal enemies: Lex Luthor, Brainiac, the Legion of Super-Villains and--Electro?



In the following issue, Superman dreams that he has been hypnotized into becoming a criminal.



Perry White must hunt him down. After that nightmare scenario, the Revengers create a hoax city of the future to delude the Action Ace and make him think it's all a dream; however, he catches on and foils the plot.



Yet because he never encountered the Revenge Squad in this adventure, he has no idea that they were responsible for his dreams.

Reality Check: In actual publishing history, this was only the second appearance of the Revenge Squad, after their first appearance in SUPERBOY 94 (January 1962)--ACTION COMICS 286 went on sale only two months later. Thus they are the blue guys from Wexr II. By the time that Clark Kent has become Superman, the Squad knows his secret identity.

Electro?

This is the only appearance of Electro and it's in a dream. What gives? Was the Man of Steel supposed to encounter the rogue in the waking world at some point? Electro looks like a guy who is see-through with only his skeleton visible--like the "Spark-Spangled See-Through Man" in BATMAN 195 (September 1967). However, Electro's skeleton suggests he was once a weird looking creature and not human.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 295 (December 1962)--1st story, "Superman Goes Wild" by Bernstein, Swan and George Klein:

The Revengers use a telepathic signal gun to drive Superman wild.



He turns on his friends and attacks world leaders.



The Squad make mental contact with the Man of Steel and reveal that he's in their power. But Superman fakes a fit of madness to set up an attack on the Superman Revenge Squad by the Superman Emergency Squad (from Kandor).



Rather than return to their base in disgrace, the Revenge Squad agents blow themselves up.

Reality Check: This story is only the fourth appearance of the Revenge Squad in publishing chronology--after SUPERBOY 94, ACTION 286 and ACTION 287--and the Revengers now are the caucasoid humanoid variety, with yellow helmets. They may still be from Wexr II and simply another type from that planet. Or, in retroactive continuity, we may assume that there are many groups of aliens from different planets who all have a grudge against the Action Ace and have signed on with the Superman Revenge Squad.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 300 (May 1963)--1st story, "Superman Under a Red Sun" by Edmond Hamilton and Al Plastino; cover art by Curt Swan and George Klein; r. BEST OF DC 1 [Blue Ribbon Digest] (September-October 1979):



When Superman pursues the Revengers in space, their ship cracks through the time dimension and speeds into the future. The Man of Tomorrow travels forward through time farther than he's ever gone before--One Million A.D.



At this period in time, Earth's sun is red rather than yellow and Superman falls from the sky, powerless. The Squad have succeeded in marooning the Action Ace in the far distant future, without his powers or any means to return to the present.

Telepathic historical records explain that, with the changes in the Sun, the Earth's environment altered making it uninhabitable and human beings left their home planet for the stars. Superman is the last man on Earth.

The Caped Kryptonian is haunted by the animatronic replicants of his friends and family that wander the desolate ruins of Metropolis and he sets out on a trek to the north, to find his abandoned Fortress of Solitude. There he uses an isotope of Red Kryptonite to shrink himself so he can fit inside a Kandorian rocket (the people of Kandor have long since been enlarged and left Earth for a new world). The rocketship breaks through the time barrier returning the Man of Steel to 1963.

Reality Check: Edmond Hamilton referenced this story as his favourite:

"It's difficult to make up a suspenseful story about Superman, who's invulnerable to ordinary harm, unless he's vulnerable to something. And green kryptonite is a great help, as is the fact that Superman loses his powers when he is under the rays of a red sun.

"In fact, my favorite of all the scripts I wrote was one entitled 'Superman Under the Red Sun.' In that story, Superman traveled into time by using his super-speed to 'burst the time barrier.' But unwittingly he went too far, into a time when Earth's sun had become old and red.

The result was that he had no super-powers--and couldn't get back. Earth was dead, and he was condemned to wander alone upon it."

--EDMOND HAMILTON, FIFTY YEARS OF HEROES: A CAREER PERSPECTIVE

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 69 (June 1963)--1st story, "The Dynamic Duo of Kandor" by Hamilton, Swan and Klein; cover art by Swan and Klein; r. SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 140 [G-86] (August-September 1971):

When the Bottle City is menaced by a mysterious Super-Outlaw that looks like the Man of Steel, Nightwing (alias Superman) and Flamebird (alias Jimmy Olsen) resume their careers as "The Dynamic Duo of Kandor."



In reality, the Thief of Kandor is their aged friend, Nor-Kann, who has been hypnotized by the Superman Revenge Squad to do their bidding. Nor-Kan has super-powers inside the Bottle City, thanks to a ring that draws on yellow sunlight.



Reality Check: The first team-up of Nightwing and Flamebird was in SUPERMAN 158 (January 1963).

On the cover for SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 69, Flamebird and Nightwing are pictured not wearing their masks while flying around the bottle city--it takes no Einstein to figure out their secret identities.



Hundreds of "Jimmy Olsen's Pen Pals" wrote in when they spotted a boo-boo on the issue's cover. Flamebird calls his partner Nightbird. E. Nelson Bridwell explained in issue 71's letter column that Jimmy had birds on the brain--he had just seen THE BIRDS, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and BYE-BYE BIRDIE. Imagine if Nightbird had stuck as a codename--we'd be calling Dick Grayson by the monicker Nightbird. Doesn't have the right wing to it.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 162 (July 1963)--"The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue" by Leo Dorfman, Swan and Klein, Schaffenberger draws Lois and Lana; cover art by Schaffenberger; r. 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR DC-18 (July 1973), BEST OF DC [Blue Ribbon Digest] 19 (December 1981):

Superman-Red and Superman-Blue invent a line of anti-evil hypno-ray projectors which they launch into orbit around the Earth, erasing all thoughts of evil from the minds of criminals. Not only do the rays affect people at ground level but those in space, as well--including the Superman Revenge Squad.





Reality Check: This story begins "on an imaginary day which may, or may not, ever happen."

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 70 (July 1963)--1st story, "Jimmy Olsen's Boo-Boos" by Jerry Siegel and John Forte:

When Jimmy Olsen visits the Smallville chapter of the Jimmy Olsen Fan Club, he commits a series of boo-boos which enrage Superman--who takes back the signal watch and disavows his friendship with the cub reporter. Yet, in fact, this Jimmy Olsen Fan Club was really the Superman Junior Revenge Squad--children of the Revenge Squad. They set up Jimmy to fail.

However, Olsen figures out that the Fan Club were likely Revenge Squad aliens because they didn't drink the lemonade he prepared for them, which had ice cubes in it. And he knows the Revengers hate ice.



Reality Check: The title was no doubt inspired by the legions of fans who liked to point out boos-boos in their letters to the editor.


SUPERMAN 163 (August 1963)--1st story, "Wonder-Man, the New Hero of Metropolis" by Hamilton, Swan and Klein:

A new super-hero comes to town and the Metropolis Marvel feels like he's not needed. However, this Wonder-Man was once Superman's top robot, Ajax. When Ajax went into outer space to stop a meteor swarm, his robot body was damaged and salvaged by the Superman Revenge Squad, led by Attal, who has long had a vendetta against the Last Son of Krypton.





The Revengers transferred the Superman robot's consciousness into a biological android body, sending him to Earth to kill and replace his former master. However, Ajax understands that he is being used as a pawn and turns the tables on the S.R.S. As well, the so-called Wonder-Man knows that he has only a few days to live as his new body will soon expire.

Above his grave, Superman puts a headstone that reads:

Wonder-Man
Formerly Called Ajax
He Was
Born A Robot
...But
Died A Man

Reality Check: One of Superman's first competitors was a super-hero called Wonder Man--created by Will Eisner for Victor Fox, in WONDER COMICS 1 (May 1939). The attempt to trade off the success of the new sensation was rather blatant and the publishers of ACTION COMICS sued Victor Fox, putting an end to the first Wonder Man. The court decided that--

So far as the pictorial representations and verbal descriptions of Superman are not a mere delineation of a benevolent Hercules, but embody an arrangement of incidents and literary expressions original with the author, they are proper subjects of copyright and susceptible of infringement because of the monopoly afforded by the act . . . [but the] complainant is not entitled to a monopoly of the mere character of a "Superman" who is a blessing to mankind . . .

The ruling established a precedent for more court cases to follow. And there were more Wonder Men to come.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 165 (November 1963)--1st story, "Beauty and the Super-Beast" by Bernstein, Swan and Klein; r. SUPERMAN 272 (February 1974):

While Lana Lang conducts an archaeological expedition on Crete in search of Circe's tomb, Lois Lane is the first female astronaut to be shot into space. Superman deflects a meteor away from Lois' space capsule, but can't smash it until he swoops down on it, falling to the Earth. And Lana finds Circe in a glass coffin, reviving the ancient sorceress. Circe, having been turned down by Superman in ancient times when she proposed marriage, now comes to America to humiliate the Metropolis Marvel. She gives him the head of a lion and then the head of a mouse. And she embarrasses him further, by compelling him to do ridiculous stunts like juggling upside down.

In reality, when Lois Lane's space capsule was almost hit by that meteor, the Superman Revenge Squad fired a counter beam at the Man of Steel, hoping this would neutralize him. It didn't appear to be effective, but it actually countered his powers when he was right side up--as long as he was upside down, he still had full use of his powers. So he enlisted the aid of Saturn Woman and Proty II from the future, to pull off the Circe hoax.



The trio of Revengers believe they have failed in their mission and return to the S.R.S. to face their punishment. They are demoted to the Krypto Revenge Squad.



Reality Check: The idea of a Krypto Revenge Squad is tantalizing, but there were sadly no stories about their adventures. Lois Lane has so many accolades that being the first woman shot into space doesn't even make it to the top of her resumé.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 313 (June 1964)--1st story, "The End of Clark Kent's Identity" by unknown and Al Plastino:

Supergirl gives away Clark Kent's secret identity to Perry White. Batman reveals that Superman is really Kent to Lois Lane. And Lori Lemaris outs Clark to Jimmy Olsen.

White, Lane and Olsen threaten to expose Superman if he doesn't do what they want. Instead, the Man of Steel drowns Perry, Lois and Jimmy.





In fact, they are androids created by the Android Master of the Superman Revenge Squad--as are Supergirl, Batman and Lori.

Reality Check: In ACTION COMICS 317, the editor responds to letters of comment on this issue explaining that Robin was in school so he didn't notice Batman was absent and also the android in his place was a good actor and that Clark's clothes aren't invulnerable just fiction proof. At the bottom of that letter column is an application for the "Supermen of America" and a secret coded message.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 52 (October 1964)--3rd story, "The Lois Lane - Lana Lang Truce" by (unknown) and Kurt Schaffenberger:

Illena of Kromal is a turbaned space-traveller who comes to Earth and catches Superman's fancy.



She's able to turn others to stone thanks to a skull cap under her turban, made from the scalp of Medusa. In reality Illena is Superman Revenge Squad Agent X-9831Q.





Reality Check: This story has already been talked about at length on this thread in post #63. All the Revengers in this story have pointy ears and one of Illena's comrades is named Garf.


Tomorrow: The Batman Revenge Squad

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 83 (March 1965)--3rd story, "Jimmy Olsen's Captive Double" by Siegel, Swan and Klein:



The lives of Superman's friends are threatened by the "Mad Bomber" and so the Look-Alike Squad from Kandor are called into action. There are look-alikes of Clark, Lois, Jimmy, Perry, Lana and Lucy. Meanwhile, the real guys go into hiding.

Perry's look-alike, Ar-Rone, is actually a criminal in league with the Superman Revenge Squad. However, his plot is foiled by Jimmy and the Olsen look-alike (who have switched places). In reality, the whole "Mad Bomber" threat was a hoax concocted by Superman to draw out the renegade look-alike and expose the S.R.S. conspiracy.



Reality Check: Lois and Perry hide inside the Daily Planet globe on the roof of the building. As revealed in ACTION COMICS 384 (January 1970), "The Forbidden Costume" (and maybe other stories), this hiding place is a secret meeting place for Superman and Batman, hideout X-1.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 322 (March 1965)--1st story, "The Coward of Steel" by Siegel and Plastino:

From their saucer ship hovering above the Earth, Garz and Trok, members of the Revenge Squad, fire a cowardice ray at Clark Kent, which turns him into a coward; yet, when he becomes Superman, he's no longer cowardly.



Feeling that he can't function as Clark anymore, the Man of Steel assumes the identity of Brad Dexter (who has no glasses but has a moustache) and gets a job as a reporter at a Chicago newspaper. There, fellow journalist Loretta Land is attracted to Brad when he performs acts of bravery.



However, Supergirl has learned of the Revenge Squad's fear tactic and manages to cure her cousin's alter ego phobia. Then the Man and Maid of Might put on an act for the returning Squad and Superman sends them to another galaxy.

Reality Check: Superman abandons his new secret identity, Chicago, his job at the newspaper and the adoring Loretta Land with no compunction. Cold.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 343 (November 1966)--1st story, "Eterno the Immortal" by Jim Shooter and Wayne Boring; r. DC SPECIAL 19 (December 1975 - January 1976):

A Revenge Squad starspanner travels through the cosmos, destination the Sol planetary system. On board are two different types of aliens, represented by Garan and Arl. Garan is pessimistic about their chances of defeating the Action Ace, but Arl shares some information that could finally turn the tables on the Caped Kryptonian.

He relates to his shipmates how on Earth a billion years ago there was a super-civilization called the Xan who lived in mighty sky cities. They built a giant robot-android hybrid named Eterno who was superior in every way. So much better than anyone was Eterno that he plotted to make himself the master of the Xan and they his subjects.







However, a doom from outer space threatened the super-civilization before Eterno could act on his scheme. An unearthly gas would wipe them out, if they did not secure some Absorbium from the Earth's core to soak up the gas. Only Eterno was capable of blasting his way 4000 miles to the centre of the Earth, but when he had done so, he was paralyzed by the Absorbium and remained there.

[continued in the next post following . . .]