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

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 353 (August 1967)--2nd story, "The Cosmic Collectors" by Binder and Mooney
ACTION COMICS 354 (September 1967)--2nd story, "The Brain Stealers" by Dorfman and Mooney:

For extra credit, Linda Danvers works at the Stanhope College library, where she becomes curious about the advanced texts that C student Joe Trent takes out. In fact, Trent is under hypnotic command to bring the volumes to the peak of Mount Hightop where a spaceship is parked.



As Supergirl, she investigates the spaceship and finds it occupied by disembodied brains suspended in solution inside transparent casings. They take the Action Amiga prisoner and transport her to their home planet Zorkia, where the action picks up in the next issue.



They were not always like this; once they had bodies and were conquerors, triumphing over all other creatures on their planet. But when they wiped out the sea people, the aquatic race had their revenge, releasing plague spores into the atmosphere. As their population died out from the plague, they desperately transferred their brains into mobile casings, keeping their bodies in suspended animation.

[Jim Kelly]

Their leader, the mighty Cerebron, had to place his wife Queen Neolla in suspended animation without removing her brain from her body.



By subjecting the Maid of Steel to various tests, Neolla's body absorbs all of the Kryptonian's powers and is revitalized.



However, Queen Neolla does not use her newfound knowledge and abilities to free her people from their miserable state. She has gained Supergirl's wisdom and compassion and realizes that if they regained their bodies, they would resume their pursuit of conquest.



Note: There's a definite shift from the plot in the first part of the story, by Otto Binder, to the second part, by Leo Dorfman.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 199 (August 1967)--"Superman's Race With the Flash" by Shooter, Swan and Klein; r. LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION C-48 (October-November 1976); cover art by Infantino and Anderson
THE FLASH 175 (December 1967)--"Race to the End of the Universe" by Bridwell, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito; r. LIMITED COLLECTORS' EDITION C-48 (October-November 1976); cover art by Infantino and Esposito (Superman face by Al Plastino):

[Jim Kelly]

The United Nations has organized a special race between Superman and Flash, to see who is the fastest and raise funds to assist developing nations.



They will do three laps of the Earth, crossing through different sections of the globe each time. It's a world event. And, naturally, the underworld is just as interested, having bet heavily on the outcome.

[Jim Kelly]

There's no time for the Fast Friends to enjoy their world tour, as they pass through exotic locations in seconds, to the excitement of the local populace.

When the Crimson Comet falters on a frozen lake in Saskatchewan, Canada, reporter Clark Kent comes to his rescue (Barry doesn't yet know that Clark and Superman are one and the same).





In one section of the race, the mob backing the Big Red 'S' replace him with a slow Flash double and the gangsters betting on the Yellow Boots throw in a fake Superman to plod through the race. As both stunt doubles slow to a crawl they realize each is a phony, before they are taken out by the real McCoys.

When the Twin Tornados break the tape, the outcome of the race is uncertain.

[Jim Kelly]

Remember Rokk and Sorban? Apparently, they were not satisfied with the results of the first Flash and Superman race and propose that the two Fast Friends should run to the edge of the Milky Way galaxy and back (40,000 light years) to prove who is the fastest. They must do so under threat of destruction to either Central City or Metropolis.



The rest of the Justice League try to intervene, but they are held captive by the Super-Gamblers from Ventura. In order for the Scarlet Speedster to run through the cosmos, they make it so his aura can convert random atoms into oxygen he can breathe and generate a surface for his boots to run on.





However, as the Man of Steel speeds across the galaxy and passes by Ventura, he realizes that this is all a trap.

[Jim Kelly]

After the Scarlet Speedster avoids one hazard in space, the captive Green Lantern observes that Sorban wants the Flash to get caught even though he's bet on the Sultan of Speed to win. "This smells fishier than a sardine can."



The Googly-Eyed Gamesters are suddenly cornered by the Red and Blue Blur, but they use gold Kryptonite against him and the super-hero collapses. However it's the Manhunter from Mars not the Last Son of Krypton. J'Onn was able to escape the fire cage that imprisoned him and took on Superman's form. However, it appears that when he replicates another person, he has their vulnerabilities. He can revert back to his own Martian form, but he'll never be able to assume the Kryptonian's form and have those powers again.



After the Fast Friends have come back to Earth and crossed the finish line, it's revealed that Rokk and Sorban are really Professor Zoom and Abra Kadabra and they had set up the race to trap their arch foe.



No one knows for sure who won this race, just like the last one, it was a photo finish.

Note: Simple math should tell you that if the super-heroes are able to travel 40,000 light years and they can do this in less than 40,000 years, then they are travelling well over the limit of light speed.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 200 (October 1967)--"Super-Brother Against Super-Brother" by Bates and Boring; cover art by Swan and Klein:



In this imaginary story, it's Kryptonopolis not Kandor that Brainiac abducts and puts in a bottle on board his spaceship. The living computer is doing this for a good cause. His world has sent him on a mission of good will. After rescuing Kryptonopolis, it's his intention to save other cities from the doomed planet, but time runs out.



Good ol' Brainiac pays occasional visits to the El family inside the bottle. At the naming ceremony for their second son, as godfather, he chooses the name Knor--after the man who designed his brain circuits. As Kal-El and Knor-El grow up, the elder brother shows an aptitude for science, while his kid brother is athletic.

Brainiac succeeds in bringing Kryptonopolis to Earth, but dies in the effort and is celebrated by the people as their great hero. There is a limited amount of ZN-4 gas to enlarge one of them, so it's decided to select one citizen who will go outside of the bottle and gain super-powers under the yellow sun and lesser gravity.

A contest is held to find the champion who will leave the bottle city. It comes down to brother against brother--Kal-El vs. Knor-El. The younger brother wins and leaves Kryptonopolis to adopt the alias of Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet in Metropolis, where he is also known as Superman.

However, when a spaceship of alien invaders, led by the Supreme One, lands on Earth, they render Superman unconscious with a sample of green Kryptonite.

When Jor-El can't find Knor-El on his monitor screens--Kal-El uses a synthetic form of ZN-4 gas he's made to leave the bottle city and enlarge himself, so he might search for his brother. The alien invaders expose him to more green K., which causes him to become a giant and he's able to destroy the entire invasion force. It turns out, in this imaginary reality, that green Kryptonite is like the red stuff in regular continuity. The isotope used on Knor-El knocked him out, while the sample used on Kal-El made him grow in size temporarily.



Now that Kal-El is also at regular human size, rather than joining his brother in Metropolis, U.S.A., he goes to Montreal, Canada, where he works as reporter Charles LeBlanc at the Montreal Star and serves as Canada's super-hero, Hyperman.

The final panel shows Kal-El as Hyperman flying over the geodesic dome at Expo '67 (this was actually the United States Pavillion, designed by Buckminster Fuller).

The caption at the end says:

As we celebrate our 200th issue, Canada is celebrating its 100th anniversary as a united federation. This is our tribute to our neighbor to the north!--Ed.

Note: In point of fact, Canada is a confederation not a federation as the editor erroneously stated.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 107 (December 1967)--1st story, "The Rise and Fall of Superman" by Bates, Swan and Klein:

Superman and Jimmy investigate a sighting of a strange creature in Africa and arrive in time to witness an alien running away from an armed space saucer air attack.

The Action Ace puts himself between the saucer blasts and their alien target, allowing the odd looking fellow to escape into hiding. The pilot of the space saucer is a bounty hunter named Junn and his victim, Thorl, is an escaped killer. Junn takes the Metropolis Marvel into custody, in a force cube and prepares to transport him to his home world to stand trial. Jim persuades the bounty hunter to take him, as well, so he can defend his pal at the trial.



After an indeterminable span of time, they arrive on the world of Pelgar for the trial. Olsen's defense of the World's Greatest Super-Hero doesn't wash with the judge, the Ultimate One, and the Caped Kryptonian is sentenced to not do any good super-hero deeds and instead he must do a different menial job every day, for a year or until Thorl is brought to justice.



When they return to Earth, Superman begins his sentence, working at a different job each day.



And Jimmy also decides to work at a different job each day, where he can keep tabs on his friend. He has a special tracker device on his signal watch and this alerts him to the aura that all the Pelgar aliens radiate.

First day, Supes is a dog catcher and Jim drives an ice cream truck. Second day, S. is a street cleaner and J. is a tour guide. Third day, S. is a window cleaner and J. dresses windows. Fourth day, S. digs ditches for telephone cables and J. drives a tractor on a farm. Fifth day, S. shovels coal on a train and J. is the brakeman. Sixth day, Supes picks up garbage in Metropolis Park and Jim gardens.

When the signal watch finally goes off in the park, Jimmy tackles a man who is Thorl in disguise.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 357 (December 1967)--2nd story, "Supergirl's Secret Marriage" by Binder and Mooney:

As Linda Danvers leaves Stanhope College, she's accosted on the street by a stranger who kisses her. Linda is shocked when she finds out this wolf is her husband, Joaquin Jarl. The Stanhope student seems to be suffering amnesia.

Joaquin knows everything about Linda and her other identity as Supergirl. They met a year ago, when the Maid of Steel came to the aid of Jarl's homeworld, Zhonnia. There she saved a young couple, Thal and Veena, from the catastrophic fire ravaging the planet's oil sea. Joaquin witnessed Kara Zor-El's brave action and, being a photographer, took her on a tour of Zhonnia's many wonders. Under the romantic spell of Zhonnia's two moons they kissed. Having fallen in love, they were married in a brief ceremony performed by a hermit priest.

Now it is the anniversary of their wedding and Joaquin has invited some guests from Zhonnia for the event.



The Zhonnians land in a space craft and among them is Thal--the man whose life was saved by the Woman of Tomorrow. He confesses that he became obsessed with Supergirl after that, to the frustration of his fiancée, Veena. He was so in love with Kara that he called off his engagement to Veena.

But now that Thal sees Linda is married to Joaquin, he realizes his infatuation was foolish and wishes he could make it up to Veena, if only she were there.

Supergirl announces that she'll go get Veena and flies to Joaquin Jarl. She tells her so-called husband that Thal wants to see his former girl friend and removes her clever disguise--revealing that Joaquin is actually Veena. The hoax was Veena's desperate attempt to get Thal over his crush on the Blonde Blockbuster.





The Maid of Might began to suspect he was a she the first time Joaquin kissed Linda. They kissed like a girl.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 358 (January 1968)--1st story, "Superman...Guilty of Homicide" by Dorfman, Swan and Klein
ACTION COMICS 359 (February 1968)--1st story, "The Case of the People Against Superman" by Dorfman, Swan and Klein:

In a friendly boxing match for charity, Superman kills his opponent with one punch. In fact, he was framed. His challenger was in reality Ron Noble, chairman of the International Crime Exchange. When the Man of Steel gave him a tap on the jaw, the mobster took a fall and swallowed a capsule that was supposed to simulate death.

What the crime boss didn't know was that his right hand man, Dr. Frost, slipped him a deadly capsule, so the doctor could take over the syndicate.



Brought to trial, the D.A. wants to make a name for himself by prosecuting the Metropolis Marvel. But Earl Barton, wheel-chair bound lawyer, comes out of retirement to defend the Action Ace.

Not following proper jurisprudence, the D.A. is given wide latitude in presenting his case, which includes calling the defendant to testify against himself and presenting past acts not germane to the case. When Lois Lane is called to the stand she testifies about a past adventure when the Man of Tomorrow exposed a gang of criminals to deadly radiation and killed them. But since these were aliens, their deaths apparently didn't matter.



In an effort to determine what actually happened in the ring that night, Superman flies the entire courtroom beyond the speed of light so they can witness what happened by watching light rays from the past. Only the Caped Kryptonian with his strong eyesight and keen memory catches the vital clue to clear him. He sees the capsule in Noble's mouth before he swallows it and the finger prints on that capsule which match a similar capsule handled by Dr. Frost



Later, when Clark Kent is called to the stand he demonstrates the deadly effect of the capsule by swallowing it and dying. Superman later revives Clark by giving him an antidote. While this was really Clark Kent who swallowed the capsule (stopping his heart to simulate death), it wasn't actually the Big Red 'S.' who gave the cure. It was Bruce Wayne disguised as Superman.

Note: The Supergirl story in issue 358--"Superboy in Argo City"--is the last one to feature Jim Mooney art; and the Supergirl story in issue 359--"The Super Initiation of Supergirl"--is the first one to feature Kurt Schaffenberger art. This was around when there were a lot of creative shake-ups at National Periodical Publications, with some leaving the publisher (sometimes not by choice) and others being switched to new assignments. Mooney left for Marvel--Supergirl's loss was Spider-Man's gain. Schaffenberger was taken off his long run on Lois Lane.

Happy Groundhog Day!

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 363 (May 1968)--2nd story, "The Landmark Looters" by Binder and Schaffenberger:



When great landmarks are lifted into the sky, the Maid of Might finds the culprits are giant aliens, who are just children playing a version of Monopoly.



Just as powerful as her, they are unwilling to end their game and challenge Supergirl to a competition. She is stymied by their gameplay until she figures out their weakness to gold, which is like Kryptonite to them.



Once defeated, the alien children are sent on their way, back to their world.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 111 (June 1968)--1st story, "Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder" by Bates and Pete Costanza; r. SUPERMAN FAMILY 171
SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 130 (July 1970)--2nd story, "Olsen the Teen Wonder" by Haney and Anderson:



When he seeks membership in the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City, Olsen is not accepted. At the meeting are the Batman, Police Commissioner Gordon, reporter Clark Kent and mystery novelist Kaye Daye--also, it looks like the other four men there are crime reporter Art Saddows, D.A. Danton, armchair detective Martin Tellman and P.I. Hugh Rankin.

Jimmy heads to the Eyrie--the abandoned mountain top observatory that serves as the secret headquarters for the Olsen-Robin team--introduced in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 141. There he meets the Boy Wonder and proposes taking the place of Dick Grayson/Robin to impress the Mystery Analysts.

The Boy Wonder helps the Red-Headed Newshound in impersonating him and learning his crimefighting skills. The Daily Planeteer is then ready to take Dick's place at high school, at Wayne Manor and in the Batcave.



Along with Batman, the fake Robin tracks down the Scorpio Gang. But it turns out this Scorpio Gang is also a fake--with Kaye Daye in disguise as the ringleader Lydra.

The Mystery Analysts were hip to Jimmy's ruse, just as he had figured out who they really were. In the end, the reason Jimmy can't be in the Analysts is simply because he's not yet 25 years old.



Note: The shocking thing about this story (shocked me as a kid when I read it) is that Jimmy knows that Bruce and Dick are the Dynamic Duo--yet he doesn't know that Clark is Superman. Meanwhile, Dick knows that Superman is Clark. It must be hard for Grayson and Olsen to keep their stories straight. We learn here that Jimmy is not 25 but he's also not young enough to be in high school--just how old is he? Clark Kent is shown to be a member of the Mystery Analysts in this story. Given it's a Gotham City club, it seems odd that Kent would be a member--and it's odd that Olsen would want to join them, too. Can't they stick to societies in Metropolis and let the citizens of Gotham have their own cliques? Author Kaye Daye would eventually have another connection to Metropolis when it turned out she was the aunt of Steve Lombard.

[Jim Kelly]

"Olsen the Teen Wonder" is a sequel to "Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder." When Jimmy Olsen is passed up for "Young Man of the Year" in favour of Robin, the Teen Wonder, Olsen seeks to prove to his friend that he could be just as good a Robin as Dick Grayson.



Jimmy again doubles as Robin and goes after the Flying Mercury Gang. He tracks them down, but they get the jump on him and he's saved by Superman who is undercover as a Flying Mercury.





The Superman-Olsen team then round up the thieves.

Note: The Action Ace in his dark-blue leotard Mercury garb and the Daily Planeteer in his Teen Wonder outfit resemble their other identities as Nightwing and Flamebird. Indeed, there should be no question that Olsen could be a Robin because he was one half of Kandor's Dynamic Duo.

[Jim Kelly]

WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 176 (June 1968)--1st story, "The Superman-Batman Split" by Bates, Adams and Giordano; cover art by Neal Adams (Infantino layout):

Cover note: In 1966 - 67, the executive vice-president, Irwin Donenfeld, wanted Carmine Infantino to design all covers for National Periodical Publications. Getting wind of this, Martin Goodman tried to lure Infantino over to the Marvel Comics Group (part of the Magazine Management Company) with the promise of more money. Donenfeld countered by giving Infantino an executive position as art director. With this arrangement in place, Infantino would design all the comic book covers--with other artists doing the completed work.

On July 21st, 1967, Kinney National Brands bought National Periodical Publications, upon which Irwin was ousted and Carmine was promoted to editorial director, which involved even more duties but still included designing all the covers. It was Infantino who hired Neal Adams to come work for National Periodicals. At first, Adams mainly worked on the war and humour titles, but Infantino was impressed with Adams and began to collaborate with him on covers. Adams would soon be doing a lot of super-hero covers, especially for Mort Weisinger's Superman line.

I mention all this because the cover for WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 176 is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Neal Adams; however, it's clear to me that, while Adams did the completed cover, it was based on an Infantino cover design and even drawn by Neal in an Infantino style.



Compare this cover with the one by Infantino and Anderson for BATMAN 181--with heads of Batman and Robin and the central figure of Poison Ivy--



--it's pretty much the same idea, except WORLD'S FINEST has four heads (Superman, Batman, Supergirl, Batgirl) and the central figure is in silhouette.

As the adventure begins, Clark Kent is looking his best in a new orange suit. He's dressed up for a plumb interview at the home of Ronald Jason. Not since Basil Karlo has there been a consummate actor of R.J.'s calibre.

So imagine C.K.'s horror when the renowned thespian says he knows Kent is the Man of Steel and throws a chemical bomb at the reporter, dissolving the tailor-made garments, to reveal the Superman costume underneath. The interview subject then reveals he is not Ronald Jason but an alien named Dur.

Dur comes from the fifth planet in the Sirius system and there he is Tontar-2--the equivalent of a vice president. After the assassination of the Tontar-1 (i.e. president), fearing for his own life, Dur escaped to Earth using a molecular transporter.



While the real Ronald Jason was away on vacation, Dur assumed his identity and hid out in his home. But now he fears assassins from his homeworld have followed him to Earth and he needs Superman's protection.

The Tontar-2 is taken to the Fortress of Solitude, where the Action Ace can guard him against an attack.