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

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 113 [G-87] (September-October 1971)--"The Strangest Love Stories Ever Told" cover art by Dick Giordano; on sale July 6th, 1971:



Not a hoax, not a dream, not an imaginary story--the Man of Steel dies!



These weird romances are from SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE

41 (May 1963)--3rd story, "Superman's Romance With Lana Lane" by Siegel, Swan and Klein--see post #172.
49 (May 1964)--1st story, "The Unknown Superman" by writer unknown, art by Schaffenberger--see post #173.
54 (January 1965)--3rd story, "The Monster Who Loved Lois Lane" by Hamilton and Schaffenberger--see post #174.
57 (May 1965)--2nd story, "The Return of Lois' Monster Sweetheart" by Hamilton and Schaffenberger--see post #174 - 175.
43 (August 1963)--1st story, "The Girl Who Mourned for Superman" by Dorfman and Schaffenberger--see post to follow.

The contents finish with two pages of an unpublished Flash (Jay Garrick) story, by Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert, where we first learn that Rose Canton (a.k.a. the Thorn) was taken to Transformation Island by Wonder Woman, with the help of Green Lantern (Alan Scott). Although, since this story was never published, it can't really be considered part of the official 1940s canon.

[Jim Kelly]

"The Girl Who Mourned for Superman":

Lois demonstrates Ben Franklin's kite trick for the Jimmy Olsen Fan Club. The resulting shock of electricity could have done some serious damage if the Action Ace didn't absorb the blast.


Later, in the Flying Newsroom, Miss Lane is used as a lure by Lex Luthor to lead Superman into a green Kryptonite trap. As the Caped Kryptonian breathes his last, she gives him a parting kiss.

The Superman Emergency Squad of Kandor carries away his corpse. The Kandorians will choose someone else to take the place of Kal-El; in the meanwhile, Lois must keep mum. Superman robots will stand in for the Caped Kryptonian for the nonce.



Perry asks the Pride of Pittsdale to check the files for some of Superman's greatest deeds to give to the Vardor galaxy for their history books. Lois doesn't need to check the files, as she recalls when he used his heat vision to defend her against the Ice People from an Arctic glacier and the time he single-handedly stopped the War of the Brain Worlds.

The Lady Lane tries to forget her great love by going out with other men; however, none can replace the Man of Steel.

Yet things don't add up for our Miss Lane. She soon concludes that she is on another Earth--similar to her own but not the same. She goes up to her bungalow at Pine Lake to find her vacationing double--still unaware that the man she loves has died. Lois is about to break the news to her doppelganger when she's pulled back through the time-space continuum to her own world, at the moment of her kite experiment.



Lois never did get to tell the other Lois Lane that her Superman has died--what happened next?

[Jim Kelly]

DC 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR 6 (1971)--"World's Greatest Super-Heroes"; wraparound cover art by Neal Adams; on sale July 15th, 1971:

Number 6, but this is the third Super Spectacular--coming after number 4 "Weird Mystery Tales" and number 5 "Love Stories"--and it's the first collection of super-hero stories in this format.







The Justice League of America and Justice of Society of America, that appear on the Neal Adams wraparound cover, are the lead feature in this issue, reprinting the first Earth-One and Earth-Two crossover of those respective teams, from--

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 21 (August 1963) and 22 (September 1963)--"Crisis on Earth-One" and "Crisis on Earth-Two" by Fox, Sekowsky and Sachs.

[Jim Kelly]

The Wildcat story--"Crime Wore a Costume"--is an unpublished adventure from the 1940s.

As extra filler there's a checklist of super-heroes at the bottom of pages 35, 45, 51, 97 and on all of page 98. This includes a few very obscure characters from the past, as well some of the latest creations.





Some of the more obscure ones: Captain X of the R.A.F.; the Guardian Angel; Lando, Man of Magic; the Masked Ranger.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 114 (September 1971)--[new content] 1st story, "The Foe of 100 Faces" by Kanigher, Roth and Colletta; cover art by Dick Giordano; on sale July 22nd, 1971:



The cover story features both Lois and the Thorn. Ms. Lane discovers that Dave Stevens--the man she gave blood to in "I am Curious (Black)"--is the firebrand columnist for the Black Beacon (a Little Africa community newspaper). Morgan Edge approves of the Black Beacon going after the 100, the rivals of Inter-Gang.

[Jim Kelly]

In Little Africa, Dave and Tina Ames give a presentation on "Black History."



At the end of this adventure, Dave has signed on to be a columnist for the Daily Planet, with Tina as his assistant. You would think, with his politics, he would want to stay with the Black Beacon, an African-American owned paper, rather than working for the Man.



The 2nd story is a reprint from--

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 61 (November 1965)--2nd story, "The Reptile Girl of Metropolis" by Dorfman and Schaffenberger--see post to follow.

[Jim Kelly]

"The Reptile Girl of Metropolis":



At the Nuclear Institute, when Dr. Price blows up himself and Lois in an atomic explosion, their two bandaged bodies are carted off on stretchers. Later, in hospital, their bandages are unwrapped to reveal green reptilian skin. After that, the reptile pair are seen everywhere around town together. Their horrible transformations seems to have brought them together in a strange romance.

However, whoever the "Reptile Girl" is, she's not Lois Lane as the Pride of Pittsdale is being held prisoner, overseen by a beefy matron. Lois sneaks away from her kidnapper and makes herself up to look like the Reptile Girl. With her sister Lucy's help, they capture the lizard Lois and hold her in a motel room, while Lois takes her place with Dr. Price.

In fact, this is all one big hoax that Superman and Supergirl have cooked up. After getting away from Lucy, the Reptile Supergirl rejoins her cousin in his Dr. Reptile Price guise, before they are frozen and abducted to another dimension by tiny space-pirates.

The Man of Steel had earlier captured one of these space-pirates, Yarr of Tang. The tiny little fellow revealed the space-pirates' plans to abduct the smartest scientists on Earth, starting with Dr. Price.



Little Yarr had taken a poison capsule, as per his orders. As drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger, it seems a shame that such a cute fella has to die.

After defeating the space-pirates, the Super-Cousins turn them over to the proper authorities on Tang. It appears most of the tiny inhabitants of Tang are good people with a keen fashion sense.



In the original comic, the small space-pirates had tangerine coloured skin; however, in the reprint they are given blue skin which makes them look more like Smurfs.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN 243 (October 1971)--[new content] "The Starry-Eyed Siren of Space" by Bates, Swan and Anderson; cover art by Neal Adams:





Superman has been helping out an alien world and is on his way back to Earth, when he's knocked off course by a super-nova. Trying to get his bearings, he has an overwhelming compulsion to visit an out of the way planet and drive straight through its crust to an underground cavity where rest two transparent pyramids, one containing a brain, the other empty.

The brain identifies himself as Kond--an intellect billions of years old. He and his partner Rija have been content to reside here for eons. But a passing spaceship gave her the idea to take human form. Kond is desperate that Rija return to her receptacle before time runs out and he offers the Man of Tomorrow solutions to the Earth's problems in return.

[Jim Kelly]

The Caped Kryptonian is guided by his moral code to save Rija, but when he meets her, he realizes she has taken the form of the legendary Starry-Eyed Siren of Space who is nearly irresistible.



Kond mentally is aware of what's going and takes the form of Superman to challenge his rival, knocking out the Caped Kryptonian.



However, Rija has unconsciously summoned powerful forces, having wished for her own death, and Kond is desperate to save her.

When Superman recovers, he realizes that only by killing Rija can her death wish be fulfilled and ended.



Kond then brings Rija back to life and the couple decide to remain in these two forms. They give the Action Ace the solutions to the world's problems and he takes off for Earth, but realizes by the stars that he is in the distant past. His journey forward in time destroys the solutions he was given.

Note: This tale was previously mentioned in post #225. Given the combined abilities of Kond and Rija in their humanoid forms, their offspring would be superhumans of great power in the ancient universe. Coming in the issue just after the Sand Superman Saga had ended, readers were upset that this yarn goes back to basics and nothing has really changed with the World's Greatest Super-Hero. However, this adventure isn't any different than all those that were appearing in ACTION COMICS, while Sandy's Saga was transpiring in SUPERMAN.

The 3rd story in this issue is reprinted from--

SUPERMAN 38 (January-February 1946)--1st story, "The Battle of the Atoms" by Don Cameron, Pete Riss and George Roussos; originally on sale October 31st, 1945--see post to follow.

[Jim Kelly]

"The Battle of the Atoms":



As noted on the splash page for this story, when it was reprinted in SUPERMAN 243, any mention of the atom bomb was considered top secret, which resulted in this yarn being delayed until after the atom bomb was used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6th and 9th, 1945).



In fact, when Luthor uses the bomb there's not much science given away--nothing that would aid the enemy.



Brian Cronin goes into greater detail about this in his column, "See The First Superman Comic Story Censored By the Government!"

[Jim Kelly]

Next week: K.A.R.L. in Charge

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 115 (October 1971)--[new content] 1st story, "My Death...By Lois Lane" by Kanigher, Roth and Colletta; 4th story, "The Computer Crooks" by Kanigher and Giordano:



On Monday, August 23rd, 1971, Lois Lane returns to Little Africa to visit the home of Verna and Ray Johnson, where she helps take care of Verna's brother, Willie Walker, a Vietnam vet paralyzed in the war. After she leaves, Willie becomes the Black Racer of Death.

Back at her apartment, Lois has her boss, Morgan Edge, over for tea. While he's there a package arrives for Ms. Lane from a "secret admirer." It's a typewriter. When Edge has gone, Lane feels compelled to type an obituary on the new machine. This one predicts the death of Dr. Reginald Q. Taylor at eleven that night.

The prediction comes true and next Lois types an obit for the opera singer, Maria Kalder, at one o'clock in the morning, which she's too late to prevent. Then the Pride of Pittsdale types her own death sentence for dawn in an explosion at her apartment. She goes out to an all-night movie theatre, but fire breaks out in the cinema and she's trampled. Two new neighbours in her building happen to be there and take the unconscious Lois back to her flat.



In fact, they are operatives of Inter-Gang and report back to Morgan Edge. The typewriter is an infernal device from Apokolips. This is all a set-up so that when Superman rescues his Girl Friend, he will be compelled to use the typewriter himself and tap the 'J' key which will trigger an explosion powerful enough to kill even him.



This story was previously mentioned in post #709.

[Jim Kelly]

In the Thorn yarn, the 100 have hijacked a robot called K.A.R.L. from Inter-Gang.



Vince Adams is going to use it to murder the Thorn, with the help of Poison Ivy who appears at the end of this tale.



Note: K.A.R.L. looks like a LOST IN SPACE write-off, but his appearance is deceiving, as he is another infernal invention from the Fourth World. Using the same technology as a Mother Box, and therefore in a sense alive, K.A.R.L. is destined for bigger things in upcoming issues.

[Jim Kelly]

BATMAN 181 (June 1966)--1st story, "Beware of--Poison Ivy" by Kanigher, Moldoff and Giella; cover art by Infantino and Anderson
BATMAN 183 (August 1966)--1st story, "A Touch of Poison Ivy" by Kanigher, Moldoff and Giella:



Co-created by Bob Kanigher, Poison Ivy made her debut in BATMAN 181. As with most Kanigher accounts of the Gotham Gangbusters, this is an oddball adventure. Playboy Bruce Wayne takes a special interest in his young ward's appreciation of the female form. As this story opens, they are supposedly at a museum display of the top three Public Enemies in the world--Dragon Fly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth. But are we expected to believe these Exotique Exhibitionists are really wanted by the police or are they wanted by the male gaze? The sensational "Pop" Art show seems more like an Eric Staunton gallery exhibit--as realized via Moldoff and Giella.



Poison Ivy is simply jealous that these Femmes Fatales are being ogled by Gotham's elite rather than herself. Well, she will drive the Masked Manhunter and the Boy Wonder out of their minds with lust over her. This fantasy is all one big psycho-sexual exploration of our Dynamic Duo's repressed desires.

Ivy in hand-cuffs for misbehaving is another bondage scene staged to drive the Caped Crusader wild. And the excitement doesn't end there, as Bruce Wayne has the hots for our Venomous Vixen in the follow-up thriller--not in the next ish (that was an 80 Page Giant) but in the one after that.



To further aid the Batman in exploring his kinks (rich playboys usually pay enormous fees for such services), Ivy creates an extreme fetish experience for the Cowled Vigilante.

Poison Ivy, Dragon Fly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth may have offended uptight social norms of their day, but the best way to understand these plots is as scribblings in Bruce Wayne's Black Book.

The Toxic Temptress would next appear in the Batman syndicated newspaper strip, although that continuity had a different take on the character. In terms of comic books, LOIS LANE 115 is her third appearance--written by the man who co-created her.

Thorn (the villainess), Poison Ivy and Thorn (the crimefighter)--Kanigher had a thing for the leafy ladies.

Art note: Some sources say Poison Ivy was co-created by Carmine Infantino with Kanigher, while others credit Sheldon Moldoff and Kanigher. Since covers often came before the actual stories, I tend to think it was Infantino who first proposed the design. Does anyone know for certain?

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 116 (November 1971)--[new content] 1st story, "Hall of 1000 Mirrors" by Kanigher, Roth and Colletta; 3rd story, "Computed to Kill" by Kanigher and Giordano:

In "Computed to Kill," under instructions from K.A.R.L., Poison Ivy commissions an artist to pour a golden liquid over the Thorn, which quickly hardens and turns her into a statue. The alien computer is sweet on Thorn, but Vincent Adams calls for her to be dumped in the river. When K.A.R.L. goes on the fritz, Adams throws him in the drink after her, but the Fourth World computer melts the gilded shell from Thorn.







Swimming to shore, the Thorn and Ivy have one final fight, while K.A.R.L. sleeps with the fishes.

Note: The colouring of K.A.R.L. changes in his different presentations. Of course, this is probably just an error, but I prefer to think that, like a mood ring, K.A.R.L. changes hue depending on his emotions.