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

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 124 launches a new letter column in addition to the regular "Letters to Lois and Rose" column edited by E. Nelson Bridwell.



The new column is hosted by the Mystery Columnist, Alexander the Great, and gets the title "The Boneyard" in issue 125.



Why Boneyard? Presumably because an error is called a "boner" (although the other meaning of boner was quite well known at this time). So this is a column for letters about mistakes and other curiosities that fans picked up on.

***

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 125 (August 1972)--1st story, "Death Rides the Wheels" by Bates, Rosenberger and Colletta:

Kristin Cutler behaves oddly in front of her roommates. And the biker gang, the Spike Helmets, are revealed to be led by a Nazi. Lois suspects that Kristin is also a Nazi.

Note: Don't get your hopes up Lois. The Kristin Cutler subplot goes nowhere after this. One less Pulitzer Prize for you.

[Jim Kelly]

ACTION COMICS 414 (July 1972)--1st story, "Superman Vs. Superstar" by Bates, Swan and Anderson:



In this tale we meet Gregory Reed for the first time. He's the actor who plays Superman; however, Reed hates the role. He's been type-cast and worse, he's been scarred by on set accident that disfigured him.

Using sorcery, the star is able to body-switch with the real Man of Steel.



Yet because he's new to the powers of a Kryptonian, his mass has made his home unstable and before the house falls over a cliff, Superman is able to regain his own body. He saves Reed, but the house falls to its doom.

At the end of the yarn, the Metropolis Marvel promises to heel Gregory Reed's scars.



Note: Unlike the Gregory Reed stories to follow, this one paints a pathetic image of the actor. No doubt inspired by the tragic fate of George Reeves and the "Superman Curse" that some say drove Reeves to suicide; there's not a lot of optimism until the very end when Superman promises to help Reed get plastic surgery.

Eerily this idea of a curse would only gain traction with other actors to wear the super-suit. One can't help but think of Christopher Reeve's tragic fate--even though this story came out six years before Reeve first took flight on our movie screens.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 151 (July 1972)--"Attack of the Locust Creatures" by Albano, Delbo and Oksner:

This issue introduces yet another Galaxy employee, Percy Bratten, the son of a leading stockholder in the company, taking a fling at news reporting.



After Superman is held captive by the Locust Men, Percy and Jimmy investigate. Eventually the Locust Creatures have captured not just the Man of Steel, but Meg, Jimmy and Percy. Even though Bratten is a bit of a flake, his ability to throw his voice proves useful in breaking out of their prison and going to rescue Meg.





Apparently even Ukor, the leader of the Locusts, cannot resist Meg's beauty. Intending to make her his queen, he has given away the whole plot to the Earth female.

Ukor blows up the Locust advance mission but survives long enough to threaten the others, before succumbing to his wounds.

See posts #747 and 748 for more.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 152 (August-September 1972)--"The Doubled Edged Sword" by Bridwell, Skeates, Sekowsky and Oksner:



Jimmy's friend on the force, Officer Corrigan, takes a hit as the police swarm the house of a cop killer--who is Tombstone Greer, an agent of Inter-Gang. But when the Man of Steel enters the house he finds that Greer is long gone and two robots are doing all the shooting. There's a passageway connected to the tunnel under Terry Dean's disco, that Inter-Gang was using to Boom Tube to Apokolips and back.

[Jim Kelly]

Percy Bratten informs the bogus Morgan Edge of the goings-on. Meanwhile, Jim encounters the real Morgan with Yango and the Outsiders. Intergang sends their own Hog Men after them, but Yango and Olsen succeed in getting the actual Edge into the Galaxy building.



Threatened by Darkseid, the clone enlists Greer to gun down his counterpart. However, the murder plan backfires on the evil twin (literally). See post #751 for more.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 153 (October 1972)--1st story, "Murder in Metropolis" by Albano? Sekowsky and Oksner; 2nd story, "I Am...the Gun" by writer unknown, art by Amendola; 3rd story, "And Time Goes On..." by Skeates, Frank Redondo? and June Lofamia:

Jimmy Olsen and Dave Stevens are caught in the middle of the war between Inter-Gang and the 100, as both mobs are gunning for the fiery reporter and the controversial columnist.





As no straight male--human or alien--can seem to resist making a play for Meg Tempest, the new boss of Inter-Gang, Joe Danton, tries his luck with her. She doesn't believe Danton is a bad guy.

[Jim Kelly]

Supes intends to teach the crime boss a lesson, when two junkies try to mug Danton for money to get a fix.



In the end Joe meets his maker as he's blown up in his car (some no-good set a bomb in the car, probably working for the 100).



Note: This story has elements of year one Siegel and Shuster Superman--the Champion of the Oppressed leaping into the air with the crime boss, high above the buildings (drawn like Shuster's), to threaten Danton; then giving the boss a moral lesson by allowing him to be mugged by the same addicts he's been exploiting.

[Jim Kelly]

In the letter column for JIMMY OLSEN 153, E.N.B. explains "a tight schedule meant no time to do a lot of new Olsen material--so we used some stories originally intended for our weird mags" for the two back-up stories.

"I Am...the Gun" is about a hired assassin who ends up having his gun turn against him. "And Time Goes On..." concerns suspended animation and the curse of wishing never to get old.

The tight schedule could have been the result of editorial restructuring, as J.O. leaves J.O. as of this issue.

Next week: The Weisinger Soldier

[Thor-Ul]

These posts are really a charm. Keep the good job, Jim.

[Jim Kelly]

These posts are really a charm. Keep the good job, Jim.

Thanks, I will.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 126 (September 1972)--1st story, "The Brain Busters" by Bates, Rosenberger and Colletta:



On assignment for WGBS, Lois goes to interview "Captain Dingle," the clown host of a kiddie show on WMET, the rival station that Lana Lang used to work for. Lane takes Marsha Mallow with her, who is a fan of the clown.



But the producer of the program is actually a criminal using subliminal messaging to manipulate his audience, which makes everyone in Metropolis go gaga over Captain Dingle.

Art note: Murphy Anderson returns to his Superman chores for this issue and the next.

***

SUPERMAN’S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE 127 (October 1972)--1st story, "Curse of the Flame" by Bates, Rosenberger and Colletta; 2nd story, "The Sea Devil" by Bates and Heck;

Lois covers the Trans-Europa Olympics, but I doubt this is an event sanctioned by the actual Olympics. It involves two teams--Star Team and Sun Team--that compete in oddball land, sea and air races.

Rose goes to a doctor for help with her strange condition.

This is Woolfolk's final issue as editor. Bob Kanigher assumes the chair with the next issue. Dorothy warms the editor's seat on SUPERGIRL 1 (November 1972), but guess who replaces her after that?

"Things will never be the same again!" So says the house ad for SUPERGIRL and WONDER WOMAN in this issue. "Girls are changing!"

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERGIRL 1 (November 1972)--1st story, "Trail of the Madman" by Bates, Saaf and Colletta; cover art by Bob Oksner:



In the first issue of her own comic, events pick up where they left off in ADVENTURE COMICS 424 (October 1972)--see posts #424 and 425.

Having left her T.V. reporter job, Linda is setting out to do what she always really wanted to do with her life--go back to university. This time it's Vandyre University, 10 miles outside of San Francisco. There, she's registered as a graduate student, in a drama program.



One of her roommates is oddly named Wanda Five, who owns an alien artefact. Wanda--also in the drama program--has psychic powers which help the Blonde Blockbuster in determining that her new drama teacher, Basil Rasloff (a Boris Karloff/Basil Rathbone mash-up) is actually the serial killer on campus. At the end of this issue's story, Linda meets her two other roommates--Sheila Wong and Terry Blake.

The residence shared by four women is not that different from the set-up with Lois Lane when Woolfolk took over that title. Both have a mystery woman (Wanda and Kristin) and both have an athletic African-American.



Note: Dorothy Woolfolk leaves as editor after this first issue--and she takes Wanda Five with her. Despite the mystery set up around Wanda, without any explanation, the girl with something extra is never mentioned again.

Supergirl's promotion to her own title wasn't quite the honour it seemed. ADVENTURE COMICS had been the Girl of Steel's own title in practice if not in the indicia and that was on a monthly schedule. The SUPERGIRL run had an irregular schedule and less than monthly (at best six issues per year, for the short time it ran). Without Supergirl, ADVENTURE COMICS was also reduced to a bi-monthly series (after being a monthly for most of its existence) as it would remain until 1980 when it briefly regained a full monthly status.

Having had an occasional back-up series during Supergirl's residency in ADVENTURE, Zatanna likewise holds the clean-up position here. More about that another time.

Art note: As the indicia shows, Vince Colletta was now the art director at National. This probably explains why Colletta got to ink whatever artist he pleased. In fact, he inks nine out of the ten issues of SUPERGIRL (and perhaps all of them). Bob Oksner is absent from the art chores on the inside of the comic, but at least he is the cover artist for all of this short run. Which, given Nick Cardy was doing covers for the majority of titles, probably means Oksner was considered key to Supergirl's success.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 154 (November 1972)--1st story, "Olsen the Red, Last of the Vikings" by Dorfman, Schaffenberger and Colletta; 2nd story, "The Girl Who Was Made of Money" by Dorfman, Schaffenberger and Colletta; cover art by Nick Cardy:

Murray Boltinoff returns to editing this title--he was editor on issues 133 - 135, when Jack Kirby began his run.

Of all the editors that took over the Superman books from Mort Weisinger, Boltinoff is the one whose approach is most similar to Weisinger's. In fact, Murray predates Mort, having started work at the Superman publisher as an assistant to editor Whitney Ellsworth circa 1940. Back then, Henry Boltinoff (the now famous cartoonist) had already been submitting work to Ellsworth and helped get his brother Murray the job.



Bringing Dorfman and Schaffenberger onto the OLSEN book is a sure sign of getting back to the way it used to be when Weisinger was captain of the ship. Their first story is very much the kind of yarn that could have appeared in the old days, as Jimmy believes he's travelled back in time and becomes Olsen the Red, when in reality it's all a delusion.

The Action Ace enables Jimmy's psycho-drama until Olsen the Red can return to his senses.



Jim thinks it was the enchantment of a viking helmet, but Clark believes it was the feedback from a vibro-gun.

[Jim Kelly]

And in the second tale, ever the romantic, Jimmy falls for the charms of a rich heiress, Doris Sutton--or does he?

▪ She's conning him . . .



▪ Her fiancé is scamming her . . .



▪ And Jim has his own sting in the works.

[Jim Kelly]

SUPERBOY 192 (December 1972)--1st story, "The Deadly Dawn" by Bates, B. Brown and Anderson; 2nd story, "Superbaby's New Family" by Dorfman, B. Brown and Anderson; cover art by Nick Cardy:



Night after night mysterious strangers in space-suits fly over Smallville. Clark is surprised to discover they are his parents. Under super-hypnosis, Jonathan and Martha tell Clark the strange story of a group of survivors from lost Atlantis who burrowed deep underground to establish a subterranean city called Atlantis II. For eons they lived below, fearing the sun above, until one day their great city came crashing down around them. One lone survivor escaped the cataclysm, a teen-ager named Varx.



In his special craft, Varx emerged above the Earth, but always had to keep ahead of the Sun, for fear of its deadly rays. He has come to Smallville to build a sun absorber to darken the sky and he has entranced Jonathan and Martha as his assistants.



The next night, Superboy sets a trap for Varx by donning his mother's space suit. When the Atlantean sees that it's the Teen of Steel, they fight until the dawning of the Sun. Varx is overcome by the solar radiation but then realizes it will not kill him and for the first time he can see clearly, without his helmet.