[Superman Fan Club] Year 1 Reading #16 ! Superman, Supergirl and Batman with Robin and...Evil Superboy? January 2021

Don-El · January 29, 2021, 12:16am

[Superman Fan Club] and friends, presenting for your pure entertainment (yet providing some scant whiff of historical / cultural Americana relevance at the same time), the Silver and Bronze Age Superman Family! Superman, Supergirl and Batman with Robin eagerly await your attention along with fabulous DC guest stars including…wait for it………………SUPERBOY!?!?!?!?!? How can this be, how can this be???

Click here to join the Club: [Superman Fan Club]

WORLD’S FINEST COMICS (1941-) #75 DC UNIVERSE INFINITE (released March 1955) When Batman is laid up with a broken leg, Superman comes to Gotham City to help Robin track down the Purple Mask Mob.
Bill Finger, writer

…

ACTION COMICS (1938-) #328 DC UNIVERSE INFINITE (released September 1965) “SUPERMAN’S HANDS OF DOOM!” The nefarious Mr. Gimmick arranges to have Superman’s hands coated with two chemicals that will create a terrible explosion when they come together. Meanwhile, Supergirl is up against it in “The Ordeals of Dimension Z.”

…

DC Comics Presents #14 DC UNIVERSE INFINITE (released October 3, 1979) Superboy attacks Superman in an all-out battle to the death! (Paul Levitz, Dick Dillon)

…

Superman (1939-) #338 (released August 1st 1979) DC UNIVERSE INFINITE 40th anniversary issue. “Let My People Grow!” Script by Len Wein, pencils by Curt Swan. Uh, don’t look now, but there’s Kandor busting up again, second reading in a row, tsk! Leave my city alone!!

…

WORLD’S FINEST COMICS (1941-) #96 DC UNIVERSE INFINITE (released September 1958) Lured into helping an alien race, Superman, Batman and Robin must show them how to survive!

Worlds Finest 96 snippet

…

Please post your thoughts, reactions and favorite panels below as you again reflect on a bygone era of comic book greatness and historic / cultural relevance, our Silver and Bronze Age to enjoy together!!!

msgtv · January 30, 2021, 1:42am

Two questions
1 Why are people from Planet X always jerks. What’s up with Planet X?
2 Did the Romans call it planet 10?

Good work Dynamic Dou

Planet X invented Amazon

Don-El · January 30, 2021, 1:44am

A prophecy from the past!

I feel exhausted already thinking about driving to a grocery store tomorrow for CURBSIDE PICKUP lol…

msgtv · January 30, 2021, 1:45am

Curbside pickup is my new best friend

ajm08g · January 31, 2021, 3:44am

Hello there Superman Fan Club and everyone else.

A lot of interesting things to say from this reading…

World's Finest Comics #75 Summary

Batman retiring? I think not!

I also find it funny when Superman uses his powers and he’s with someone that doesn’t have the same powers, but thinks they know what he’s talking about.

I also found it pretty funny that Batman stayed in costume while having his “broken leg” be on the mend.

Definitely good thinking by Superman to come up with that plan to keep him out of action until the poison was not going to almost put Batman down for the count.

Action Comics (1938-) #328 Summary

Quite a diabolical scheme I’d say in having Superman destroy Metropolis with the clapping of his hands.

I wonder with these time capsules that Superman put his deeds into were ever looked at some point later in the continuity?

Lots more for sure Jimmy!

Ah yes, the curious case of which time zone it was foils the Gimmick!

Definitely interesting seeing all the effect Kryptonite has been having on both Superman and Supergirl in each of these readings.

I also thought it might be Beauty and The Beast was the story they were going to reference.

DC Comics Presents (1978-) #14 Summary

I should have known it was Pete with his vendetta against Superman from our last reading where he could not change his son’s destiny by bringing him back to him. Pete definitely did get looney Chief! I mean… Perry.

Krypto is the best and hearing the call and saving the day!

I’d like a nice steak too Superboy for saving the day…

Superman (1939-) #338 Summary

Nice to have one of Clark’s favorite clichés brought up again.

Also… Congrats to Perry on his 40 years of journalism.

And good to see he was in a good mood too.

It was funny tricking Brainiac with that buzzing sound to get him back. Crazy that he also disappeared because they didn’t change him back in time. Wonder how he came back to antagonize Superman and company later?

It was also good to see the enlarging ray worked, even if it did destroy the
last city of Krypton.

Kara interacting with her parents again was nice as that reminded me a little bit of Smallville.

Having all the Kandorians being transported to another dimension in space was
interesting since they got back to their normal size again. I’ve read the titles of later stories they were in, and perhaps will dive into those stories to see what else they got up to then. General Zod had something to also say about that if I remember correctly.

World's Finest Comics (1941-) #96 Summary

Superman picking up an entire island is pretty impressive!

I also thought where was Supergirl and that handy enlarging ray to get them out of this situation?

But yay for science and critical thinking of Superman and Batman to work it out!

It was pretty nice of the aliens to think of others while they studied Superman, Batman, and Robin solve each of the trials they put them through. And I also did think of Amazon a bit when they said they only relied on machines.

Don-El · January 31, 2021, 4:25am

Excellent reporting @ajm08g , I think Perry would hire you in a minute!!

Whenever I see the title “Hands of Doom” for this 1965 Action Comic, I think of the song 4 or 5 years later by Black Sabbath on the Paranoid album called Hand of Doom. I’ll have to check later to see if Ozzy was a big Superman comic book fan in his youth.

“Let My People Grow” is one of those rare stories of the Bronze Age that actually stuck in DC continuity for years to come years to come (well until Crisis on Infinite Earths). I really enjoyed the way it was revisited around 2010 in the Superman comics where you had New Krypton orbiting exact opposite side of the Sun from us with a whole world of Superman and Superwoman… and what that would really mean.

So we’re about to run out of Silver and Bronze Age Superman comics stories, as there’s a huge gap what’s not digitized in the early 80s. We’ll miss the planet where Luther is loved and adored as a hero and is a married man and a few other truly classic stories.

But the good news is, as you refer to our Master reading sheet, we still have stacks of wild Action Comics from the 60s and super fun World’s Finest comics from the 50s and 60s as well! Mix in some Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane early stories that are now available …and who would want to miss Superman teaming up with other Bronze Age heroes in DC Comics Presents which we again have a nice stack of to read through, and you have a recipe for at least a couple more years of fun on this as we await more to be digitized.

ajm08g · January 31, 2021, 6:51pm

Thank you, thank you. I’d be glad to work for ~~Chief~~ Perry.

Ah, nice! I had not heard that song before and just gave it a listen. Next time I read the story again I’ll for sure have that playing as it sounded perfect with the bass and guitar amplifying the tension felt in whether or not Superman would clap his hands of doom.

Ah, nice!

True… Perhaps some requests will also make their way so we might see them if they can sneak in between other archived issues being digitized… To be continued…

Looking forward to it!

Bar-El · February 2, 2021, 2:40am

Can’t we get some doors for our heroes? Do they really need to jump through a window? Imagine if Superman bumped his head, the entire wall would cave in lol Or how about we move Gordon’s office to a little roof hut lol

Don-El · February 2, 2021, 3:17am

Not to mention the inherent dangers of leaving a window open in Gotham with no screen…a bat could fly in for example…

Bar-El · February 2, 2021, 3:33am

Bar-El · February 5, 2021, 7:27am

I just finished Superman v Superboy and wow these old comics are a whirlwind! I feel like I have whiplash from all the turns that story takes Also Superboy’s defeated tear was

Don-El · February 5, 2021, 1:26pm

Real glad you were able to check it out @Bar-El !

In both of these older Silver and Bronze Age comics, along with the most current, I’m far more used to seeing Supergirl be wicked and evil rather than dear old Superboy, so that advertised on the cover premise alone was worth the price of admission lol.

msgtv · February 5, 2021, 8:18pm

Batman keeping on his Batsuit is what also struck me. He’s the guy who has to put on his team’s jersey to watch the game (no-judgement here).

As for Mr. Gimmick, world-class genius, but doesn’t know about time zones. Deserved to get caught. But, the backup Supergirl story was of more interest to me. In part because it mirrored the Superman stories where everyone is accusing him of being the bad guy. That it wasn’t Superman accusing Kara swept aside the big mystery right away, then we get Gladiator meets Beauty and the Beast. Still, I liked it. But, man is the King harsh. Dude gets arrested because he tricked Kara into kissing the king!

ajm08g · February 5, 2021, 8:25pm

Yes! Those higher dimensions are sure far out dealing with their punishments…