The Many Lives of Superman #13

The Many Lives of Superman



The Flash!

Script by Cary Bates

Pencils by Curt Swan

Inks by Bob Oksner



Action Comics #441

Weather War Over Metropolis!

November 1974

Copyright (c) DC Comics

Who watches the superwatchman

What possible reason could there be that Superman just happens to have punch-card profiles of every eligible bachelor in Metropolis? After all, it's not like he even has any formidable female rogues, where a precaution like this would actually make sense.



Who watches the watchmen, indeed!

Script by Cary Bates

Pencils by John Rosenberger

Inks by Vince Colletta



Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #132

The Second Superman!

July 1973

Copyright (c) DC Comics

The lengths we go to to protect our secret identities

One of the staples that I love about reading Silver and Bronze Age comic books are the overcomplicated solutions or convoluted ruses that our heroes have to go through in order to not let anyone catch on to their secret identities. As soon as I think I've read it all, I find one even more ludicrous than that last.



Which leads me to today's post. Now, normally I like to keep things to just one panel per day, but occasionally exceptions must be made and today is one of those exceptions.



To set the stage, Clark Kent is filming a commercial for a watch company who has somehow managed to get Superman to take part as well. How are Clark and Superman both going to appear in the commercial with the secret identity still in effect?



Watch, and be amazed.





After throwing the watch in the air, Clark does a relatively standard move by doing the quick change at super speed. But that still leaves a Clark-less presence in front of the camera.



Now worries, as Superman has a plan...





He peels off a life size promotional cardboard cutout from the side of the news van, and turns it around to expose the 3-D picture he previously planted on the back side!





Before anyone is the wiser, he plants the 3-D cutout in Clark's place. So how is this going to fool anyone?



Well the 3-D side of the cutout has two offsetting images that will appear three dimensional to anyone wearing 3-D glasses.





Now all we have to hope for is that everyone on site remembered to wear their 3-D glasses today.



Or...you could take the initiative and outfit everyone's glasses with 3-D lenses ahead of time!





After that, it's just a simple matter of catching the watch you previously tossed into the air as Superman while your fancy cardboard cutout fools all of the people filming the commercial!





God I love these books.

Script by Cary Bates

Pencils by Curt Swan

Inks by Bob Oksner



Superman #291

The Time-Powered Peril!

September 1975

Copyright (c) DC Comics

The Many Lives of Superman #10

The Many Lives of Superman





Early American Colonist!

Script by Cary Bates

Pencils by Curt Swan

Inks by Tex Blaisdell



Action Comics #463

Die Now, Live Later!

September 1976

Copyright (c) DC Comics

Superhero fashion faux-pas

What could it possibly be?

And why are you wearing the Trickster's clothes?

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Murphy Anderson

Action Comics #410
The Satanic Son Of Superman
March 1972
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The Silver Age Flaming C!

So last weekend, the world's greatest comic book store was having one of their semi-regular auctions, this one dealing with a whole lot of Silver Age books. I was able to pick up about 40 books for a little over 3 bucks a piece, filling in a bunch of holes in my collection.

While looking through my new found treasures, I came a across a character I was unfamiliar with.

One thought immediately sprung to mind...is this the first Silver Age appearance of The Flaming C?


He's obviously had some lasik surgery since his debut, and learned about the finer art of Jai Alai, but no...it's just another crime fighting robot from the 27th century, who goes by the name of Captain Incredible, wreaking havoc in our time period.

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Al Plastino
Inks by Al Plastino

Action Comics #354
Captain Incredible!
September 1967
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Overly optimistic visions of the future

So let's see, if I do my math right, that puts this panel square in 1984!

It's actually been 42 years, and I'm still waiting for NASA to open up a greasy spoon on the Sea Of Tranquility.

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Murphy Anderson

Action Comics #410
The Satanic Son Of Superman
March 1972
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Adventures in super-dating

The things us guys will do to make time with the ladies...


I wonder how many times Clark went Jitterbugging in his zoot suit after they became a couple. I'm willing to bet it's somewhere close to zero. Unless it was a cover for them to write an expose on Intergang's iron-clad grip on the underworld jitterbug criminal scene, because that obviously wouldn't count.

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Murphy Anderson

Action Comics #419
The Most Dangerous Man On Earth!
December 1972
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The Russian Nesting Doll Theory Of Secret Identities

For those times when you need to be extra careful about your secret identity, nothing beats wearing a rubber mask of your secret identity, over your super hero costume, over your actual face.

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Murphy Anderson

Action Comics #408
The Shocking Secret Of Super-X!
January 1972
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Adventures in product placement

The recent addition of the Subway Famous Fans advertising insert in this past week's comics got me thinking about some similar moves in the past. One of my favorites is when Superman has to team up with two schoolkids using a TRS-80 computer to help bring down Major Disaster!

Now, for all you kids spoiled with terabyte drives and cloud computing, there used to be a time when you stored your data on a cassette tape! Talk about blazing fast.

How fast, you ask?


Fast enough to show up Superman (for at least as long as TRS was paying the advertising bills).

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Jim Starlin
Inks by Dick Giordano

Action Comics #509
The Computers That Saved Metropolis!
July 1980
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Things I had no idea existed...

So I've been reading Superman comic books monthly since 1992, and have been avidly collecting his back issues for the past 14 years or so, but every once in a while I come across something I've never heard about before in the Superman mythos.

Something like Hideout X-1!


That's right, it's a secret conference room hidden inside the Daily Planet globe. Apparently, it's a meeting place for Superman and Batman to get together every once in a while?

In this particular story, Superman is double-crossing a thief by pretending that this is a good place to hole up and wait for the heat to die down, knowing full well that Batman is due to show up soon!

So has Hideout X-1 ever shown up again?

A quick, cursory google search came up empty, but someone out there knows for sure one way or the other.

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by George Roussos

Action Comics #384
The Forbidden Costume!
January 1970
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Sunday versus #12

Superman Streaky Krypto? vs. Tyrannosaurus Rex Skeleton

Superman is taking this Sunday off, so filling in for him on his never-ending quest to battle dinosaurs is some sort of amalgam of Krypto and Streaky!

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by George Roussos

Action Comics #388
Puzzle Of The Wild World!
May 1970
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Sgt. Rock Redux

After yesterday's bit of silliness, here's a panel from the story where Superman really met Sgt. Rock.


Barking orders to a grunt...that's more like it!

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Joe Staton
Inks by Jack Abel
Colors by Adrienne Roy
Letters by Ben Oda

DC Comics Presents #10
The Miracle Man Of Easy Company
June 1979
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Panels that defy explanation...

Yes, that's Sgt. Rock throwing garbage at Superman while being nagged by Lois Lane! I think it's the Peeping Tom, however, that adds just the right amount of WTF to this panel.

This whole story is actually filled with panels as crazy as this one, so make sure you come back on Sunday and I'll feature another.

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by George Roussos

Action Comics #388
Puzzle Of The Wild World!
May 1970
Copyright (c) DC Comics

A little known fact about Superman robots

The best way to shut down a runaway Superman robot is to give it a double wet willy!


I'm surprised the Prankster never thought of that.

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
Inks by Dan Adkins
Colors by Anthony Tollin
Letters by Milton Snapinn

The Superman Family #195
Lois Lane's Super-Risk
May/June 1979
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Ease up there, Superman!

It's an effective take down, I guess, if not entirely chivalric.

(psst...it was just a Superman robot, so no harm done. Superman would never treat a woman like that...not when he can program a robot to do it for him.)

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Tex Blaisdell
Colors by Jerry Serpe

Action Comics #473
The Great Phantom Peril!
July 1977
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Now here's a guy who paid attention to the little details

So I'm reading through a stack of The Superman Family issues that I picked up at a recent auction held by my LCS, and came upon something interesting.

Remember that post where Superman was flying through space listening to the "music of the spheres" on his portable cassette recorder? Here's a link in case you forgot.

Well it turns out that that wasn't just a one-off occurrence like I had assumed.


I wasn't reading the Superman books regularly during the late 70s, but was this a regular thing then? And as if continuity isn't confusing enough sometimes, this is actually the Earth-2 Superman and the previous post is the Earth-1 Superman!

Now I know you're sitting back in your chair thinking "damn, this couldn't get any more interesting", but you'd be wrong!

The previous post of Superman zipping through space recording the music of the planets was written by a writer I had never heard of before, but with an unforgettable name...Beppe Sabatini!

And who should have a letter printed in this very issue, some six years prior?

That's right, Beppe Sabatini!

I suppose it's possible that there could be two Beppe Sabatini's in the world, but narrow the field down to how many of them can be connected by Superman's taste in intergalactic space music, and I think we're looking at the same guy here.

If you're out there Mr. Sabatini, drop by and say hello.

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger
Inks by Dan Adkins
Colors by Anthony Tollin
Letters by Milton Snapinn

The Superman Family #195
Lois Lane's Super-Risk
May/June 1979
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Pushing the definition of "daring"

Daring?

Using Superman as a human shield is not what I'd call daring.

Reckless for sure, but not daring.

Although maybe she's talking about trying to pull off an all-white jumpsuit. Now that, is daring!

Script by Cary Bates
Artwork by John Rosenberger

The Superman Family #166
The Murdering Arm Of Metropolis
August/September 1974
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Sunday versus #5

Superman vs. Dinosaur Skeleton

It's best to try not to figure out what kind of dinosaur that actually is, as I believe it started out as a standard T-Rex and then sprouted wings?

I say we just roll with it and enjoy the great panel!

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Murphy Anderson

Superman #243
The Starry-Eyed Siren Of Space!
October 1971
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Well, this is embarassing...

You know you're having a bad day when you get hog tied by a villain.

But by a C-lister like Terra-Man? That's rough.

Script by Cary Bates
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Tex Blaisdell

Action Comics #469
The Night Superman Was Buried In Boot Hill
March 1977
Copyright (c) DC Comics