The Many Lives of Superman #14

The Many Lives of Superman

Green Lantern!

Script by Paul Levitz
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Francisco Chiaramonte
Colors by Jery Serpe
Letters by Ben Oda

DC Comics Presents #6
The Fantastic Fall of Green Lantern!
February 1979
Copyright (c) DC Comics

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

The Many Lives of Superman #12

The Many Lives of Superman



Magician!

a.k.a. The Great Kento

Script by Leo Dorfman

Pencils by Curt Swan

Inks by George Roussos



Action Comics #382

Clark Kent, Magician

November 1969

Copyright (c) DC Comics

Creepy Watch

It's creepy enough that Vandal Savage is peeping through the curtains at Superman and Lois' intimate moment...but then to have Luthor and Jimmy spying on Vandal and commenting on his emotional needs just amps up the creepiness.

Script by Marv Wolfman
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Frank Chiaramonte
Colors by Gene D'Angelo
Letters by Ben Oda

Action Comics #516
Time And Time Again!
February 1981
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

Sunday versus #20

Superman vs. Space Dinosaur

Dinosaurs...from...spaceeeeeeeeeeee...

Script by Gerry Conway
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Frank Chiaramonte
Colors by Gene D'Angelo
Letters by Ben Oda

Action Comics #519
Where The Space-Winds Blow!
May 1981
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

Superman Island

I'm not going to read it, so I can't say for sure, but there's no way the Spider-Island story starting today over in Amazing Spider-Man #666 can beat this!

Script by Marv Wolfman
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Frank Chiaramonte
Colors by Gene D'Angelo
Letters by John Costanza

Action Comics #513
The Return Of Superman Island
November 1980
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

Sunday versus #16

Superman vs. Rampaging Dinosaur Horde

Sixteen Sunday battles versus dinosaurs in, and I don't think Superman is taking this seriously anymore. Skipping into a raging pack of dinosaurs?

It's like you're not even trying anymore.

Script by Marv Wolfman
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Frank Chiaramonte
Colors by Gene D'Angelo
Letters by Ben Oda

Action Comics #516
Time And Time Again!
February 1981
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Characters Continuity Forgot #5

Quarmer
a.k.a. The Sand Superman

Once a major player in the de-powering of Superman in the early 70's, he/she/it hasn't been seen again since shuffling back off into the Quarmm Dimension after duking it out with Superman, Captain Marvel, and Black Adam in 1978.

Seeping into our universe through a dimensional crack that was left behind after the explosion that destroyed all Kryptonite on Earth, the shapeless being from Quarmm passed over Superman's unconscious body and was charged with his mental and physical vibrations. Slowly, over the next twelve issues, the doppelganger drained more and more of Superman's powers through a psychic link.

As it became more powerful, Superman weakened to such a point that his ability to protect the Earth was threatened. As is bound to happen in such situations, the two fight. Quarmer soon realized that there is only room for one Superman on Earth, and he departs back into his own dimension still possessing all of the abilities that he "borrowed" from Superman.

You'd think that an inter-dimensional being that contains half the power of Superman (and could destroy Superman himself with but a single touch) would have made more than one other appearance after his initial storyline wrapped up.

You'd think so, but it's just another case of a character continuity forgot.

Script by Denny O'Neil
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Murphy Anderson

Superman #241
The Shape Of Fear!
August 1971
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

Sunday versus #15

Superman vs. Dinosaur Robot

You're going to have to try a little bit harder than to try to surprise Superman with a robot dinosaur.

Script by Marv Wolfman
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Frank Chiaramonte
Colors by Gene D'Angelo
Letters by Ben Oda

Action Comics #514
Countdown Of The Killer Computer!
December 1980
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Welcome sports readers!

We interrupt our regular blog postings to bring you this special sports update!

So apparently two divergent worlds collided over the weekend, as a sports blog linked to a comic book blog! No, the resulting matter/anti-matter collision didn't end up breaking the internet, in fact there was no downside at all. What did happen, was that there was a whole slew of new people checking out Superman 101.

And to throw a bone to whatever new readers decided to stick around for another day, here's a sports themed post for today.


It's time to test your sports trivia against the man of steel! Can you help settle the bet between Jimmy and Steve before Superman!

Have fun. I'll post the answers in the comment section tomorrow if no one pipes up with the right answer.

Script by Gerry Conway
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Frank Chiaramonte
Colors by Gene D'Angelo
Letters by Todd Klein

Action Comics #518
Treasure Hunt On A Small Planet!
April 1981
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Green Lantern Week - The Brushoff!

I guess there's a good reason why the World's Finest remained a duo and not a trio.

Script by Elliot S! Maggin
Pencils by Curt Swan
Inks by Bob Oksner

Action Comics #429
The Man Who Wrote Superman's Obituary!
November 1973
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

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