Superman in the Fifties - Review

This was a bit out of my comfort zone as I tend to find these Golden/Silver Age books difficult to read because they are often very wordy and do not follow the show-don't-tell idea that I like in a visual medium like comics. That being said, once I got into the book, it became easier to read. I guess reading books like this comes down to being in the right mindset.

This book was split into 4 parts: Classic Tales, The Superman Family, The Villains, and Superman's Pals.

Classic Tales:

The Girl Who Didn't Believe in Superman was one of my favorites from this volume. Superman has to prove to a blind girl that he exists, and it made me think this was an allegory for religious faith. But I think I got caught up in looking deeper than I should have, as Superman just ends up curing her blindness. I still think there are a lot of metaphors for Jesus in this story (performing "miracles", curing blindess, etc.) which is interesting considering Bill Finger was Jewish - so I'm sure this wasn't his intent.

Superman's New Face is hilarious. An atomic explosion causes Clark Kents name to be branded on Superman's head in Kryptonite so he has to hide his face until he causes another atomic explosion to bring it back to normal. Just amazing, beautiful stuff.

The Superman Family:

The Story of Superman Junior was a nice story where a boy, Johnny Kirk, becomes Superman Junior. However, Superman later refers to him as Tommy. Ok, a Peter Palmer type mistake. Oh no. Then he refers to him as Jimmy. Superman even caps if off with a diary entry that says "I'll never forget Jimmy Kirk". You already have.

Superman's Lost Parents was an exciting story from this part, as I did not see the twist coming (Action Comics #247 - get reading!) and felt it was a pretty well constructed story.

Always great to see Kara about - and her origin in this case. However, I didn't realize that her origin was showing up, telling her brief story, and then becoming Linda Lee. Funny/strange to me that Superman decided that she couldn't live with him and blow his secret identity, so he sent her to an orphanage...

Titano the Super-Ape was a fine story but what I liked most was that this felt like the first time Lois Lane helped solve the problem. I'm a big fan of self-sufficent, strong Lois rather than damsel in distress Lois, so that was refreshing.

The Villains:

The Death of Superman! No not that one! This story was fine, but would be lying if the title didn't grab my attention.

Superman's New Uniform felt like a classic Supes vs Luthor matchup, so I was all about it. It was a bit corny of a problem and solution (Lex disguises himself as a professor and gives Superman an anto-kryptonite belt that actually has kryptonite in it.) but all the same, it was a good ride.

The Super-Duel in Space was a classic - first appearance of Brainiac and Kandor. Nothing mind blowing but cool to see the start of something big, like Brainiac!

Superman's Pals

Superman and Robin was so good, I am now on the hunt for World's Finest #75. Batman breaks his leg, so Superman and Robin team up to stop the Purple Mask Mob. Then, Batman solves the case from the Batcave by asking Superman and Robin to collect "trophies" of their missions, and then uses them to obtain evidence. Batman being Batman AF even in the 50s. Also, never broke his leg and was self-conscious that Robin might like working with Supes more, so also not Batman AF in that regard. Either way, an awesome team up that was a blast.

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen! The only note I have here is the super cool charity containers Jimmy collects money from. A horn, a pot of gold, a pirate - never see things like that today!

The Girl in Superman's Past - at one point in this issue, rather than abandoning his lunch date with Lana Lang, Superman helps Lois get to an appointment she's late for by tying her to a kite and using his super breath to blow her there. You read that correctly.

This book has every bit of the camp you'd expect. Goofy solutions to often times goofy problems is what we call on the Golden/Silver Age to provide. There's always a junkyard nearby for Superman to make a plot devi- I mean Mousketo- ahh I mean tool for the job, there's always some spare kryptonite around for enemies to use, and of course there's always random rockets crashing to the earth from another planet. This book opened me up to comics from this era and I think I'll be exploring more because of it!

ISBN: 9781779507

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