Review by Win Wiacek
This second hardback collection of Superman’s newspaper continuity spans August 1961 to November 1963, gloriously illustrated by Wayne Boring at the very peak of his artistic powers. As seen in 1959-1961, after years away from the strip Boring returned during 1961, and saw the series to its conclusion. The astounding everyday entertainments are written by Jerry Siegel, largely adapting, expanding and reformatting stories from comics, occasionally some he’d written himself.
First timid Clark Kent mysteriously excels as a policeman whilst wearing a legendary old cop’s lucky tin star in ‘The Super Luck of Badge 77!’ The following six weeks present ‘Superman’s Hunt for Clark Kent’, detailing a Kryptonite mishap depriving Superman of many memories and lost in Metropolis trying to discover his other identity. 1961 closes with ‘The Reporter of Steel’ after Lex Luthor very publicly inflicts the mild-mannered journalist with unwanted superpowers.
‘The 20th Century Achilles’ has a cunning crook with apparent magical invulnerability, whilst in ‘The Man No Prison Could Hold’ Clark and Jimmy Olsen are captured by a Nazi war criminal constructing a mighty vengeance weapon. Unbeknownst to all the Man of Steel has good reason to foil every escape attempt and remain imprisoned.
An old-fashioned hard lesson informs‘The Three Tough Teenagers’, the headline-grabbing nature of youth in revolt too immediate to resist in 1962. Curt Swan illustrates portions of ‘The Day Superman Broke the Law’, when a corrupt councilman rewrites city ordinances to hamper Superman, before ‘The Man with the Zero Eyes’ has a space virus causing havoc.
‘Lois Lane’s Revenge on Superman’ has a darker edge than its comic counterpart as the frustrated journalist revels in humiliating her ideal man turned into a baby by a magic potion. In ‘When Superman Defended his Arch-Enemy’ the Metropolis Marvel acts as defence Counsel for the ungrateful mad scientist on an alien world. ‘Lois Lane’s Other Life’ has Lois change appearance to go undercover, but subsequently loses her memory, after which ‘The Feud Between Superman and Clark Kent’ sees the two halves of the hero separated by Red Kryptonite. Sadly the goodness and nobility are confined to the merely human Clark.
‘The Invisible Lois Lane’ enables Lois to see her quarry switch from Clark to Superman. Can she be convinced otherwise? Into 1963 with ‘The Man Who Hunted Superman’ in which Clark subs for a Ruritanian prince complete with adoring and compliant princess bride, whilst ‘Superman Goes to War’ sees Lois and Clark on a film set sponsored by the US military.
Red K strips our hero of his powers leaving ‘The Mortal Superman’ before the Man of Steel is locked up for allegedly murdering Clark Kent in ‘The Trial of Superman’. Criminals exploit memory loss in editor Perry White, using his investigative instincts to uncover Earth’s greatest secret in ‘The Man who Betrayed Superman’s Identity’. With adult sensibilities fully addressed, genuine tragedy and pathos pushes a reinterpretation of ‘The Sweetheart that Superman Forgot’ into the heady heights of pure melodrama. Superman loses his astounding powers, memories, and use of his legs while loving and losing a girl who only wants him for himself. It reaches emotional depths Siegel could only dream of approaching in the original version.
Lois then stars in two tales painfully locked into the un-PC, sexist comedy tropes of the era, ‘Superman, Please Marry Me’ and ‘Dear Dr. Cupid’. This epic chronicle concludes with ‘The Great Superman Impersonation’ with Clark kidnapped by foreign agents who want to pass him off as the Man of Tomorrow: big mistake, especially as Superman is in a playful mood.
If you love the era, these stories are great comics reading, and 1963-1966 follows.
