Review by Frank Plowright
What’s apparent reading Superman’s earliest adventures presented in order of publication is how gradual the changes were. Volume Nine saw the first story fully focussing on Lois Lane attempting to prove Clark Kent is Superman, and in this selection we have Superman facing his first costumed villain, as seen on Leo Nowak’s sample art.
It’s a fine definition, mind, as there’s also a case to be made for Metalo and his metal suit in Volume Nine, but the Snake wears a more standard lurid skintight suit. In reality he’s little more than a modification of the thugs Jerry Siegel has been using for a while, the apex of a gang who gives themselves a sensational name, but is broadly human, in this case a thug sabotaging an underground construction project. Siegel’s also using more science fiction elements. Luthor operates from space causing heatwaves, the Night Owl has a device that blacks out cities, and there’s a villain able to bring the monsters from newspaper strips to life. In this case he’s “other dimensional”, Siegel’s frequently used term for the fantastic. The Prankster is also back for more comedy villainy.
John Sikela draws most stories in what for the time was a dynamic style, sometimes only featuring six panels to the page! He’s a tidy artist convincing with the civilian scenes and giving Superman in action the necessary punch. Leo Nowak is the same, while Sam Citron, apparently previously a film editor, draws the first of his handful of Superman stories here. All are better than Superman’s co-creator Joe Shuster, whose only artistic contribution over the winter of 1942/43 was drawing a self-mythologising tale about Clark Kent and Lois Lane visiting the cinema to see a Superman cartoon, which had been a great success since in the real world during the early 1940s. In a plot that really doesn’t work, Clark is keen to prevent Lois seeing the cartoon as she’ll discover his secret identity, contriving a number of feeble excuses to avoid her seeing certain scenes.
Siegel is funnier on his Li’l Abner parody ‘A Goof Named Tiny Rufe’, in which the Daily Planet’s newspaper strip artist recovers his creative inspiration by taking a holiday in the boondocks and overhearing the locals.
There is a formula to Siegel’s stories, but he’s astute enough to realise it, and in this selection you can no longer be certain that the new character hanging around with Clark and Lois is actually the manipulative villain. He plots tight crime outings with human interest at the heart, and for every mis-step such as a poor pirate story, there’s something still very good, and occasionally the thrills will survive a predictable twist. An example is Siegel’s only concession to the then ongoing World War II, when Clark agrees there’s complacency in Metropolis, and a faked Nazi invasion will be just the means of shaking people up. The result is taken a step further when a thug manages to have himself appointed Emperor of America.
Allow for the times and some of the art being crude and cramped by today’s standards and there’s still a fair amount of entertainment to be had from this selection. If preferred they’re also published in Superman: The Golden Age Volume Five, and in Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus Volume 3, and as this is the final Chronicles collection, it’s in those series 1940s Superman reprints continue. Separated back into their original series titles, half the content is found in Action Comics Archives Volume 4, and most of the remainder in Superman Archives Volume 5.
