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Reviews and commentary by Tony Isabella
"America's Most Beloved Comic-Book Writer & Columnist"
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TONY'S ONLINE TIPS
for Saturday, June 11, 2005
Superman made his first public appearance in ACTION COMICS #1 [June, 1938] and we've been celebrating that all week long. Today, we look at ACTION COMICS #241 [June, 1958]. The cover artists were Curt Swan (pencils) and Stan Kaye (inks).
This issue has now been designated as the first issue of the "Silver Age" Superman by dint of its story being the first story in SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF TOMORROW ARCHIVES VOLUME 1 [$49.95]. Whitney Ellsworth is the credited editor, but the actual editor was the man who defined the Silver Age Superman, Mort Weisinger.
I first read Jerry Coleman's "The Super-Key to Fort Superman" when it was reprinted in SUPERMAN ANNUAL #1 [1960]. I remember it with great fondness when I came across it again, but my most recent rereading put my nostalgia to the test.
We're gonna need a BIG HONKING SPOILER WARNING here if I'm to discuss the story at length. While you're deciding if you want to read further, I'll mention that "Super-Key" was pencilled by Wayne Boring and inked by Kaye.
"Super-Key" gave readers of the era their first extended look at Superman's Fortress of Solitude as a mysterious visitor breaches its security and then taunts the Man of Steel. The story is filled with wondrous notions and visuals, side-by-side with illogical and downright wacky plot developments.
The "wow" factor is high in this tale. The giant key Superman uses to enter his retreat. Mementos of his career. Rooms honoring his friends. Even an alien zoo. The trick is to not ask too many questions about this story.
Like...why does Superman need to lock his massive door with a key when almost no one else on the planet could open said door in the first place? How does his visitor travel to the Fortress and not leave any signs of how he got there?
Okay, that last one could have been easily explained with one panel showing the visitor waving to the person who flew him there and then left with his most likely means of transportation. Which brings us to our final...
BIG HONKING SPOILER WARNING
...before I go into more "Super-Key" details.
By the way, that was your last warning.
The mysterious visitor is...Batman.
It's the anniversary of Superman's arrival on Earth from the planet Krypton. Batman wanted to give his fellow crimefighter and world's finest pal a special present to commemorate the occasion. Knowing of Superman's love for puzzles, Batman decided to create a mystery to challenge the Man of Steel.
Bats cuts a hollow into Superman's giant key, hides there for God-knows-how-long until Superman visits the Fortress, sneaks out of the key without his unwitting host's super-hearing detecting him, and takes up residence in the Fortress for days while leaving his taunting messages all over the place.
PREPARE FOR THE GREATEST CHALLENGE OF YOUR LIFE, SUPERMAN! I CAN ENTER AND LEAVE AT WILL! WHO AM I? HOW CAN I DO IT? I DARE YOU TO FIND OUT!
This challenge gives Superman nightmares and distracts him so badly that he almost drops an ocean liner he's carrying to safety. When he figures out his visitor is Batman - I'm proud to say that, even at the tender age of eight-and-a-half, I spotted the same clue as Supes - he turns the table by making Batman believe his playful scheme has doomed them both to death.
Ho-ho! What fun!
Superman and his friends playing cruel jokes on one another, sometimes to teach their victim an important lesson about life and sometimes, I swear, just to be pricks, was a recurrent theme in the comics edited by Weisinger. Given the man's legendary mistreatment of writers and artists, reported in countless interviews over the years, I suspect he relished such stories.
I confess this kind of story never bothered me as a youth. As the shortest and smartest kid in my school, I was a constant target for bullies, even those I considered friends. Life could and often was cruel, so it didn't bother me to see Superman abuse those close to him. I had been there.
What I most love about this story today is Superman allowing himself "me-time." He putters around the Fortress, making presents for his friends, doing a little painting, conducting an experiment, and carving his thoughts into a giant metal diary. He's Superman, but he's not *obsessed* with being Superman.
The same can be said about Batman. He doesn't break a sweat taking a few days off from patrolling Gotham City to give Superman the precious gift of stalking him.
Neither Superman or Batman may be quite right in this story, but they're not the angst-ridden mental cases so often seen in our contemporary comics. For all the fantastic things they could do, and the equally fantastic leaps in logic their stories demanded of the era's readers, the heroes somehow seemed more human, more real back then. I'm gonna keep that SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF TOMORROW book close at hand; its tales make a nice change-of-pace from the other comics I read on any given day.
ACTION COMICS #241 was down to 36 pages by 1958. The Superman story ran 12 pages and there were two six-page secondary features: Congo Bill in "The Great Jungle Hoax" (drawn by Howard Sherman) and Tommy Tomorrow in "The Strangest Crew in the Universe" (written by Otto Binder, drawn by Jim Mooney).
The OFFICIAL OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE doesn't agree with DC Comics that this is the first "Silver Age" Superman issue. It claims that honor for ACTION COMICS #221 [October, 1956], which came out roughly the same time that Barry Allen became the Flash in SHOWCASE #4.
I think the better case can be made for "The Super-Key To Fort Superman." The story really does herald the advent of a much more imaginative and mythic approach to the Man of Steel. His personal shortcomings aside, Weisinger knew how to oversee the building of an exciting new universe. The months to come would see Superman's legend grow as never before and it would do so without sacrificing the core humanity of its hero.
Thanks for spending a part of your day with me. I'll be back soon with more stuff.
Tony Isabella
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ZERO: Burn your money before buying any comic receiving this rating. It doesn't *necessarily* mean there's absolutely nothing of value here - though it *could* - but whatever value it might possess shrinks into insignificance before its overall awfulness.
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