It is a new year and it is my first blog entry for it. My idea for this one came from my employees Evelyn and Andrew. Evelyn was processing some Silver Age Superman comics. The two were marveling at the different incarnations of Superman on the covers. It reminded me of my younger years at the conventions trying to find the craziest Silver or Golden Age comics in the boxes. There is reason why the St. Charles business card had smoking Superman on it which changed almost immediately when Dan took over. Superman has had some wacky incarnations. Almost enough to fill a book so I will only focus on the ones I like or that made me giggle.
The first one that stands out to me is Lion Superman from Action Comics #243. After a day of hanging out in the zoo lifting elephants and sticking his head in lions’ mouths, Superman rescues a woman who was a distant relative of Circe, the demigod of magic. She spiked his drink with a potion and changed him into the animal he most resembles and that was a lion. Love crazy Lois still was classy and went on a date with Super-Lion. Seeing “Beauty and the Beast” was a little out of pocket. Super-Lion had a few adventures before finding a cure.
Another crazy incarnation is Ant-Superman in Action Comics #296. A colony of giant ants mutated by interplanetary nuclear war arrive on Earth. While this was happening there is a cosmic cloud of red Kryptonite nearby. So Superman concentrates really hard to try and get a desired effect instead of the usual random effects. It pays off and he comes out with an ant head. This transformation allows him to communicate with the giant ants. They cause havoc because they cannot communicate with anyone. Superman learns that the ants are here to warn the Earth that nuclear war would be our undoing. He helps the ants get back to their planet and gives this warning to the UN. The effects later dissipate like all the rest red Kryptonite changes.
There is also Super Cat in Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #70. One of my personal favorites (you know me and cats). Catwoman hypnotizes Lois into becoming her bestie in crime. The two go to steal exotic birds from the Penguin. Superman stops them but Catwoman uses the wand of Circe (she gets around in Superman comics) to turn Superman into a cat. Even as a cat he still has his super powers so Catwoman traps him in a cage made of green Kryptonite. Hey, Catwoman is a thief so she has these kind of things. This leads to the “cat-fight of the century”. Batman and Robin help Lois defeat Catwoman and Lana Lang somehow changes Superman back with a cat’s paw. This is a lot to unpack for an issue but hey it was the Silver Age.
One of the more interesting transformations is Superman Red/Superman Blue in Superman (Vol 1) #162. The residents of Kandor feel that Superman is not doing enough to help them. They send him a message that they are disappointed in him. The Kandorians said he was doing enough to solve their problems so he should switch with one of them. Instead Superman makes a machine powered by a bunch of different Kryptonites that splits him into two identical super-intelligent Supermen, one in blue and the other in red. They then go off and solve the world’s problems. The kicker is that they marry both Lois Lane and Lana Lang, Everybody wins!!! They did bring it back in 1998 during the electric Superman stories (I will get into that era in a different blog entry).
I could keep going on but I have to stop with this one. Lastly there is Caveman Superman from World’s Finest Comics #151. A device somehow survived the destruction of Krypton and landed on Earth. Batman and Superman check it and Batman figures it out that it a machine that fast-forwards or reverses the evolution of an animal. Batman inadvertently hit himself with the evolutionary fast-forward ray. It turned him into a future super-intelligent being but made him a giant jerk. Not wanting anyone to be as smart as him he reversed Superman’s evolution and turned him into a caveman. To add insult to injury, Batman talked Superman into going back in time to prehistoric times. Superman got lonely and came back to the present. He fought with Batman and got him in front of the machine and cured. Then Batman returned the favor. Moral of the story is if Batman gets too smart he turns into the biggest jerk.
There are so many more but I only have enough time for these. My next blog entry might be the many different powers of Superman. Remember I won’t go into the regular ones. Yet, maybe I might do the many incarnations of Batman. God, I love the Silver Age. Thank you again for read my rantings.
Mike