Now, in Adventure Comics #156, we see Superboy take on some robbers doing their nefarious work with the help of a helicopter (which they park in an aircraft enthusiast's private collection so as to avoid detection...man they have to stretch this stuff to fit, don't they?). The robber dudes proceed to try to crack the safe on a moving train, are foiled by Superboy, then blow the trestle ahead of the train so that Mr. Honorable can't go after them since he's got to protect the innocent first.
Here's where I had to put on the brakes and really take in everything you are expected to swallow in this scenario. I don't know about you, but I never saw Superman as being this hyperintelligent being who could quite literally fix a trestle bridge (with full knowledge of the engineering and physics involved), then go off to his backyard and make a fully functional, rocket-powered double of himself, arranged with sufficient skill in painting, fashion design and fabrication, and rocket physics to pass as himself flying through the air.
I just don't know, folks. A lot of people aren't actually aware that this past exists for Superman - a sort of Hardy Boys version of himself that totally misses the sex appeal of his later incarnations. And let's face it, the sex appeal is a LARGE part of what the readers of this book back in 1950 would have been looking for - the idea that with a little radiation they could transform themselves from a five foot six inch 98-pound weakling into a six foot four 220-pound Man of Steel, with everything that goes along with that name.
Small wonder that no one outside of hardcore fandom even knows this happened.
No comments:
Post a Comment