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| Return
with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear,
when reading comics was a real adventure.
One month you might read an epic masterpiece,
the next, a stinkerooni of staggering stupidity.
I've already devoted a section to the great
stuff, so in the interests of fair play,
here's what was weird, ill-advised or just
plain idiotic in the pages of old Superman
comics.
Silly or not, you just might find them
the most entertaining part of the whole
reading experience. |
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|  The
Saga of the Super-Sons
Even if it wasn't the oddest concept in Superman's
history, the "Super-Sons" saga was easily
the longest-running. For several years in the pages
of World's Finest Comics, writer Bob Haney shoved aside
Superman and Batman in favor of their lookalike sons,
Superman Jr. and Batman Jr., apparently in an attempt
to attract a "hipper" audience.
A literal treasure-trove of hackneyed "generation
gap" plotlines, "Mod Squad" reject dialog
and cornball drama, this nonsensical
epic gleefully flew in the face of continuity, logic
or reason. And in a masterstroke of bald-faced bravado,
Haney dared readers to prove it wasn't all true!
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 Superman
#330
In "The Master Mesmerizer
of Metropolis," writer Marty Pasko
deals with one of the great unanswered questions
of the Superman mythos; how could anyone
be fooled by a disguise that consists of a pair
of nonprescription glasses and a slightly altered
hairdo?
Pasko's "solution" is
carefully constructed but unappealing (literally)
for fans of Clark Kent, so after this story
it was never mentioned again.
Years ago I discarded many of
my least favorite Superman comics, but this
one was so lame it achieved a sort of perverse
greatness, so it stayed, and now I can share
some highlights
with you. Pardon the condition of some of these
pages, but the years have not been kind to a
book that didn't even look that good brand new,
thanks to DC's cheap and shoddy printing practices
in the the late 1970s.
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Not Brand Ecch #7
Talk about an oddity...here's a Superman story
printed in a Marvel comic! In the 1960's the "House
of Ideas" launched its own humor mag, featuring
parodies of its own comics and those of various
competitors. The seventh issue saw this
rather pithy swipe at the Man of Steel.
Each era of Superman history is parodied, but
special attention is given to the tenure of editor
Mort Weisinger, wherein multiple colors of Kryptonite,
super-powered animals and long-lost relatives
appeared with alarming frequency. Uncle Morty's
face is never shown here, nor his name mentioned,
but his actions -- and his thinly disguised Yes-Man
assistant "Birdwell" (then-junior editor
E. Nelson Bridwell) leave few doubts about his
identity. |
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When
Superman Was A Mutant! |
The
Super-Rivals! |
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