Superman in the Silver Age

[King Krypton]

By way of bumping this thread, I thought I'd post this house ad I recently came across from Oct. 1958.  It sheds some new light on the dawn of Superman's "Silver Age".

This is the same month that editor Mort Weisinger starting running the "Metropolis Mailbag" letter columns in issues of Action and Superman.

It seems that this was part of a concerted effort on Mort's part to repackage the Man of Steel to a new generation of fans:

Would that DC has the good sense to do something like this for the current generation. This would be a great idea to reuse.

[Osgood Peabody]

I thought I'd bump this thread in honor of this week's release of the Showcase presents Superman volume 2.  This volume contains Action #258-275 and Superman #134-145, so it includes the delightfully wacky "Super-Outlaw from Krypton" that I reviewed on pages 7-8 of this thread.  Now you can see it for yourselves, in all its glory!



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[nightwing]

This thread was started by our old pal Aldous.  It occured to me I haven't seen him in these parts for a while, so I checked his profile and saw his last post was in August of '05!   :shock:

Aldous, if you're out there, we miss you.

[Aldous]

Gosh, nightwing -- you'll make me blush.

Thank you... I'm still around. I've looked in on the website (briefly) a couple of times since August last year. Just by chance I saw the Silver Age thread was still alive and kicking, so I had a quick look and saw your post.

Mr Peabody, I bought Volume 2 of Showcase Presents Superman today, so I will keep an eye out for "Super-Outlaw".

[Klar Ken T5477]

Got mine as well and curently reeading it! Next Ill get the Siuperman Family JO Spectacular!

[MatterEaterLad]

Wow, Aldous, nice to see you again!

I often use your discussions here and in the archived DCMBs to help me with Supermanica entries...

Cheers.

[Lee Semmens]

Nice to hear from you again, Aldous.

I've missed your (and India Ink's and Osgood's) insights on these boards.

From the looks of your location it seems as though you're back in the land across the Tasman.

[Aldous]

Thanks, MatterEaterLad. Glad to be of some help regarding the Supermanica. And thank you, Lee... Yes, I'm Downunder again.

Speaking of India Ink, where does he hang out these days? I haven't read anything new by him for a long time.

it includes the delightfully wacky "Super-Outlaw from Krypton" that I reviewed on pages 7-8 of this thread

I finally got to read it, and, yes, "wacky" is right. As you said on page 8 of this thread, the people of Kandor don't know about Supergirl, which is peculiar; even if just for Supergirl's sake, surely the bottle city would be the place most like her ol' hometown where she could go to chill out.

The Kull-Ex situation, being the first time the people of Kandor have seen or heard of Supergirl, would surely put Superman in an awkward position. "So, Kal-El, you have had this beautiful young cousin living on Earth with you all this time, but you've kept her existence a secret from all of us." I'd like to hear his reason. And was Supergirl ever as voluptuous as in this saga? You did say this was her first appearance in the "Superman" title -- so does this mean it's the first time Wayne Boring drew her?

She could use some super-training in tactics, however. Having identified the super-man as an imposter and a fiend, she immediately shows all her cards and tells him everything about herself and her relationship with Superman. She even blabs her plans for rescuing Superman. Nice one, Supergirl.

Of course, the most telling scene in the whole comic is when Superman is watching on the viewing screen as the Superman Museum is being closed, and he thinks: "Impersonating me, Kull-Ex has made the name of Superman hated everywhere! All my years of service to the world -- for nothing!" Oh really? Why don't you ask some of the people whose lives you saved. "For nothing"? It goes to show, as many Silver Age stories do, that Superman has always been more interested in personal glory than he lets on.