Aldous
Superman Squad
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Downunder
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« Reply #128 on: July 29, 2006, 03:52:06 PM » |
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Still with Volume 2 of Showcase, Otto Binder has Superman come up with what seems to me a very peculiar way of getting out of a trap. It could have all been so much simpler. The comic is "Voyage to Dimension X," and involves the Man of Steel tracking an alien space ship (which looks like a weather satellite) as it frightens then helps our people. Eventually he volunteers to enter the ship which will take him to Dimension X. The ship, basically a globe, is made out of "solid lead," cutting off Superman's view of the outside world.
It's not the first time our hero proves himself to be super-gullible -- and I can understand why, in later years, Batman found it so easy to get one over on Superman in the great and quirky Bob Haney stories.
Superman finds himself trapped inside the lead globe, and as it rests on the ground in the Sahara desert, he uses his super-hearing to deduce he is still on Earth and not in an alien dimension at all. The globe is booby-trapped and if Superman smashes through its walls it will send a signal to a hidden bomb under Metropolis.
The Man of Steel figures a way out of his predicament by whirling around inside the globe which apparently creates so much heat that the lead globe expands like a balloon as the air trapped with him expands. This causes the lead globe to rise high up into the sky (how, don't ask me!) where a lightning bolt takes out the booby trap.
The physicists amongst you can debate the likelihood of a veritable lead balloon floating into the upper atmosphere (let's not forget the lead globe retains its mass no matter how much it is stretched), but my question is why didn't Superman simply fly the globe up into the sky? He could have done so quite easily of course.
A question about super-hearing arises with this story as well. I've never read "Dimension X" before now, but I have read and enjoyed a 70s tale in which Superman cannot hear what is happening inside a space ship because its hull is lined with lead. I'm not going to dig out the mag, but I'm pretty sure the comic is "The Secrets of Superman's Fortress" from 1970. So it would appear Superman cannot make his mind up. Can he hear "through lead" or not? Personally I can't see why not.
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TELLE
Supermanica Council
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« Reply #129 on: July 31, 2006, 10:43:44 PM » |
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Superman and Otto Binder were obviously the inspiration for 70s rock greats, Led Zeppelin.
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Everything you ever wanted to know about the classic Superman: SupermanicaThe Encyclopedia of Supermanic Biography! (temporarily offline) |
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MatterEaterLad
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Silver Age Surfer
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« Reply #130 on: August 01, 2006, 07:47:16 PM » |
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Some inconsistencies with Superman's powers actually intrigued me as a kid, and long before the Iron Age's attempt to "de-power" him, there were devices that made outcomes be in doubt...Amalak de-powered him by hitting him with solar radiation by mistake, Eterno knocked him around like a rag doll, etc. And I always wondered how someone so strong and fast as Superman could be surpassed by something strong and fast but bigger, like the Flame Dragon...the hearing through lead makes no sense, if the lead can transmit the tiniest vibration to the air around it...I suppose I just liked the individual story to have some consistency and to be good, rather than compare it to every story that came before, and when things didn't make complete sense, well that was fun to talk about...
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Great Rao
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« Reply #131 on: August 01, 2006, 08:08:42 PM » |
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... but I have read and enjoyed a 70s tale in which Superman cannot hear what is happening inside a space ship because its hull is lined with lead. Was the ship in outerspace at the time? If so, the "not hearing through lead" thing would have been an attempt to solve a plot-point problem that didn't even exist, since sound can't carry through a vacuum.  |
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"The bottom line involves choices. Neither gods nor humans have ever stood calmly in a minefield forever. Good or evil, they are bound to choose. And when they do, you will see the truth of all that motivates us. As a thinking being, you have the obligation to choose. If the fate of all mankind were in your hands, what would your decision be? As a writer and an artist, I've drawn my answer." - Jack Kirby
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JulianPerez
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« Reply #132 on: August 02, 2006, 04:06:40 AM » |
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Intriguingly, this is not the first Silver Age reference to a "Dimension X." The first was in a Jack Kirby-drawn ADVENTURE COMICS #252-253 (1958) which features a Dimension X inhabited by a race of colossal giants, whose greatest hero is an immense Green Arrow-type alien. From a portal in Dimension X, colossal trick arrows were sent hurtling onto the earth.
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"Wait, folks...in a startling new development, Black Goliath has ripped Stilt-Man's leg off, and appears to be beating him with it!"
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Johnny Nevada
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« Reply #133 on: August 03, 2006, 02:26:04 AM » |
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Intriguingly, this is not the first Silver Age reference to a "Dimension X." The first was in a Jack Kirby-drawn ADVENTURE COMICS #252-253 (1958) which features a Dimension X inhabited by a race of colossal giants, whose greatest hero is an immense Green Arrow-type alien. From a portal in Dimension X, colossal trick arrows were sent hurtling onto the earth. A Justice League of America comic from the early 60's has a JLAer mention that SUperman and Batman are off on an adventure together to Dimension X, and thus couldn't be at the monthly meeting to help out... |
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Super Monkey
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« Reply #134 on: August 03, 2006, 02:42:47 AM » |
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Dimension X is not a proper name, but rather a generic name for any unknown dimension.
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Michel Weisnor
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« Reply #135 on: August 03, 2006, 03:17:02 AM » |
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Is Dimension X, Dimension 10 or X? :wink:
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