Superman had just destroyed the office of a corrupt patent attorney, and the police had him trapped in the elevator.
“Triumph blazed in Sergeant Blake’s eyes… ‘Careful men!’ he warned the officers grouped about him. ‘We’ve prayed for this break for months, and now that it’s come, we don’t want to muff it. He was seen going into that elevator … and he’s bound to come out of that door any minute!’
“ ‘And that’s what bothers me,’ muttered someone. ‘What do we do when he does emerge?’
“Said another: ‘Our guns are useless against him.’
“Nonsense!’ retorted Sergeant Blake. ‘All we’ve got to do is keep cool and we’ve got him!’
“But his glib comeback didn’t satisfy even the Detective Sergeant himself. There were some very wild tales being circulated about this fellow who called himself SUPERMAN. He was said to be a modern Robin Hood … a person who had dedicated his existence to assisting the weak and oppressed. It was whispered that he possessed super-strength, could lift tremendous weights, smash steel with his bare hands, jump over buildings and that nothing could penetrate his amazingly super-tough skin. But of course, pondered the sergeant, these were mere rumors, fantastic fairy tales. Probably SUPERMAN was just an ordinary person whose better-than-average strength had been immensely exaggerated. Without a doubt!”
Blake’s bluster was featured in what was probably the first prose story written about Superman, a two-page text piece in Superman 1 (Summer 1939).
That issue also gave us the first version of the Superman’s origin that mentions Krypton and his foster parents, stories reprinted from the first four issues of Action Comics in 1938 and a biography of Superman’s young creators, Siegel and Shuster, who wouldn’t always remain so popular with the publisher.
The opening of the elevator doors proved to be an anticlimax for the jumpy cops, because all that emerged was “a slim, nervous figure” whose “…meek eyes blinked fearfully behind thick-rimmed glasses.”
ReplyDeleteBruce Kanin wrote:
This is my favorite version of Superman!
I replied:
The no-nonsense wonder rightly feared by evildoers.
Bruce Kanin wrote:
ReplyDeleteI believe that Batman ... or ... The Batman, as well, was wanted by the police in the very early days of his comic book. We saw that in the recent film, as well.
A superhero being hunted by the police is guaranteed to be a short-lived thing, because before long, they realize that the superhero (almost by definition) is helping them and making their jobs easier. Still, it would be nice to have a few stubborn police who don't want the superhero's help, just to make things interesting.
I replied:
Or, as in Moore's Marvelman, a military-industrail complex that sees superheroes as an inherent threat to its power.
ReplyDeleteCheryl Spoehr wrote:
When we teens learned about the "original" Superman,we were fascinated.... but as time passed,as more and more we discovered Golden Age Comics, pulps, and material like pulps, I for one grew weary of the physical specimen who can not be hurt, and does whatever he pleases. I think my disgust with the paperback character of "Remo Williams, the Destroyer" encouraged my disgust for "heroes" who don't care about or listen to others... .and returned my interest in a man who could conquer and control the whole universe easily, yet chooses to stay on Earth, insulted and considered emasculated in his pose as an Earthman, and came out as himself only in costume! I still feel that way,these have only an academic interest for me.
Steve Guy wrote:
ReplyDeleteI *LOVED* that New52 brought that dynamic back for a while. This was the kind of fun that got the project greenlit. Its flaw wasn't that it changed things but rather that it didn't follow through on the promise.
ReplyDeletePaul Zuckerman wrote:
More and more, the concept of vigilantes that take the law into their own hands to mete out "justice" strikes me as fascistic and the continued popularity of such characters is troubling. DC early on recognized that with Superman and Batman; but later on, as the popularity increased of characters that took the law into their own hands or who didn't care about the protection of civil rights, it began to move back into the same direction again. I never really read any of the pulps so I didn't know them well; the radio Shadow was the one that I was familiar with. As movies like Dirty Harry or Death Wish got popular, characters like the Punisher and later at DC, the new Vigilante increasingly took the law into their own hands. Batman himself got darker, as he is regularly shown torturing or beating people up, as if his code against killing is sufficient.
I replied;
And yet, when you live in a world in which corporate and governmental leaders are utterly corrupt, "the system" offers no protection. We also have to remember what comes with great power.
Angel Criado wrote:
ReplyDeleteDC, since the Crisis, has been ashamed of its Golden and Silver Age universes, so they typically ignore their existence or reframes some characters into a modern retake of their rich history. That is, until they started seeing Marvel embrace their various characters’ histories and went multi universe to the tune of huge profit. Now, maybe we’ll see things like the ‘70s All Star and later All Star Squadron, etc. and honest homages of their 80 or so years of storytelling.