The most dreaded weapon of World War I, mustard gas, cast its shadow over Superman 2 (Fall 1939).
When Prof. Adolphus Runyan invents a poison gas capable of penetrating any type of gas mask, he’s murdered by the evil munitions magnate Lubane, who intends to use the chemist’s formula to prolong an ongoing civil war in Boravia (a reference director James Gunn winked at in his 2025 Superman movie).
Hitching a ride atop a plane, Superman travels to Boravia and forces the leaders to stop the civil war by threatening to bring the roof down on them literally, like Samson. Superman bombs Lubane’s munitions factory, then destroys the formula after watching it kill Lubane.
Firing squads are emblematic of the fascist regimes Superman opposed, which is why he ran into more than one of them in his early days.
Elsewhere in his second titular issue, Superman builds confidence in a suicidal boxer by assuming his identity, going into the ring and beating up a bunch of prize fighters. (Admittedly, Superman’s ethical reasoning was sometimes questionable).
Then, when crooked builder Nat Grayson causes a series of fatal construction “accidents” on the site of the Atlas Building, Superman grabs him by the throat and chokes him until he sees the error of his ways.
In a two-page text story written by Jerry Siegel, Superman drives Big Mike Caputo out of Metropolis.
Quoting the gangster, Siegel wrote, “I say I can take over this town, and if you two weasels are getting chicken-livered...!’
“ ‘But —' interposed the other hireling, ‘— you’re not counting on ...SUPERMAN!’
“ ‘SUPERMAN?’ questioned Caputo. ‘And who in blazes is he?’
“ ‘That's just it!’ whispered Sneer. ‘Nobody knows. He’s a will-of-the-wisp... a phantom of the night. He preys on evildoers who operate in Metropolis... and once that bozo’s on your trail, brother, you're sunk!’”
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteActually two movies in recent years featuring a DC superhero can be said to having given nods to this vintage story. In the DCEU’s first Wonder Woman movie one Dr. Isabel Maru, known as Doctor Death created a similarly corrosive and deadly gas; and as you indicated above James Gunn acknowledged Boravia in the first film of the new DCU.
What Clark did for the down-and-out boxer was admirable, but wholly and completely unfair to the other fighters whom he beat up. What about their confidence Clark? Find another way, dude.
I like the sort of joyful glee that Superman seems to have taken in showing off his powers especially to frustrated evildoers during the earliest days of the character.
I have noticed that while he frequently encountered firing squads, he didn’t do so as often with lynch mobs. I speculate that since those early stories were published during the height of Jim Crow and mainstream acceptance/indifference to the horrors of the rampant lynchings was obvious anti-fascism epitomized by the firing squads were the ‘safer bet’ generally. This makes one of the only examples of him facing and addressing That menace even More meaningful. The fact that they had Superman fighting the KKK at all was pretty amazing for the era. I give DC high marks for that one.
I replied:
However, I would point out that the first thing he did as a superhero was stop a lynch mob.
G Andrew Maness"
ReplyDelete"Hitching a ride atop a plane"
--I love this...
Supes before he was a flyer, only a leaper!
I replied:
Traveling exactly the way the Hulk would travel 20 years later.