The popularity of Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen on The Adventures of Superman elevated the character’s prominence in the comics.
The television show debuted in 1952, and DC Comics rewarded Jimmy with his own comic book in 1954.
“I was a big Superman comic book fan,” Larson recalled in an interview with the Archive of American Television. “My dad said to me when I was doing the Superman television show, ‘Hell, they’re not paying you anything. You’re just getting back the dimes I gave you for that comic book.’
“I think it has always been successful because, until E.T. — which was a good alien, which came many years later — Superman was the first alien who came to Earth to be what the Greeks called a deus ex machina — to save mankind, to do good for mankind.
“Always it was H.G. Wells’ invasion from Mars, and the aliens come to destroy us. They’re always monsters, even in the film Alien. They always come to do bad — except in The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bob Wise’s film, I left that out too. But Superman came before.
“And I think it’s because he comes with all these super powers to do good to mankind, to help us out, that it captures the fancy. And besides that, you know, all of the derring-do, leap tall buildings in a single bound. And the actual motto of it — ‘truth, justice and the American way’ — that has always led to this popularity. And as a boy I was crazy about Superman.”
As comics historian Mark Engblom observed, “Although Jimmy Olsen has been banished to the status of window dressing for the past three decades or so, he was clearly a major star from the late ’50s through the (Mort) Weisinger years… It’s hard to fathom today how a cast member could carry a solo series, to the point where I can’t think of anything comparable since the Jimmy and Lois Lane series.”
Johnny Williams wrote: No matter how they portrayed him in the comics, Jimmy was almost always shown to be brave, loyal, and clever. Those are the traits of a winner, and a winning character.
ReplyDelete