Emblematic of superheroes’ tendency to fight mirror images, Bizarro was introduced in 1958 in — appropriately enough — twin forms.
In Bizarro — The Super-Creature of Steel (Superboy 68, Oct. 1958), writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp showed us how Prof. Dalton created a doomed, imperfect duplicate of Superboy.
Meanwhile, in the Superman newspaper strip, another tragic version of Bizarro was introduced by writer Alvin Schwartz and artist Curt Swan. This one was an imperfect duplicate of the adult Superman, and distinguished from the comic book version by the fact that he sported a B on his chest in place of the S insignia.
Bizarro was not an evil version of Superman, but a confused one — a powerful figure deprived of Superman’s intellectual and moral clarity.
In the Superboy story, like the Frankenstein monster, the ugly, innocent creature is hurt by the fact that Smallville residents fear and shun him. The tale has that throb of pathos achieved in some of the best of the Superman stories in the 1950s and 1960s.
Mort Weisinger-edited titles often play on children’s fears of rejection, isolation and abandonment. Here, Bizarro is flatly rejected even by the woman he regards as his mother, the ordinarily kindly Ma Kent.
“Funny books,” indeed.
Ellis Rose wrote:
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me that in the 1960s, people would have looked at me cross-eyed or laughed at me if I used the word "Bizarro". Today I watched a video commentary where a commentator referred to extreme Repub behavior by Matt Gaetz as "Bizarro" while shaking her head. The world has changed, and I would not be surprised to find out that it is morphing into a cube.
Charles W. Fouquette wrote:
ReplyDeleteEveryone has that sense of being an outcast from time to time. In this instance, one can have sympathy for the monster who only looks like a monster. Great post, Dan.
James J Gerber wrote:
ReplyDeleteMy favorite thing about Bizarro is at some point, the writer will get sick of sticking by Bizarro rules and and just wing it.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteAs the kids say. “I was today years old” when I found out about the comic strip version of Bizarro! As a lifelong Bizarro aficionado, I will definitely hunt it down!
Although I prefer the mixed-up mayhem of the adult Bizarro and his cube-shaped Bizarro World, the original (Bizarro Superboy) also has a place in my heart. Reading the tale now as an adult, I can’t help but wonder if the tale is a meta-analogy for the mentally ill or disabled among us and the cruel ways they are viewed and treated. Bizarro Superboy’s only “crime” was that he didn’t understand or couldn’t fully process the ways of “the perfect” and quickly earned their wrath. Finally, emblematic of that era, Bizarro Superboy was whisked off stage, much like how the mentally ill and disabled were treated in real life.
I may be reading too much into the tale, but knowing how much subtle (and not so subtle) psychology editor Mort Weisinger wove into his Superman mythos, I believe there’s SOMETHING going on here.
I replied:
A fascinating take, Mark. Your analysis rings true.
Anthony Picco wrote:
ReplyDeletePersonally, as a kid I always hated the Bizarro world. The first one n Superboy was good but when it became a "thing" I always felt cheated when I found a story in a comic I bought.
I replied:
Yes, I tend to agree. The Bizarro world wore out quickly, and shared nothing of the poignance of these first stories.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteNotice the "B" on Bizarro's chest in the ad-changed by the time that the issue appeared. There is one Lois Lane story drawn by Boring where Bizarro in his one-panel appearance has the B on his chest. Having the B on the chest when Bizarro emerged from the duplicator machine made no sense since the costume was in fact a perfect duplicate of Superboy's (not Superman's) uniform.
The pathos of the original Superboy Bizarro was replicated to a lesser degree in the first adult Bizarro story in Action comics a short time late - which happened to be my introduction to the character. Those early adult appearances are radically different than both the earlier Superboy and the later adult Bizarro versions since the early adult Bizarro instilled a sense of danger, especially when he was going to transform Superman into a Bizarro.
The humorous version that became dominant as a result of the solo strip was good for a laugh but did water down the characters. But in the hands of a good writer, they could still wring drama out of the characters. One of the saddest uses of Bizarro, in fact, is in Action 270's the Old Man of Metropolis, and the pathos of the character is the main characteristic of Bizarro in the story.
John Watson wrote:
ReplyDeleteI bought Superboy #68 off the spinner rack just prior to entering the 4th grade. I considered it a dime well spent!
John Watson wrote:
ReplyDeleteI bought Superboy #68 off the spinner rack just prior to entering the 4th grade. I considered it a dime well spent!
I replied:
And now you can pick up a nice copy for a mere $500 or so.
Matthew Grossman wrote:
ReplyDeleteIt’s well, bizarre, that Silver Age Superman’s most enduring cultural legacy may well be the coining of a new English word, ‘bizarro’, perfectly describing the surrealism of contemporary life in a media-oversaturated world in which the only certainly is the stupidly shocking.
Bruce Kanin:
ReplyDeleteTHIS Superboy story is wonderful, but the remaining Bizarro stories, whether in ADVENTURE COMICS' "Tales of the Bizarro World" or in Superman's books, wore thin quickly. I do have to wonder how tedious it was for Papp, Forte, and other artists to draw the lines on Bizarro's face, hands, etc.
I replied:
Yes, those Bizarro stories bored me even then. Bizarro couldn't sustain a feature.
Paul Zuckerman:
ReplyDeleteI think you both are downplaying some of the early Superman Bizarro stories. The first two two-parters, in particular, in Action, as well as the story that introduced Bizarro's son and Bizarro Supergirl.
Bizarros were initially played for pathos and tragedy. The first adult Bizarro story follows the mode of the Superboy story to a great degree but ends with a bit of happiness with the Bizarro Lois. Isn't it ironic that Bizarro and his Lois find the very happiness that Silver Age Superman and his Lois cannot?
Superman's nightmarish voyage to the Bizarro world in the second two-parter was scary, when it seemed that he was about to be turned into a Bizarro! Plastino had done the first two-parter but Boring's art on the second just made everything so surrealistic.
The sad story of how Bizarro and his Lois reject their son because he does not look like them is played out against the tragic story of the Bizarro Supergirl, and is one of the great three-parters of the era in my opinion.
When Bizarro had to maintain his own series, he couldn't be a tragic character in the same manner. Jerry Siegel played him for laughs. It did become a one-note joke after a while, but John Forte's art fit the series perfectly, in his own bizarre way that in some ways reminds me of Ernie Bushmuller's Nancy.
Frankly, I don't think that anyone at DC understands Bizarro today. He is played to be an opposite of Superman, a concept that was first developed in the Bizarro series, but not to the extreme today that makes reading a Bizarro story a chore.
Richard Meyer:
ReplyDeleteHaving only known the comical adult Bizarro series (which I really liked and was outraged when the Legion of Super Heroes replaced them), it was fascinating to see the original in reprint, and how sad and moving it was. I still remember him crying in that scene, reminiscent of characters like Karloff’s Frankenstein’s monster.
Mike Smith:
ReplyDeleteA few years later, Bizarro Superboy would turn up in the 30th Century and create a whole Bizarro Legion.
Miguel Angel Salazar Oliva:
ReplyDeleteI love Bizarro! Though he has always been considered as a Superman foe, he truly is the underdog in a heroic world! He even has a square like Earth planet called Htrae! How cool was that!
Bruce Kanin:
ReplyDeletePaul Zuckerman "I think you both are downplaying some of the early Superman Bizarro stories"
Nah, I really think that the first Bizarro story in SUPERBOY is the only really good one. I found the adult Bizarro to be dull, quite frank. Whereas I have no problem re-re-re(etc)-reading zillions of old Superman stories, I never go out of my way to read a Bizarro tale, other than the aforementioned origin in SUPERBOY.
As for DC not understanding Bizarro today, I respectfully disagree (I have to be respectful to Esteemed Comic Book Historians). My example is the version of Bizarro who appeared in the underrated classic Emperor Joker maxi-series. He was a frightening combination of a backwoods idiot with super-powers.
One last comment: an aspect of the character that I love is that it led to the "Bizarro Jerry" episode of SEINFELD, which is a classic
Bruce Kanin:
ReplyDelete"Intended to be a one-shot foe of Superman..."
That makes me wonder how many one-shot foes or other characters returned and became fixtures. For instance, was Brainiac supposed to be a one-shot? I can't think of others.
Over in THE FLASH, I'm glad Mopee was a one-shot. 😉
Kirk Hastings:
ReplyDeleteNotice though, it wasn't Bizarro's "imperfect/disabled" mental state that made it necessary for Superboy to "whisk him off the stage" -- it was the incredibly dangerous super-powers that Bizarro possessed, and the potential harm and destruction he was capable of because he couldn't properly control those powers. Thus the comparison of Bizarro with ordinary mentally ill people somewhat breaks down here. Bizarro was more like an elephant in a china shop -- that's what made it necessary for him to be shunned, and finally destroyed. It was only a matter of time before he would end up hurting or killing someone (though he didn't mean to).
Mark Engblom:
Kirk Hastings I think the same analogy can be made, though, with the dangerously mentally impaired or ill. There are some who are simply too dangerous to have in close quarters with the general public and must be kept apart for the safety of all concerned.
But my larger point was how the imperfect was, for the most part, quickly swept under the rug in that era.
Thomas De Witt:
ReplyDeleteWhile he would often clash with Superman, I never considered Bizarro to be truly evil.
Brian W Smith:
ReplyDeleteIf you are GenX, then you primarily think of Bizarro as a member of the Super Friends' Legion of Doom.