DC characters tended to share certain bizarre experiences — accidentally acquiring Superman’s powers, getting trapped in the Phantom Zone, traveling in time and space, pretending to die, pretending to turn evil, turning invisible, developing futuristic brains, becoming elastic, attaining giant size, instantly becoming fat, instantly growing older or younger.
And, unlikely as it might seem, acquiring the head of a cat.
In Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane 13 (Nov. 1959), writer Bill Finger and artist Wayne Boring present us with a mystery for Superman to solve. Why does Lois show up at the Daily Planet for a tearful goodbye to her friends with her head encased in a lead box?
In the vanished reporter’s diary, Superman reads that Lois had confronted a vaudeville sorceress calling herself Circe, only to find that she wasn’t dealing with a fake — that her head had been transformed into a cat’s.
Passing a circus sideshow where people are laughing at freaks, Lois thought, “I can never go back to the normal world I once knew — not with my freakish face. (Sob!) And I could never be Superman’s girl friend again! I knew that though Superman would try not to show it, he’d be repelled by my face!”
Superman discovers that Lois doesn’t have the face of a cat, but only thinks she does — thanks to a drugged lemonade and some hypnosis practiced by the fake Circe.
Despite Lois’s traumatic experience, Superman’s sympathy only extends so far. At dinner that night at a restaurant, he orders Lois a saucer of milk to mock her cat-like curiosity.
The story is a reversal of what happened to Superman 15 months earlier in Action 243’s The Lady and the Lion!, when the real Circe gave the Man of Tomorrow a lion’s head.
It might have seemed to readers that Superman’s writers and editors were spinning in Circe circles.
Mark Engblom wrote: Reading Superman comics of this era, you’d think lead was as common and obtainable as a cup of sugar! Come to think of it, since lead was in pretty much everything from paint to gasoline back then, maybe it was!
ReplyDeleteOh, and how much do you think that lead box weighed??!!! I’m not sure poor Lois’ neck would be able to support that load!
Mark Waldfogle said: I definitely read that as "Superman Kisses Luthor"! 😆
ReplyDeleteMark Engblom wrote: (Rejection) was a steady drumbeat within the Silver Age Superman Family. As sort of the ultimate outsider himself, I suppose themes of rejection and misunderstanding felt more natural to explore in the Kryptonian alien’s comics. The conformity factor we’ve discussed before was also undoubtedly a factor. Sticking out and/or looking strange was still generally looked down upon during this era, so I guess the routine fantastical physical deformity featured in Superman comics channeled that as well.
ReplyDeleteIra Henkin said: I had pretty much dropped the Lois and Jimmy books by that time, as I thought of them as situation comedies set in the Superman universe. The Batman titles had too much weird science fiction. I found myself more at home with Showcase, the Challengers, Sea Devils, Brave And The Bold
ReplyDeleteCharles W. Fouquette said: The Superman titles are a lot like the X-men titles of the modern era. Straining to find enough story material to fill all those titles and still seem fresh.
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