Writer Jerry Siegel enjoyed a good deus ex machina.
The “god of the machine” from ancient Greek drama has come to mean a plot device that’s introduced suddenly and unexpectedly in order to supply a contrived, far-fetched solution to an apparently impossible-to-solve problem.
Is your character in a tough spot? Just ring in some super being from the far future to rescue him at the last minute.
Siegel used that trick first to bail out Superboy (Superboy 86, Jan. 1961) and then both Lex Luthor and Superman in the same story (Superman 147, Aug. 1961).
Recalling how he’d been defeated by the Legion of Super-Heroes’ Lightning Lad in that Superboy tale, the imprisoned criminal scientist reasons — not terribly logically — that a Legion of Super-Villains must also necessarily exist in the future, and rejiggers spare radio parts to summon them.
When the evil Lightning Lord, Cosmic King and Saturn Queen capture and cage Superman, his now-adult teammates Lightning Man, Cosmic Man and Saturn Woman appear to rescue him.
By using radiation from her home planet’s rings, the Man of Tomorrow is able to turn Saturn Queen against the super-villains — thereby turning the tables.
“There is often a certain good/evil duality to Siegel’s mystery tales,” observed comics historian Michael E. Grost. “Characters who seemed to be evil throughout the tales are revealed to be good at the end, or vice versa.”
“Siegel has a consistent interest in showing grown-up Legionnaires,” Grost noted. “He seems to be the only one of the Superman family to have done so. His first Supergirl Legion story The Three Super-Heroes (1960) shows the kids of the original Legionnaires, an idea that was dropped from the mythos — probably it was considered as a mistake. His Superman’s Super-Courtship (1962) shows grown-up Legionnaires celebrating Christmas.”
Siegel used similarly fantastical, out-of-nowhere plot stunts in his camp stories about Archie Comics’ “Mighty Heroes” a few years later, but they didn’t work so well in those largely unsalvageable tales.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteI’ve always found Siegel’s involvement with the Silver Age version of his co-creation fascinating to contemplate. By the late 50’s, Superman bore almost no resemblance to the taciturn loner with an almost nonexistent supporting cast as originally created by Siegel and Shuster. I don’t want to get into all the dirty laundry of Siegel’s experience working under Mort Weisinger (tired of that dreary stuff), but just contemplating how amazing and/or bizarre it was for Siegel to create new stories for a brainchild that had evolved so dramatically from his original vision.
Doug Jamison wrote:
ReplyDeleteAlways love to see the lettering of Ira Schnapp, who defined the Silver Age look of DC covers and house ads.
Eric Hildebrand wrote:
ReplyDeleteJim Shooter also loved the DEM. One of his LSH stories was actually resolved by a mysterious alien device called “the miracle machine.“ he covered himself by introducing the existence of the machine in an early chapter of the adventure. So he basically threw down a marker saying “hey gang, I’m going to resolve this with a deus ex machina later on… But I’m counting on your pre-adolescent attention span to help me out here…“
Bruce Kanin:
ReplyDeleteThis is yet another example of Weisinger (via Siegel) mining (not "strip mining") relatively simple Silver Age creations (in this case, the Legion of Super-Heroes that Superboy first encountered) and using it for countless stories, that being the adult Legion.
It IS quite hokey when seeing that, in one issue (SUPERMAN #150 Vol 1 Nov 1963, below), we think Circe has turned him into a lion once again, but in the end it was Saturn Woman (the adult Saturn Girl - not to be confused with the evil Saturn Queen, lol) who helped Superman for some ruse. Hokey, but still fun...
Paul Zuckerman:
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, in the Superboy story, he speculated that Lightning Lad's intevention may not have been necessary because the whole place blew up a few minutes later...
And there was one other writer who dug deeply into the adult Legion: Jim Shooter, who, perhaps ironically, was at the time about the same age as the youngest members of the teenage Legion!
Some of those stories seemed to handicap later writers but one writer's handicap is another writer's roadmap. The recent Andor series shows how you can develop and flesh out a story even though you know in advance how it will end.
So, the relationship between Saturn Woman and Lightning Man got to play out over the years before they finally tied the knot. This, of course raised a question about the permanence of Garth's death but it was in the service of saving the life of the woman he would eventually marry. Though, what must it be like to be with a woman who can read your mind? Scary....
I think Siegel's latter-day Supeman tales are among his most mature writing, from which he seemed to take a deep dive sadly. But so many of the stories that he wrote in this period remain the favorites of many Silver Age fans, including myself.
Alan Smithee:
ReplyDeleteMy favorite deus ex machina is the early issue of X-Men where Prof. X uses his mental powers to make the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants forget why they were fighting the X-Men to end the battle altogether, thus resolving the plot 🙄
Mike Flynn:
ReplyDeleteSiegel's work for Weisinger would be the subject of a great book and/or movie.
I replied:
True. And a depressing one.
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteDan, here’s my response.
Dan - Writer Jerry Siegel enjoyed a good deus ex machina.
Me - He wasn’t alone in that.
Dan - The “god of the machine” from ancient Greek drama has come to mean a plot device that’s introduced suddenly and unexpectedly in order to supply a contrived, far-fetched solution to an apparently impossible-to-solve problem.
Is your character in a tough spot? Just ring in some super being from the far future to rescue him at the last minute.
Me - An outgrowth of that was the emergence of the Mary Sue and Gary Stu figures. Characters that are too perfect beyond the logical.
Dan - Siegel used that trick first to bail out Superboy (Superboy 86, Jan. 1961) and then both Lex Luthor and Superman in the same story (Superman 147, Aug. 1961).
Me - I remember both with great fondness.
Dan - Recalling how he’d been defeated by the Legion of Super-Heroes’ Lightning Lad in that Superboy tale, the imprisoned criminal scientist reasons — not terribly logically — that a Legion of Super-Villains must also necessarily exist in the future, and rejiggers spare radio parts to summon them.
Me - It seemed to be perfectly logical to the boy me back then.
Dan - When the evil Lightning Lord, Cosmic King and Saturn Queen capture and cage Superman, his now-adult teammates Lightning Man, Cosmic Man and Saturn Woman appear to rescue him.
Me - It’s difficult to convey just how thrilling an occurrence that all was. Seeing the cover for that story in house ads back then generated a roar of excitement (forget a buzz - it was a really big deal) throughout the Superboy/Superman fan base. Remember, this was happening Only three years after that first iconic Adventure Comics cover (same pictorial representation different characters behind the desk) that introduced the world to ‘The Legion of Super-Heroes’.
Dan - By using radiation from her home planet’s rings, the Man of Tomorrowi is able to turn Saturn Queen against the super-villains — thereby turning the tables.
Me - Yeah, the pseudo-science utilized there hasn't aged well.
Dan - “There is often a certain good/evil duality to Siegel’s mystery tales,” observed comics historian Michael E. Grost. “Characters who seemed to be evil throughout the tales are revealed to be good at the end, or vice versa.”
Me - He wasn’t the only one, as this sometimes showed up in the mystery/suspense/sci-fi/supernatural stories published in both DC’s and Marvel’s anthology titles.
Dan - “Siegel has a consistent interest in showing grown-up Legionnaires,” Grost noted. “He seems to be the only one of the Superman family to have done so. His first Supergirl Legion story The Three Super-Heroes (1960) shows the kids of the original Legionnaires, an idea that was dropped from the mythos — probably it was considered as a mistake. His Superman’s Super-Courtship (1962) shows grown-up Legionnaires celebrating Christmas.”
Me - Much to the utter delight of myself and other ‘Legion hungry’ fans. They’d yet to have gotten their own book yet and their appearances were erratic.
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteDan - Siegel used similarly fantastical, out-of-nowhere stunts in his camp stories about Archie Comics’ “Mighty Heroes” a few years later, but they didn’t work so well in those largely unsalvageable tales.
Me - Those Archie Mighty Heroes were just not that good. Trying to cash in on a momentary trend isn’t always successful.
Dan - “Jim Shooter also loved the DEM,” Eric Hildebrand wrote. “One of his LSH stories was actually resolved by a mysterious alien device called ‘the miracle machine.’ he covered himself by introducing the existence of the machine in an early chapter of the adventure. So he basically threw down a marker saying “Hey gang, I’m going to resolve this with a deus ex machina later on… But I’m counting on your pre-adolescent attention span to help me out here…’”
Me - This example was, in my opinion, one of the more successful uses of the DEM. My take on Shooter’s foreshadowing was that it displayed a kind of ‘honesty’ and therefore didn’t feel as ‘we just pulled this out of our a_ _’ as it otherwise might have.
Dan - “I’ve always found Siegel’s involvement with the Silver Age version of his co-creation fascinating to contemplate,” Mark Engblom wrote. By the late ’50s, Superman bore almost no resemblance to the taciturn loner with an almost nonexistent supporting cast as originally created by Siegel and Shuster. I don’t want to get into all the dirty laundry of Siegel’s experience working under Mort Weisinger (tired of that dreary stuff), but just contemplating how amazing and/or bizarre it was for Siegel to create new stories for a brainchild that had evolved so dramatically from his original vision.”
Me - Mr. Siegel was first and foremost a storyteller, and therefore even in the context of his co-creation having evolved from it’s humble beginnings, when he was called upon to create more/new content for said character he rose to the challenge. That’s all we could ask him to do.
Richard Meyer:
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I’ve actually read any of DC’s explanatory dialogue for decades. Seeing now what it was really like, I have to remember that I was only 7 years old then!
George Alf Jensen:
ReplyDeleteBlackhawk stories often had that gimmick. Blackhawk would be working on a new gadget at the start of the story and at the end that gadget would just happen to save the day!
The miracle machine was always just a bunk thing as after it saved the day they put it in storage. This was something that could solve all the universe's problems and they put it in storage so they could do things the old-fashioned hands-on dangerous ways. Uh okay! The Legion always had the stupidest rules though as somehow their moral sense was screwed. Nobody with the same power, you can't be married and be in the Legion even if to another member, we'll do a hoax on you when we first meet.
I sure wouldn't want them as friends.
Darrell S. Leland:
ReplyDeleteThe Legion needed to learn the value of suddenly switching opponents. Electric guy zaps mind girl. Mind girl clobbers TK guy. Etc.