In 1970, Murphy Anderson provided us with a group portrait of the main enemies who had bedeviled the Man of Tomorrow over the three previous decades.
I never had much patience with those 1940s goofballs the Prankster, the Puzzler and the Toyman, three lame tricksters who shouldn’t have been a challenge to Batman, let alone Superman (in fact, Batman battled his own Puzzler).
But that other trickster, Mr. Mxyzptlk, was another matter.
A being from a higher dimension than our own, the imp’s omnipotence overshadowed even Superman’s vast powers. Luckily, this ancestor of Star Trek’s Q really only wanted to play games.
Both Robert Mayer’s Superfolks and Alan Moore’s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? deal with the chilling consequences of what would happen if Mxyzptlk decided to stop being mischievous and start being evil.
Naturally I’ve been impressed by Lex Luthor, who evolved from criminal scientist to criminal capitalist. The persistent arch-foes Luthor and Brainiac represent the yin and yang of Superman’s enemies, the human and the alien.
The power-draining Parasite is the newcomer here, having been created by writer Jim Shooter in 1966 (when he was 15).
Finally we have a sinister quartet from the spooky Phantom Zone: General Zod, Jax-Ur, Kru-El and Professor Vakox. This twilight dimensional prison was introduced in the comics in Adventure Comics 283 (April 1961), but had been prefigured in the 1950 movie serial Atom Man vs. Superman.
Jor-El’s discovery of the Phantom Zone has proven to be as enduring as the criminals who inhabit it.
The zone was a neat solution to the problem of how an advanced alien civilization might be able to sidestep capital punishment — even though banishment to an eternal incorporeal existence seems a fate almost worse than death, when you think about it.
The Phantom Zone even served to save the life of Superman’s “brother,” Mon-El, by removing him from exposure to lead, a substance fatal to him that’s prevalent on our planet.
ReplyDeleteBruce Kanin wrote:
I don't remember seeing this neat drawing before. In SUPERMAN #299 (Vol. 1, May 1978) we got to see a new version of The Toyman (next to Terra-Man, who I disliked as much as Toyman & Prankster). Both Toyman & Prankster hopefully dissolved in the Crisis On Infinite Earths. 🙂
Vincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeleteI think the impetus for creating characters like Toyman and Prankster was to have Superman inexplicably confounded by seeming buffoons who were both colorful and ridiculous in their appearance. The concept worked visually far better than it did in practice. But, importantly, it also allowed Superman's ethical restraint of his powers to be implicit when being contronted by these clowns, who could be easily defeated physically.
In Batman stories, the stark visual difference between the shadowy hero and his wildly colorful foes worked far better. Even sidekick Robin is wearing bright red, green, and yellow; further separating Batman from the zany underworld he is battling.
The drab Luthor takes things in a different direction. Superman is more powerful, colorful, and physically ideal in comparison with a self proclaimed genius who is doughy, bald, and wearing a cheap suit.
Somehow, the conflict works.
Vincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeletePut another way, writers had to answer the fundamental question, "How do I make Superman appear to be an underdog in various interesting ways?"
Matthew Grossman wrote:
ReplyDeleteNot much to add, other than that most of the best Superman stories I can think of don’t center around him brawling with a villain. That’s a big contrast to Batman, or for that matter other heroes with big rogue’s galleries, like the Flash or Spider-Man. I’d say Superman is powerful enough that fisticuffs should usually be irrelevant to his adventures.
I replied:
My favorites were those, such as Superman's battle with the Thing from 40,000 AD. But you're right, they're the exception in this feature.
Bruce Kanin wrote:
ReplyDeleteWell, Luthor & Brainiac were top flight villains. Parasite was, too, but sadly the Silver Age only featured him twice. Actually, Composite Superman was the greatest villain Superman ever faced, although he was confined in the S.A. to just two WF stories.
I replied:
Metallo should have been in this roundup, way ahead of Toyman, Prankster and Puzzler.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteAs Superman became more powerful, paradoxically, he became less able to use those powers against his foes. As you pointed out, Dan, the other day, he didn't face his first Kryptonian opponents for a decade! Other than Luthor or Mxyztplk, most of his foes in the first 20 years had to be more devious with Superman. And, humorous, which also happened to Batman to some degree but less so. The writers were forced to be more creative than just have book-length battle royals, as would become the case at Marvel. Luthor would occasionally gain super powers (the Powerstone stories) or super suits (his 70s incarnation), and once went fist to fist with Superman when Superman agreed to fight him on a planet where he did not have his super powers) but mostly Luthor had to use his wits to fight Superman.
I would add Metallo and the Composite Superman to your list, neither of whom got sufficient play in the 60s. As well as Super-Menace, who was Superman's equal in strength and the early Bizarro before he became a comical character.
Mxyzptlk was a bit more malevolent than Batman's nemesis, Bat-Mite. But mostly he just wanted to pester Superman.
Vincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeleteAs powerful as Superman was, in the 1950s the trend with superheroes was thinking their way through one or two dilemmas in each story, like Lois prying into Superman's secret identity plus Superman thwarting an alien menace in one tale. The same thing went on with Flash, Green Lantern, and especially Adam Strange.
Bob Doncaster wrote:
ReplyDeleteIf the Phantom Zone and Negative Zones ever collide, imagine the horror.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteYeah, put me down as another Superman fan who was never fond of the human "trickster" characters. I honestly don't know why the Puzzler merited a mention, since (I believe) he only appeared once. Even Mxy was a bit tiresome if used too much. For me, it was either the geniuses or the ultra heavyweight "bruisers" that I preferred to see square off against the Man of Steel. Of course, Bizarro expertly threaded the needle between comedy relief and major super-powered threat, and I never got tired of seeing him.
Conspicuously missing from Murphy's line up was one of my favorite rogues "ZHA-VAM", a not-so-subtle stand in for Captain Marvel who made his debut only a few years earlier in Action Comics. I also thought Amalak (the guy bent on destroying any and all things Krypton) merited a mention.
Burns Duncan wrote:
ReplyDeleteJor-El and the Phantom Zone: Rick Weingroff, one of the most thoughtful fan writers in the 1960s, suggested that consigning criminals to the Zone, where their malevolence festered, instead of putting them "under" while hearing hypnotic suggestions toward reform, was an insult to Jor-El's reputation as a brilliant scientist.
I replied:
That raises an interesting ethical point — is brainwashing preferable to eternal banishment?
Bruce Kanin wrote:
ReplyDeleteArguably the best episodes of The Adventures of Superman TV series, or the two I can think of, involved natural or man-made menaces, not villains, i.e., "Panic in the Sky" with the asteroid, and "Superman in Exile", about the atomic pile (although that one had thugs that were secondary to Superman's problem).
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteIt would've been good to see the Kryptonite Kid come back as an adult to plague Superman, which would have checked the Metallo/K-based villain box. He DID return a few years into the Bronze Age as "Kryptonite Man" for a villain team-up in Superman #299 (below), but too late for this meagre rogues gallery feature.
Vincent Mariani qrote:
ReplyDeleteThe match-up of superhero vs.villain provides infinite variations.
The Daredevil/Sub-Mariner is a classic because the hero of the comic is vastly underpowered to take on an FF archfoe. Both the Golden and Silver Age Atoms are obviously limited, but so is Giant-Man (or Goliath) when his size becomes a clumsy detriment.
Spider-Man, The Flash and Batman had the best arrays of appropriate enemies.