373 – Atomic Anachronism

A panel from Adventure Comics #121, August 1947
A panel from Adventure Comics #121, August 1947

The anachronisms in Superboy stories keep coming with Adventure Comics #121 (August 1947). Superboy helps cheat in a “collector competition” by finding a rock that can be used as a source of radium and uranium, which are acknowledged as “principal raw materials for atomic energy”. Even being generous and saying these stories take place 20 years before the current Superman stories of 1947, that would place these stories at 1927, well before atomic energy was a thing. Lazy writing 😛