In World’s Finest #88 (March 1957), Luthor and the Joker team up for the first time. Luthor invents “mechano-men”, robotic automatons that can do their bidding. Superman and Batman try to foil what appear to be attempted crimes only to be made fools of for stopping legitimate activities. The villains attempt to rob the treasury […]
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In Superman #113 (March 1957), we get more Superman mythos building by Bill Finger, when Superman discovers a strange headpiece apparatus near a kryptonite meteor. He discovers that the headpiece allows him to play back mental images from his father, Jor-El. When he plays it back, he learns that Jor-El had to foil the plot […]
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Action Comics #223 (October 1956), brings us another super-coincidence, as Superman discovers a chunk of Krypton that happens to contain the laboratory of Jor-El, including his journal and films of his exploits. Superman is discovers that before he sent his son to Earth, he had built an “Earth valley” on Krypton to explore how Kryptonians […]
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Though Batman may be insisting on only One Robin for now, Action Comics #222 (Sept 1956) brings us “The Duplicate Superman”. The government sets off a new experimental bomb, the Q-Bomb, and Superman is caught in the blast, resulting in the splitting of Superman into two nearly identical beings. It turns out they are identical […]
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In Action Comics #218 (May 1956), Superman encounters a talking, super-strong, intelligent ape who turns out to be from the planet Krypton. The apes were shot into space by a scientist, Shir Khan, who was too cautious and died in the explosion of Krypton. Superman unites Super-Ape with his kindred who were sent to other […]
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In Superman #106 (May 1956), Luthor invents a metallic allow that absorbs the energy Superman generates within a 100-mile radius and tricks Superman into performing several impressive super-feats to charge up the suit. Luckily Superman gets wise and fishes out some kryptonite to drain himself, which somehow drains the battle-suit, foiling Luthor’s plans.
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In Action Comics #216 (March 1956), Superman encounters a series of menaces on Earth that lead him to believe an evil Superman is operating on Earth. As he employs his detective skills, he discovers that “person” operating the menaces is actually a robot from Krypton created by his father, Jor-El to prevent war on his […]
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In Action Comics #215 (Feb 1956), Superman is summoned 1000 years into the future by a “scientific mind-to-mind transmitter”. There, Kal-El meets the Superman of 2956 (alias Craig King, a telenews reporter for the Daily Solar System). The scientists of 2956 realize they need a hero and outfit King with gadgets that give him some […]
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Continuing to pile on Krypton coincidences, Superman #103 (Dec 1955) establishes that Superman’s grandfather had visited Earth 60+ years prior using an “experimental space machine”. Boy, that machine must have had serious problems that led to technological upheaval because Jor-El only manages to build a prototype space rocket to save his son thirty years later… […]
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In Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #8 (August 1955), Jimmy poses as Superboy alongside Superman to fake out a criminal who is threatening Superman’s secret identity. It seems like the character of Jimmy Olsen has really taken off by mid-1995 – giving readers that sense of escapism of being Superman-adjacent.
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