Action Comics #150 (September 1950) features one of my most hated action poses for Superman: The picture of him apparently running through the air. I guess this comes from the idea that Superman is still jumping around a lot instead of self-propelled flight, but it just looks ridiculous to me.
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In a continued attempt at building up the Krypton mythos, Action Comics #149 (August 1950) features the implausible tale of Lois Lane finding what are essentially news reels (“thought-projection discs”) of Jor-El and Lara’s courtship in a U.S. rocket that fell back to Earth. Even more implausible, these discs are labelled… in English… :-/ What […]
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Superman #66 (July 1950) featured the story “The Last Days of Superman!”. Superman has been getting ill and weak lately. At first thinking it is a piece of kryptonite, he is later alarmed to find out the piece of kryptonite has been removed and concludes he must be dying from over-exposure to kryptonite. What results […]
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In World’s Finest #47 (June 1950), the Superman story “The Girl Who Hated Reporters”, we get more inconsistency in how Lois met Superman/Clark Kent. In this story, Lois is working at a diner as a waitress and ostensibly hates reporters because that’s all she sees. She has seen and served Clark Kent, but her first […]
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I’ve lamented in the past how Lois Lane was gradually turned from a smart, fiery, independent career woman into a swooning, vapid, manipulative one-note character before. This causes Superman to develop the affectionate nickname of “little idiot”, as in this panel from “Superman’s Sweetheart”, a story in Superman #65 (May 1950). The women’s lib movement […]
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In Superman #65 (May 1950), “Three Supermen from Krypton!” establishes for the first time that Superman is not the last surviving Kryptonian. Three brothers U-ban, Kizo, and Mala, arrive on Earth with Superman’s powers and wreak havoc. Superman discovers they are also survivors of Krypton who were members of the “Ruling Council” that had attempted […]
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Speaking of world-building, in Action Comics #144 (March 1950), we are flashed back to the time when Clark Kent first tried to get hired by Perry White at the Daily Planet. Years after Perry White visited Smallville High School and suggested it, Clark moves to Metropolis and tries to take Perry up on this offer […]
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We have finally come to the third decade of comics, the 1950s! In Action Comics #142 (January 1950), a catpurse lifts a piece of synthetic kryptonite from Lois Lane’s purse. The kryptonite had been synthesized by Luthor in the previous issue (Action Comics #141), and the rock had gone missing at the end of that […]
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Only one month after Superboy first uses his heat-vision, Superman does the same in Action Comics #139 (Oct 1949). In a typical lazy-writer stunt of the time, Superman sets fire to an old covered bridge to force the criminal driver into the river. Why not just use your super-speed to catch the car? At least […]
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In September 1949, Superman #61 hit the stands – the most important book so far in the evolution of the Superman myth. In it, Superman encounters a fake “swami” who happens to have a piece of kryptonite in his turban. Lois Lane helps him out of this first encounter. The swami, believing he has hex […]
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