Adventure Comics #283-288

 Adventure Comics #283-288

Originally released in 1961

Written by Robert Bernstein (#283-286), Jerry Siegel (#287-288)

Art by George Papp (#283, 287-288), Curt Swan (#284-285), Al Plastino (#286)

I'm in the mood for something light-hearted, so I went back to Silver Age Superman - in this case, I picked Adventure Comics, which focused on his time as Superboy.  The adventures of Superboy are something that I'm only vaguely aware of (he fought crime when he was a boy) but I've never actually read, so it will be nice to go into this and see how this differs from my expectations.

I went through the app and picked a comic that had several issues in a row (there are large gaps in the DC Universe Infinite app's selection of older comics) and a cover that interested me, so I wound up choosing the first appearance of the Phantom Zone.  A decade or two before Krypton exploded, Jor-El took weapons that were too dangerous for Krypton to use and launched them into space, as Clark discovers when he reads a note that's written in the Kryptonian language.

I'm not sure how the individual stories of comics were made during this era of DC (I know there were some cases where an eye-catching cover was designed and the writer had to figure out how to incorporate it into the story, but I'm not sure about the moment-to-moment parts of the issues were made), so I'm picturing the artist drawing Superboy obliterating a mountain with a laser cannon and the writer having to figure out why Superboy would do that.

This story introduces the Phantom Zone projector, complete with a telepathic helmet demonstrating how and why it was used on Krypton. This marks the first appearance of General Zod, who attempted to take over Krypton in a coup using imperfect clones of himself (ones that look similar to Bizarro, though they're intelligent enough to speak properly) and is banished to the Phantom Zone for forty years. I'm used to the Terrence Stamp and Michael Shannon versions from the movies, so Zod looked completely different from what I'm used to.

Krypton's justice system seems flawed when attempting to overthrow the planet gets you sent to the Phantom Zone for forty years, while conducting an experiment where subjects volunteer to be placed in suspended animation gets the scientist who ran the experiment sentenced to thirty years in the Phantom Zone. (the use of suspended animation is illegal on Krypton as they never found a way to undo it, but the volunteers were apparently aware of this and willingly chose to undergo the process)

Through the power of an electric typewriter and Superboy's superpowered brain waves, he manages to get a signal to Pa Kent to free him from the Phantom Zone.  As he seals away the Kryptonian devices, he thinks to himself about how when he grows up, he should use that projector to meet the criminals from Krypton who were imprisoned there - I get that it's meant to build up the idea that the Phantom Zone will come up in a Superman story, but it seems like such an odd thing for Clark to think at the time.

Issue 284 has Clark getting AMNESIA! (dun, dun, DUUUUUUNNNN!)  Thanks to a chunk of red Kryptonite buried underground (which has unpredictable effects on Kryptonians), Clark hides his costume inside of a boulder before the change fully takes hold so that he doesn't give away his identity.  This means that when he's picked up by the police due to being caught up in a pair of delinquents stealing a car, he has no way to know or prove who he is, and he gets sent to reform school.

Clark disappearing for several days worries Ma and Pa Kent, but thankfully, they have a solution - robotic versions of Clark Kent and Superboy!  This seems like it would be really helpful for Clark in either identity, but they only seem to get used if he's disappeared without an explanation. (I'm guessing Superboy built them, though I'm not sure how)

Clark eventually gets his memories back upon seeing footage of Superboy in action, and he manages to bring out the good in the worse of the two delinquents who got him sent there. (the other one was reluctant to go along with the car theft in the first place)

The issue also includes a short story with Aquaman, which involves a scientist who seems short-sighted. (his plan involves using an iceberg to sneak up on ships and rob them. He didn't disguise his ship to look like an iceberg; using an iceberg is part of the plan, in spite of the fact that it's melting on him mid-heist)  Still, he manages to come up with a plan to prevent Aquaman's fish allies from helping him.

The plan involves draining salt from sea water.  Allegedly, this is to render it drinkable, but he just uses it to keep saltwater fish away from his ship.  I figured Aquaman would bring a container of freshwater fish in to counter this, or demonstrate that he's more than just someone who can talk to fish and use the super-strength and durability that allow him to survive at the bottom of the sea, but the way that he actually gets around this problem is much sillier.

Aqualad is also involved in this story.  I don't think I've read much with Aqualad in it before (he made a brief appearance in the Wolfman-Perez era of Teen Titans), and as what's effectively a first impression, it's not a very good one.  He comes across as a very obvious stand-in for Robin complete with cheesy catchphrases ("Leaping lizards!" and things like that), but whereas Robin can act independently and take on criminals without Batman's help, Aqualad doesn't do anything. He seems to exist to tag along with Aquaman and give him someone to talk to.

I'm not sure if Aquaman was popular enough that he got his own comic later or these side stories were dropped due to unpopularity, but either way, the next issue replaces the Aquaman stories with Bizarro ones.  First, though, issue 285 covers a story where Lana Lang gets superpowers of her own, turning the tables on her usual dynamic where Clark thinks that the new superheroine in Smallville, Gravity Girl, is actually Lana Lang and sets out to prove it.

Lana's father, Professor Lang, seems like he wouldn't be out of place on Ancient Aliens, as his immediate thought on seeing a temple in Africa is that the cultures living there couldn't have possibly built it, and instead, it must have been an ancient alien race.  He's proven right once they get inside and alien artifacts are discovered, including a belt that manipulates gravity, allowing the user to fly and pick up heavy objects like they weighed very little.

Fortunately, they also make Lana bulletproof, which she finds out moments after she's shot at.  Her parents give her a costume, along with a lead helmet to protect her identity.  Gravity Girl and Superboy help to avert various disasters throughout Smallville, though the writers get kind of lazy here; it seems like a lot could be done to differentiate Lana's new powers from Clark's, but halfway through the story, she basically gets Superman's powers (minus the vision and breath related ones), including inexplicable super-speed.

However, unlike Clark, the belt doesn't make Lana invulnerable.  She's immune to steel because the belt apparently has magnetic powers as well, but wood, stone, and fire all damage her.  Upon tricking Lana into revealing her identity, Lana and her parents agree that the belt should be destroyed.  If criminals found out that Gravity Girl had weaknesses like wood or stone, then they could threaten her life - after all, it's not like Superboy has a weakness that everyone knows about. ...wait a minute...

The Bizarro stories take place in Superboy's future, where Bizarro World is populated by the original Bizarro, Bizarro Lois, and a bunch of clones of them, including child versions.  Bizarro Junior Number 1 is having a problem in school - he's getting all of the answers right!  Bizarro Number 1 can't have that, so he hires a tutor (who is also Bizarro) to teach Bizarro Junior Number 1 the wrong answers. (or, if that fails, to hypnotize him into learning the wrong answers)

This all seems to be a take on having a student who's struggling with a subject, though there is a bit of unintentional tragedy here, as it feels like a little bit of Clark's rational mind is breaking through in the form of Bizarro Junior only for it to be squashed by the madness of Bizarro World.

Issue 286 has Superboy being menaced by a witch after mocking the idea of superstitions.  The people of Smallville seem quick to jump to murder, telling Superboy to use his heat vision on the witch as soon as she appears, and when Superboy is publicly humiliated, they all but grab torches and pitchforks and immediately head off to burn down a local museum.

When the witch threatens Lana Lang, Superboy knows that there is only one solution to this clear danger: seal Lana up in an airtight lead box that's about as long as her bed and not much wider than that.

There's also a plot involving a Soviet spy satellite, where the Soviets believe they're in a win-win situation: either the satellite stays in orbit, learning America's secrets, or Superboy destroys it so they can use it as a pretext to declare war on America.  Superboy is an internationally-known figure, which raises further questions on how nobody in-universe ever figured out that Clark Kent is Superman.  Perry White is mentioned to be the new editor of the Daily Planet, who specifically sent a reporter to Smallville to cover the story of Superboy.  With Superboy hanging around Smallville, and only showing up in Metropolis when Clark Kent (who's also from Smallville) arrived, you'd think Perry would be at least a little suspicious of the fact that Clark and Superboy both look similar, both live in Smallville, and both left Smallville to go to Metropolis at the same time, and he'd probably have a good idea of who Superman is within a month, if not a week.

With the Bizarro stories, it's a goofy insight into their world.  Their way of talking is so inconsistent that trying to make sense of it will probably give you a headache.  Having very little of Bizarro Earth's precious, precious coal, Bizarro sets out to become a detective in order to earn his family all of the coal that they need to buy the luxurious trash that they deserve.

Mayor Bizarro hires Bizarro Number One to determine who has replaced the house of junk with an art museum.  You can tell he's the mayor because of his top hat.

Upon realizing that the Mayor has no motive to build the art museum, Bizarro Number One comes to the conclusion that he MUST have done it! Only seeing the Mayor's beautiful (by Bizarro standards) artwork is Bizarro convinced that the Mayor isn't responsible, which is good (bad?) because he was moments away from shooting the Mayor.

Thanks to Bizarro Junior fooling around with an Imperfect Duplicator Ray (the ray itself doesn't seem imperfect; it makes duplicates that are imperfect), he hit Mr. Mxyzptlk while the 5th Dimensional imp was visiting the third dimension, so now Bizarro Kltpzym is causing order on Bizarro World.

To prevent Klptzyxm from making Bizarro World orderly and beautiful, Bizarro must outsmart his new nemesis.  Given that this is Bizarro that we're talking about, this is much, much, MUCH easier said than done.

Issues 287 and 288 are a two-part story for Superboy where Dev-Em, a self-centered and reckless Kryptonian child who was the son of Jor-El's neighbour, also turned out to have survived the destruction of Krypton.  One misdeed away from being tried as an adult and being sent to the Phantom Zone, Dev-Em is caught by baby Kal-El when Dev-Em breaks into Jor-El's lab to steal his plans for a rocket.

With Dev-Em being good at faking remorse, Jor-El gives him the benefit of the doubt and throws him out rather than reporting him to the authorities.  By hiding in a modified lead-covered bomb shelter, Dev-Em plans to survive using suspended animation (I guess they figured out a way undo the process in the twenty years since that Phantom Zone flashback).  In a slightly positive gesture, he brings his parents along as well rather than leaving them to die on Krypton.

By sheer coincidence, this lead-lined capsule (despite drifting aimlessly through space and being bombarded by all sorts of creatures and objects) also winds up landing on Earth, though Dev-Em's parents are still in suspended animation.  The first part ends with Dev-Em discovering that Kal-El is older now and goes by Superboy, so he plots to get back at Superboy for something that he did when he was a baby.

The Bizarro story in this issue involves Jimmy Olsen reporting on events in Bizarro Earth.  Not Bizarro Jimmy Olsen - regular Jimmy Olsen, who got onto a rocket ship following what he thought was Superman and Perry White. (Bizarro came to Earth to make a Bizarro Perry, since Bizarro Earth's newspaper was in need of a new editor)

Jimmy has to get three big scoops to win a prize, but he can't quite get the logic down on what Bizarro Earth considers to be newsworthy.  He's concerned that he'll never be returned to Earth, until he finds out about good news and bad news.  The good news: a Bizarro-Lois who seems fond of him put in a good word with her father, who's the publisher of the newspaper, so Jimmy gets the prize even though he's terrible at his job! Hooray for nepotism!

The bad news is that the prize is being forced to marry the Bizarro-Lois, under penalty of getting beaten up by every Bizarro ever.  Luckily, Jimmy finds a way out of this shotgun wedding.

The writers clearly anticipated that these Bizarro stories would be popular, because there are several cases where they make it onto the cover instead of Superboy, who the book is generally about.

The second part of the Dev-Em story has Dev-Em trapping Superboy in the Phantom Zone (so that came back sooner than I thought) and wearing his costume to ruin his reputation.  His crimes amount to super-powered vandalism, though the way that his plotline ends feels weirdly anti-climactic.

Once he's gotten people to boo Superboy and made Kal-El into a pariah in Smallville, Dev-Em removes Clark from the Phantom Zone, picks up his parents' ship, and flies fast enough to travel through time, disappearing to an unknown point in the future, leaving Clark to deal with the consequences of Dev-Em's actions.  With Dev-Em's parents still being frozen, I figured that would be a plot point, like they wake up and (since they'd also have superpowers) discipline him and expose his plan to clear Superboy's name, but they remain frozen. (though Dev-Em's scheme is foiled almost immediately after he leaves)

There's also a Bizarro story where Bizarro Lois Number One is given superpowers by an imprisoned Kltpzyxm.  While I kind of hoped that this would stick, since Bizarro Earth isn't bound by the status quo of the era, I figure that much like when Lois, Lana, or Jimmy get superpowers, it will be undone pretty quickly.

It does wind up getting undone by the real Mr. Mxyzptlk, who also decides to cause some mischief by making Bizarro think that he wants to become Stupor-Man, leading to him believing that he needs to have a secret identity of Bizarro Kent.

This lasts for about half a page before his secret identity is discovered.

I would gladly keep reading more of these stories; I had a great time with them.  I have a mixed view of DC's Silver Age material, but the Superman stories have this charm and goofiness to them that has me preferring them to other DC material from the era like the original Justice League issues.