posted June 12, 2001 08:49 PM    

It is, of course, the story of Superman's son, Gregor, his strange transformations and his tragic death. Actually Gregor was Gregor Nagy, son of scientist Jan Nagy, but upon Jan's death Superman becomes the teen's new guardian. Gregor is none to happy with this arrangement, and then begins to display unusual powers of transformation, earning him the name "Changeling!"

15) # 408 (Jan. '72) "The Secret of Super-X!" story: Bates, 7 pages.
--Although this back-up appears under the title of "Superman," it was in fact another one of those short-lived series, although it would return as "Superman--the In-Between Years," ie. stories about Superman/boy's years at college, after leaving Smallville but before coming to Metropolis.

posted June 12, 2001 09:03 PM    

16) # 414 (July '72) "Superman vs. Superstar!" Bates, 15 pages.
--The actor is the perfect realization of Swan and Anderson's Man of Steel. Appearing in a series of Superman films, he becomse idolized by millions, as though he were the real Superman. But then tragedy strikes, and the superstar meets with an accident that will forever change his body.

The actor in this case is Gregory Reed and the accident is a fire on the set not a fall from a horse. Reed manages to fake being Superman's double, but in the end Kal-El discovers the tragic truth. A few years later, Reed would recover his amazing good looks and resemblance to the Man of Steel.

Of course, Bates didn't know there would ever be a Christopher Reeve--Gregory Reed is intended as a tragic echo of George Reeves, the TV Superman.

posted June 12, 2001 09:21 PM    

The dialogue crackles with brilliant and funny exchanges such as the greetings between Brainiac and Grax on the first page...
Brainiac: "Grax--you! Why you bluefaced freak...I ought to--"
Grax: "You 12th level moron, you dare threaten a 20th order intelligence? I'll scramble your circuits!"

This two-parter brought together Luthor, Brainiac, Grax (last seen in Action 342) and the Maurauder (last seen in Action 378) in an uneasy alliance, presumably to make peace with Superman.

Luthor, by the way, has given up his prison greys at this time--he's wearing a space-age green, black, and white number--it would be a few more years before he started wearing that purple and green super-suit.

posted June 14, 2001 08:24 PM       

quote:

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Originally posted by SOLARLORD:
Also one thing I want to clear up is that 70's Superman is not exactly the Silver Age Superman. Technically he's the Bronze Age Superman which was basically an evolution of the Silver Age Superman minus alot of the sillier and more annoying things of the Silver Age version.

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posted June 22, 2001 05:58 PM    

To be honest, I feel like the Swan and Oksner (Swoksner) Superman is MY Superman. Because...I came in on the Swan and Anderson work after it was well under way, and Colletta's inks after that were so disappointing that Oksner's inks looked all the better by comparison. And I just like Bob Oksner's art--as an inker but also as a penciller. He drew Mary Marvel the way I would always like to see her and before being a Superman inker he worked on many many DC humour comics.

Perhaps one day I'll tackle the Swoksner Superman, but right now let's continue with...

twenty-five SWANDERSONs twenty-five

in

Action

20) # 421 (Feb. '73) "The Fantastic Feats of Captain Strong!" story: Bates, 16 pages.

--Captain Strong is essentially an homage to Popeye (as Bill Blackbeard said, "the first >arf, arf< Super-hero"), and after making his debut here he became part of the ever-expanding cast of supporting characters. He's also essentially the pre-Crisis version of Bibbo.

Billy Anders appears in this story, too. I neglected to mention him before, mainly because I never cared for the character. A little kid who was part Billy Batson and part Freddy Freeman, there was a story arc going on in the Superman title which had this blonde boy gaining the Man of Steel's powers and Superman having to imagine a lynx in order to become super. I didn't like it--yes, there were stories back then that I didn't like--I also didn't like the storyline that had Perry meeting some young mutants (who in a subsequent story would give him cigars that made him super). As for Strong, he got his powers from seaweed ("sauncha" laced with an alien element) not spinach.

21) # 428 (Oct. '73) "Whatever Happened to Superman?" story: Bates, 13 pages.

--not "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" (the final pre-Crisis Superman story by Alan Moore, Curt Swan, George Perez, and Kurt Schaffenberger) but probably part of the inspiration for that story. In this one, while still in prison Luthor has had a confederate on the outside launch a satellite which emits a powerful hypnotic beam--making everyone believe that Superman has not been active for the past ten years. Despite his powerful feats, no one sees Superman in action (their minds convince them that they're seeing something else like a mounted policeman's horse suddenly springing wings and taking flight).

posted June 23, 2001 04:38 PM    

24) #432 (Feb. '74) "Target of the Toy-Men!" story: Bates, 13 pages.
--You have to realize that in the sixties all the reprint 80 page giants published stories from mainly the fifties and the sixties--so most readers (myself being one) were limited to this contained view of the DC world. But in the early seventies, this policy was reversed (apparently the policy had been maintained because the forties golden age material was viewed as inferior in quality), and we now got to see a great deal of raw (and sometimes quality) material from the golden age. A reprint in one of those 100 page Super-Spectaculars (for 50c) was an eye-opener--it featured the golden-age Toy-Man. All we readers knew of the Toy-Man was the rather conventional cousin to the Prankster with his shortish hair, green suits, and ties. But this reprint showed a long-haired smock-wearing bohemian Toy-Man.

In Action 432, the original Toy-Man is in retirement, but returns when a new upstart Toy-Man tries to steal his thunder--and our original has the smock and the long hair (although his locks have turned white by now). This trend of bringing villains back to their raw roots would continue through the seventies, with the Toy-Man being one of the best examples.

posted June 23, 2001 06:25 PM    

Which leaves only the last of the twenty-five

twenty-five SWANDERSONs twenty-five

which was printed in the tabloid-size Amazing World of Superman--Metropolis Edition (1973)--which I mentioned earlier--in black and white with grey shading; and then in the tabloid-size Limited Collector's Edition C-31 (Oct-Nov. '74) in colour; and then in the Warner Books softcover, at closer to regular comic-book page size, Secret Origins of DC Super-Heroes (1976), also in colour...

25) "The Origin of Superman," layout: Carmine Infantino, pencils: Curt Swan, inks: Murphy Anderson, dialogue: E. Nelson Bridwell, 15 pages.
--essentially this story draws together all of the origins printed thusfar and weaves them together into one story. Many of the scenes and even the words are lifted from those previous origins, with some alterations or extrapolations here and there. But as the resident expert on Superman lore, Bridwell was certainly the man to pull all this stuff together (even though he's not credited for the "story" just the dialogue, and even much of that isn't his own invention). And Carmine Infantino on lay-outs (the then presiding publisher at National Periodical Publications)! to actually have Infantino, Swan, and Anderson all collaborating on one story was a Silver-Age fan's dream come true.

posted June 23, 2001 08:17 PM    

Quite a marvelous response by you to my inquiries about the Swanderson period. Your details and descriptiopns are very helpful in sparking my memories of not only the stories but also of my own favorites among your top 25 issues.

I have copied your list and checkmarked my faves. I happened to grab Action 400 almost by accident at a recent con, and I'll probably get to it this week.

If you're interested, I'll provide my Top Ten of Supes during the 60s, but off the top of my head so I'll probably forget some contenders. In no order...

SM 141 - Return to Krypton - probably my fave, truly ahead of it's time (FYI for collectors, I believe it was reprinted in Superman #232.)

149 - Death of Superman - the classic, a real sense of loss at the end, even though it's an imaginary story. (Reprinted in #193)

156 - Virus X - Swan/Klein at their best, don't know why (maybe the superior coloring?) but the art just stands out more so in this issue

158 - The Kandor story - great intrigue, Swan Kryptonscapes at their best (I just coined that term right here! Everybody use it twice a week!)

162 - Superman Red & Blue - just a fun wish fullfillment (Ever wonder what happened to Superman Yellow? Daredevil probably knows. But the Marvel bastard ain't talkin'!)

164 - Superman Vs. Luthor - mano y mano, the best "personal" battle between them, really felt the long time rivalry come to loggerheads.

167 - Luthor & Brainiac - their first team-up, great characterization and origin story, DC silver age at it's best

Action 300 - Superman Under A Red Sun - almost a wistful sci-fi tale (I recall there was a big goof at the ending; switched in midstream deus ex machinas.)

292 & 294 - Luthor kills a robot - an interesting morality tale, loved the covers

Superman Ann 4 - Villains of Space & Time - Okay, not original material, but the best 60s DC Annual by far for my money, and it also has the great eyecatching Legion feature (which I feel was decisive in establishing the Legion as a "real" group in the DC universe.)

Most of these stories involved Lex Luthor, truly the #2 character in Superman comics during the 60s.

Once again, thanks for you comprehensive top 25 list. I'll probably check it a couple times after I get some more of the issues.

posted June 24, 2001 09:00 PM    

In my own list of sixties stories would most definitely appear the three-part Action story of Superman flying to the end of time--stopped by the Time Trapper from returning to the present. As this is off the top of MY head I can't give issue numbers, but it was around 1968 I think...

I remember going to Keller's Drugs with my Dad and picking up this Action and groaning when I realized it was continued--I hated continued comics, hated hated them. I then got the conclusion--BUT, because drugstores were so unreliable for having every issue (which is why I so hated continued comics, because I rarely got to read the end of the story or sometimes the beginning!), I never got the middle part--because of all things this was a THREE parter and THEN I pretty much gave up on comics all together for a couple of years.

It was only years later that I actually did get that second part of the story.

posted June 25, 2001 09:22 PM    

The Galactic Golem

Superman # 248 (Feb. '72) "The Man Who Murdered the Earth!" 18 pages.

Superman # 258 (Nov. '72) "Fury of the Energy-Eater!" 16 pages.

story for both: Len Wein; art for both: Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson.

--I remember in the seventies reading a comment by Len Wein about how he doesn't write villains as totally evil. All his characters are characters and therefore full of the same emotions that you and I share. They do bad things, just as sometimes we do bad things, but not really for bad reasons--in their own moral universe they are true to their nature. This reminds me somewhat of the movie "Red," where the judge realizes that he cannot judge, because if he puts himself in the shoes of the accused then he does indeed put himself in those shoes and therefore can see no other choice being possible while being in those shoes.

Without too much elaboration, we understand this about Lex Luthor in the first story. Narrated from his point of view, his motivations seem reasonable. Luthor is indeed the greatest genius that the Earth might ever know. Superman and his power present problems for Luthor to solve. In attempting to solve these problems he creates his own monster (as with Frankenstein--a point he openly admits) and inadvertently destroys the world. Luthor is chastened by this catastrophic result--he is a moral man and never intended the Earth's doom.

I like that Luthor's narrative is grounded in reason. What bugs me about the overused first person in today's narratives is that it's rarely ever explained--and if you think about it too hard it doesn't seem at all plausible. Luthor in this story provides a record because he wishes that any alien lifeforms should understand how the catastrophe arrived so as they might solve it--and also by thinking it through, Lex hopes to possibly come up with his own solution.

I like this Lex. He is heroic in his own way. Moreover, we see him here in the lab-coat that he wore back in the early fifties. Len Wein seems to have given the character of Lex Luthor a lot of thought.

But I don't like the cheat of the story. The convenient fact that everyone in the world, but Lex (it would seem) was shunted off to another dimension, and then back again without any other after effects of such a shift.

We should remember that Len Wein was writing the first run of Swamp Thing tales around the time of these two Golem stories. Of course, ST is a golem, as is the Frankenstein monster (or "Spawn of Frankenstein" which was a back-up feature by Bernard Bailey over in the Phantom Stranger comic). The whole Jewish legend of the Golem may inform all of these stories. And then there also seems to be the influence of EC--Tales from the Crypt as well as Wierd Science.

Wein loves to set a mood and the first two pages of the second story do that with some poor nameless wanderer being pulled underground by the Golem, who takes his hat and coat, and pets his dog--but does the dog no harm.

Throughout this story we are treated to loopy turns of dialogue, sometimes outright funny or merely sardonic. Josh Coyle, floor director of the WGBS news, does not suffer fools gladly and probably thinks this Clark Kent is quite the fool. Even Superman has quite the smart mouth when bantering with the deadpan Golem.

The blokes at STAR don't come off as too intelligent--Professor Harry Potter??? Potter probably isn't Lana's uncle, the crackpot scientist from the Weisinger days, but he's still a bit goofy.

The whole story comes to its action-packed conclusion at the Fortress of Solitude--punctuated by choice ad-libs from the Man of Steel ("in the future, please open the door...those things are expensive to replace," "your breath is making me sick...," "want to bet, bright eyes--?" "it would probably be a lot cheaper to install a revolving door," "you could use a hot bath...").

And since the Fortress is at the North Pole this offers another refrain from the Frankenstein story, as the creature in that story was also stranded in the high arctic. Like Mary Shelley's creature, this Golem doesn't seem to intend evil. Both creatures destroy because it is in their nature to do so. The Galactic Golem is driven simply by his hunger for energy and all his actions are motivated by that one need.

posted June 28, 2001 11:40 PM    

quote:

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Originally posted by Pilgrim:
So is the Polyester Age the same as the Bronze Age then?

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The "Polyester Age" is the post-Crisis term for the Bronze Age.

posted July 12, 2001 12:54 PM    

There's some great stuff on there. Entire stories available for reading (including the "Origin of Superman" that I mentioned a little earlier). And I'd forgotten that "Mr. Xavier" was the linch-pin that held together the Bates and Maggin four-part story in Superman # 296-299 (the first part, from 296, being available for reading at the Fortress) and illoed by Swan & Oksner (with Terry Austin serving as Bob's assistant at this time, if I don't miss my guess).

Anyone--ANYONE--with an interest in Superman (of any Age) should definitely check out this site if they haven't already!

------------------
Ink's links:

for Book of Oa--
http://www.glcorps.org/book.html

for DC golden age sites--
http://www.best.com/~blaklion/dc_links.html

fave photo--
http://www.acmecity.com/wonderwoman/lansinar/186/sekowsky.jpg

for Diana Prince:
http://homes.acmecity.com/wonderwoman/lansinar/186/dpindex1.html