posted June 17, 2002 06:41 PM       

This topic is really bringing back memories. Bonus points to the eagle-eyed reader who remembers which Jimmy Olsen cover referenced MY t.v. show from this great era.

posted June 18, 2002 01:30 AM    

What an extraordinary story for Superman. Too bad I can't read the comic. But a great synopsis, India.

posted June 18, 2002 02:27 PM    

I wonder if Siegel wrote for any of DC's romance comics? He clearly does have the whole style down.

The beauty of the Weisinger system is that it allowed for any kind of genre story. You just needed the set-up. I don't think we're ever supposed to believe that Red K is a realistic scientific possibility--it's just the set-up device that allows the writer to do whatever the hell he wants in the main body of the story and then return to situation normal at the story's end.

When I read "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot" I felt that I was reading about the real Clark Kent in the person of Jim White. And he isn't far different from the Clark Kent that Superman "pretends" to be--he is vulnerable even weak at times, a tender person who shows his emotions, yet he has great strength of character and courage.

posted June 18, 2002 03:33 PM    

quote:

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Posted by India Ink:
The beauty of the Weisinger system is that it allowed for any kind of genre story. You just needed the set-up. I don't think we're ever supposed to believe that Red K is a realistic scientific possibility--it's just the set-up device that allows the writer to do whatever the hell he wants in the main body of the story and then return to situation normal at the story's end.

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posted June 18, 2002 07:59 PM       

quote:

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Originally posted by India Ink:

The beauty of the Weisinger system is that it allowed for any kind of genre story. You just needed the set-up. I don't think we're ever supposed to believe that Red K is a realistic scientific possibility--it's just the set-up device that allows the writer to do whatever the hell he wants in the main body of the story and then return to situation normal at the story's end.

"

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posted June 19, 2002 01:16 PM    

But 14 pages isn't really enough to give due consideration to all the things going on in this story.

By way of a synopsis, here's a list of the things going on in that story:

1) "Superman" shows up at a special space ship building plant and takes photographs of the top secret equipment. When he accidentally bumps his arm in pain, the guard realizes this man is not Superman. Making his escape, the Superman lookalike hijacks the car of a plainclothes detective. He then knocks out the driver and takes his clothes--hat, suit, glasses--and ends up looking like Clark Kent.

2)The impostor Superman/Clark has a flashback memory of how in Smallville, he, Ned Barnes, once admired Superboy and then Ned was trapped in a fire, from which he was saved by Superboy, but not before his face was horribly destroyed by the fire. And so a plastic surgeon reconstructed his face, and at Ned's request made him look just like Superboy. But then Ned Barnes came to hate Superboy, and embarked on a life of crime.

3) Hitching a ride with a stock car racer, on the way to Orville City, Ned's ride is held up by cows on the road, when Sally Selwyn comes riding by on her horse and sees her "Jim." She embraces him just as a cop car comes up the road and so Ned plays along with her and pretends to be Jim. And expository sentence plagued Sally is compelled to tell the whole story of her tragic romance with Jim to the man she thinks is Jim.

4) The editors are compelled to retell the whole story of "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot" in seven panels.

5) The fake Jim White goes back to the Selwyn mansion

6) Perry White pursues his interest in horse-flesh.

7) Superman scouts Orville City for signs of the impostor Superman, while "Jim" and Sally are at the Orville City stock car races.

8) With no leads on the impostor, Superman switches to Clark and looks at a horse for Perry. Clark rides a bucking steed and pretends to fall off so people won't suspect he's Superman. Then Sally Selwyn comes running over to her Jim.

9) The kiss from the beautiful blonde stranger stirs up emotions in Clark Kent and he is flooded with memories of what happened in the "Sweetheart Superman Forgot" story.

10) Clark soon realizes that there is another "Jim White" who must be the Superman impostor and spots the fellow hiding a super-costume and camera.

11) Clark puzzles over his problems in a hotel room, takes a nap, and then wakens with a resolve to marry Sally--"Why not? I love her and she loves me--and I may never find a girl who truly loves me for myself!"

12) Meanwhile Ned Barnes--the impostor Superman/Clark/Jim--meets up with Big Tony who hired him to photograph those space ship secrets. Sensing that Ned wants to go straight and take up with the rich blonde, he has a sharp shooter train the sights of his gun barrel on Sally. There's a struggle and all three--Ned, Big Tony, and the sharpshooter--go tumbling over a cliff.

13) Big Tony and the hired gun die immediately, but Ned still has moments to live before death will claim him, when Superman discovers the morbid scene. In his last seconds of life, Ned tells Superman the story of why he came to hate him. Because looking like Superboy but not having his powers he was constantly taunted and bullied. Until he ran away from Smallville and started to steal things to get back at Superboy who seemed the cause of all his heartache. But now at the end of life Ned realizes he was wrong--but he asks one favor, that Superman doesn't let Sally know this "Jim White" was really a skunk.

14) Superman tells Sally that Jim White died trying to save her "from gun-happy prowlers."

15) Superman reflects on why he told Sally that Jim White died. In his mind he pictures coming home one day to find Sally killed by Superman's enemies in retribution.

16) At story's end, the last panel montage shows both Superman and Sally thinking---

Superman: "How ironic! Mighty Superman can help everyone...but when it comes to my own happiness--I can't help--myself!

Sally: "Though you're dead, Jim, you'll always be alive in my heart."

posted June 19, 2002 08:03 PM       

quote:

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Originally posted by India Ink:

17) The final caption of the story seems to promise that there might be yet another Sally Selwyn story. But I don't know if this ever happened.

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There never was.

I would agree that the sequel doesn't hold up, especially as it seems to negate (at least partially) the tragic ending of the original. And they had to resort to the usual cop-out - I can't risk Sally's life, blah, blah...

posted June 19, 2002 11:35 PM    

The fifteen page tear-jerker is the second feature in the issue (The cover feature being "The Thing from 40,000 A.D." reprint). It begins with Clark at a press event in Metropolis for Lyrica Lloyd, movie queen, just returned from a film shoot in Africa. Accompanied by a Safari outfitted actor, Alistair Wight, and a spotted leopard--Lyrica's weak grasp on the leash can't hault the feline as it leaps forward. But reporter Kent manages to grab the leash. And Lyrica touches his face as she thanks him.

Producer Marcus Moller's next project is "The Super-Saga"--a movie about Superman! Moller is scouting for a leading man, but Lyrica rushes toward Clark and removes his glasses pointing out the resemblance to Superman. Moller decides then and there to cast the reporter in the lead role. But something will have to be done with that name--so Clark Kent becomes Claude Kieth!

And so Clark/Claude says farewell to the Daily Planet (for the time being) and heads for Hollywood with the musically named Lyrica. In the movie she will play nurse Susan Dale of Midcity, while Claude will play Dr. Stan Sage, alias Superman. With contact lenses and a super-costume outfitted with all kinds of gadgets to simulate some of Superman's powers, Clark/Claude becomes a silver screen Superman.

As they work together, Claude and Lyrica become closer (although she always seems to be dropping things and gets faint for almost no reason). The sight of Claude Kieth and Lyrica Lloyd at a Hollywood nightclub is not uncommon.

Playing Dr. Sage's rival for the affections of nurse Susan, Alistair Wight drops dead on the set one day during filming. But the show must go on and the production proceeds. Claude's favourite scenes are the kissing scenes with Lyrica. And then one day, lifted into the air by miniature jets in the boots, Claude as Superman flies Lyrica as Susan up into the air. But actor Kieth (in reality the real Superman) flies even higher into the clouds. So in love is he. When suddenly, the screen queen faints in his arms.

The high flight is explained away as a powerful updraft. Another time, though, a large model of a heart breaks into pieces (foreshadowing and symbolism all in one) and threatens to kill Lyrica as she's filmed in a scene. Claude flies out as Superman and saves Lyrica but the shards from the heart should cut him to ribbons, yet don't!

Superman then pretends to be the real Superman come to visit the set--that's why the shards didn't hurt him! Moller wants to film both the real Superman and his actor Superman together. So he calls out Claude Kieth. Superman is not undone by this, because he manages to move so fast that he seems to be in two places at the same time, talking to himself.

Meanwhile Lyrica and Claude pursue their affair, out on dates every night. Clark decides that he'd like to continue to be an actor so he can always be near the beautiful screen goddess. When in her apartment he suggests marriage to Miss Lloyd, she turns away from him and laughs at the suggestion. How could she marry a jellyfish like him!

Angered Clark smashes an end table with one fist, crushes a phone in his hand, bends a fireplace poker into a pretzel, burns a log in the fireplace with his heat vision into charcoal, and then taking the charcoal from the hearth with his bare hands compresses two lumps into diamonds!

Then he suddenly realizes what he's done--"But I don't care! I have a right to live my own life! If Lyrica will have me, it's worth any risk!" he thinks. Yet as he opens his shirt to reveal the red S on his chest, Lyrica falls in a faint.

Reviving she tells him that she is suffering from a rare African jungle disease that is gradually killing her, just as it killed Alistair. And there's no cure. "The Superman Saga" was to be her swansong. But now she will at least die happy knowing that she could have been his wife if destiny had chosen it to be.

Superman swears he will do everything to save her, "but even Superman cannot defeat the grim reaper, and shortly, in a real hospital..." Lyrica gasps her last good-bye to Superman.

In the final panel, unable to watch the movie premiere, a sad Superman flies away from the theatre, leaving a black wreath, hung on the marquis that reads:

THE SUPERMAN SAGA
Starring LYRICA LLOYD
CLAUDE KIETH

posted June 20, 2002 12:50 AM    

quote:

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Posted by India Ink:
And expository sentence plagued Sally....

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heh heh heh

quote:

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Posted by Osgood:
Sometimes it's just better to leave well enough alone.

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Oh yep!

quote:

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Posted by India Ink:
The Sally Selwyn love story reminds me of another Superman Love Story, also illustrated by Al Plastino, "The Star of Steel" from the May 1967 issue of Superman (no. 196). This was probably one of the first Superman stories I read, back when I was very young, and I remember thinking it was like my mother's "stories" on TV, like her "Love of Life."

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posted June 20, 2002 01:03 PM    

The beauty of the first Sally Selwyn story is in its ironies. It is irony--not tragedy, romance, or comedy--but irony which seems to have interested Weisinger the most. Constructing these big ironies seems to be the prime task of all his writers.

And at the end of "The Sweetheart Superman Forgot" we have a double irony. First there's the irony that Sally is in hellish torture over her love for a man that she thinks is dead, when the irony is he's really alive and would love her as much as she loves him. But the second irony is that Clark doesn't remember any of it. Here he had the greatest love of his life, the one romance he thinks he can never really have because of his powers and celebrity, and yet he doesn't remember it. And what makes all of this so ironic is that we the readers know the real truth, but we can't tell the characters what really went on. Which is fustrating to no end. And fustration is the source of our enjoyment.

posted June 22, 2002 01:59 PM    

Writer: Jim Shooter
Artist: Wayne Boring
Cover: Curt Swan and George Klein

"He's mightier than a million mastodons...more intelligent than an army of Einsteins... and H-Bomb bursts don't bother him! Who is he... SUPERMAN? Nope, you LOSE! We mean that 50-foot fink, ETERNO! And what happens when these two titans tangle? Dive for cover and find out, as the CAPED KRYPTONIAN matches muscles with that gigantic juggernaut...

...ETERNO THE IMMORTAL!"

The tale begins as a sleek spacecraft flies toward Earth's solar system "from the deep void". Aboard are three members of the Superman Revenge Squad. One, Garan, is nervous about heading onto Superman's home turf again since the Squad has been beaten by him so often. But another, Arl, the apparent leader of the expedition, announces that he has a cunning plan...

(Arl looks like a bearded, long-haired human in futuristic garb; the other two are hairless, blue-skinned types with insect-like compound eyes, somewhat resembling Kanjar Ro.)

Arl has used the Squad's Time Viewer device to probe Earth's distant past and relates an interesting history lesson to his comrades:

"About a billion years ago, on Earth, existed the XAN... the XAN were a super-civilization of tall, handsome people, who lived in mighty sky-cities built by their super-science. They were also skilled robot and android makers! They had constructed many different types, for labor and higher functions... but their crowning achievement was... ETERNO!"

"ETERNO stood nearly 50 FEET high... he was half android, half robot, with the advantages of both! He was constructed to be immortal... eternal. The energy of the stars, harnessed by XAN science, was built into his invulnerable body... in his artificial brain they stored all the knowledge they possessed! Incredibly wise and powerful, he could perform astounding feats... like using his DESTRUCTO BEAMS to split mountains apart! But Eterno was TOO wise... TOO powerful! He secretly planned to conquer Earth!"

(Apparently, the time viewer can read minds, too, since it reveals Eterno thinking , "I will bide my time! And soon I will be the Master and these tiny creatures will be MY subjects!" But why, Eterno, why? Didn't they give you ALL the advantages of being both robot AND android? Whatever that means. Big discounts on lube jobs, I guess.)

"However, before he could strike, a DIFFERENT disaster overtook the XAN, in the form of a cloud of space gas, which drifted to Earth...". The Xan are seen looking through their huge telescopes in horror. "The gas will wipe us out! Only the life in the sea will survive!" One Xan scientist points out that "the element ABSORBIUM could soak up the gas... but it exists only at the Earth's core!"

That's right... Absorbium. Shooter must have thought long and hard coming up with that addition to the periodic table.

Eterno knows that he would easily survive the gas, but needs living subjects to rule, so he agrees to go get the Absorbium. Firing destructo beams from his mechanical eyes, he blasts himself a path "4000 miles to the center of the Earth, to save the race he planned to conquer! He reached the Earth's core... but due to some strange property of ABSORBIUM, it paralyzed him... ('Can't...move') ... and the Xan slowly died out..."

Arl plans to release Eterno, who will inevitably clash with Superman once he is free from his billion-year imprisonment. The Revenge Squad fires a "cyclo-ray" from their ship deep into Earth's crust, where it vaporizes the hunk of Absorbium that has been paralyzing Eterno all this time.

"FREE!" cries the robotic fiend. "After all these eons-FREE!"

"Suddenly, the colossus turns, and with the power of 100 suns uleashed" (yeah right), "he bores through the inner core's wall, and digs hungrily toward the surface...", erupting from within a mountain just outside Metropolis.

Eterno wastes no time going on a rampage, in typical giant evil robot style. Soon Clark Kent, at work at the Daily Planet, hears a call for help being broadcast, summoning Superman to the Metropolis Science Institute (S.T.A.R. Labs wasn't around yet). The scientists alert him to the menace, just as Eterno is arriving in the city anyway. Eterno's computer brain has already mastered the English language, and he mocks the humans who have replaced his creators as Earth's dominant race. He rips an entire skyscraper in half to show them who's boss (of course the skyscraper is "deserted" during the day right in the middle of a huge city). Before he can throw it at the crowd, Superman arrives and smashes the building to fragments in Eterno's hands.

The Avaricious Automaton is astonished that a mere human could be so powerful, but still considers Superman a mere "gnat". With one punch he slams the Man of Steel right into the pavement below. But Superman was only stunned, and warns the police to evacuate the area. Superman builds a giant wall around Eterno using the rubble of the building, but the Robotic Rogue smashes his way out of the wall as fast as Superman can build it. Even worse, his mightiest blows can't even dent Eterno.

But unlike his enemy, Superman can fly, and zooms up to grab the giant metal globe from atop the Daily Planet building (how'd you like to pay the insurance on that thing considering how often it was removed?). He flings it at Eterno like a bowling ball and smashes him through the street into a subway tunnel underground. "Ah! A PERFECT STRIKE!" he congratulates himself.

But Supes is overconfident, and Eterno manages to reach up and seize him within a metal fist. Even Kryptonian strength can't break the grip, so he tries giving Eterno a faceful of heat vision. Eterno responds with contempt:

"What are you doing now? More of your comedy, eh? Those pitiful rays are no match for MY destructo beams!" Fortunately, Superman is just as invulnerable to the destructo beams, but the two cancel each other out.

Meanwhile, the Revenge Squad members have been observing the entire fight from their hovering spaceship. Garan is gleefully piloting the ship closer and closer to the battle so he can get a good view of Superman's humiliation. Arl warns him not to get so close in case Superman wins, but Garan sneers. "There's no chance of that happening! Sooner or later, Eterno will triumph over our foe... and I want to be watching... in PERSON! How I'd like to tell SUPERMAN that ETERNO is merely a puppet... a tool... of the SUPERMAN REVENGE SQUAD! Our super-enemy foiled our plans to conquer other worlds! But now we'll..."

Arl suddenly cries out in horror. "GARAN! You FOOL! You struck the loudspeaker switch and turned it on! Quiet, before ETERNO hears you!"

Too late. Eterno heard. Eterno is pissed. Enraged at being called a mere puppet, the Electronic Evildoer flings Superman aside and forgets all about him. "Well, what do you know?" thinks Superman, as he strikes a typically stiff-armed Wayne Boring pose. "Old iron face is tossing me aside to take on that ship!"

The SRS memebrs try to flee into space, but Eterno brings them down with his destructo beams. The ship crash lands between the skyscrapers below. The panicking aliens quickly man their space-cannons and fire on Eterno, but even their "new, experimental weapons" are unable to harm him, as he keeps on marching closer to the downed spacecraft.

Then they remember that Absorbium is Eterno's one weakness... too bad they don't have any! But Garan quickly uses their onboard "atomic transmitter" to change some handy "nuclear capsules" into a fresh batch of Absorbium, which they load into their cannons.

With a thrilling "ZZL-LMM!" and "FZZ-AMM KLZZZ!" sound effect, the ray blasts slam into the Marauding Mechanoid again and again, slowing him down with every direct hit. Finally, one of the Squad members cries out, "Success! We've charged his whole frame with ABSORBIUM... and it is neutralizing his artificial life-force! We stopped him!... No! Look out! He's FALLING!"

And they don't mean falling in love.

Eterno plunges forward, right smack dab onto the fallen spaceship, with all three alien villains inside. "CRASH!" goes the ship. "AAAHHH!" go the bad guys. "Great Moons of Krypton!" goes Superman. "That monster CRUSHED the REVENGE SQUAD ship!" (Yeah, and you just stood there and watched it!!! I guess his ironclad, no exceptions code against killing didn't apply to letting villains die through INaction?)

Supes lifts the inert Eterno off the wreckage to search for survivors (yeah right) and finds none. But he does find written records explaining Eterno's history and the Revenge Squad's scheme to free him from the Earth's core, which allows him to proclaim: "How ironic... by destroying HIM, they destroyed THEMSELVES!"

Yes... Choke! How ironic!

The End.

Little Jimmy Shooter was only 13 years old when he broke into DC Comics, and this was one of his earliest efforts. Shooter was clearly influenced by Marvel comics, with heroes like Spider-Man often struggling to use every last iota of their diminishing strength and indominible courage to triumph against physically more powerful villains. Shooter often did this in the Legion, creating villains like Mordru and the Fatal Five who outclassed the Legionnaires in raw power. But it was still a novelty for Weisinger's Superman to encounter a villain stronger than he was. This issue's letter column contains a letter from future SUPERBOY (and X-MEN) artist, Dave Cockrum, who praises an earlier issue where Shooter first uses this approach with his creation, the Parasite. So apparently it was an idea whose time had come... readers wanted to see Superman go through tough fights more often. Weisinger promised that the Parasite would be back, but sadly Eterno never was. Even though this story isn't all that great, it would have been cool to see him propped up like a statue in Superman's Fortress or something later on.

Or should I say, Eterno never QUITE returned. Shortly after his revamp of Superman, John Byrne obviously recycled elements of this story in SUPERMAN vol.2 #5-6. The ancient race called the Xan became an ancient race called the H'V' Ler'Ni and the giant robot Eterno became the giant robot Host. Instead of a space gas, the race was killed by germs from early humans. Host even has the same kind of destructo beams fired from his eyes, but instead of being sentient he is animated by the collective minds of the H'V'Ler'Ni, who are the evil power-hungry ones in Byrne's version. When I first read that story, I assumed that Byrne was influenced by the Sentry in Marvel's FANTASTIC FOUR #64, a powerful robot left behind by the vanished pre-human Kree race on Earth. But years later I came across this story, and realized that Byrne must have been retelling it instead.

(It's no wonder that he didn't tip his hat more openly to the original story, since he had just left Marvel under less than cordial circumstances at the time, mostly thanks to his relationship with editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. In all fairness, though, he may never have known who wrote the Eterno story since Weisinger allowed no credit boxes then.)

Actually, this story resembles nothing so much as one of those low-budget, 1950s "giant alien monster on the rampage" B-movies. (All it would need to be complete is a shrieking Lois Lane at the finale. But strangely, none of the supporting cast appears, except for a perry White cameo.) Maybe young Jim Shooter spent a summer night at the drive-in theater for inspiration.

posted June 22, 2002 06:55 PM    

I had no idea that little Jimmy had written it. Nor did I recall the Byrne stories (of course now I have to go looking for those).

I'm always happy to find yet another villain with a name ending in "o." I imagine that they all while away their hours in little vacation homes on the coast of Spain when, as with Eterno, they remain unused for decades. I picture them bicycling down to the village from their sun-splashed haciendas, to check the post for any messages.

Eterno is peddling his over-sized bicycle now, still hoping for that telegram that never comes...

posted June 23, 2002 03:19 PM    

(1)The first time Superman has a wet dream about Wonder Woman.

(2) The first time Clark Kent is compared to MIAMI VICE star Don Johnson.

posted June 30, 2002 08:44 PM    

Since tomorrow is the statutory holiday, I doubt I'll be able to get online. But I'll try to check in on Tuesday to see if anyone has responded to my patriotic challenge.

posted July 02, 2002 03:16 PM    

Sadly, I don't have a copy of SUPERMAN #200 and could offer no comment for our Northern neighbor. But the lack of response probably demonstrates that most of the posters on this board are too young to have bought it first hand, and are unable to afford it as a back issue (Silver Age "anniversary" issues have all skyrocketed in price lately, whether or not the actual story inside is anything special).

Actually, I could have sworn that I saw a posting from bizarromark somewhere that provided the details on that issue, but I can't seem to find it anywhere on the board now. I thought there was a "Happy Canada Day" thread here but it seems to have been deleted, else I would have directed you there....strange, considering some of the off-topic stuff that gets posted.

posted July 02, 2002 05:12 PM    

I know that I've seen other posters mention the details of # 200. There was even a poster who used the name of Kal-El's brother, I think. And a bit of internet searching would probably get some info on 200--at least the cover (by Swan and Klein, it shows brown-haired Knor-El with a wrestling hold on his brother, Kal-El, and Jor-El in the background holding up a super-suit for the victorious younger brother).

This was probably the first story in which I saw Brainiac--or at least the first one where he was a featured character. Being it's a an imaginary tale, the premise is that Brainiac was a good guy. He shrinks Kryptonopolis (not Kandor) to save it, but is too late to save the other cities of Krypton before that planet explodes.

The scene of an evuncular Brainiac lounging on the patio of the El home, sticks in my brain. What a great fellow!

Since Brainiac 5 was also a good guy, this good character in the android Brainiac felt right to me. I could never shake it. When I read other stories of Brainiac, I never could quite believe he was really evil. Was shrinking Kandor an evil deed? How? He didn't hurt the people, he just made them smaller. A bit paternalisitic, sure, but evil? And if he hadn't shrunk the Kandorians then they would have died along with the rest of Krypton. And it's not like he had a pencil thin moustache, or other marks of a criminal personality.

Any guy who wears pastel pink and black striped pumpkin shorts can't be so bad. At least Koko loved him.

I imagine that Jim Shooter wrote this 200th issue, while I know that Wayne Boring did the interior art. It came out around the summer, just around July 1st in fact, when all the centennial celebrations were underway.

The focal point for the 67 hyper-fun seemed to be Montreal, where Expo '67 was happening. Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome being the signature building of that site.

posted July 02, 2002 05:17 PM    

quote:

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Originally posted by India Ink:
Hey, since tomorrow is July 1st, and it will be Canada's 135th birthday, would anyone be willing to give a brief summary of Superman 200 from 1967--which among other things celebrated the 100th birthday of Confederation in this blessed Dominion? And explain what form the celebration took in that Imaginary Story.

Since tomorrow [b]is the statutory holiday, I doubt I'll be able to get online. But I'll try to check in on Tuesday to see if anyone has responded to my patriotic challenge.

Until then, remember "we see thee rise the True North strong and free..."[/B]

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Hey, India... Happy Birthday from a fellow member of the Commonwealth!

posted July 02, 2002 05:30 PM    

quote:

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Posted by India Ink:
Since Brainiac 5 was also a good guy, this good character in the android Brainiac felt right to me. I could never shake it. When I read other stories of Brainiac, I never could quite believe he was really evil. Was shrinking Kandor an evil deed? How? He didn't hurt the people, he just made them smaller. A bit paternalisitic, sure, but evil? And if he hadn't shrunk the Kandorians then they would have died along with the rest of Krypton. And it's not like he had a pencil thin moustache, or other marks of a criminal personality.

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