0:07

Become a part of the Horton team, We're

0:09

looking for welders, painters, assemblers,

0:11

machine operators, cabinet makers, and other

0:13

positions to build emergency vehicles that help

0:16

save lives. Joining us at our hiring event

0:18

on Wednesday, January eighteenth from two to

0:20

five PM at 3800 McDowell

0:22

Road and Grove City. We offer a huge

0:25

fifteen hundred dollar sign on bonus and great benefits

0:27

such as 401 match, medical

0:29

coverage starting day one, and much more.

0:31

For more information on what Horton can do for you,

0:34

visit careers dot rev group dot com

0:36

and search growth city.

0:38

Hello, and welcome to geek history lesson.

0:40

I am Jason Alba Superman's ages

0:42

in men. I am Ashley Victoria Robinson.

0:45

Welcome to your Mind University because you have

0:47

stumbled onto the podcast where we take one character,

0:49

contractor, or super person from pop culture.

0:51

And teach you everything you need to know about it

0:53

in about an hour except this week doing

0:55

something completely

0:56

different.

0:56

This one, this is what we might call

0:58

our first mega episode.

1:01

Done. Done. Yeah. So Transfer.

1:04

Very soon, possibly next

1:06

week. You're gonna hear, you know, a

1:08

new episode called Superman the Dark Age

1:10

was gonna cover Superman from nineteen eighty five

1:12

to the year two thousand. Now this is part of a

1:14

series that we've done. And

1:16

we thought instead of asking new listeners

1:19

to go back into our feed, to dig through our feed

1:21

and listen to our three

1:23

previous Superman's we

1:27

would put them all together for your

1:29

convenience into one

1:31

giant massive episode. So this

1:33

episode because at the time of this

1:35

recording, I have no idea what I'm gonna call this. I'm just

1:37

throwing that out there right

1:38

now. Future Jason is gonna figure out

1:40

the title of this. I I I'm very excited

1:42

to see what

1:43

future facing comes up with. This is smart

1:44

guy. But sometimes, do

1:47

you think he's gotten smarter over the years of this podcast?

1:49

think so.

1:51

He's gotten more super. I know that. Oh, sure.

1:53

So in this episode

1:57

is episode 108 Superman's

1:59

the Golden Age. Mhmm. Episode

2:01

207, Superman the

2:03

Silver Age. Mhmm. In episode

2:06

three fifty Superman the

2:08

Bronze Age. Now I also did not

2:10

do good, and I didn't look it up the years of

2:12

this. But episode 108 is in

2:14

our year of the

2:15

Mhmm. So you're gonna get to hear

2:17

past It's gonna be a really

2:19

interesting documentary.

2:20

Evolution of editing -- Yeah. -- and some

2:23

quality in our microphones. Yeah.

2:25

We explain basically Superman's

2:27

entire history from nineteen thirty

2:29

eight to nineteen

2:31

seventy all in one episode, and it'll be a

2:33

perfect primer for an upcoming episode,

2:36

Superman the Dark Age nineteen eighty five to two thousand

2:38

again. These characters are so big, Superman's, such

2:40

a large character that we had to break up

2:42

his history because he's a character that deserves

2:44

nothing

2:44

us. There you

2:44

go.

2:45

So it's gonna this is gonna be fun. This

2:47

also easily with this sort of recasting, it's gonna be

2:49

this is gonna be like a three hour

2:50

episode. So we have longest episode.

2:52

Enjoy it while you make it cross country trip.

2:54

Yeah. Yeah. Enjoy and enjoy past

2:56

Ashley, enjoy the the past references

2:59

to, like, the twenty seventeen. You

3:01

know, something like that. Yeah. Enjoy that.

3:03

Any other things you think we should say about Superman the

3:05

Golden Age, Superman the Silver

3:07

Age, and Superman the Bronze Age.

3:08

They're great episodes. I

3:10

think so. And

3:10

they're always we kept doing. And they're consistently

3:13

so you will beloved them when you listen to

3:15

them. Alright. So take yourself up up

3:17

and away, enjoy past a

3:20

enjoy past Jason and

3:22

tolerate a GHL. As

3:24

a couple of these episodes existed

3:27

before the employment of intern

3:29

cat breakup. That's true.

3:31

So I I think Golden Age and Silver Age existed

3:33

before intern cap. Mhmm.

3:35

I don't know how we made the podcast without him

3:37

back then. And I think you will be able to hear the

3:39

difference.

3:40

Definitely for sure.

3:41

Yep. So go up up and away. And

3:43

fly into our

3:45

histories from the past. Enjoy.

3:54

Hello, and welcome to Geek History lesson.

3:56

I'm Jason. Krypton is

3:58

blown up in men. I am Ashley Victoria

4:00

Robinson, and welcome to your Mind University because

4:03

you have stumbled onto the podcast where we

4:05

take one character our last son of

4:07

Krypton from popular culture and teach you everything that

4:09

you need to know about them in about an

4:10

hour. And today, we are finally finally

4:13

tackling the Man of Steel himself.

4:15

That's right. This little known hero known

4:17

as Superman's, many people I don't think read

4:19

his comics anymore. Mhmm. But

4:22

We're finally tackling him. He's been requested

4:24

for a long time. We've got a hundred and eight

4:26

episodes about talking about the Man of Steel.

4:28

Superman one of my favorite superheroes of

4:30

all time because I'm from his home state.

4:32

And we're kinda talking about him because we're in

4:34

the middle of Batman v Superman's

4:36

hysteria. Yeah. We sure are. Which mainly

4:38

exists in Ohio. I've heard. Oh, yeah.

4:41

Midwest. They love this. You know, I

4:43

actually know a state of Kansas. Actually, my home

4:45

state is going about Batman and Superman.

4:47

Hey, go beyond this. They

4:48

are. They love wheat, and they love their

4:50

Superman, and they love you. So

4:53

before we start this podcast about Superman,

4:56

You may be wondering why are we calling this

4:58

Superman the Golden Age? I

5:00

don't know

5:00

if you're wondering this at all. Why

5:02

are you calling the Golden Age. Well,

5:04

I'm glad you finally asked, Ashley. And

5:06

that is because Superman is

5:08

such a character with a huge history,

5:10

seventy five five years, over seventy five

5:12

years now. Wow, of history. And we

5:14

don't want to summarize or

5:17

leave out any part of it. So

5:19

we're really only covering the golden

5:21

age of and we're gonna explain what the

5:23

golden age means in just a second, but

5:25

to really give you a

5:27

timeline we are covering the

5:29

adventures of Superman in his history

5:31

from nineteen thirty eight to nineteen

5:34

fifty six. Alright. So that's about eighteen

5:36

years. That's right. Now There will be

5:38

more History lessons in the future.

5:40

We

5:40

will dance relief. All of his history up

5:43

to current day, but to

5:45

actually let you understand and

5:47

learn this is the way we have to do

5:48

it. We wanna

5:49

we wanna marinate in the Superman history.

5:51

Exactly. So let me tell you what I

5:53

meant by the golden age. Please do.

5:55

Now, the golden age is a

5:57

marker of time in comic book history if you don't

5:59

know. There's the golden age, the silver age, the bronze age,

6:01

the modern age. Haven't quite decided what

6:03

the age is we're in now. The post

6:05

modern age? I've heard, like, it's maybe the post modern age. Some

6:07

people call it the digital age, and maybe the digital

6:09

age starts in the Nu fifty two. I

6:12

don't know. Doesn't matter.

6:12

I think it gets decided down the line. But anyways, we're talking

6:14

about the golden age. Cool. Because we're not in anymore,

6:17

and we talk about it. Now The

6:20

beginning of the Golden Age is cited to

6:22

be the nineteen thirty eight debut of

6:24

Superman in action

6:25

comics, number one. Oh,

6:26

well, that's convenient. Yes. Now of

6:29

course, actual comics number one was published

6:31

by detective comics. They've,

6:33

of course, the predecessor of DC comics.

6:35

That's kinda where DC comes from. Get it. Golly

6:38

g. Yep. And the Golden Age ended with the

6:40

beginning of the silver age of comics, which

6:42

is generally recognized as

6:44

the beginning of the debut of

6:46

the first successful new superhero since

6:48

the Golden Age, which is actually the flash

6:50

when he showed up in showcase number four

6:52

in October of nineteen fifty six. That

6:55

berry Allen, though. Yep. Now

6:57

because that happened in the mid nineteen fifties,

7:00

the silver age anyways -- Mhmm. -- because

7:02

Superhero comics declined after World War

7:04

two. And the

7:06

end of the Golden Age of comics, the editors of

7:08

DC decided to revive some of their Golden

7:10

Age superheroes with completely new

7:12

origins and backstories. Hence why the

7:14

flash went from being j, Garret, to Barry Allen.

7:16

Yes. And just to let you know,

7:18

there were actually two versions of Superman's

7:20

the DCU during the nineteen fifties. Were

7:22

there really -- Yes. -- awesome. Yeah. Because it

7:24

was retroactively declared that the version

7:26

of Superman that was published between nineteen

7:29

thirty eight and the early nineteen fifties

7:31

lived on Earth two --

7:33

Oh. -- while comics featuring Superman

7:36

published since the mid fifties, took

7:38

place on Earth one. However,

7:42

since Superman is one of several

7:44

DC characters that has been continuously

7:47

published, Now, let that sink

7:49

in. There has never

7:51

been a period of time since

7:54

nineteen thirty eight when

7:56

there wasn't a Superman title being

7:57

published. That

7:58

is very, very impressive. It's I

8:01

there's very few heroes that well, there is no other

8:03

hero that has that legacy. Of nineteen

8:05

thirty eight. I mean, Batman's got it with nineteen thirty nine. Yes.

8:07

But there you go. So

8:10

since they never stopped publishing Superman during

8:12

the fifties, even though superheroes declined, there

8:15

isn't a clear dividing line between

8:17

Earth one and Earth two Superman.

8:19

So several stories published in the mid

8:21

fifties, nineteen fifties, took place on Earth

8:23

one, whereas in other

8:24

words, Brexit actually took place on Earth

8:26

two, and nobody really quite knows. And

8:29

Dude, that's my but it doesn't matter. We

8:31

again, we are going to focus on the Avengers: Superman

8:33

from nineteen thirty eight to nineteen

8:35

fifty

8:35

six. Cool. So now,

8:38

We can

8:38

hop into the first section of our podcast,

8:41

The Tencent Origin. And the Tencent

8:43

Origin is where we tell you all the cliff

8:45

notes, all the basic info, all

8:47

of the who and the what's in the lives of this character

8:49

in case you go to a really cool cocktail party for

8:51

Batman and B Superman's

8:52

like, yo, what's up with this super Yes.

8:54

In the Golden Age. In the go specifically in

8:56

the Golden Age. Now his real name is

8:58

cow l, that's dash with an l, no

9:01

e. The e was dropped retroactively when

9:03

it was decided that this was an Earth two

9:05

character. Mhmm. His other name is Clark

9:07

Kent. His Earth name, he was created

9:09

by Jerry Siegal and Joe

9:11

Shuster. His relatives are

9:13

Jorel, his birth father, Lorel,

9:15

his birth mother, John Kent,

9:17

Mary Kent, Lois

9:19

Lane Kent who eventually became his

9:21

wife. Lucille

9:23

Lane Tomkins, sister-in-law. George

9:25

Tomkins was a brother-in-law. Power Girl

9:27

was his cousin, Zoriel was

9:29

his uncle, and a Laura in

9:32

z was his aunt. And his

9:34

affiliations are the Justice Society of America, and

9:36

the all star squadron. And

9:38

his base of operations is Metropolis

9:40

and the secret

9:41

sanctuary, I will tell you more about the secret sanctuary later. Oh,

9:43

I'm excited. his first appearance, of course,

9:45

was in probably the most famous comic

9:47

book of all time, action comics

9:49

number

9:49

one, June of nineteen thirty eight, also the

9:52

most valuable comic book of all time.

9:53

Easily. Yeah.

9:54

So let's go to the meet cute

9:57

section. The meet cute section of the podcast

9:59

is a term that we saw from romantic comedy writing where

10:01

we tell you the first time we met this character

10:03

and how cute it

10:03

was. Now since this is

10:06

the golden age, Superman,

10:08

Ashley, I have a specific instance where

10:12

I met the golden age Superman. I

10:14

wanna I wanna change this instead of asking you where

10:16

you first met Superman. I wanna

10:18

ask you Have you ever read

10:20

action comics number one?

10:23

No. Never. No.

10:24

Have you ever read any of the golden

10:26

age They've early Superman

10:28

stories? No.

10:29

None

10:29

of them. No. Never. Okay.

10:31

This is a you have nothing. Okay. I've I

10:33

read Superman number seventy six, which

10:35

is the first time that he meets

10:37

Batman. There you

10:38

go. So that

10:40

that would be that would be the only one.

10:42

Well, I have read action comics number one

10:45

actually got to read it in late

10:47

junior high, one of my last years of junior

10:49

high because my friend, his

10:51

name was Dennis. He wasn't he's

10:53

not a cool dude. Okay. By the time I thought he's a

10:55

cool dude. And he had these giant

10:57

archive editions of action

10:59

comics number one and Batman

11:01

number one. And they were huge. They

11:03

were like, like, two feet by,

11:05

like, a foot. It was in feet. Wow. But

11:07

they

11:07

were, like, really trying to torn up. But, I mean, at the

11:09

time, I thought they were the legit deal. I thought

11:11

they were the real deal. And I'm

11:12

sure he led you believe that they were the real dick. Well, I'm certain you

11:15

showed up. That's why Dennis is not a good dude.

11:17

But that's how I read action comics

11:19

and Batman number one for the very first

11:20

time. That's

11:21

really cool. Okay.

11:22

So let's hop into history 101.

11:25

Yes. The main meat of a lesson where

11:27

we dive deep into

11:29

the Kryptonian realms and the crystals

11:32

of goldenate Superman. Alright.

11:34

So first, we're gonna talk about the

11:36

real world history of Superman before we

11:38

go to the fictional history. In

11:40

nineteen thirty three, Jerry Siegal

11:42

wrote a short story called Rain of the

11:44

Superman. Now in

11:46

that story, a vagrant gets

11:48

psychic power and uses them to pro for

11:50

profit only to lose them

11:52

again and become a vagrant again because he

11:54

and at the same

11:55

time, he's very ashamed that how he

11:57

misused his powers.

11:58

Well, morality tales are

12:00

important. Later in nineteen thirty

12:02

three, he developed another hero

12:04

called Superman's. Or another

12:06

character, this one is actually a hero. And

12:08

it had some of the elements that we

12:11

know, the names Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and

12:13

so on. But he was

12:15

merely a strong man and

12:17

had no Superman's and no

12:19

costume. Okay. Now a strong man course

12:21

is the guy in the tight tights with the big mustache,

12:23

the superhero, the the circus strong

12:25

man's one.

12:25

Yeah. Yeah. Who sometimes lifts trap sword weights.

12:26

Yep. So Siegel had

12:29

Joe Shuster draw that story

12:31

up into a comic, and they submitted it to

12:33

several companies, but they kept getting turned

12:35

down. Aw. Segal first

12:37

thought, it was because the companies

12:39

didn't think that Schuster was a good enough

12:41

artist. So What am

12:43

thickening of things? A little bit.

12:45

So Siegel wanted to fire him. And

12:48

when Schuster found out about this, he

12:50

responded by burning the

12:52

strong man comic book and only sparing

12:54

the cover. Wow. That's a

12:56

totally rock and roll way to react. I love it.

12:58

So Siegel made another Superman comic

13:00

with another artist named Russell

13:02

Keaton. And in this comic, Superman

13:04

further evolved, except this

13:06

is kinda neat. I didn't know this.

13:08

I've never heard this before. In this story,

13:11

earth is in the far future. And

13:13

it's about to explode. And the last

13:16

surviving man since his child

13:18

back in time to nineteen thirty

13:20

five where he's adopted by Sam and

13:22

Molly Kent. This

13:24

child has great strength and bulletproof

13:26

skin, and they teach him to use his

13:28

powers for good. He can't fly or

13:30

anything like that, but he's a time travel baby.

13:32

However, this comic was also -- Double

13:33

Bayhill. -- this comic was also

13:36

rejected by several companies as well.

13:38

Mhmm. It's so there's

13:40

many elements, though, that you can see from the

13:42

classic Stormwind

13:43

origins. Very interesting. Now Segal

13:45

eventually reunited with Schuster, And

13:47

at the time they both got jobs with national

13:50

allied publications -- Mhmm. -- which

13:52

at the time had expressed interest

13:54

in Superman's. They began to develop the

13:56

concept more and the familiar

13:58

costume showed up, the alien

14:00

nature, Superman became part of the story, and then

14:02

they submitted Superman to a company

14:04

called detective comics. The detective

14:06

comics loved it, and

14:08

Siegel and Schuster sold all the rights to

14:10

Superman to detective comics for at the

14:12

time a hundred and

14:14

thirty

14:14

dollars. Now, adjusted for

14:17

inflation, that is two thousand and

14:19

two hundred dollars today. That's

14:21

still for a character that became

14:23

as iconic as Superman did. I

14:25

mean, that's

14:26

nothing. That's that's

14:29

insane. It's very low, I

14:31

think. Yeah. Which

14:33

because I honestly think you could make the argument

14:35

for Superman being the most famous character of all time.

14:37

You could. Definitely good. His symbol actually is in the

14:39

top five symbols of

14:41

recognized worldwide. Yeah. Along

14:43

with

14:43

the Coca Cola from. And the crucifix.

14:46

Yeah. Yeah. Alright.

14:55

Become a part of the Horton team. We're

14:57

looking for welders, painters, assemblers,

14:59

machine operators, cabinet makers,

15:01

and other positions to build emergency

15:03

vehicles that help save lives. Joining us

15:05

at our hiring event on Wednesday, January

15:07

eight teeth two to five PM at 3800

15:10

McDowell Road and Grove City.

15:12

We offer a huge fifteen hundred dollars sign on

15:14

bonus and great benefits such as 401

15:16

match, Medical coverage starting day

15:18

one, and much more. For more information

15:20

on what Horton can do for

15:21

you, visit careers dot revgroup

15:23

dot com and search Grove City. Membership

15:26

fees apply after free trial, cancel anytime. You

15:28

know what's wrong with health and fitness?

15:31

You weaponize it against

15:33

Why didn't you go to the gym today? You're

15:35

so lazy. Why did you eat

15:37

that? You have no self control. Stop

15:40

it. At beach body, we think

15:42

training and caring for your body in a way that

15:44

works best for you should be

15:46

about loving yourself. Let us

15:48

help you without all the judgment.

15:50

Here's how. Go to beachbody dot

15:52

com to claim your free membership

15:54

and start feeling great.

15:55

Member fees apply after free trial. Cancel

15:58

any time. Guys, are you trying to stay in twenty

16:00

year old shape in your thirties and forties and

16:02

finding it well, impossible. That

16:04

you need to listen to this. Beachbody, the

16:06

company that revolutionized getting ripped at

16:08

home with p ninety x and insanity, has a brand

16:10

new program just for you called

16:12

Live Four. It's part lift, it's part hit.

16:14

With total body shredding results in just

16:16

thirty to forty minutes a day, right at home on the

16:18

beach body on demand app, that's how you get

16:20

killer results. As an adult. Go to beachbody dot

16:22

com to sign up now and you can try to live for

16:24

for

16:24

free. That's beachbody dot com. So,

16:27

actually, fun fact, action comics number

16:29

one became in success. Yay.

16:31

And thus, they were off to the

16:32

races, and now we can jump into the fictional

16:34

history of Superman. Let's

16:36

do it. Now Superman was born cowell

16:38

of the planet Krypton. His

16:40

father was an esteemed scientist, Jor Elle, and

16:42

his mother was a librarian named

16:44

Laura. I like that.

16:45

Yep.

16:46

While Kalel was still a toddler, his

16:48

father discovered that the planet Krypton

16:50

or as Marlon Brando says

16:51

it, Krypton. Well The

16:53

planet Krypton. The planet

16:56

Krypton. It's an acting choice. Heated

16:57

on the brink of absolute destruction.

16:59

Whoo. Realizing that there was not enough time

17:01

to save everyone on the planet. He'd deposited

17:03

his son inside a specifically designed rocketship

17:06

and launched him into outer space

17:08

to earth directly because he

17:10

knew that earth would give his son

17:12

powers, And as Calo's rocket, of course,

17:14

broke through the atmosphere, Krypton, Krypton

17:16

exploded. I like that you said he deposited

17:18

his son. Like, as I just imagined,

17:20

like, this giant man, like dropping a

17:23

baby into a

17:23

rocket. He's like, yeah. He's the man of steel. He'll be Well,

17:26

the interesting

17:26

thing about this is that he's not an

17:29

No.

17:29

He's a he's a toddler. So he's a little less breakable. Because

17:31

that will change later on. Mhmm.

17:33

After flying through space for an undetermined

17:35

amount of time, they do not reveal how

17:37

long it takes. Which I kinda I have always liked that in

17:39

Superman origins. I like the fact that there is

17:41

the possibility that Kraton

17:44

might have exploded

17:46

in Earth timeline, like somewhere

17:49

in the middle ages.

17:50

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And and

17:51

because of time dilation and traveling

17:53

faster in light, that's why Superman doesn't

17:56

bait. You could also make the argument for, like, he

17:58

could be in stasis when he's inside the ship

18:00

for all we know Christian's very advanced.

18:02

Sense. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've always liked that. I like the idea

18:04

that Krypton was, like, way. Like, he he was

18:06

in space for a long time. Science.

18:09

Yep. Now, his rocket crashed in a

18:11

small community named Smallville.

18:13

Notice how I did not say

18:15

Kansas. That will come later

18:17

and possibly another geek history

18:18

lesson. Just a

18:21

place called Smallville. Cool.

18:23

Though at first he was placed in an

18:26

orphanage. Oh. Yeah. Cal

18:28

was soon adopted by the kents and given the

18:30

name Clark. And over time, he discovered his

18:32

many powers. And during his tanger

18:34

years, Clark met his strange

18:36

visitor from another

18:38

universe. His own

18:39

counterpart, Superboy of

18:42

Earth one. And

18:43

this is

18:44

where the Red Khan started with

18:46

it. Oh, oh, guy. The more experienced Superboy from Earth

18:48

one helped train Clark in the use of his

18:51

powers. And during this period, Clark briefly

18:53

worked as a circus strong man

18:55

under identity of the masked

18:57

wonder. That's

18:57

a that's a cute little callback to

19:00

the origins of the character. Yep. Him working as

19:02

strongly. I like that.

19:02

Now Mary Ma Kent later

19:05

died. Now, notice it's Mary, not Martha.

19:06

I did notice that. And when

19:09

John Pawke Kent was on his

19:11

deathbed, he made Clark promise to use

19:13

his powers for the good of mankind.

19:15

Now Clark's father calls Clark

19:18

a Superman's, inspiring

19:21

Clark in the use of his

19:23

name. And so

19:25

Clark Clark takes his

19:27

father's advice and creates the identity

19:29

of Superman.

19:29

That's lovely. That's interesting that, you

19:32

know, basically from his inception that

19:34

Superman's reverence and respect for his parents and the values

19:36

that they instilled in him is what keeps him

19:38

on the right

19:38

track. Exactly.

19:39

Exactly that. Because he could break the planet in

19:41

half. Right. If

19:42

if he man, they must have What else do you need?

19:44

He need your He'll be able to this Superman can't.

19:46

Well because I'm gonna to

19:48

his powers here very Okay. Now Clark

19:50

quickly earned himself a job as a reporter at

19:52

the daily star, not the

19:55

daily planet. After turning

19:57

in a story about Superman's first public

19:59

act. Well, he's

20:00

just writing his own coattails to the

20:03

top. Yep. But despite Superman's

20:05

honorable intentions, Superman

20:07

was not initially considered a hero and

20:09

was in fact regarded as a

20:12

vigilant entity working outside of the law -- Gasp. --

20:14

and the legal authorities many

20:16

times fired at him and tried to

20:18

arrest him. While Wow. Many of his

20:20

earliest public actions showed Kallel

20:22

engaging in aggressive actions

20:24

against wife beaters. These

20:26

are some of Superman's first villains.

20:28

Okay. Wife beaters, slum

20:30

lords, social criminals, corrupt

20:34

politicians, corrupt cops, and

20:36

mobsters. So this is nineteen

20:37

thirty eight.

20:38

Is it nineteen thirty eight? It's

20:39

surprisingly progressive even by today's

20:42

standards. Just just we'll get

20:44

to how progressive it is once I started going

20:46

summaries here we go. Okay. Now to show

20:48

you how different this Superman is,

20:50

I thought it would be nice to

20:52

summarize the first ten issues of

20:55

Superman's first ten stories. Okay. And

20:57

to show you how crazy this Superman

20:59

kinda is compared to what we think of

21:02

as Superman. Okay. Now this is the Superman that

21:04

became so popular that it

21:06

created a second Solo title for

21:08

him and led to Superman being

21:10

continuously published for over seventy five

21:12

years. Now at the time -- Yes.

21:14

-- characters

21:14

really didn't get solo titles. No.

21:17

That's very

21:17

true. So one of

21:20

the first. He might be the first. I'm not certain

21:22

about that. So here we go. So here we go. Here's the

21:24

summaries of the first ten Superman

21:26

stories. Now also notice I did

21:28

not say the first ten issues of

21:30

action comics. I did notice that

21:32

in fact. Okay. Here we go. Action

21:34

comics issue number one. Okay. It

21:36

starts with a one page explanation of

21:38

Superman's power. He can leap one

21:40

eighth of a mile or a twenty story

21:42

building. Wow. And again, notice that he

21:44

said he did he can't

21:44

fly. He can leaping is pretty

21:46

impressive. And nothing it says in the

21:49

text nothing less than a bursting

21:51

shell can penetrate his skin, so he's not

21:53

completely invulnerable. But

21:55

close enough. He's for for nineteen thirty eight

21:57

times, he's he's a he's a Mac truck.

22:02

So Alright.

22:05

So here we go. Oh, such an America metaphor.

22:07

So in the issue, Superman shows up

22:09

to the governor's mansion. They never say what state, but

22:11

the governor. Yeah. Naturally. The

22:14

attendant tells him that the governor is

22:16

is sleeping and he can't see

22:18

him. And the superman breaks down the door and he's

22:20

like, I'll see him. Now But he

22:23

stopped at the governor's door, which

22:25

is actually made of steel for some reason.

22:28

And Superman's the governor because the Superman

22:30

breaks that door down too.

22:33

He he tells he tells the

22:35

governor that he has evidence that will

22:37

save a woman that is going to be executed

22:39

in less than fifteen

22:39

minutes. Oh, he's

22:40

like, that's why I broke into your house and friend

22:42

your man served. Yeah. The governor looks at these

22:45

papers and calls the prison and gets her

22:47

sentence immediately commuted. The next next day

22:49

at The Daily Star, the

22:51

editor wants Kent to find out about this

22:53

And then a tip on the phone comes

22:55

in The Daily Star about a wife beating that is

22:57

in progress. Wow. So

22:59

Clark runs off and

23:01

Superman runs into the apartment on the wife

23:03

beating as Superman punches the husband

23:06

saying to the husband as the husband is flying

23:08

through the air. You're not fighting

23:10

a woman now. Okay.

23:14

Clark returns to his office

23:16

after thoroughly beating the wife beater

23:19

-- As you should -- -- and nervously asked

23:21

Lois out for a date. Lois,

23:23

of course says yes. And

23:25

while they're dancing on their date,

23:27

Clark asks Lois, why do you always

23:29

avoid me at the office Lois? Lois

23:32

replies, please, Clark. I've been writing sob

23:34

stories all day, so don't ask me to dish

23:36

out another. That's literally exactly

23:39

the line that she's in. Oh,

23:41

I I'm gonna flat out say right now. I love

23:43

Lois Lane. Golden age Lois Lane

23:45

is a bitch. A

23:48

bitch and

23:48

a prude. So

23:50

not like, look small, Bill. No.

23:51

No. She's like, you're a coward and

23:53

I hate you. I

23:57

need there to be an action figure of Golden Beach Loews Lane

23:59

with an intangible speech bubble that

24:02

says it's your calorie that I hate

24:04

you.

24:05

So makes Okay. So

24:09

Then a man tries to cut

24:11

in on their dance a tough. Right?

24:14

And Lois doesn't want to yeah. Yeah. And Lois doesn't want to

24:16

dance with this man. And Clark just

24:18

as

24:18

nervous. He's like, well, just dance with the man Lois. It'll

24:20

be fine.

24:21

Then we'll go, Yeah. Yeah. So

24:24

Clark so Lois gets

24:26

so mad that we're still in the

24:28

first issue. It's not the best big ever.

24:30

So Lois gets so mad at Clark that she

24:32

slaps Clark and leaves Clark in

24:34

disgust. But you see

24:36

but you see that tough really wanted to

24:38

dance. So he follows Lois in his car. He

24:41

follows Lois' lap on his car. And

24:43

Superman sees this Superman's chases down

24:45

the car. And when the driver sees

24:47

him in the rearview mirror, he exclaims,

24:49

it's the devil himself. Wow.

24:52

Yeah. And then Superman lifts

24:54

the car the image that we see on the

24:56

very famous cover. Mhmm. And

24:58

Lois c Superman for the very first

25:00

time, one of my favorite panels in all

25:03

Superman history, Superman comes close to

25:05

Lois and he

25:05

says, you needn't be afraid of me.

25:08

I won't harm you. Well,

25:09

that's Superman and A nutshell, isn't it? Yep. The

25:11

next morning, Lois tries to publish the Superman

25:14

story, but the chief won't have it because

25:16

he thinks it's ridiculous and

25:18

absurd. Well -- Yep.

25:20

-- but instead he sends Clark Kent

25:22

to a country called Santa Monte

25:24

to cover a war going on there.

25:26

But, of doesn't go directly there. He takes

25:28

a train and he stops in Washington DC.

25:30

Sure. And just on

25:32

the way. Yeah. And in Washington DC,

25:35

Superman overhears a conversation between

25:37

a a politician

25:38

and, like, a mobster trying to convince the

25:40

politician to vote on a certain

25:41

bill. Still the first issue?

25:42

Weird. We have not left the first issue yet. There's

25:45

like

25:45

three plot points down now.

25:47

So Superman grabs the man trying to

25:49

corrupt the senator and holds him as

25:51

he runs along the electric lines of

25:52

DC, runs on top of the world. Pictures of

25:54

that. And then that's where action comics number

25:56

one ends. And and

26:00

and here's a fun

26:00

fact. Okay. Okay. So that's action comments

26:03

number one. Right? That's

26:03

bonkers. Yep.

26:05

So action comments number one did

26:08

really well. Yeah. Superman's

26:11

not on the cover of action comics number

26:14

two.

26:14

Daisy comics. What are you doing? No. What's

26:16

you doing? Detective comics. Detect

26:17

it would do. DC

26:18

comics totally doesn't exist now.

26:20

Detective comics, what's your doing?

26:22

Superman doesn't appear on the cover of issue

26:25

too. Why not? Or or three?

26:27

Why not? Or four. Weird. Or

26:29

five. Yeah. Or

26:32

six. Superman does not appear on the cover of action

26:34

comics until action comics

26:36

issue seven. Wow.

26:39

But He has stories in each of

26:41

these issues, but they have other changes.

26:43

So and and there's one of

26:45

these covers that I thought was really that I'm gonna describe to

26:47

you because I can't believe that's the image they chose

26:49

over Superman. Okay. There you go. So let's jump

26:51

to issue number two. Okay. Issue number two. Now

26:53

now the again, these are gonna become

26:56

stories they won't be as long because they won't be the whole

26:58

issue. There'll just be pieces of the issue. Cool. Here you

27:00

go. So in issue number two, Superman

27:02

goes to Santa Monte, like I said in the first

27:04

of June. And he forces a

27:06

munitions manufacturer to join the

27:08

army up. Okay? Because he thinks

27:10

he's like, oh, here's making all these weapons. You don't

27:12

understand what it's like for the real man. This

27:14

horrifying the wealthy man and thus

27:16

he returns to the United States and vows

27:18

to never manufacture anything more

27:21

dangerous than a

27:21

firecracker. I'm

27:22

just saying and that a lesson to put out in the

27:25

world right now. And then

27:26

Superman returns back to Santa Monte and makes

27:29

the two warring commanders stand down their

27:31

armies so they won't fight.

27:32

Wow. That's the

27:33

story. Wow. Issue number three is called

27:36

Superman battle's death

27:38

underground. That's like

27:40

that's, like, upside beneath of around the mutant

27:42

planets of the Earth, planets of

27:44

the ape kinda

27:45

title. That's ridiculous. So

27:47

in issue three, Superman saved some minors from a

27:50

collapsed mine, which Superman

27:52

believes happen because of unsafe

27:54

minor mine So he

27:56

hides a worker. And while in

27:58

the cave, Superman causes a

28:00

cave in while the owner of the

28:02

mine is incited. And when the

28:04

owner of the cave discovers the safety

28:06

commissions don't work, he vows to

28:08

fix it all and makes his mind

28:10

the safest in the

28:11

world. And when Superman hears that, he he

28:14

clears the way to safety.

28:15

Oh, good job, Superman. But you might be

28:17

noticing a trend here. I am noticing sing

28:19

a trend. Okay. Issue number four, Superman takes

28:21

down a corrupt football

28:22

coach, and it's really not that

28:25

interesting. So we're gonna be Oh, okay. They

28:27

can all be they

28:27

can all be that. Yes. Issue number

28:30

five is called the Big Scoop

28:32

and is the birth of the Clark

28:34

and Lois Lane

28:35

rivalry. Yeah.

28:36

Okay. So here's the story for this one. Okay.

28:38

The editor of The Daily Star learns

28:40

that the Valley Ho dam is in danger

28:42

of cracking because of torrential rain.

28:45

Okay. Clark is nowhere to be found,

28:47

so Lois demands the story.

28:49

But the editor of

28:51

the daily

28:52

star. Mhmm. Thinks the story is too

28:54

dangerous for all woman. He's like,

28:56

what, girly? Yeah.

28:57

Us, girly. You can't take her, so But I

28:58

got Moxie. Whoa. Lois does have

29:01

Moxie and she's so insulted. F yeah.

29:03

That she tracks down Clark and

29:05

then feeds Clark misinformation

29:07

so that he will go on a wild goose

29:09

chase, that's not the dam, so that Lois can go to

29:11

the dam and get the storm.

29:12

Oh, Lois, that's mean. Mad

29:15

that Clark let himself get scooped

29:17

by Lois, the editor then

29:20

fires Clark Kent from The Daily

29:22

Star. Wow. So Clark dresses up a Superman,

29:24

Superman's damn, and actually is because

29:26

he goes there a Superman, he actually beats Lois

29:28

there. Mhmm. But he's still unable to stop

29:30

the damn from cracking. Okay. So he

29:32

still has to save Lois, but he's

29:34

able to save the city because he's able to

29:36

divert divert the water away from the

29:39

city. Superman then calls in

29:41

the scoop about the flood being

29:43

diverted as Clark and

29:46

regains his

29:47

job. That's

29:47

lucky, which

29:48

infuriates Lois to know him. I'm sure.

29:50

How

29:50

did Clark meet me

29:51

at the story? He wasn't even

29:53

there. Yep. Now we're gonna

29:55

to issue six, which is a story that I think is

29:57

called as brilliant, the man who sold

30:00

Superman. A man named

30:02

Nick Williams claims to be Superman's personal

30:05

manager and offers Clark an

30:05

interview. God, that is such

30:07

an LA thing to do. Clark takes him

30:09

up on his offer, but not before Lois

30:11

Clatt grabs Clark, and tells him to

30:13

take her to dinner. During

30:16

the

30:16

dinner, Lois drugs

30:19

Clark. Wait. Yep.

30:21

We are

30:21

reverse roofies going. Lois Lane,

30:24

roofies, Clark Kent, and takes

30:26

the meeting instead. But

30:28

Lois at the meeting is unconvinced by the actor

30:30

that Nick hired to play Superman. So

30:32

Nick William throw Nick William's

30:34

throws her out of a window, when

30:36

she threatens to reveal the

30:36

scam. But luckily for

30:38

Wow. But luckily for Lois, Superman,

30:41

the drugs didn't affect him and

30:43

he's he's wait outside the building and catch lowest and exposes

30:45

Williams as a

30:45

fraud. He's like, this is gonna

30:46

go south. I'll just wait outside the window. Issue

30:49

number seven is a

30:51

very sweet story. Clark

30:53

has sent to interview the head of the Jordan circus that

30:55

came to town, and the owner overhears

30:57

the owner sad that it will go

31:00

broke because the circus has to pay off the mob. Mhmm.

31:02

Circuit Clark sees the show there

31:04

and he notices he notes he actually says

31:06

this that it lacks flash.

31:10

So Superman takes pity on the

31:12

circus and shows up to the circus, saying that he

31:14

will be the circus's new strong

31:16

man. Yeah. And during the show, he

31:18

lifts an elephant. He juggles the other strong man.

31:20

Does all these crazy

31:21

stuff? Juggles the other strong man. Juggles the

31:23

other strong man and an elephant at the same time. That's

31:25

amazing.

31:26

I want that on a t shirt. So the mob

31:27

men see this and they realize that this this

31:30

circus is gonna go through the roof to make so much

31:32

money. Yeah. Yeah.

31:32

They start to cause accidents because they

31:34

are afraid that the course of the service is gonna be

31:36

too successful. But

31:39

Superman stops the mobsters and saves the

31:42

circus, in the b plot. There is

31:44

a daily star worker named

31:46

curly who yep.

31:49

Who keeps who keeps flipping

31:51

out Clark Kent's tie. You know, I guess tucked in

31:53

the front of

31:53

you. And he keeps flipping out Clark Kent's tie every

31:55

time he walks by, but Clark never

31:57

gets mad about it. So

31:59

and Curry keeps remarking about like, oh, it's

32:01

so crazy. So one moment at the very end of

32:03

the issue when Curry is walking into an office,

32:06

Superman runs at SuperSpeed and

32:08

pulls all of Chloe's

32:10

clothing

32:10

off, making him completely naked in public in

32:12

an instant. To

32:15

what end? Because

32:16

that to Superman wins, I think if Eric

32:18

don't don't you don't tug on Superman's Kate.

32:21

I I guess not.

32:30

Become a part of the Horton team, We're

32:32

looking for welders, painters, assemblers, machine

32:35

operators, cabinet makers, and other positions

32:37

to build emergency vehicles that help

32:39

save lives. Joining us at our hiring event

32:41

on Wednesday, January eighteenth from two to

32:43

five PM at 3800

32:45

McDowell Road and Grove City.

32:47

We offer a huge fifteen hundred dollar sign on

32:49

bonus and great benefits such as 401

32:52

match, medical coverage starting day

32:54

one and much

32:55

more. For more information on what Horton can do for you, visit

32:57

careers dot revgroup dot com and search

32:59

Grove City.

33:00

With the Kroger Plus card, it's easy to

33:03

get lower than low prices. Further

33:05

win. Earn fuel points on every purchase and

33:07

save up to a dollar a gallon at the

33:09

pump. The Kroger Plus card, all you do

33:11

is win. Big big savings.

33:14

now at kroger dot com and start

33:15

saving. Kroger, fresh for

33:18

everyone. Savings may vary by state

33:20

fuel restrictions apply. Save more on

33:22

natural and organic items. your

33:24

digital coupons on our app and use them up to five

33:26

times in one transaction with your

33:27

card. Kroger, fresh

33:30

for everyone. Aggressive presents,

33:32

adjusting to the suburbs. I never

33:34

thought I'd care about gardening until I bought a

33:36

house in the suburbs. But now I

33:38

find myself in conversation about

33:40

liquid fertilizer. And I wonder, am I

33:42

the fertilizer guy now? No.

33:45

No way. Everyone knows the

33:47

ratio between phosphorus and

33:48

nitrogen. Right? Yeah. I'm still

33:51

totally cool. Anyway, when you save

33:53

it progressive by bundling your home in

33:55

auto, that's the easy part of adjusting to

33:57

the suburbs.

33:58

Substantial tantrums covered in coverage provided in service by affiliates and third

34:00

party insurers. Move on to issue number eight and

34:02

see where man is not on the cover again.

34:06

I This is the funniest cover of all. Okay. The cover

34:08

of

34:08

action comics number eight is an Indian,

34:10

a Native American -- Mhmm.

34:12

-- fighting a British

34:14

soldier. Awesome. There's, like,

34:16

struggling. It's so

34:16

good. Yeah. There you go. And they were, like,

34:19

this is more interesting than the men of tomorrow. Well,

34:21

actually, because the story in issue eight is quite

34:23

forgettable because Superman tries to save a bunch

34:25

of kids and the bad tenements they live and they kinda

34:27

live in a kennel. So

34:30

Superman to save the kids

34:32

decides to break apart

34:34

the building in every building in

34:36

this tenement area because he figures

34:38

that if he breaks them

34:38

all, they'll have to rebuild them and the people can live

34:40

there.

34:41

That's a terrible idea. Well, it is terrible

34:43

because starts bashing down these buildings all

34:45

in managed steel style, and the army is

34:47

sent in to stop him. Why? But

34:50

the end of the story just jumps ahead in time and

34:52

they all have new apartment buildings,

34:54

unexplainable. And they're and they're

34:55

like, yeah, thank you, sir,

34:56

man. And just about tied to me.

34:57

Yeah. But literally there's, like, pages in this where

35:00

Superman is, like, destroying apartment

35:02

buildings. Wow.

35:06

Issue nine actually has a race car on the cover. Awesome.

35:08

Is Superman in, around, or lifting the

35:10

race car? No. It's just a race car.

35:12

Superman is not in the cover.

35:15

In this issue, the police are in full force

35:17

as they hire Captain Riley to capture

35:20

Superman. Okay? When Clark

35:22

asks Lois out on the date,

35:24

She actually says that she despises Clark and

35:26

that she truly only loves Superman.

35:28

You're a coward and I hate

35:30

you. Now, here's the fun thing about this.

35:33

Clark quickly walks to another office room and starts

35:36

laughing out loud because he thinks it's

35:38

hilarious. I love that.

35:40

That's fantastic. Quickly,

35:42

Captain Reilly offers a five

35:44

thousand dollar reward for the capture of

35:46

Superman. And a man named Mortimer,

35:48

he finds he finds

35:50

Clark's clothes in an

35:52

alleyway during one of the times that Superman

35:54

is out rescuing somebody. Mhmm. And in

35:56

the close, he finds a

35:58

note that says going to Dunkin'

36:00

reception. Mortimer, of course,

36:02

tells Captain O'Reilly, hey, I found the close of Superman

36:04

blah blah Superman's. So the police

36:06

show up at the

36:08

Dunkin'

36:08

reception. Clark is there. And just before he was

36:10

going to be searched and

36:12

have his costume, of course, will

36:15

be revealed. Got it. Mortimer turns

36:17

off the lights because O'Reilly wasn't going to give him

36:19

his five thousand dollar reward. So when

36:21

he flicks off the lights, Clark is able to run

36:23

out run

36:25

his clothes, run back in, and appear as

36:28

Superman. Well, that's

36:29

And of course, he bashes

36:31

in O'Reilly and Mordor's heads.

36:33

Solvency. Solvency solving the issues.

36:35

Everything

36:35

was brain damage. Yep.

36:38

Now we get to issue ten of action comics, and

36:40

Superman is finally back on the

36:42

cover. Yay. And in this Superman helps to overthrow a cruel prison

36:44

warden who is torturing his prisoners.

36:46

And it's that's about it. That's all

36:48

you need to know. Of course, he

36:50

pretends to be one of the prisoners and gets the prison

36:52

wardener to be tortured. And the prison

36:54

wardener warden is like, oh, I miss my

36:56

ways. Oh, I should be a better prison

36:58

warden. Yeah. I I am.

37:00

There you go. And the issue ends with an

37:02

ad saying Superman's Strip

37:04

sensation of nineteen thirty and

37:05

nine, and every issue of action comics

37:07

tell your friends. Tell

37:09

your friend -- Yeah. -- that's funny. You can

37:11

also tell your friends about the podcast

37:13

sensation of geek history lesson friends -- Mhmm. --

37:15

and all the fantastic extras you can get at paid

37:17

dot slash geek history lesson. For

37:20

three dollars of support, you can keep

37:22

down the commies, but you can also get the

37:24

episodes a day early, or

37:26

if I dollars a month, you can

37:28

get the Patreon exclusive podcast, Geek History Lesson Extra, which has twenty more

37:30

minutes of Yappen, Ashley and Jay

37:33

and yapping about all the subjects you want to know, like, all

37:36

those talkies you're not be you're looking

37:38

at. And the nickel

37:40

dime, it does. I'm running out of

37:42

steam here. Atrionda dot

37:44

com slash drawman is where the true heroes of

37:46

adventure support the artists that they love

37:48

and back

37:49

to more darien Adventures of Superman.

37:52

Hey. I thought that

37:53

was tremendously done. Patreon dot com slash on.

37:54

When I ran out of air, I need to take a

37:57

drink real quick, so vampa. Well,

37:58

what happens when you talk like an old timey guy or when talk like Varek.

38:00

But now we're gonna do more semi installed. I mean,

38:02

they all had two in tobacco and cigarettes. That's how

38:05

they got through it. Yeah, really. Now

38:08

as you can tell, I'm giving you a primer. I'm giving you a nice

38:11

base foundation of Superman. Solid. And you

38:13

Superman's the golden age

38:15

of ventures of By

38:17

our standards, of course, are a little silly. Wow.

38:20

But I like that they're very

38:22

socially

38:22

conscious. They are. I

38:23

I'm actually kinda surprised

38:26

by how relevant they are. Yes. So we're gonna skip all the head a little

38:28

bit and we're gonna summarize a bit more because

38:30

we gotta get to we gotta get to nineteen fifty

38:32

six. Okay. Okay,

38:34

Ashley. I wanna ask

38:36

you, do you know who Superman's first Superman was?

38:40

No.

38:40

Can I guess? Yes. I

38:44

would assume that it is Lex

38:46

Luther in some form

38:48

or

38:48

another. It is

38:49

not Lex Luther. I

38:51

would guess that it's brainiac. It is

38:54

not brainiac. Well, I'm all out of

38:56

ideas. It is the

38:58

ultra humanite. That weird monkey

38:59

guy? Yes. But at this time, he was bald and looked exactly

39:01

like like Luther. Oh, yeah. I've seen a big

39:03

shoes of that. Well, as I mentioned, if you remember

39:05

earlier, the Golden H. D.

39:07

Brand has varied stink differences from what we know as

39:09

Superman. Mhmm. So there's that for for instance.

39:12

Also, Superman didn't have a fortress of

39:14

solitude during

39:16

this time. He had a a place called the Secret Citadel,

39:18

which basically just had a giant workout center

39:20

inside. Awesome. Yep. Now a

39:22

Superman continued to be

39:24

the most successful character in

39:26

comics during this period, his solo book

39:28

quickly went from being a quarterly

39:30

to a bimonthly book. Wow. And he would

39:32

also get a lead slot in world's

39:34

finest comics, which was a follow-up

39:36

to the New York New York

39:38

World's Fair Specials, and these

39:40

comics would feature both super man

39:42

and

39:42

Batman. That's the reason why they're called world's finest. That is a

39:45

true and scientific

39:45

fact. Yep. Even though every story is

39:48

credited to Seadrill and Shuster,

39:50

this is

39:52

complete

39:52

untrue. Oh, really?

39:53

Yes. Actually Shuster stayed on the strip longer

39:55

than he did any of his other

39:57

creations, but the sheer

40:00

volume of Superman stories with action

40:02

comics and the solo

40:04

title and world's finest necessitated them

40:06

bringing on other artists and other writers.

40:08

Wayne Boring actually would be one of the greatest influences at this time

40:11

because he is the one that is

40:13

giving credit for the

40:16

Superman Superman's on Sudan's

40:18

chest becoming what we think of it

40:20

as today with the triangular kind of Yeah.

40:22

It's a kind of dimension. Because

40:24

before then, it's kinda like a gold sheel

40:26

with a red ass and, like, it did all kind of difference. It wasn't a

40:28

stylized, I would

40:29

say. Yeah. Wayne Warren's the one that's

40:30

responsible for what we think of

40:33

as this stylized Superman's. Thanks,

40:35

Wayne. You do good work. Yeah.

40:36

Now during these further adventures, we learned that Clark

40:38

actually and this is a fun fact. Clark

40:41

actually has a massive

40:43

Clark clock collection and collects

40:45

clocks. That's where -- Exactly. -- has

40:47

never been mentioned again. That's super

40:49

that would be a great detail to introduce

40:51

if you were doing I

40:52

would do it now. Yeah. Like, if we were gonna see his apartment in Metropolis, like and

40:55

he had a room that was just full of clocks and they're like,

40:57

why? He's like, I I just like to see time

40:58

fly. There you are. There you go. Great.

41:02

In action comics number sixty nine, we learned for the

41:04

first time that his x-ray vision cannot see

41:06

through lead. Mhmm. He also uses super

41:08

breath for the first time and

41:12

super hypnosis, which actually

41:14

almost gets overused during this time

41:16

to prevent Lois from discovering his identity.

41:18

Yeah. Yeah. Now also during this time period, as I mentioned

41:20

a couple times, the editor of The Daily Star,

41:22

his name was actually George Taylor.

41:24

Okay. But by nineteen forty one,

41:28

Clark is suddenly under the daily planet under

41:30

Perry White. Great. Now these changes were

41:32

done to correspond to the very popular

41:36

Radio Show. Mhmm. But it was actually

41:38

poorly executed in the comics

41:40

because in action well, in action comics

41:42

number twenty two, The daily star

41:44

sends Lois and Clark to the European

41:46

country of Kolonial when it is

41:48

invaded by Tehran. But in issue

41:50

twenty three, they file

41:52

their story on the same

41:54

invasion with the daily

41:55

planet. Okay? So at flip flops

41:58

and Georgetown and Perry White kinda do

42:00

that a couple times too. So

42:01

those editors weren't doing their jobs. So you were just get

42:03

them out. Get

42:03

them out. Get

42:04

them out. Yeah. For real. And again, like I said,

42:06

George Taylor's appearance alters because sometimes he's

42:08

heavy, sometimes he's

42:09

old, sometimes he's smoking

42:12

a cigar.

42:13

Barryl. And

42:13

in Superman number seven, he abruptly changes

42:16

his name to Perry White

42:18

even though he's drawn the

42:20

exact same way as

42:22

George

42:22

Taylor.

42:22

Parry with some more distinctive names, so I think it was better choice

42:24

really. In Superman number eleven, Lois

42:26

first notices that Clark is never around

42:29

what Superman is and she wonders

42:32

Is it possible that and this goes on for about a year

42:34

and tells a story in Superman seventeen

42:36

Superman's Lois tries to prove that

42:38

Clark is really

42:40

Superman's. And of course, she fails, but

42:42

this will go on for decades. For literally the rest of time.

42:44

Yes. Jimmy Olsen is

42:48

slowly and as Shirley worked into the comic Again,

42:50

Jimmy first made his appearance in the

42:52

Superman Radio series and was

42:54

retroactively combined

42:57

with an unnamed office boy that

42:59

appeared in several early issues of action

43:01

comments.

43:01

Hey, unnamed office boy. Bring me a pencil. In

43:03

Superman number five, the boy actually has brown

43:05

hair and no name. And in issue

43:07

number

43:08

thirteen, he's finally called Jimmy and it's not until Superman

43:10

fifteen that he's actually

43:11

called Jimmy Olson.

43:14

Wow. Would have imagined that there's just

43:16

like this lost boys collection of

43:18

young men working in the Daily Plan. Now

43:20

here's what we're gonna get even crazier. Jimmy

43:22

doesn't get his red hair and bow tie

43:25

until action comics number forty nine. Really? And a

43:27

few months later, in world's

43:29

finest number six,

43:31

It's finally revealed that him and Clark

43:33

are friends. Wow.

43:34

So there you go. It took longer than

43:36

I would have expected. Yeah. Very interesting. The

43:39

daily planet's iconic globe that's to pop their building

43:41

and finally debut in this area.

43:44

Although different artists changed

43:46

their mind on whether they wanted

43:48

to draw or not. So sometimes it shows up and sometimes it

43:50

doesn't. Awesome. Yep. Continuity.

43:52

And then Superman's greatest

43:56

supervillain Finally debuts. Who is that Ashley? Lex

43:58

Luther. That is right. Lexloser

44:00

debuts in action comics number

44:04

twenty three. He actually has no first name during this time and healthy

44:06

crop of red hair. Awesomely. Yep.

44:08

He would go through the entire period

44:10

without getting a first name

44:13

but actually his hair doesn't last more than a

44:16

year. He makes two appearances

44:18

following action comics twenty three the following

44:20

month, both in the pages of Superman

44:22

number four, threatening metropolis

44:24

with an earthquake machine and then

44:26

attempting to raise the southern city of

44:28

Pacific that's with a queue at the

44:30

end. Steel He also tries to steal the oil

44:33

from Oklahoma, to power the machines to raise

44:35

it, and he tries to flood the California

44:37

coasts. I like that the the

44:39

first season of Arrow lifted the earthquake

44:42

machine to end out their first

44:43

season. That's a good way to end

44:46

it. Yeah. In Luther's fourth appearance in Superman number

44:48

ten, Luther is suddenly

44:50

bold. Well, no explanation.

44:52

Well, bold. All guys are

44:54

scary. I guess. And, actually, in Superman

44:56

number ten, he's developed in the invisibility

44:58

ray that he uses that he

45:00

uses with his gang to help rob banks.

45:02

And I I'm going to put it out there right now that I

45:04

think he accidentally used the invisibility ray

45:06

on his hair. And that's where it

45:07

went. And that's where it

45:10

went. Head Canon accepted. That's amazing.

45:12

Yep. Now, Superman

45:14

villain called The Puzzler, debuts

45:17

in action comics number forty nine and

45:19

he returns in Superman number twenty. He's

45:21

actually a professional looking man with glasses

45:24

and a van dyke beard. And the

45:26

puzzler considers himself a

45:28

master of games leaving clues

45:30

for Superman to figure out who

45:32

he

45:32

is. Boy, this shirt does sound like a couple other villains I know.

45:34

Yeah. What other villain does this sound

45:35

like? This sounds a lot like a

45:37

Ridley. Now I looked it up because I

45:39

wanted to see

45:42

The idler actually did not debut until nineteen

45:44

forty

45:44

eight. So the peddler predates the idler.

45:46

And it also sounds

45:47

like a crewman Lester. Yeah.

45:49

I

45:49

always thought the clue master was a low rent riddler

45:52

anyways. Totally.

45:53

Yep. But I think that's

45:55

very interesting. World's

45:57

finest number six is the only appearance of

46:00

metallo in the Golden

46:02

Age. Golden Age mentality

46:02

though has one of the best most

46:05

patchwork put together looks ever.

46:07

Well, because this Mattallo is simply a man in a powerful

46:10

metal suit. Yes. Though for

46:12

much of the tail, many people on the

46:14

street believe him to be an alien robot.

46:16

Interesting. Yeah. Action

46:18

comics number fifty one is the debut of

46:20

the prankster who is a

46:22

master con artist who is a

46:23

comedian. He is an oversized collar and ugly

46:25

green plaid jacket that they've kept

46:27

to this day. Yeah.

46:28

The pretender pretends to the prep

46:30

prankster pretends to rob banks, but in

46:32

fact leaves money for them each time.

46:35

And this is all planned to have one baker open

46:37

as Vault, so we can get the millions of

46:39

jewels and stocks inside that vault. The

46:41

stocks? Maybe the stocks.

46:42

The toy man debuted in action comics number sixty four. Oh. He's a

46:44

singer who can hear us,

46:45

girl. He's revealed in as an aging toy maker

46:47

with a mop of long,

46:49

curly, blonde hair. And

46:51

he decides to use the toys he builds for

46:54

crime. In the first tale, the toys

46:56

proved to be bombs, and he uses

46:58

a toy to escape prison in

47:00

Superman twenty seven and opens a

47:02

high end arcade using it to

47:04

entertain the

47:04

crowds, to distract them so he

47:07

can rob them. I love it. Yep.

47:10

Love it. And soon,

47:12

Kryptonite was introduced. Ashley,

47:14

what is Kryptonite? Kryptonite

47:16

is this green rock that saps

47:19

all of Superman's powers. And in

47:21

some

47:21

incarnations, it's strength depends

47:24

on who's writing in. Exactly.

47:27

Exactly. Now, Kryptonite at the time had

47:29

already appeared again in the

47:32

Superman Radio Show. Now,

47:34

the first story is

47:36

dealing with Dorel and Laura were

47:38

eventually printed after this time. Oh, that's cool.

47:40

Yeah. They after Kryptonite.

47:42

And this

47:44

actually is what a lot

47:46

of people believe open the door to a science fiction universe

47:48

that would eventually become what

47:50

all Superman tales are

47:53

about. As Superman in the nineteen fifties would basically become a

47:56

sci fi series. Well, the alien of

47:58

it all.

47:58

Yep. Also during this time,

47:59

Superman's origin

48:02

gets retold. Mhmm. And it's expanded with developments that

48:04

had taken place to that point. And

48:06

it has happened in Superman

48:10

number fifty fifty three, which is Bill as the tenth anniversary of the

48:12

character. Wow. Jor Elle and

48:14

Superman's parents, are introduced and

48:18

their world of kryptonite is introduced and it's doomed to destruction because it's

48:21

unstable uranium core this time.

48:23

Very topical. Yep. Drell

48:26

Drorl presents his findings to the castle. He's laughed at. Drorl only

48:28

has a small rocket and carries

48:30

his child, Kellell. Now, this time,

48:32

the rocket lands on and is

48:35

found by John and Mary Kent. And this is

48:37

the first time that we learn Pakent's

48:40

first name.

48:42

Oh, really? For this, he was only known as Paw. Paw. Also,

48:44

it's the first time that we learn the

48:46

maiden name of Mary Clark,

48:49

which is what? How

48:51

Clark got his name. Yes. This is the first time this was

48:54

mentioned. Now, also

48:56

Superman remembers his days as

48:58

Superman's in Super

49:00

Boy -- Yeah. -- seventy three.

49:03

And fun fact, Super

49:05

Boy by this point, had been

49:07

running around for a number of years. Mhmm. But is actually the first tale in the

49:09

book to show Young Clark Kent for

49:11

any extended period

49:14

of time. Because the story

49:16

introduced the idea of super

49:18

baby boy slash man's

49:20

costume made from blankets that

49:22

were found in the rocket

49:24

from

49:24

Krypton. I

49:25

like that idea. I do. I like this very sweet. I like the idea that the

49:27

cape is as blanket. Yes. But the rest of it, I

49:29

kinda think, is ridiculous.

49:31

Well, this is a

49:33

gold age. The first detailed depiction of

49:35

Superman's microscopic vision appeared in

49:37

world's finest number

49:40

forty eight. And it's the only story of this

49:42

era to really delve into one of his

49:44

powers. Okay. Now the story deals with the

49:46

scientist who creates what appears to

49:48

be a

49:50

super strong form of steel, knowing

49:52

that it will molecularly collapse and disintegrate

49:54

in a year. Okay. When this begins

49:58

happening, Superman Russia's from disaster to disaster trying to save people from

50:00

collapsing bridges, de railing trains,

50:02

and falling buildings, and

50:04

Wayne boring again. I've mentioned him. Yep.

50:07

He used a really cool visual to show the

50:10

microscopic vision. And as Superman

50:12

uses it on the steel to determine what is wrong

50:14

with it. Now the

50:16

scientist who did this almost falls

50:18

victim himself -- Oh, no. -- as

50:20

he never considered how

50:22

many buildings had been built

50:24

with his crappy product.

50:26

Sounds like social responsibility. Also

50:28

during this time, a number of famous

50:30

people famous at the

50:31

time. You got to team up with Superman in this era, and I wanna see if you

50:33

know them. Okay. So Superman teamed up

50:35

with

50:35

Ralph Edwards. I don't know who

50:38

that is. Well,

50:40

Ashley, Ralph Livingston Edwards is

50:42

an American radio and television

50:44

host. Best knows known

50:46

for his radio TV

50:48

game show truth or

50:49

consequences, and this is your life. Sure. I didn't know

50:51

who that was. So Hey, guys.

50:53

How? Superman also

50:54

teamed

50:54

up with very famous actors Anne

50:58

Blythe.

50:58

I knew who Anne Blight is. Oh, really? Who is she? I just know

51:00

I just know the name. Oh, she's

51:02

an actress from movies like the Great

51:05

Caruso, brute force, and the student

51:08

Prince. And her storyline with Superman is called

51:10

Superman and the Mermaid.

51:12

Oh. Superman also teamed up

51:14

with Perry Como.

51:15

Musician.

51:16

He's an

51:16

American singer in television personality. There you

51:18

go. And

51:19

Superman teamed up with Orson Wells. I know

51:21

who Orson Wells

51:22

is. He has rich and famous contracts.

51:24

Yes. Any

51:24

directed citizen's game? Yes. Now action

51:27

comics number one thirty one

51:29

features a Luther story that would eventually be

51:31

adapted as the second of the Superman movie

51:33

series. Okay. Now, Luther has invented

51:35

a

51:35

machine that moves people and objects

51:38

into and out

51:40

of the fourth dimension.

51:42

And he announces the plans for his next

51:44

crime to Lois Lane, including in

51:46

intending the press to cover the crime as he

51:48

transports men from the scene.

51:50

Now Clark Kent writes the story

51:52

for the Daily Planet and winds up

51:54

on the chopping block when

51:56

Perry White and the planet get

51:58

sued by Luther's thieves first landowner. A first

52:01

landowner. Now, Luther transports them across

52:03

the country and they have

52:06

to witness and they have witnesses placed them thousands a mile away. And

52:08

Clark finds that his reputation has been

52:10

ruined and no other paper will

52:12

hire him then.

52:14

Oh, no. Smoother then uses the machine on

52:16

Superman, trapping Superman in the fourth

52:18

dimension. And essentially, this puts

52:20

Superman in the same state

52:22

as the phantom zone even

52:24

though they won't introduce the phantom zone for many,

52:26

many years. Okay. But as with the

52:28

phantom zone, Superman finds that he is able

52:30

to influence an

52:32

electric typewriter. Yeah. Although that is credited, the story is having

52:34

a wonderful sensitivity to the meat machine

52:36

himself. Lois gets

52:38

to act as Superman's

52:40

agent finding Luther and reversing the machine to

52:42

free Superman. So Superman sends a message

52:44

to Lois and Lois helps

52:44

out. Oh, that's nice to

52:45

Lois. There you go. Action comics

52:48

number one forty one, Mark the first story in

52:50

which Lex Luther creates

52:52

kryptonite to And

52:54

then comes an introduction

52:56

of a great super

52:57

Ambulance. My second favorite, super

53:00

Ambulance. Mister Mitchell Pittalik?

53:02

Yes. Now,

53:03

mister Mitchell Pittalik, has romance

53:06

problems in his first appearance during this

53:08

period in Superman fifty one. There

53:10

seems to be a new king

53:12

in Zwurf. Aim, that's where he's from. I know not the Fit

53:14

dimensions, Zeph at this

53:16

time. Who needs to marry off his

53:18

daughter and picks missile pilot for

53:20

the groom? MiXolpiq

53:22

lies claiming to be engaged to

53:24

Lois Lane and heads to her to

53:26

marry her. Awesome. Lois insists that mister

53:28

MiXolpiq would have to prove himself as

53:30

good as a reporter as she is for

53:32

her to marry him. This is,

53:35

of course, is very bizarre. Sure. And as

53:37

a way to go into the next act of

53:39

the story, the imp uses his mad to

53:41

outdo her as a reporter. And Perry

53:43

White puts them in direct competition

53:45

to get a three question interview with

53:47

Superman. Now Perry White, he sees

53:49

this magical imp. He's not like, what the hell are you doing and get out

53:51

of here? Gracie's just a ghost. He says, hey, you

53:54

Impey. If you can get a three question interview with

53:56

Superman, hire you. Yeah. You

53:58

can marry LLis Lane. I don't

54:00

care. Yeah. Mixo Peddle,

54:02

like, outlets Lois, and gets

54:04

his answers during

54:06

a battle old

54:06

banter, you know, a battle

54:07

with Superman. But Lois actually

54:10

lives up to her words and

54:12

heads to the altar. And right before she

54:14

is able

54:16

to Mary Mistlepeddlek. Superman tricks Mistlepeddlek into

54:18

saying his name backwards, which sends him

54:20

back to his home

54:21

dimension. Goddamn right. Also, I think that is

54:24

interesting because

54:26

historically, and in the traditions of mythology,

54:28

doing that, say the name backwards of either

54:30

a dragon or a demon will send

54:33

the mac from whence they came. Interesting. So

54:35

fun fact. during this time also

54:37

helped to establish the Justice

54:39

Society of America Mhmm. Due to various

54:41

personal adventures, your man was only able to join the

54:43

justice society as a honor honorary member. No.

54:46

It was also around this time, the

54:48

Golden Age

54:50

finally came to an end, and this Superman would disappear to

54:52

what would eventually be known as Earth two.

54:54

But we will find out more

54:57

about them we return to tell you more about Superman

55:00

in a future accessory lesson

55:02

called Superman the Silver

55:04

Age. Oh,

55:06

that's that's that's so

55:08

sad. But

55:08

we're gonna talk about Superman and other

55:11

media during this time.

55:11

Okay. Now instead of telling you about

55:14

Superman and Media, forever. Again,

55:16

I'm only gonna tell you from this time

55:17

period, the Superman Media.

55:20

And if there's a lot of it

55:21

actually. Okay. During the nineteen forties, there was

55:24

the Avengers It was a radio series starring Bud

55:26

Collier or Collier. It might be how you say it as

55:28

the voice serum and Joan Alexander as

55:30

Lois. Yes.

55:32

And here's a funny story about that radio show. Okay.

55:34

In nineteen forty six,

55:36

Silver Rights Activist, Stetson Kennedy,

55:40

contacted the producers of the radio show and made them an

55:42

interesting

55:42

proposal. Okay. He

55:44

claimed that he had a lot of information

55:47

about the Culex clan's inner

55:50

workings, including

55:52

secret passwords and the like. And

55:55

he was having trouble

55:57

getting the southern law enforcement to do

55:59

anything with his information because he's kinda

56:01

like, you take it on the plane with his

56:03

information. Yeah. This is Wow. This is

56:05

a crazy amount of entry that I did not the radio show. So he

56:07

thought that publicizing this information

56:10

via a radio program --

56:12

Right.

56:13

-- would embarrass the Kukla's clan and temporarily throw

56:15

a wrench into their workings. Not a not a bad

56:18

idea. Now

56:18

the writers and executives at DC

56:22

comics were thrilled at the chance to actually

56:24

fight for real true justice in

56:26

the American way. Right? That's awesome. And

56:28

they plotted an art called versus

56:33

the Ku Klux

56:34

Klan. Awesome. And it hit the

56:36

air. It was broadcast.

56:40

Awesome.

56:40

Ratings were

56:42

huge. Yeah. And in

56:46

fact, in Steven

56:48

Dubner's and Steven Delevitz freakonomics, they claim

56:51

that the show had the intended

56:53

effect of ridiculing the clan

56:55

and publicizing a

56:58

secret passwords and thus visibly

57:00

aiding the cause of civil rights in

57:04

America. Wow. However,

57:06

the amount of inside information

57:08

about the KKK was actually revealed

57:10

to be kind of exaggerated. Sure.

57:14

And a review of all sixteen episodes of

57:16

clan of the fiery cross storyline

57:19

re reveals

57:22

that no actual passwords revealed on air. But

57:24

the intended effect

57:25

was had. It so a

57:28

Superman Radio

57:30

Show of Superman fighting

57:32

the Kukulik clan actually happened.

57:34

That's the that's the greatest thing. That's

57:36

the best gift you could have given me. This case

57:38

yesterday lesson. That's freaking

57:39

amazing. And then cool. Yes. Now I wanna go

57:41

find it. Alright. Let's talk about some

57:43

more superman stuff. Like in nineteen

57:46

forty eight, Superman, it was a serial

57:48

in fifteen chapters starring Kirk

57:50

Allen and Noel Neal. It

57:52

recounts the origin story of and

57:54

he fights the Spider Lady. Oh, okay. In

57:56

nineteen fifty, Adam Man versus

57:58

Superman was a serial Superman's parts,

58:00

starting still starring Kirk Allen

58:02

and Noel

58:04

Neal. Okay. And he fights the Adam Man in Lex Luther.

58:06

And from nineteen fifty

58:08

two to nineteen fifty eight,

58:11

the Adventures of Superman starring

58:14

George Reeves and Phyllis

58:16

Coats, and only in season one as

58:17

Lois, and then they brought no

58:20

noelle Neil from the cereals to be

58:22

Lois. While they must have

58:23

really loved her. Was the TV show of,

58:25

you know, dante dante d.

58:28

Yeah. Any leaps on the trampoline to go out the windows. Mhmm.

58:30

Georgia is one one of a great one

58:32

of the great supermans. And also, we

58:36

could not talk about Superman media this

58:38

without mentioning the nineteen

58:40

forty one to nineteen forty three

58:42

fleisher studios animated

58:44

theatrical cartoons.

58:46

Seventeen shorts of Superman starring Bud they

58:49

drew this on black paper, this

58:51

cartoon, which is why it

58:53

pops. It's beautiful And it's

58:55

the reason why Bruce Tim did

58:58

the same thing for Batman and anime series

59:00

because he wasn't starred by the fleisher and

59:02

anime series. And that is the

59:04

geek history lesson on Superman

59:07

the Golden Age. Wow.

59:09

So that is really cool.

59:11

So there you go. A lot a research

59:13

win event. I was surprised I was able to get through it so Wow. Let's go to

59:15

some recommended reading just to let you

59:17

guys know you can

59:20

buy any of these books that I'm going to recommend at geek history lesson dot com

59:22

slash recommended reading, all you gotta do is look

59:24

for the lesson, click on the book. It'll

59:27

take you directly Amazon. And faster than a speeding bullet, a little

59:29

bit of that purchase comes our

59:31

way. Heck. Yeah. Help

59:33

keeps the golden age away. My

59:36

first choice is Superman the Golden

59:38

Age volume one soft cover.

59:40

This collects action comics one

59:42

through nineteen. Mhmm. So if you

59:45

want some enjoyable super thrill stories. Let me tell you if even if

59:47

you don't like Golden Age comic books,

59:49

they're worth reading just to see where

59:51

this where Superman's comics

59:54

started. They all come from these

59:56

issues. And I would say that some of the coolest things about

59:58

revisiting them, and it does it takes

1:00:00

time to get into head space, six, twelve pages.

1:00:03

You notice even from the beginning how

1:00:05

many elements were already in place. Yeah. And it

1:00:07

I think it gives you an

1:00:10

appreciation of why we're still using those same story beats and why we're

1:00:12

still celebrating the same parts of his characters

1:00:14

seventy five plus years later? Yes.

1:00:16

Exactly. Exactly.

1:00:18

I mean, because you had to

1:00:20

think about, like, whatever you think, whether Superman or Batman your favorite, Batman

1:00:22

only happened because of Superman's

1:00:25

reaction to Superman.

1:00:26

Because because detective comics went to Bob Kayne and said, we need you

1:00:28

to create something like Superman. Yep. Dark

1:00:31

and gritty. Yep.

1:00:33

Become a

1:00:37

part of

1:00:41

the Horton team, We're looking for

1:00:43

welders, machine operators, cabinet makers and other

1:00:46

positions to build emergency vehicles that

1:00:48

help save

1:00:50

lives. Join us at our on from

1:00:52

two to five PM at 3800

1:00:54

McDowell Road and Grove City. We

1:00:58

offer a huge fifteen hundred dollars sign on bonus and great benefits

1:01:00

such as 401 match, medical

1:01:02

coverage starting day one, and much more.

1:01:04

For more information on what Horton can

1:01:07

do for you, dot rev group dot com

1:01:09

and search grove city.

1:01:11

The venture ex

1:01:14

card from Capital One gives premium

1:01:16

travel benefits. Perfect for seeing Taylor Swift the Aries

1:01:19

tour, presented by Capital 10I

1:01:21

do love

1:01:23

her. Earn five times miles on flights, and ten

1:01:26

times miles on hotels through Capital

1:01:28

One travel. Enjoy

1:01:29

your stay

1:01:30

in Suite thirteen. Wow. Thirteen.

1:01:33

That's Taylor's lucky number. The Venture X card

1:01:36

from Capital One. What's in your

1:01:38

wallet? Terms apply.

1:01:38

See capital one dot com

1:01:41

for details. Aggressive

1:01:41

presents adjusting to the suburbs.

1:01:44

It never dawned on me how much walking I used to

1:01:46

do until I bought a house in the suburbs. Like when I'd

1:01:48

say, I'm going for coffee. Of course, I

1:01:50

was walking. Now it's like three

1:01:52

miles and no latte's worth that. I find

1:01:54

myself inviting people on walks with me like

1:01:56

it's a scheduled

1:01:56

activity. This morning, my neighbor asked me what doing,

1:01:59

and I actually said, I'm going for a walk with Nancy. Anyway,

1:02:01

when you're safe

1:02:02

with Progressive by bundling your home at auto,

1:02:05

that's the easy part of adjusting

1:02:07

to the

1:02:08

suburbs. Regards substantial reinsurance coverage provided in service by affiliates and third party insurers.

1:02:10

Now there's also an

1:02:12

omnibus, a hard cover omnibus of

1:02:16

that same collection. Very nice. It depends on whether you want soft cover or the

1:02:18

hard carry on this. The soft cover is much cheaper,

1:02:20

just to let you know. Well, there's

1:02:23

also a great story collection called Superman, a

1:02:25

celebration of seventy five years. It's a hardcover

1:02:28

action comics number one is in it, and some of

1:02:30

these other Golden Age tales. And then it jumps through

1:02:32

a few sure it has modern stories.

1:02:34

Mhmm. And then there's also a fun one.

1:02:36

There's Superman, the Golden Age Sundays. It's

1:02:38

the

1:02:38

Oh, yeah.

1:02:39

Yeah. Nineteen forty three and nineteen

1:02:41

forty six. a hundred and seventy sequential

1:02:43

Sunday pages that have never been reprinted

1:02:45

before except for this book, including some

1:02:48

classic comics that began in nineteen

1:02:50

forty three. And they kinda

1:02:52

fill like a major gap

1:02:54

in the Superman

1:02:55

Mythos. So there you go. And now we're

1:02:57

gonna move on to our teaching

1:03:00

tweet. We're in one hundred and forty characters or unless professor

1:03:02

Jason will sum up the incredible

1:03:04

amount of history that he just laid down at our

1:03:05

feet. Yes. Here's

1:03:07

my teaching tweet.

1:03:09

Up on the power lines. It's a strong man who's

1:03:11

gonna punch me in the face and rebuild my

1:03:13

tenant housing, Superman.

1:03:18

Before we wrap

1:03:22

up, I thought we'd have a really quick

1:03:24

discussion. I just wanna hear your

1:03:26

opinions. Ashley, you said that when

1:03:28

we started this podcast that you had

1:03:30

not read any of the golden age

1:03:32

Superman's? True.

1:03:34

What do you think about golden

1:03:36

age Superman. What what are your thoughts? I just gave

1:03:38

you the lesson. What do you think about

1:03:41

this character? And and

1:03:44

Is it surprising that this character became the character that

1:03:47

we know it as today? Or are you surprised as

1:03:49

character a lot? I mean, just what do you think

1:03:51

about Golden Age

1:03:51

Superman, I guess? I'm

1:03:53

sad that Lane was was a bit of a

1:03:56

dick. Yep. That's the thing that I'm

1:03:58

sad by. I'm I'm a

1:04:00

little bit surprised

1:04:02

at how progressive he

1:04:02

was, and we did we did touch on that a couple times. Although,

1:04:04

I think that when you look at the fact that

1:04:06

he was creative eye to young

1:04:09

young hip cat or

1:04:10

immigrants. We lived in New York, you know, which is a

1:04:13

fairly progressive city even even in

1:04:15

the nineteen thirties. I

1:04:17

I find it less surprising, but so there's something's really

1:04:19

cool. Well, like, well done. I don't

1:04:21

think it's surprising, especially when you

1:04:24

consider the

1:04:25

he's the first one. He's There's a

1:04:28

reason that he stands as the

1:04:30

ultimate superhero. It's a reason why you had to

1:04:32

kind of shallize after

1:04:34

that. I don't think there's anything surprising

1:04:36

about why the characters

1:04:38

lasted. And I think that a lot of the

1:04:40

evolution from that point makes a lot of

1:04:41

sense, but at core. Like, he's still

1:04:43

he's still the same he's the same guy.

1:04:46

And he's he's

1:04:47

just less rambunctious. Sure.

1:04:50

But that's the way storytelling is now.

1:04:52

Yeah. But, like, it's still that he he's

1:04:54

that he's an immigrant character.

1:04:56

Who was raised in the heartland and exemplifies what, you know, what America's all

1:04:59

about. He goes to the city. He works.

1:05:01

He puts his head down. He's a superhero

1:05:03

with a heart of gold. He'll

1:05:06

he'll save Lois even though she's mean to

1:05:08

him. You know, like that, all those

1:05:10

basic tenants of him is is still there, like who

1:05:12

he is at his core. Yeah. I think

1:05:14

there's no reason I

1:05:16

mean, if someone told me that like, wow,

1:05:18

babe, I read

1:05:18

like, you know, ten golden age superman stories and I

1:05:20

can't believe that it lasted, I'd be like, really?

1:05:23

Why? Well, I will say

1:05:26

that to me, it was so different than

1:05:28

anything else when it was out there, and that's

1:05:30

why. The reason why

1:05:32

I think a modern person could read the Golden Age Superman and be like,

1:05:34

I don't get how it lasted is because

1:05:36

they've read everything that's come

1:05:38

after. But when you clear

1:05:40

your mind space and you read

1:05:42

that with the idea that there's

1:05:44

nothing else. There's no other

1:05:46

superheroes out there. Then I think you're

1:05:48

just like, what the hell is this? Because I

1:05:50

think I think it's interesting. I think in

1:05:52

those first ten issues of

1:05:54

action comics. You see an element in

1:05:56

Superman that you see in

1:05:58

other characters that just grab your

1:06:00

imagination. I mean, Batman's the same

1:06:02

way. Batman?

1:06:04

I was gonna say Sherlock Holmes. I was gonna say Captain Kirk.

1:06:06

I was gonna say the doctor --

1:06:08

Yeah. -- you see something in that

1:06:10

main character that makes you go I

1:06:14

wanna know more about this guy. Mhmm. This guy is

1:06:16

so fascinating how he does things. I

1:06:18

need to know more about

1:06:19

him. And if you if you do as a

1:06:22

social experiment, if

1:06:24

you wanna kind of what a lot of the other comics were doing at the

1:06:26

time. Go get your hands on. I think it is Pep

1:06:28

number eleven where Archie makes his first

1:06:30

appearance because it's terrible.

1:06:32

What year is that?

1:06:34

I think it's the thirties. I think it is pre superman, but I I don't

1:06:36

have the I don't know. I don't have it looked up right now.

1:06:38

It's

1:06:38

but like because Superman's

1:06:41

June thirty eight. Because young, you know,

1:06:43

young romance comics and westerns were kinda and war comics were kinda the the orders

1:06:45

of the day. Exactly. And and this would have

1:06:47

been so fresh

1:06:50

and so citing and so

1:06:52

innovative even though, like, when you read them

1:06:54

and when you read the Batman stuff too, it

1:06:56

feels very rushed because now we spend all

1:06:58

these time on these origin

1:07:00

stories. It's not just a paragraph and then boom you're in these

1:07:01

adventures. Yep. But it would have been like

1:07:03

when Star Wars hit for the first time. It it was

1:07:05

such a shift in the

1:07:08

zeitgeist. Yep. Yeah, man. Superman is

1:07:09

cool. Cool. There you

1:07:09

go. That's it for the Golden Age Superman. Sometime

1:07:12

in the future, we will cover

1:07:14

Superman a Silver Age, which will

1:07:16

take Superman

1:07:17

from the nineteen fifties all the way into the

1:07:20

eighties. These. Yeah.

1:07:20

Yeah. So that'll be an interesting time. And we'll

1:07:22

get to talking about all these weird, like, Lois

1:07:25

has been turned into a grasshopper.

1:07:28

Yeah. We're

1:07:30

real, though. Up

1:07:35

in this guy, it's a bird. It's a plane.

1:07:37

No. It's Superman in the

1:07:40

silver age. You'll geek history lesson on

1:07:42

Superman Superman's silver age is now

1:07:44

in Sasha.

1:07:45

Hello, and welcome to Geek

1:07:47

History lesson. I am Jason

1:07:50

Kent Inman. I'm Ashley Victoria

1:07:52

Robinson. Welcome to your

1:07:54

Mind universe because you have stumbled onto the podcast where we take one

1:07:56

character construct or super human

1:07:58

or popular culture and teach you everything you

1:08:00

need

1:08:01

to know about in about an hour. But this

1:08:03

month, Jason, there's a pretty episode. In

1:08:05

this episode, there's a pretty special thing going

1:08:07

on. Isn't there?

1:08:11

That's the Mike's flasher Superman

1:08:14

theme song, if you don't

1:08:19

know. Yes. Superman is leading action comics

1:08:21

as he's all known. He's done it

1:08:23

for eighty years. And action

1:08:25

comics is going to cross a threshold

1:08:27

that no other comic book in history

1:08:30

has ever done a

1:08:32

thousand issues. Action

1:08:34

comics are so old guys. Yep. So

1:08:36

in order of that, we did an

1:08:38

episode a long time ago called

1:08:42

in the golden age. And we did that because Superman's history is so It's so varied

1:08:45

that it seemed

1:08:48

a shame to

1:08:50

put Superman into only one episode.

1:08:53

So the bigger characters mainly

1:08:55

the Trinity, we have broken

1:08:57

up into the Golden Age, the Silver Age. We don't have a Silver Age Babbit. We don't

1:08:59

have a Silver Age one room, and you can

1:09:01

request those at giggas

1:09:04

relational dot

1:09:05

or basement dot com slash geeky

1:09:07

gets your lesson. Or onto the red GHL

1:09:09

podcast. Yep. So but this is the second installment in the

1:09:12

giant history. That

1:09:15

is. Oh, Superman. And I thought, you know, in

1:09:17

honor of Superman's eightieth anniversary,

1:09:19

there was

1:09:21

no better time to do this episode. The

1:09:23

amount of time

1:09:23

we circle back to Yes. And a lot of

1:09:25

people have requested or or asked for nobody requested

1:09:28

actually I looked. But you

1:09:30

know, a lot of people were like, oh, man, we want

1:09:32

this one. We want this one. So that's the reason why we decided to do it.

1:09:34

This is going to be the silver age. It's gonna be a little bit

1:09:36

different. Than

1:09:38

a normal episode. There will be no Tencent

1:09:40

origin. Go back and listen to the

1:09:41

Golden Age. Yeah. Go back and

1:09:42

listen to the Golden Age one. There

1:09:44

will be no meat cute. Back, it was the

1:09:47

golden You can find that on iTunes or whoever you wanna listen to. But buckle up. This is going to

1:09:49

be a longer

1:09:52

than normal

1:09:54

episode. Norbank for

1:09:55

your book. Yeah. That's right. Now, first off,

1:09:57

before we get into this, I

1:09:59

wanna remind you of

1:10:01

the comic book ages. Oh, okay.

1:10:03

Okay. So the Golden Age, which

1:10:05

we've already covered for was

1:10:07

from nineteen thirty eight

1:10:09

to nineteen fifty six Ashley, I wanna ask you, do you

1:10:12

remember? What is the event that

1:10:14

ends the Golden Age and begins

1:10:18

the Silver Age? Barry Allen? You are correct. It is

1:10:20

the first appearance of flash Barry

1:10:22

Allen in Showcase number four of

1:10:26

October of nineteen fifty six. These sometimes I can remember stuff?

1:10:28

Yes. Now, the silver

1:10:30

age goes from nineteen fifty

1:10:32

six to, Ashley, do you

1:10:35

have a guess? Now, your answer

1:10:37

might be different on this because we are going to get into some

1:10:39

uncharted geek history lesson territory

1:10:43

here. Oh, there a little bit of

1:10:45

an argument about how many

1:10:48

ages

1:10:49

there are of comic books.

1:10:51

Oh,

1:10:51

I have feelings about this. And where they start and

1:10:53

stop? Now, I have made a

1:10:55

determination. Great. This is the geeky show us in

1:10:57

determination. Whether you agree with me or not disagree

1:11:00

with

1:11:00

me, I don't care. This

1:11:02

is where -- It's fine.

1:11:03

-- this is where my scholarly pursuits have led me for Superman. Ashley, where do you think they're so outrageous? Right. And also say

1:11:06

if you listen to other

1:11:08

Golden Age episodes, we do a little bit of

1:11:10

arbitrary time lines based on those specific characters as

1:11:15

well. I am I'm gonna

1:11:17

say that I think the

1:11:19

silver age ends

1:11:23

in nineteen seventy

1:11:28

eight. Now, some

1:11:30

people will agree with

1:11:32

you. Some people won't agree with

1:11:34

you. I don't agree with you. I So according to y seventy eight,

1:11:36

I because you're

1:11:38

in the movie. It has

1:11:41

I think it has something to do with

1:11:43

the Justice Society. Well, the DC implosion, which was around

1:11:46

that

1:11:47

out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I know

1:11:49

it has to do with Earth too, but I can't remember the specific event. Now

1:11:51

in my research,

1:11:52

neither one of

1:11:55

those came up. Okay. I

1:11:57

have determined by my research

1:11:59

that the silver age ends, in my view, in

1:12:04

nineteen seventy. Really? Yes. Now

1:12:06

the reason Well, because that is when the bronze age starts

1:12:11

of comic book the bronze age of Comme. And

1:12:13

now the

1:12:14

bronze age of Call the bronze age starts that early? Yes. And let me

1:12:15

explain why. I'm trying to teach you this is

1:12:19

what this podcast So the bronze age is thing that I was talking about.

1:12:21

The bronze age is the part of comic book age

1:12:23

histories that some people

1:12:26

are like, that doesn't exist. Yeah. There

1:12:27

is one definite date that

1:12:30

everybody does agree. Nineteen

1:12:32

eighty five crisis on

1:12:34

infinite earth is the beginning of the modern age.

1:12:36

Church comics. Yeah.

1:12:37

Yes. The bronze age is where

1:12:39

people disagree. And my

1:12:42

research, there is no single

1:12:44

event or comic book that really kicks off the

1:12:47

bronze age and ends the silver

1:12:49

age. Not not

1:12:50

in the same weigh However, I picked

1:12:53

a comic book because I think

1:12:55

this is the beginning

1:12:58

of

1:12:58

it. The whole The

1:12:59

reason I have a guess The reason for the bronze

1:13:01

age is because the tone of

1:13:03

comics in the

1:13:05

seventies shifted -- Mhmm. -- to being more

1:13:08

socially aware -- Mhmm. -- to being more

1:13:10

political -- Mhmm. -- to not just being

1:13:12

hokey. Hey, there's an alien.

1:13:14

Let's punch him. Mhmm. So I'm calling the beginning of

1:13:16

bronze age for this issue

1:13:18

-- Mhmm. -- as April

1:13:22

nineteen seventy, with the issue of green

1:13:23

lantern, where green arrow was added

1:13:26

as the title character. So you

1:13:29

start with hard traveling heroes. A little

1:13:31

bit before hard travelers, but where the series by

1:13:33

Denny O'Neil and Neil Adams focused

1:13:35

on poverty --

1:13:36

Mhmm. -- and and and speedy became

1:13:38

a drug addict. Submit more of that

1:13:40

error. Sure. Yeah.

1:13:41

So, like, that's to me is the start of the bronzer. It's interesting. I've

1:13:43

heard that argument before. I don't necessarily

1:13:47

disagree with it. I find that the argument

1:13:49

for when the bronze age begins -- Mhmm. -- is

1:13:51

either a Greenland or

1:13:54

a green arrow or it's a

1:13:56

new teen titans is often a big demarcation as well.

1:13:58

So, like, through new teen titans not start till nineteen eighty

1:14:00

though? It doesn't start

1:14:02

until nineteen

1:14:03

eighty, but for of people, the bronze age

1:14:06

is only eighty to eighty five. Yeah. I guess so. I don't know. I once

1:14:11

I read the argument about the Greenland and Green Arrow

1:14:12

series, I kinda had to agree because it does

1:14:14

not have a silver a g tone. That's

1:14:18

fair.

1:14:18

That's

1:14:19

fair. Alright. So there you go. Let's go back into Superman and the

1:14:21

Silver Age. Now this lesson Superman's said

1:14:23

is gonna be a little bit different. We're

1:14:25

gonna go into fictional character history. Mhmm.

1:14:27

We're gonna go to publication

1:14:30

history --

1:14:30

Mhmm. -- and a bunch of stuff like

1:14:32

that. Okay. So back to

1:14:33

Superman, before

1:14:34

we can go any further in talking about the comic

1:14:36

book Superman, We

1:14:38

have to talk about a real world event

1:14:40

that rocked Superman to his

1:14:43

core. Holy smokes. On

1:14:45

June sixteenth of

1:14:47

nineteen eight, George Reeves, Superman, the star of

1:14:49

Superman's was found dead from a

1:14:52

gunshot wound. Now,

1:14:55

this is not a comic book event, but there is no way

1:14:57

you could talk about Superman and the Silver Especially

1:14:59

Silver Age starting in

1:15:01

fifty eight. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Without talking or fifty four excuse

1:15:04

me. Fifty six. Excuse me. Sorry. We

1:15:06

had to talk about George Reeves. Okay.

1:15:09

So it was an open shut

1:15:11

case of suicide, said the LA police, but many friends of George Reeves, friends

1:15:16

called it a murder and there was

1:15:18

no shortage of suspects or motives. And this event not only rocked Superman

1:15:21

fans to his core because I

1:15:23

don't know if you know George

1:15:26

Reeves had Bethel Mania levels of fans when he went out in public. Hey,

1:15:28

really? He did.

1:15:31

He got hounded and

1:15:34

he got harassed because everybody saw

1:15:37

him as Superman. The Adventures of

1:15:39

Superman was an insanely popular

1:15:41

show. It was so popular. It was so

1:15:44

popular that George Reeves could get hired

1:15:46

for no other gigs because everybody saw

1:15:48

him

1:15:48

Superman's. And he actually died in

1:15:51

poverty. I yeah.

1:15:51

I knew them. So George

1:15:52

Reeves death leads to something

1:15:55

called the Superman curse.

1:15:59

Okay. Ashley, do you know what this is? No. To be fair, everything I

1:16:01

know about Georgia Reeves could fit in a thin blanket.

1:16:03

Well, this has more to

1:16:04

do

1:16:04

than not Georgia Reeves. So Well, I don't I don't know

1:16:06

what no.

1:16:07

I don't know anything about this. Soon.

1:16:09

This I don't really believe in

1:16:11

this curse. Okay. But I thought it was interesting to mention. Sure. This refers to a

1:16:14

series of supposedly related

1:16:16

misfortunes that

1:16:18

have plagued creative people involved in

1:16:21

many adaptations of Superman.

1:16:23

Mhmm. Another reasoning of the

1:16:25

Superman curse is, of course,

1:16:28

Christopher Reeves. Sure. Who played Superman in

1:16:30

fourth theatrical films, who was paralyzed in a nineteen ninety five horseback riding accident

1:16:32

-- Mhmm. -- and

1:16:34

then died nine years later.

1:16:37

Another person that has supposedly connected these series of

1:16:39

misfortunes of Superman is Bud Koyer or Koyer, excuse me. He voiced

1:16:41

the first Superman cartoon from nineteen

1:16:43

forty one to nineteen

1:16:47

forty three. He later voiced Superman again in

1:16:49

nineteen sixty six. Three years after

1:16:51

that nineteen sixty six voicing,

1:16:53

he was found dead of

1:16:56

a ailment a heart ailment

1:16:58

in the age of sixty one. Wow. Now, there is a listing

1:17:00

of how they tie the blame

1:17:02

murder kit or going crazy on this.

1:17:06

All basically, if you're tied

1:17:08

to a Superman thing and anything bad went written wrong

1:17:10

in your life, they say, this is a Superman

1:17:13

curse. So Like some poltergeist level nonsense. Well, there's a full

1:17:15

list of them online. And just because I I'm not

1:17:15

gonna mention all of them, but I

1:17:18

thought because there were so many. Does Richard

1:17:20

Briar

1:17:22

call into that?

1:17:23

I don't know. I feel we had to talk about it.

1:17:25

Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Alright. Let's get back to the let's get

1:17:27

to the topic, the comics. Yeah.

1:17:29

Let's let's go to the comics. Comics. The

1:17:31

topics. Going to the comics. Tonics. Yes. I'm

1:17:33

gonna call them Thomas,

1:17:33

silly books, funny books. So the one thing about the Silver Age -- Mhmm. -- in the comics of

1:17:36

Superman and Silver Age

1:17:38

is in the late nineteen

1:17:40

fifties, This is where the version

1:17:42

of Superman that we know of as Superman takes shape finally.

1:17:44

Superman's, how would

1:17:46

you describe Golden Age

1:17:48

Superman? I

1:17:50

think the big blue boy scout is

1:17:52

a pretty apt description of silver aged Superman. Well,

1:17:54

yeah. Yes. That's that's where we'll get to

1:17:56

that. How how do you feel? Let's talk about

1:17:58

the differences. How do you feel Golden Age

1:18:01

Superman is?

1:18:01

Oh, Golden Age Superman

1:18:04

is rougher around the edges. Yeah.

1:18:06

He's a lot angrier -- Mhmm. -- and more

1:18:08

powerful, I think. He's very direct.

1:18:10

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which I

1:18:12

think is a reflection of the

1:18:14

time. Would you call

1:18:15

him a boy scout? No. Yeah. Because a

1:18:17

boy scout has this sort of, like, tweet connotation to

1:18:19

it and a softer

1:18:23

side that I don't think we get to chivel celebration of the silver age also has

1:18:25

a softening of a lot of characters around this

1:18:27

time. Batman and

1:18:30

Robin have like a very emotional

1:18:32

relationship throughout the silver. Like Dick

1:18:34

is constantly crying -- Mhmm. --

1:18:36

throughout the silver page. And maybe

1:18:38

maybe that's hippies. I don't know. But, yeah, I think I also think a reason why the

1:18:44

Silverado Superman's or a lot

1:18:46

of what we love is defined by that is because that's what so strongly inspired the seventy

1:18:51

eight movie, which for many people remains

1:18:54

the defining suit. The defining suit, man. Yes. So when editorial duties at DC

1:18:56

comics were redistributed,

1:18:59

more at Weisinger got

1:19:02

soul control over Superman. Okay. This resulted in him developing the Superman

1:19:04

Legend. Basically everything

1:19:07

we know about Superman

1:19:12

because he was

1:19:14

so set on developing

1:19:16

continuity in Superman.

1:19:18

And this is actually Corey, that's his name. Moore Wise in Jordan. You are ahead of your time, baby. He

1:19:23

is actually credited with

1:19:26

the first series attempt at developing continuity in comics history. Wow.

1:19:28

Now even though some of

1:19:30

a

1:19:30

lot of the issues have you

1:19:34

know, one off adventures and stuff like

1:19:35

that. They always refer to past

1:19:38

adventures now. Oh, that's cool. So

1:19:40

an instrumental force also behind

1:19:42

the Superman being developed in overage was

1:19:44

Jerry Siegel. Who's that? Hey, one of the creators

1:19:46

of Superman. He actually returned to DC in

1:19:49

nineteen fifty nine to write the

1:19:51

Adventures of Superman once again.

1:19:54

I didn't

1:19:54

know that.

1:19:55

That's awesome. And Wiseinger and Segal together

1:19:57

with science fiction greats like Edmund Hamilton

1:19:59

-- Mhmm. -- who wrote the great

1:20:02

action comics to a three hundred I

1:20:03

believe, in who's responsible for a lot of legion of superhero

1:20:06

stuff. You've mentioned him in a number of key

1:20:08

customer

1:20:08

relations. All set out to

1:20:11

their goal was to

1:20:13

define the personalities of the characters in Superman and all the Superman mythos. So

1:20:15

they wanted each character

1:20:19

to be distinct and to

1:20:22

have an understandable personality. Interesting. So because of this, this is the reason why at

1:20:24

this time in Superman's history,

1:20:26

we start seeing more of his

1:20:30

childhood adventures. Us. And more

1:20:33

reaper boy and more rewritings of

1:20:35

his origin, including the

1:20:38

audition of Lex Luther to his

1:20:40

origin. Mhmm. So in the

1:20:42

comic books, the public notification

1:20:45

of smallville being

1:20:48

Superboy's home brings the young lex smoother

1:20:50

into Superboy's life. And this actually results in their lifelong hatred of each

1:20:53

other. Mhmm. This

1:20:56

is a story where Luther receives

1:20:58

his first name. Before this, he was only known as

1:21:00

Luther. Now,

1:21:03

Lex's Luther had a massive talent for

1:21:05

scientific inventiveness, which has has

1:21:07

certain itself, of course,

1:21:09

in Lex's earliest days. He became highly interested

1:21:11

in the public exploits of Superboy because

1:21:13

he became obsessed with him and

1:21:16

he forced his

1:21:18

parents to move to smallville so that he could be closer

1:21:20

to Superboy. That's so funny because Lex

1:21:22

was like, I'm gonna be his sidekick.

1:21:25

Lex will let Yep. Alex focused

1:21:28

all of his scientific skills on finding

1:21:30

some way to help out Superboy.

1:21:33

And he eventually discovered Superboy's

1:21:35

weakness to kryptonite. Mhmm. And he decided to make a cure

1:21:37

to the meteorites effects on Super

1:21:39

Boy. Oh. So

1:21:42

Lex began an experiment very exotic materials, which were dangerous

1:21:44

and explosive. How do you get the --

1:21:45

Yes. -- in the silver

1:21:46

age? There I know you okay. This

1:21:49

is back in the nineteen fifties. There's no safety regulations anyway.

1:21:51

I guess you started working when you're,

1:21:53

like, twelve. This kid could have walked into a

1:21:55

nuclear missile silo and everybody was, like,

1:21:57

look at that boy. Good

1:21:59

lad. So the everywhere. Sure. So

1:22:01

the chemicals, of course, reacted badly and exploded in Lex's lab

1:22:04

filling the room

1:22:06

with various poisonous gases.

1:22:08

So Superboy reacted to

1:22:10

the explosion. He arrived to find Lex, you know, close to death, but was unable to enter the room

1:22:13

because of the

1:22:16

kryptonite. So Stu's

1:22:18

Superboy stood outside of the room

1:22:20

and blew the Kryptonite and gases out of

1:22:22

the room saving Lex's life. But the exhaust

1:22:25

from when blew the chemicals

1:22:27

of Lex's

1:22:29

uncovered head.

1:22:32

Oh, no. There's a

1:22:34

very funny cover of this. Lex was shocked to find his perfect I l do such a blunder a save. He

1:22:39

was mad. And Lex was inconsolable upon his

1:22:42

disfigurement. That's what he called his hair losing his hair. Which he thought A little smells

1:22:44

dramatic. Yep. He thought it

1:22:46

was deliberate. He's a teenager. Of

1:22:50

course, he thought it was delivered. So

1:22:52

he took the partially completed Kryptonite cure and

1:22:54

destroyed it in front of Super White, pledging

1:22:56

their and then that he

1:22:58

would dedicate his life to proving that he was superior to Superboy. What a dick? Yep.

1:23:00

Now, actually, I wanna ask you

1:23:02

a question. Mhmm. Do you like

1:23:06

or dislike Lex throughout their being

1:23:08

a part of Super Boy's

1:23:10

origins. I don't need Lex and

1:23:15

Super Boy. To have existed in the same time. I think

1:23:17

it's dramatically more interesting if

1:23:19

this adult

1:23:22

man becomes fixated on Superman. So so

1:23:24

wait on

1:23:25

Lex until Superman comes to meetropolis. I

1:23:27

agree. Yeah.

1:23:27

That's my preference. I

1:23:30

know you like their early relationship. Well,

1:23:32

I Or a version of it. I was against it -- Mhmm.

1:23:35

-- until the TV series Smallville. Yeah. And then Smallville,

1:23:38

I thought, did it so well that I was like, you know what? I'm

1:23:40

fine with this. Okay. I'm fine with it now. Look at

1:23:42

you admitting that you can change your mind.

1:23:45

I know. Right? Oh my Comic fans can change their

1:23:48

opinion. Micah. So on a

1:23:50

more positive and nonluther note,

1:23:52

Superway in the comic soon became

1:23:54

a member of the legion of superheroes. Hey,

1:23:57

those guys. Existing in the far

1:23:59

future of the thirtieth century, the legion

1:24:01

of superheroes was a teenage troop of

1:24:03

superheroes and they came from different planets

1:24:05

and inherited super powers. The or organization

1:24:07

easily inducted Superboy as a member and

1:24:09

he would've go on to become one of their

1:24:12

most distinguished members and members.

1:24:14

Nice. During Clark's teenage years on

1:24:16

Earth, the kents also sold their

1:24:18

farm and became shopkeepers in smallville for a

1:24:20

time. Really? Yeah. This actually

1:24:21

happened. And they settled into a more

1:24:23

modern lifestyle supporting Clark's day

1:24:26

to day life as well

1:24:28

as superhero activities because he's super white.

1:24:30

But they grew elderly and eventually died of tropical fever when they were on

1:24:32

a cruise. I am

1:24:34

not

1:24:35

joking. That is the silver

1:24:37

age death of the kense. They go on a cruise

1:24:39

and they die. Well, Tim Drake's mom goes on a cruise and gets

1:24:42

kidnapped and murdered. Is

1:24:44

that I guess it's viable. Now

1:24:46

before dying, Jonathan Ken reminded Clark to continue doing good deeds into the not lose sight of

1:24:51

who he was.

1:24:52

For the first time in action comics two sixty two because

1:24:54

we're gonna continue this trend of in new concepts that we

1:24:56

know about being introduced in

1:24:59

the silver age. Well, In

1:25:01

March of nineteen sixty, the notion that Superman's power is derived from

1:25:03

the yellow sun, radiation appears

1:25:07

for the very first time.

1:25:09

Whoa. Twenty years after his over twenty years

1:25:12

after his first

1:25:15

appearance. That's why In Superman one forty six in

1:25:17

July of nineteen sixty one, the explanation is

1:25:20

amplified. It says that Superman's muscular

1:25:22

powers, his super strength, his speed, and

1:25:24

his light

1:25:26

are attributed to gravity, and the

1:25:28

powers of his senses x-ray vision, telescope

1:25:30

vision are attributed to the yellow sun.

1:25:32

And vulnerability is sort of compared to

1:25:35

a super suntan. Later this was

1:25:37

all altered to make a portion

1:25:39

of his flying ability a

1:25:41

also from the yellow sun.

1:25:44

That's so I did squeeze. Now, the new

1:25:46

explanation also provided an unexpected bonus of a new

1:25:50

weakness for superman by making stories where he no

1:25:53

longer had super powers on a world

1:25:55

without a yellow

1:25:55

sun. Cool.

1:25:58

The Venture X car

1:26:01

from Capital One gives you premium

1:26:03

travel benefits. Perfect for seeing Taylor Swift the Aries tour, presented by Capital

1:26:05

10I do

1:26:08

love her. Earn

1:26:10

five times miles on flights, and

1:26:12

ten times miles on hotels

1:26:14

through Capital One

1:26:15

travel. Enjoy

1:26:17

your stay in suite thirteen.

1:26:19

Wow. Thirteen. That's Taylor's lucky The Venture X card from

1:26:21

Capital One. What's in your wallet? Terms

1:26:23

apply. See capital

1:26:25

one dot

1:26:27

com for details. Around this time, a continuing

1:26:30

series adventures concerning cowell's life on Krypton established for the

1:26:32

first time that Clark

1:26:34

was at least three years

1:26:37

old and fluent in Krypta knees. Mhmm. What's Krypta knees, Ashley? The language worked

1:26:39

on? Yep. Before the

1:26:42

explosion of his planet, No

1:26:47

more would he spend the first decades of his life wondering what

1:26:49

he was and why he was so

1:26:51

different? He would always

1:26:54

remember Krypton from this point forward. don't like about

1:26:56

that. I also know that a

1:26:58

very early version of Crypto followed

1:27:03

cow to earth because he was his childhood

1:27:05

pet. And, like, they had a bond. We'll

1:27:07

get to crypto. Usually, you'll

1:27:09

even be. You'll leave crypto be. Okay.

1:27:11

Stay boy. Stay. So, yeah, I don't

1:27:13

III like Clark leaving Krypton

1:27:16

without a memory of Krypton because I like

1:27:18

I honestly think that's more tragic. I like

1:27:21

supergirl remembering Krypton and not Clark. But, again, this is the silver

1:27:23

age, and the silver age really expands

1:27:27

Krypton a lot.

1:27:29

Yeah. This is the most we're gonna talk

1:27:31

about it really because I I think other

1:27:33

stuff's more important. Cool. Alright. Now back to

1:27:35

the publishing history. Okay. More at Weisinger's

1:27:37

next move was to introduce a title for our favorite Superman

1:27:39

supporting character, Lois Superman's. And

1:27:43

we talked about about this in the

1:27:45

golden age, but I wanna talk a little bit

1:27:47

more about this. Superman's Lois Lane, Superman's girlfriend Superman's girlfriend, Lois

1:27:50

Lane, excuse me, debuted

1:27:52

its first issue in March of

1:27:54

nineteen fifty eight in the first story. I'm a tell you about this. Okay. Loews

1:27:59

becomes the witch of Love it. So she goes to a museum

1:28:01

opening. Hey, she's a witch. And Elana was also

1:28:03

a witch. Yeah. And there she accidentally

1:28:05

breaks a

1:28:06

mirror at this exhibit about this

1:28:08

crazy lady that people thought could be

1:28:10

a witch. Mhmm. She returns home to tie up her story and finds herself transformed into a

1:28:14

green and grotesque witch.

1:28:17

Great. She runs out onto the street thinking about going back

1:28:19

to the museum to cure her form, but she sees Superman is ugly form and pretends

1:28:21

to not know

1:28:23

who he is. As

1:28:25

she wanders back to the museum, she sees a robbery, and as they begin to shoot her, she

1:28:27

assumes that if she is

1:28:31

now a witch, then surely she

1:28:33

can cast a spell. And she says Yes. Lois live your best life. And

1:28:35

she says,

1:28:37

hicks, hocks, hacks,

1:28:40

bullets aside.

1:28:42

And the bullets

1:28:43