By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Leo Nowak, John Sikela (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-338-4
Due to the exigencies of periodical publishing, although the terrific tales collected in this seventh chronological recollection take the Man of Steel to December 1941, they were all prepared well in advance of Japan’s sneak attack on Pearl Harbour. Even though spies and sabotage plots were already a trusty part of the narrative currency of the times and many in America felt war was inevitable (patriotic covers were beginning to appear on many comic books), they were still a distant problem, impersonal and at one remove from daily life as experienced by the kids who were the perceived audience for these four-colour fantasies. That would change radically in the months to come…
For the meantime then here to enjoy are some of the last pre-war stories of the Man of Tomorrow taken from Action Comics #41-43, the bi-monthly Superman #12-13 and a tale from the quarterly World’s Finest Comics #4. Once again all the stories were scripted by Siegel, and as most stories of the time they were untitled these have been named post-hoc simply to provide differentiation and make my task simpler … As always every comic appearance is preceded by the original cover illustration, all from the increasingly inspired Fred Ray.
Leo Nowak was drawing most of the comic output at this time and is responsible for the lion’s share of these adventures, beginning with the first two from Superman #12 (September-October 1941). ‘Peril on Pogo Island’ found Lois and Clark at the mercy of rampaging tribesmen, although spies from a certain foreign power are at the back of it all, whilst ‘The Suicide Murders’ saw them facing a particularly grisly band of gangsters. John Sikela inked ‘The Grotak Bund’ wherein seditionists attempted to destroy vital US industries, and fully illustrated the final tale as an old foe reared his shiny head once more in ‘The Beasts of Luthor’, accompanied by a spectacular array of giant monsters.
Action Comics #41 (October 1941) ‘The Saboteur’, told a terse tale of a traitor motivated by greed rather than ideology, and ‘City in the Stratosphere’ (Action #42) revealed that a trouble-free paradise floating above Metropolis had been subverted by an old enemy, were both illustrated by Sikela, as Nowak laboured on the contents of Superman #13 (November-December 1941).
This issue led with ‘The Light’ and featured an old foe in a new super-scientific guise whilst ‘The Archer’ pitted the Man of Steel against his first true costumed villain. ‘Baby on the Doorstep’ took a rare opportunity for fun and the feel-good factor as Clark Kent became a temporary parent in a tale of stolen battle plans before ‘The City Beneath the Earth’ (by Sikela) returned to the serious business of action and spectacle when our hero discovered a subterranean kingdom lost since the Ice Age.
World’s Finest Comics #4 (Winter 1941) ‘The Case of the Crime Crusade’ was another socially relevant racketeering tale and the final story in this volume ‘The Crashing Planes’, from Action #43 (which actually has Superman attacking Nazi paratroopers on the cover) had the Man of Tomorrow smashing a plot to destroy a commercial airline.
Even though war was undeclared DC and many other publishers had struck their colours well before December 7th. When The Japanese attack filtered through to the gaudy pages the patriotic indignation and desire for retribution would generate some of the very best art and stories the budding art-form would ever see.
Stay tuned…
© 1941, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.