By Otto Binder, Curt Swan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0787-8
When the blockbusting Man of Tomorrow debuted in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) he was instantly the centre of attention but even then the need for a solid supporting cast was apparent and quickly tailored for. Glamorous daredevil girl reporter Lois Lane premiered with Clark Kent and was a constant companion and foil from the outset.
Although unnamed, a plucky red-headed, be-freckled kid worked alongside Clark and Lois from Action Comics #6 (November 1938) and was called by his first name from Superman #13 (November-December 1941) onwards. That lad was Jimmy Olsen and he was a major player in The Adventures of Superman radio show from its debut on April 15th 1940; somebody the same age as the target audience for the hero to explain stuff to (all for the listener’s benefit) and the closest thing to a sidekick the Man of Tomorrow ever needed…
When the similarly titled television show launched in the autumn of 1952 it became a monolithic hit and National Periodicals began cautiously expanding their increasingly valuable franchise with new characters and titles. First up were the gloriously charming, light-hearted escapades of that rash, capable but naïve photographer and “cub reporter†from the Daily Planet: the first spin-off star of the Caped Kryptonian’s rapidly expanding entourage began with Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #1, which launched in 1954 with a September-October cover date.
As the decade progressed the oh-so-cautious Editors at National Comics tentatively extended the franchise in 1957 just as the Silver Age of Comics was getting underway and it seemed there might be a fresh and sustainable appetite for costumed heroes and their unique brand of spectacular shenanigans. Try-out title Showcase, which had already launched The Flash (#4 & 8 ) and Challengers of the Unknown (#6-7) followed up with a brace of issues entitled Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane in #9 and 10 before swiftly awarding her a series of her own – in actuality her second, since for a brief while in the mid-1940s she had her own solo-spot in Superman.
This gloriously nostalgic and scintillatingly addictive monochrome tome chronologically covers those experimental franchise expansions, re-presenting Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #1-22, (September/October 1954 to August 1957 and Showcase #9 July/August 1957, plus the very first Lois Lane solo strip from Superman #28 – May/June 1944 as a welcome bonus.
The fabulous vintage all-ages entertainment (courtesy of dedicated creative team Otto Binder, Curt Swan & Ray Burnley) begins with ‘The Boy of 1000 Faces’ in which the ebullient junior journalist displays his phenomenal facility for make-up and disguise to tap a jewel thief before heading to timber country and solving the ‘Case of the Lumberjack Jinx’ before masquerading as ‘The Man of Steel’s Substitute’ and tackling public requests too trivial for his Kryptonian chum.
‘The Flying Jimmy Olsen’ opened the second issue with a daring tale of idiocy as the lad swallowed an alien power-potion with staggering disregard for the potential repercussions (a recurring theme of those simpler times) whilst ‘The Hide and Seek Mystery’ displayed his crime-solving pluck as he hunted down more jewel thieves after which the boy became ‘Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s Ex-Pal’ to expose a cunning conman.
He became ‘The Boy Millionaire’ in #3 when a wealthy dowager repaid a kind deed with a vast cash reward. Sadly all money brought Jimmy was scammers, conmen and murderous trouble. After that he headed to Tumbleweed, USA to cover a rodeo and somehow became ‘The Fastest Gun in the West’ before meeting the highly suspect eccentric who was ‘The Man Who Collected Excitement’.
‘The Disappearance of Superman’ perplexed Metropolis in #4 until his valiant pal solved the mystery and saved the Caped Kryptonian’s life whilst as ‘The Hunted Messenger’ Jimmy risked certain death to outwit gangsters before replacing a regal look-alike and playing ‘King for a Day’ in a far off land threatened by a ruthless usurper.
In issue #5 ‘The Boy Olympics’ displayed Jimmy’s sentimental side as he risked his job to help young news vendors from a rival paper and almost got replaced by a computer in ‘The Brain of Steel’ before beguiling and capturing a wanted felon with ‘The Story of Superman’s Souvenirs’…
The cutthroat world of stage conjuring found him competing to become ‘The King of Magic’ in JO #6’s first tale after which the diminutive lad endured a punishing diet regime – hilariously enforced by Superman – before covering the sports story of the year in ‘Jockey Olsen Rides Star Flash’. The last tale found Jimmy bravely recovering ‘100 Pieces of Kryptonite’ that fell on the city rendering Superman helpless and dying…
Jimmy Olsen #7 found the boy teaching three rich wastrels a life-changing lesson in ‘The Amazing Mirages’ after which a magic carpet whisked him away to write ‘The Scoop of 1869’ and the lad’s boyhood skills enabled him to become ‘The King of Marbles’, catching a crook and more headlines…
In #8 pride in his investigative abilities and a slick conman compelled him to uncover his pal’s secret identity in ‘The Betrayal of Superman’ after which he was ‘Superboy for a Day’ (sort of) and wowed the chicks when a sore throat enabled him to become ‘Jimmy Olsen, Crooner’, whilst in #9 he disastrously switched jobs to ‘Jimmy Olsen, Cub Inventor’, became a TV quiz mastermind in ‘The Million-Dollar Question’ and piloted a prototype Superman robot in ‘The Missile of Steel’.
In #10 the canny lad turned the tables on a greedy hoaxer in ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Martian Pal’ and suffered amnesia in ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Forgotten Adventure’ before going back to nature as ‘Jungle Jimmy Olsen’, whilst the next issue found him acting, after a stellar accident, as ‘Superman’s Seeing-Eye Dog’, dumping the neglectful and busy Man of Steel for a more appreciative comrade in ‘Jimmy Olsen, Clark Kent’s Pal’ and accidentally exposing a corrupt boxing scam as ‘T.N.T. Olsen, the Champ’.
He helped out a circus chum by becoming ‘Jimmy Olsen, Prince of Clowns’ in #12, thereafter uncovering ‘The Secret of Dinosaur Island’ and falling victim to a goofy – if not plain mad – scientist’s bizarre experiment and reluctantly became ‘The Invisible Jimmy Olsen’, whilst in #13 and tracking a swindler he met a half dozen namesakes in ‘The Six Jimmy Olsens’. Criminals then targeted the cub reporter’s secret weapon in ‘The Stolen Superman Signal’ and the lad found himself the subject of a cruel but necessary deception when the Metropolis Marvel perpetrated ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Super Illusions’…
Issue #14 opened with a time-travel western tale as the lad instigated ‘The Feats of Chief Super-Duper’ after which a scientific accident seemingly imbued the bold boy with Clark Kent’s personality and created ‘The Meek Jimmy Olsen’ before the cub was lost in American wilderness and was outrageously mistaken for ‘The Boy Superman’.
JO #15 found him demoted and at a dog-show where his infallible nose for news quickly uncovered ‘The Mystery of the Canine Champ’ after which an injudiciously swallowed serum gave him super-speed and he became ‘Jimmy Olsen, Speed Demon’ and a strange ailment forced him to dispose of his most treasured possessions in ‘Unwanted Superman Souvenirs’…
A scurrilous scammer in #16 offered to regress the boy’s consciousness and help him re-live ‘The Three Lives of Jimmy Olsen’ after which a series of crazy coincidences compelled identity-obsessed Clark to convince Lois Lane that Jimmy was ‘The Boy of Steel’ before another chemical concoction turned the lad into a compulsive fibber and ‘The Super Liar of Metropolis’.
The next thrill-packed issue featured ‘Jimmy Olsen in the 50th Century’ wherein the lad was transported to an era where history had conflated his and Superman’s lives, whilst in ‘The Case of the Cartoon Scoops’ he rediscovered a gift for drawing and the curse of clairvoyance before an horrific accident turned him into ‘The Radioactive Boy’, whereas in #18, humour was king as ‘The Super Safari’ found him using a “magic†flute to capture animals for a circus, ‘The Riddle Reporter’ saw him lose scoops to a masked mystery journalist and he then had to nursemaid his best friend when a criminal’s time weapon turned the Man of Steel into ‘Superbaby, Jimmy Olsen’s Pal’…
In #19 ‘The Two Jimmy Olsens’ introduced a robot replica of the cub reporter whilst in ‘The Human Geiger Counter’ the kid became allergic to the Action Ace before a brain injury convinced him he was ‘Superman’s Kid Brother’. The next issue opened with ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Super-Pet’ as a souvenir hatched into a living breathing dinosaur. His misguided efforts to save a small-town newspaper culminated in ‘The Trial of Jimmy Olsen’ after which Superman secretly turned his pal into ‘The Merman of Metropolis’ in a convoluted scheme to preserve his own alter ego.
Issue #21 revealed an unsuspected family skeleton and a curse which seemingly transformed reporter into pirate in ‘The Legend of Greenbeard Olsen’, whilst ingenuity and a few gimmicks briefly turned him into junior hero ‘Wonder Lad’ but arrogance and snooping were responsible for the humiliation that resulted from ‘The Wedding of Jimmy Olsen’ to Lois Lane…
A month later the lady finally starred in her own comicbook as, galvanised by a growing interest in superhero stories, the company’s premiere try-out title pitched a brace of issues focused on the burgeoning Superman family of features.
Showcase #9 (cover-dated July/August 1957) featured Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane in three tales by Jerry Coleman, Ruben Moreira & Al Plastino and opened with the seminal yarn ‘The Girl in Superman’s Past’ wherein Lois first met red-headed hussy Lana Lang, childhood sweetheart of Superboy and a pushy conniving go-getter out to win Lois’ intended at all costs. Naturally Miss Lane invited Miss Lang to stay at her apartment and the grand rivalry was off and running…
‘The New Lois Lane’ aggravatingly saw Lois turn over a new leaf and stop attempting to uncover his secret identity just when Superman actually needed her to do so and the premier concludes with the concussion-induced day-dream ‘Mrs. Superman’ as Lois imagines a life of domestic super-bliss…
When Lois Lane finally received her own shot at solo stardom it was very much on the terms of the times. I must shamefacedly admit to a deep, nostalgic affection for her bright and breezy, fantastically fun adventures, but as a free-thinking, liberal (nominally) adult of the 21st century I’m simultaneously shocked nowadays at the patronising, nigh-misogynistic attitudes underpinning many of the stories.
I’m fully aware that the series was intended for young readers at a time when “dizzy dames†like Lucille Ball or Doris Day played to the popular American gestalt stereotype of Woman as jealous minx, silly goose, diffident wife and brood-hungry nester, but to ask kids to seriously accept that intelligent, courageous, ambitious, ethical and highly capable females would drop everything they’d worked hard for to lie, cheat, inveigle, manipulate and entrap a man just so that they could cook pot-roast and change super-diapers is just plain crazy and tantamount to child abuse.
Oddly enough the 1940s interpretation of the plucky news-hen was far less derogatory: Lois might have been ambitious and life-threateningly precipitate but at least it was to advance her own career and put bad guys away as seen in the four-page vignette which closes this volume.
‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter’ debuted in Superman #28 (May/June 1944) a breathless fast-paced screwball comedy-thriller by Don Cameron & Ed Dobrotka wherein the canny lass fails to talk a crazed jumper down from a ledge and saves him in another far more flamboyant manner, reaping the reward of a front page headline.
Before that Golden Age threat however there’s one last issue of the junior member of the Superman Family. JO #22 begins with ‘The Mystery of the Millionaire Hoboes’ as the lad tracked down the reason wealthy men are masquerading as down-and-outs before exposing the evil secrets behind ‘The Super-Hallucinations’ afflicting the Man of Tomorrow and ending with ‘The Super-Brain of Jimmy Olsen’ wherein resident affable crackpot genius Professor Phineas Potter evolved the boy into a man from 1,000,000AD. That cold but surely benevolent being had a hidden agenda however and was able to bend Superman to his hyper-intelligent will…
These spin-off, support series were highly popular top-sellers for over twenty years; blending action, adventure, broad, wacky comedy, fantasy and science fiction in the gently addictive manner scripter Otto Binder had first perfected a decade previously at Fawcett Comics on the magnificent Captain Marvel and his own myriad mini-universe of associated titles.
As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of the pre angst-drenched, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling and yes, occasionally deeply moving all-ages stories also perfectly depict the changing mores and tastes which reshaped comics from the safe 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1970s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry – “keep them entertained and keep them wanting moreâ€.
I know I certainly do…
© 1944, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.