{"id":33202,"date":"2025-06-29T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T08:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=33202"},"modified":"2025-06-27T16:57:09","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T16:57:09","slug":"superman-the-war-years-1938-1945-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/06\/29\/superman-the-war-years-1938-1945-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman: The War Years – 1938-1945"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" \"\"
\nBy Roy Thomas<\/strong>, Jerry Siegel<\/strong> & Joe Shuster<\/strong> with Don Cameron<\/strong>, Mort Weisinger<\/strong>, Fred Ray<\/strong>, Jack Burnley<\/strong>, Wayne Boring<\/strong>, Leo Nowak<\/strong>, Ed Dobrotka<\/strong>, John Sikela<\/strong>, Sam Citron<\/strong>, Ira Yarbrough<\/strong>, George Roussos<\/strong>, Stan Kaye<\/strong> & various (DC\/Chartwell Books)
\nISBN: 978-0-7858-3282-9 (Album HB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times. <\/em><\/p>\n

The creation of Superman <\/strong>and his unprecedented adoption by a desperate, joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Within three years of his debut in the summer of 1938, the intoxicating mix of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy: all deep and abiding issues for the American public at that time.<\/p>\n

However, once the war in Europe and the East snared America\u2019s consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comicbook covers if not interiors and the Man of Steel was again in the vanguard.<\/p>\n

In comic book terms Superman was master of the world and had already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry. There was a popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and the Fleischer studio\u2019s astounding animated cartoons. Thankfully, the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release and the energy and enthusiasm of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster informed and infected the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.<\/p>\n

Superman was definitely every kid\u2019s hero, and the raw, untutored yet captivating episodes reprinted here were also completely embraced by the wider public, as the new so very portable entertainment medium of comic books became a vital tonic for the troops and all the ones they had left behind…<\/p>\n

I sometimes think – like many others of my era and inclinations – that superhero comics are never more apt or effective than when whole-heartedly combating global fascism with explosive, improbable excitement courtesy of a myriad of mysterious, masked marvel men. All the most evocatively visceral moments of the genre seem to come when gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and I hope you\u2019ll please forgive the appropriated contemporary colloquialism – \u201cNips and Nazis\u201d. Isn\u2019t it great then that they\u2019re political legacy remains and a whole new diverse, multinational bunch are back again for the latest costumed cavorters to knock around some more?<\/p>\n

This superb hardcover archive – unavailable digitally but still readily accessible in paper formats – has been curated by comic book pioneer Roy Thomas, exclusively honing in on the euphoric output of the war years, even though in those long-ago dark days, publishers and creators were wise enough to offset their tales of espionage and imminent invasion with a barrage of home-grown threats and gentler or even more whimsical fare…
\n\"\"
\nA past master of WWII era material, Thomas opens this tome with a scene-setting Introduction<\/em> and prefaces each chapter division with an essay offering tone and context before the four-colour glories commence with Part 1: The Road to War<\/strong>, as following the cover to Action Comic<\/strong>s #1, the first Superman story begins.<\/p>\n

Most of early tales were untitled, but for everyone\u2019s convenience have in later years been given descriptive appellations by editors. Thus, after describing the foundling\u2019s escape from exploding Planet Krypton and explaining his astonishing powers in nine panels, with absolutely no preamble the wonderment begins in \u2018Superman, Champion of the Oppressed\u2019<\/em> and \u2018War in San Monte\u2019<\/em> from Action Comics<\/strong> #1 & 2 (June and July 1938 by Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster) as a costumed crusader who masquerades by day as reporter Clark Kent<\/em> began averting numerous tragedies.<\/p>\n

As well as saving an innocent woman from the electric chair and delivering rough justice to a wife-beater, the tireless crusader works over racketeer Butch Matson<\/em> – consequently saving suave and feisty colleague Lois Lane<\/strong> from abduction and worse, since she was attempting to vamp the thug at the time! The mysterious Man of Steel made a big impression on her by then outing a lobbyist for the armaments industry who was bribing Senators on behalf of greedy munitions interests fomenting war in Europe…<\/p>\n

The next breathtaking instalment \u2018Revolution in San Monte\u2019<\/em> sees the mercurial mystery-man travelling to the war-zone and spectacularly shutting down hostilities already in progress…<\/p>\n

Maintaining the combat theme, the cover of Action Comics<\/strong> #10 (March 1939) follows and the cover and first two pages of Superman<\/strong> #1 (Summer 1939): an expanded 2-page origin describing the alien foundling\u2019s escape from Krypton, his childhood with unnamed Earthling foster parents and eventual journey to the big city. A back-cover ad for the\u00a0Superman of American<\/strong> club and the October 1939 Action Comics<\/strong> #17 cover precedes Fall 1939\u2019s Superman<\/strong> #2 cover and rousing yarn \u2018Superman Champions Universal Peace!\u2019<\/em>, depicting the dynamic wonder man once more thwarting unscrupulous munitions manufacturers by crushing a gang who had stolen the world\u2019s deadliest poison gas weapon…<\/p>\n

After another concise history lesson Part 2: War Comes to Europe <\/strong>re-presents a stunning outreach article thanks to Look Magazine<\/strong> commissioning a legendary special feature by the original creators for their 27th<\/sup> February 1943 issue. \u2018How Superman Would End the War\u2019<\/em> is a glorious piece of wish-fulfilment which still delights, as the Man of Tomorrow arrests and hauls budding belligerents Hitler and Stalin to a League of Nations court in Geneva.<\/p>\n

Accompanied by the March 1940 cover, Action Comics<\/strong> #22 & #23 then declares \u2018Europe at War\u2019<\/em>: a tense, thinly disguised call to arms for the still neutral USA, and in a continued story – almost unheard of in those early days of funnybook publishing. Here Lois and Clark\u2019s fact-finding mission (by Siegel, Shuster and inker Paul Cassidy) spectacularly escalates, and after astounding carnage reveals a scientist named Luthor<\/em> to be behind the international conflict…<\/p>\n

The anti-aircraft cover for Superman<\/strong> #7 (November\/December 1940) and an ad for the Superman Radio Program<\/strong> precede Siegal, Wayne Boring & Don Komisarow\u2019s \u2018The Sinister Sagdorf\u2019<\/em> (Superman<\/strong> #8 January\/February 1941). This topical thriller spotlights enemy agents infiltrating American infrastructure whilst \u2018The Dukalia Spy Ring\u2019<\/em> (Superman<\/strong> #10 May\/June 1941) references the 1936 Olympics and sees the Action Ace trounce thinly-veiled Nazis at an international sports festival and expose vicious foreign propaganda: themes regarded as fanciful suspense and paranoia as the US was still at this time still officially neutral in the \u201cEuropean War\u201d.<\/p>\n

Behind Fred Ray\u2019s Armed services cover for Superman<\/strong> #12 (September\/October 1941, \u2018Peril on Pogo Island\u2019<\/em> (Siegel, Shuster & Leo Nowak) finds Lois and Clark at the mercy of rampaging tribesmen, although spies from a certain foreign power are at the back of it all, after which a Fred Ray gallery of covers – Action Comics<\/strong> #43 (December 1941), Superman<\/strong> #13 (November\/December 1941), Action Comics<\/strong> #44 (January 1942) and Superman<\/strong> #14 (January\/February 1942) – concludes the chapter.<\/p>\n

All of these were prepared long before December 7th<\/sup> changed the face and nature of the conflict…<\/p>\n

After Japan\u2019s attack on Pearl Harbor everything changed and Part 3: America Goes to War <\/strong>reflects the swift shift to a war footing, beginning with the notorious Siegel & Boring \u2018Superman Daily Strips\u2019<\/em> from January\/February 1942, wherein an overeager Clark Kent tries too hard to enlist and only succeeds in getting himself declared 4F (unfit to fight)…<\/p>\n

Timeless Fred Ray patriotic masterpieces from Superman<\/strong> #17 (July\/August 1942) and #18 (September\/October 1942) precede a stirring yarn from the latter. \u2018The Conquest of a City\u2019<\/em> (Siegel & John Sikela) sees Nazi agents using a civil defence drill to infiltrate the National Guard and conquer Metropolis in the Fuehrer\u2019s name… until Superman spearheads a counter-attack…
\n\"\"
\nThe other great patriotic cover master was Hardin \u201cJack\u201d Burnley and a quartet of his very best follow – Action Comics<\/strong> #54 (November 1942) & #55 (December 1942), World\u2019s Finest Comics<\/strong> #8 (Winter 1942 with Batman &<\/strong> Robin<\/strong> thrown in for good measure) and Superman<\/strong> #20 (January\/February 1943). That last also provides \u2018Destroyers from the Depths\u2019<\/em> wherein Hitler himself orders dastardly Herr Fange<\/em> to unleash an armada of marine monstrosities on Allied shipping and coastal towns. Of course, they prove no match for the mighty magnificent Man of Steel…<\/p>\n

After Burnley\u2019s Action Comics<\/strong> #58 cover (March 1943), Siegel, Ed Dobrotka & Sikela detail the saga of \u2018X-Alloy\u2019<\/em> from Superman<\/strong> #21 (March\/April 1943) as a secret army of Nazi infiltrators and fifth columnists steal US industrial secrets and would have conquered the nation from within if not for the ever-vigilant Man of Steel. Sikela\u2019s cover Action Comics<\/strong> #59 (April 1943) concludes this section as Part 4: In for the Duration <\/strong>discusses the long, hard struggle to crush the Axis. By the time of these tales, the intense apprehension of the early war years had been replaced with eager anticipation as tyranny\u2019s forces were being rolled back on every Front…<\/p>\n

Following Burnley\u2019s May 1943 Action Comics<\/strong> #60 cover, Superman<\/strong> #22 May\/June 1943 provides Siegel & Sam Citron\u2019s \u2018Meet the Squiffles\u2019<\/em>: a light-hearted but barbed flight of whimsy wherein Adolf Hitler is approached by the king of a scurrilous band of pixies who offer to sabotage America\u2019s mighty weapons. Neither nefarious rogue had factored Superman – or patriotic US gremlins – into their schemes though…<\/p>\n

Action <\/strong>#62 (July 1943) and Superman<\/strong> #22 (July\/August 1943) showcase two of Burnley\u2019s very best covers, with the latter fronting an astounding masterpiece of graphic polemic. Don Cameron scripts and Citron illustrates \u2018America\u2019s Secret Weapon!\u2019<\/em>: a rousing paean to US military might wherein Clark and Lois report on cadet manoeuvres and the Man of Steel becomes an inspiration to demoralised troops in training. Covers by Burnley for Action <\/strong>#63 (August 1943) and Superman<\/strong> #24 (September\/October 1943) – which latter provides \u2018Suicide Voyage\u2019<\/em> – follow. This exuberant yarn by Cameron, Dobrotka & George Roussos finds Clark (and pesky stowaway Lois) visiting the Arctic as part of a mission to rescue downed American aviators. Of course, no one is expecting a secret invasion by combined Nazi and Japanese forces, but Superman and a patriotic polar bear are grateful for the resultant bracing exercise…<\/p>\n

\u2018The Man Superman Refused to Help\u2019<\/em> comes from Superman<\/strong> #25 (November\/December 1943) and follows Burnley and Stan Kaye\u2019s November 1943 cover for Action Comics<\/strong> #66. In a far more considered and thoughtful tale from Siegel, Ira Yarbrough & Roussos expose the American Nazi Party – dubbed the \u201c101% Americanism Society\u201d –<\/em> whilst offering a rousing tale of social injustice as an US war hero is wrongly implicated in the fascists\u2019 scheme until the Man of Steel investigates…<\/p>\n

Next up and from the same issue is a much reprinted and deservedly lauded patriotic classic.<\/p>\n

\u2018I Sustain the Wings!\u2019<\/em> by Mort Weisinger & Fred Ray was created in conjunction with the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command under Major General Walter R. Weaver, designed to boost enlistment in the maintenance services of the military. In this stirring tale Clark attends a Technical Training Command school as part of the Daily Planet\u2019s attempt to address a shortfall in vital services recruitment (a genuine problem at this time in our real world) but the creators still find space for our hero to delightfully play cupid to a lovestruck kid who really wants to be a hot shot pilot and not a mere \u201cgrease monkey\u201d…<\/p>\n

Wayne Boring & Roussos\u2019 cover for Superman<\/strong> #26 (January\/February 1944) precedes Boring\u2019s \u2018Superman Sunday Strips #220-227\u2019<\/em> for January -March 1944, with the Metropolis Marvel heading to multiple theatres of War to deliver letters from loved ones on the Home Front after which Roussos\u2019 \u2018Public Service Announcement\u2019<\/em> (from Superman<\/strong> #28, May 1944) urges everyone to donate waste paper – like comic books!<\/p>\n

July\/August 1944\u2019s Boring cover for Superman<\/strong> #29 finds Lois greeting the USA\u2019s real Supermen – servicemen all – before Action <\/strong>#76 (September 1944 and Kaye over Boring) leads to anonymously-scripted \u2018The Rubber Band\u2019 <\/em>from World\u2019s Finest Comics<\/strong> #15 (Fall 1944). Illustrated by Sikela & Nowak and concentrating on domestic problems, it details the exploits of a gang of black market tyre thieves who are given a patriotic \u201cheads-up\u201d after Superman dumps their boss on the Pacific front line where US soldiers are fighting and dying for all Americans…<\/p>\n

Drawn by Boring, \u2018Superman Sunday Strips #280-282?<\/em> (March 1945) then rubbish and belittle the last vestiges of the Third Reich as Hitler and his inner circle desperately try to convince the Action Ace to defect to the side comprised of Supermen like them…<\/p>\n

In Superman<\/strong> #34 (May\/June 1945) Cameron, Citron & Roussos attempt to repeat the magic formula of \u2018I Sustain the Wings\u2019<\/em> with \u2018The United States Navy!\u2019<\/em> as Clark is despatched to follow three college football heroes as they progress in different maritime specialisations through the hellish war in the Pacific.
\n\"\"
\nThe enthralling sally through Superman\u2019s martial exploits conclude with one final Thomas-authored article as Part 5: Atoms for Peace? <\/strong>reveals how the fruits of the Manhattan Project changed everything…<\/p>\n

As fresh and thrilling now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics are perfectly situated in these gloriously luxurious editions; worthy, long-lasting vehicles for the greatest and most influential comics stories the art form has ever produced. Such Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at absurdly affordable prices and in a durable, comfortingly approachable format. What dedicated comics fan could possibly resist them?
\n\u2122 & \u00a9 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roy Thomas, Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster with Don Cameron, Mort Weisinger, Fred Ray, Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring, Leo Nowak, Ed Dobrotka, John Sikela, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, George Roussos, Stan Kaye & various (DC\/Chartwell Books) ISBN: 978-0-7858-3282-9 (Album HB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. The creation of Superman … <\/p>\n

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