Weird Moments with Superman

In an early post I talked about how Superman is kind of a jerk, but it looks like in this time period he went from kind of a jerk to just really strange. There are a couple moments that stood out to me as particularly bizarre.

Superman #146 (1961)

Well Illustrated, Supes

So in this fabulous moment Superman has used his “super-memory” to bring up the standard insect scientific explanation for his superpowers and is explaining them to Pa Kent. But like any normal ten year old, he is doing so using carefully constructed diagrams, because I guess flowcharts and project presentations are also one of us super powers. This is totally normal behavior – I know last week I was asking my parents if they wanted to go out for dinner, and I drew several diagrams of restaurants and cars just to make sure we were on the same page.

Okay, I get that this isn’t for the benefit of Pa Kent but for the reader, but it is still really bizarre – if we didn’t have the small Clark in corner gleefully pointing out the diagrams it would be less like “hey dad, check out this sweet poster I made!” Do modern Superman stories use powerpoint to explain things? Does this compromise his secret identity? I mean, if someone found these posters he’d have a lot of explaining to do.

Superman #149 (1961)
This whole story is really strange in every way, but I’m just going to focus on how Superman chooses to use his Fortress of Solitude. Again, I don’t know what modern Superman does, but this iteration uses it to be a full scale creeper.

Key to Fort Stalker

The first thing we get to see is that Superman is a Super Stalker. We already know that all his interactions with Lois are pretty weird, but having life sized wax models all of his friends and an ENTIRE ROOM dedicated to his weird stalking of all of them is just creepy. Calm down there, Supes, that’s not really how friendship works.

Key to Fort Hoarder

And here we see the rest of the Fortress, where everything he does is strange. In addition to super hoarding (animals, trophies, and knickknacks) he can’t do anything normally – his painting has to be twice his height, and done with a ten foot paint brush. His journal is steel, and also ten feet high. Because I guess holding a normal sized paint brush would just be too difficult for him? Work at the Daily Planet must be really hard if writing implements are beyond his ability.

Okay, I’m getting a little off track here, but his hoarder zoo is really what drew my attention on these pages. He has all these weird contingencies in case of his death for Jimmy to get a car and Lois to get a pearl necklace, but what about these animals? Is there a care manual for them, or would they just starve until someone finds the cave? And even if they found the cave, these are alien creatures, so would they even know how to take care of them?

Speaking of, in issue #146 Jor-el tests his rocket with Krypto which was also strange. Rockets CAN be tested without creatures in them, Jor-el. But how does Krypto not starve after 20 years floating in space alone? And how can Superman speak the language of Krypton?? Was he just an especially fluent toddler?

Okay, Superman is giving me a Super Headache. Time for a break and see you next time!