Weakness to Strength
Jerry Siegel’s Return to Superman
Superman: The Movie debuted in 1978. I was born in 1977. The Superman I grew up with in my mind’s eye was always of Christopher Reeve. My Superman being a benevolent god with the soul of a human, of a messiah whose life was surrounded by wonder and awe. As I got older, Superman became less interesting to me. His powers became too much of a reflection of how powerless I was as an adolescent, and how in a world that isn’t fair he could still play by the rules because of his fantastic powers. It’s no wonder that many young boys on the cusp of manhood switch their superhero tastes to the darkness of Batman (who has no powers), or as in the case of my own generation, Wolverine (who has powers that only serve to make him more able to handle the complexity of the modern world with violence).
It wasn’t until my late-twenties that I slowly began to come back to the character. I began to pick up Superman stories by creators whose work I enjoyed, and found myself responding to the character emotionally again, as these creators hammered home what makes Superman a wonderful character in these times: that someone with those powers does do the right thing every time, and that the right thing to do is seldom the easiest. This was Superman as an adult, leading by example. It’s no wonder that adult men come back to the character with responsibility creeping into their lives in the form of career and family.
On an impulse, I bought the first volume of SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SUPERMAN, just to get a flavor of the older stories, and found that the Superman presented in those times was a huge jerk. Story after story had Superman going out of his way to belittle Lois Lane, ensuring Jimmy Olsen never had any accomplishments of his own, and pulling long, drawn out hoaxes on criminals in such a way that make absolutely no sense at all, which meant that I adored these stories. This version of Superman hit a nerve with my inner 13 year old prankster who had rejected the character. I would beg people to borrow my copy or buy outright the first volume. I wasn’t the only one who found great amusement in the stories either. Websites such as Superman is a Dick started to crop up around the same time which often featured cover or interior art of Superman acting like an infantile Old Testament version of God: judgmental, vengeful and childish.
So it was with great surprise that I discovered through reading Gerard Jones’ book Men of Tomorrow that Jerry Siegel had returned to National Periodicals to write Superman again, and that his second run on the character produced some of the greatest Superman stories produced. In fact, the stories of his return would be the emotional basis for the feature length Superman film in 1978. After all, the legacy of his first run in Superman was apparent to me in that first volume of SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SUPERMAN. I started to reread the book and noticed that Siegel did have two stories credited to him at the end of the first volume, and they were similar in tone to most of the comics it’s collected with. The first one is titled “How Perry White Hired Clark Kent,” which shows how Superman turns into a yesteryear Jayson Blair by fabricating news in disguise with his superpowers. The next story is titled “Superman Joins The Army,” which shows Superman just relentlessly getting into what is akin to a passive aggressive penis measuring contest with an ambitious US Army captain who insists that Superman must serve in accordance of the draft (though hilariously Superman does become a 1-star general, and reading characters address him as “General Superman” pretty much sums up how awesome comics are for me). Two stories in, and both portrayed Superman as an adolescent power fantasy. I pressed on to the second volume.
It doesn’t start off well. The first story Siegel wrote in the second volume is “The Revenge of Luthor,” where Lex Luthor gives Superman a choice to save either Superboy (who has been split from his older self by the effects of Red Kryptonite) or Lana Lang and Lois Lane who have both been kidnapped by Luthor. Superman and Superboy have been uncomfortably fighting through the entire story, and Superman is caught trying to guess whether Superboy, his younger self, is plotting to have the women killed or is willing to sacrifice himself. The idea that any version of Superman is not willing to sacrifice himself is deeply disturbing to the reader. Thankfully, the Red Kryptonite made it possible that it was all just a dream. The next notable story continues the trend of Siegel fleshing out Superman’s past with “When Lois First Suspected That Clark Was Superman,” which becomes almost laughable at how two adults who claim to love each other could go to such depths of deceit and lying, Superman most of all. Then there’s “Superman’s Mermaid Sweetheart,” which shows after finding a doctor from space to save Lori Lemaris, Superman flies into a jealous rage when he sees Lori and the doctor have fallen in love.
However, Siegel takes an interesting turn with “Superman’s Fortresses Of Solitude,” which has Superman foiling an assassination plot against him by the Anti-Superman Gang. The story also contains a flashback to an earlier adventure and has the city of Kandor desperately trying to warn Superman of the impending threat. There is some genuine suspense portrayed in a mere 10 pages of story. Siegel also takes another great turn with “The Super-Brat From Krypton,” which posits that through a cosmic accident, an exact duplicate of Kal-El and his rocket were formed on the journey to Earth, and that the duplicate Kal-El was raised by criminals. It’s a three part story that shows both Superman and his opposite, Super-Menace, growing up and becoming men, and ends with Super-Menace realizing the innate good in his nature after years of bad nurturing from criminals. Super-Menace eventually saves Superman and abandons his human form back to pure energy, taking his criminal parents with him.
Perhaps the best example of Siegel imbuing emotion and altruism into his stories however is “Superman’s Return to Krypton,” which has Superman going back through time and accidentally getting stuck on Krypton before it is destroyed and unable to leave due to its red sun. Superman befriends his own parents and assists his father in his research while falling madly in love with an actor, Lyla Lerrol. Without superpowers for the first time in his life, Superman enjoys his time on Krypton with his parents and Lyla, but he knows that his new life is doomed. He works tirelessly with Jor-El to build a fleet of rockets to save the planet, but set back after set back hinders their work. Through a freak accident on a movie set, Superman is accidentally sent back into space in what was supposed to be a prop rocket. Once far enough away, he regains his powers and travels back to the modern era, knowing that despite all his powers, he can never save his home, his parents, and now, the woman he loves from perishing. It is a surprisingly sad story for the time, and one of the first times I’ve read Superman feeling a profound sense of loss in this era of comics. The story also features art from one of my favorite Superman artists, Wayne Boring, who captures the turmoil in Kal-El’s tortured face so well panel to panel.
Another epic story which occurs in the third volume is “The Death of Superman.” Like “Superman’s Return to Krypton,” Siegel gets a whole comic to tell his story instead of in ten pages. Luthor tricks his way out of jail by curing cancer and claiming to change his ways. Superman altruistically vouches for Luthor after making such a scientific discovery, and even protects him as his former underworld associates try to get even with him for not honoring his promise to kill Superman. It’s an unfortunate ruse that allows Luthor to get the upper hand on Superman’s trust, and Luthor does succeed in killing Superman (much to my surprise). The story ends with the city of Kandor putting Luthor on trial. Luthor again offers help to avoid a harsh judgement by promising to make Kandor return to it’s original size, but the Kandor court swiftly tells Luthor that they don’t make deals with murderers and sends him to the Phantom Zone. The story ends with Supergirl and Krypto taking up Superman’s responsibilities, feeling the burden and “sorrow at the passing of the strongest, kindest, m-most powerful human being I’ve ever known!” By having the entire third act revolve around the aftermath of Superman’s death, Siegel gives the reader a sense of loss and tragedy, even if the very last caption is to let us know that this is an imaginary story. Curt Swan (my other favorite Superman artist) captures the emotional turmoil of the world as it reels from the profound loss of Superman.
The third volume really fills out Siegel’s run with stories that are also fun, often featuring Mr. Mxyzptlk, and touching on the lighter aspects of Superman’s past, such as how the initials L.L. keep cropping up in his travels (Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lightening Lad, Lori Lemaris, Linda Lee, etc.). The most notable story that is light in tone is Action Comics #285 in which Superman finally reveals Supergirl to the world, whom he believes has earned the right to help protect Earth. Supergirl is unsure of herself in Superman’s absence, but rises to the occasion in Earth’s time of need. It’s a coming-of-age story that can’t help but make you smile.
Nonetheless, by the fourth volume of SHOWCASE PRESENTS: SUPERMAN, Siegel’s name all but disappears from the pages of Superman and Action Comics, which were published originally in 1963 and 1964. It’s safe to assume that he was again fired during this time by Jack Leibowitz for trying to legally challenge National Periodical’s copyright claim to Superman, which would be up for renewal in 1966. There is one last story near the end of the volume titled “The Sweetheart Superman Forgot!” which has Superman getting amnesia and losing his powers from Red Kryptonite. He again falls in love with a woman named Sally while working in a small town, and a jealous suitor to Sally cripples Superman (or “Jim White,” as he now calls himself). The suitor’s plan fails and Sally intends to marry “Jim.” In a final desperate move, the suitor kicks a boulder down on the unsuspecting Jim in his wheelchair, where he is tossed off a cliff into the ocean and is rescued by Aquaman. Aquaman then sends Superman to Lori Lemaris to bring him back to health. Superman soon regains his memory and powers, but cannot remember what happened to him after his exposure to Red Kryptonite. Upon returning to Metropolis, Superman as Clark Kent remarks how he wishes someone would love him for his Clark Kent persona instead of as Superman after a run-in with Lois Lane. Little does he know that Sally exists and mourns for their love.
That last story Siegel wrote for this volume starts to show how tragic Superman’s life could be. Despite all his power, his one weakness was his emotions, his capacity to be human. However, in that weakness, Jerry Siegel laid down the groundwork for future writers to build how that weakness was Superman’s greatest strength, and that showing his humanity was how we as an audience could come back and relate to a being who had the powers of a god. Superman has been transformed into a being that reflects the absolute best of humanity. It’s unfortunate that we never had a chance to see more from Siegel as he grew his creation into something bigger and better from its initial origins.
