Superman #267: "World Beneath The North Pole!"

[jkcarrier.insanejournal.com]

Superman #267, September 1973
Written by Elliot Maggin
Art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson

Our story opens with Clark and Lois spending a day at the beach, along with their douchebag co-worker, Steve Lombard:


Clark ducks back into the changing room, ostensibly to get another pen, and switches to Superman:

Superman saves Steve's worthless ass, but is confused by what Jamie said. Jamie's Dad is Vernon Lombard, a leading geophysicist who disappeared three weeks ago. So how could Jamie have talked to him last night? He goes to Steve's place to investigate further:

Note the irony here: Steve Lombard, who has nothing but contempt for Clark Kent, is totally sucking up to Superman.
Anyway, Superman outfits Jamie with a "Kandorian Mental Stimulator", to strengthen the mental bond between him and his Dad. And sure enough, Jamie leads him to the City of the Miros, a lost underground civilization sustained by an artificial sun:

Turns out the reptilian Miros wanted Superman to come, so they could siphon off his body's heat-energy to power their sun. They send out a blob-like creature to stall Superman while they drain off the rest of his energy. But Vernon manages to tamper with the equipment and send a warning:


Jamie senses which building his Dad is in, and Superman smashes into the laboratory, just as the last bits of his body heat are being siphoned off:

I love how nonchalant Superman is: "Yeah, I just narrowly escaped certain death. How you doin'?"
So, having destroyed the sun-powering machinery, Superman leaves the Miros to freeze to death. I mean, fuck those guys, right?
Nah, just kidding. He's the Goddamn Superman:

Man, I bet those lizard-dudes feel pretty stupid right about now.
All's well that ends well. Vernon and Jamie appear on Clark's tv news show, and Jamie finally gets that autograph:

Insert trombone sound here.

This is a pretty typical '70s Superman story. With his powers amped up to godlike levels, the outcome is never really in doubt...the fun is seeing what roadblocks the writer can come up with to delay his inevitable victory. In this case, Superman is dependent on Jamie to point him in the right direction, and in turn he has to protect the kid, which restricts him from going full-out against the bad guys.

Man, I love Curt Swan. Even with that shitty 1970s printing and cheap paper, his stuff just shines. Still the definitive Superman.

Comments

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Love the Lombard scene. But much as I like Swan, he draws crappy monsters and aliens.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Hee. That was nice. I love that he rebuilt the Miros um... solar heat reflector for them.

And Supes: Every creature in the universe has the right to live: You only had to ask.
And Superman will help you.

As a kid, I only liked to read Batman and Batpeople comics, because I always thought, yeah. Superman=godlike, so unless somebody's got some kryptonite (and somebody usually does) where's the suspense? He's got supereverything and if money could buy him a solution? He can just make some diamonds out of coal.

But now I really enjoy the character.

[thokstar.insanejournal.com]

Is Jamie supposed to be a boy or a girl? There are panels which support either interpretation, and it's not like the name helps.

[jkcarrier.insanejournal.com]

He's a boy. You can't see it well in these particular panels, but in the beach scenes, he's wearing an open shirt.

[merseybeatler.insanejournal.com]

...Damn, and here I thought it was a girl all along.

[timgueguen.insanejournal.com]

I can accept Lois not figuring out Clark is Supes, because no one else does. But calling Clark skinny? Better get your eyes checked.

[retro_nouveau.insanejournal.com]

Yes, "skinny" should never be said about Clark.

... But it would be cool if one of his powers was to compress his muscles so that his secret didn't depend on the glasses.

[freivolk.insanejournal.com]

Clark unconsiously hypnosize everybody with the help of his krypton-glasses into believing that he is a skinny guy.
Its pre-crisis- canon.

[vignettelante.insanejournal.com]

First scan is why Clark is a better person than I am. "How is his underwear on fire?" "Who knows?" "And why are your glasses melted?" "It is a mystery."

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Did it strike anyone else that the events of the third scan could, well - never be written today? I mean, sure, this is Superman we're talking about here, but he's basically a stranger, and he's saying to this kid who doesn't know him 'say, how would you like to come with me?' and the kid's eagerly saying 'SURE!' I mean, he doesn't even check with the de facto parental figure. In the current 'don't trust strangers' era, that comes off as a tad, well, off.