Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (12)--

I stopped by Time Machine recently just before it was closing and brought up an old Jimmy Olsen (103) with the top half of the cover slashed off. Roger said it was worth about $4, but he'd let me have it for free. Here's an interesting letter from Jimmy Olsen's Pen Pals in that issue:

Dear Editor:
We all know that Jimmy's favorite girl friend is Lucy Lane. But who is his favorite boy friend, his best boy pal?
Gloria Samuels, Leonia, NJ
(Robin the Boy Wonder. They frequently work together on cases with Batman and Superman.--Ed.)

So, I wonder if Gloria Samuels is still around and if she realizes the homoerotic can of worms she opened?

They were other gay goodies to be found in my most recent batch of Silver Age purchases. In Superboy 147, an 80-page giant starring the Legion of Super Heroes, the story about the initiation of Ultra Boy is most interesting. In the first panel, a new kid and an older man alight from a train in Smallville, Superboy's home town. "We will go directly to the home I've rented," the older man says, "Be on guard! No one must suspect we are...different!" (Cue the creepy music) In the next panel, both figures are in their new home and taking their shirts off! They reveal bright red action costumes with a green bird insigna. Now if that's not gay, I don't know what is.

It turns out the kid is Ultra Boy and he's in Smallville to pass his initiation into the Legion of Superheroes in the 30th century. He must discover Superboy's secret identity. The older guy is later revealed to be some old coot named Marla, the Legion's senior advisor. But Marla never showed up again in any of the Legion stories when they got their own feature in Adventure Comics. What happened to him?

In The Story of Superman, Jr., reprinted in Superman Annual no. 7, Superman adopts a young boy who had gained superpowers when his father shot him into space thinking the earth would explode. But he didn't know Superboy would save earth. Years later, the now super youngster returns to earth and the grown up Superman adopts him. The boy's dad has since passed away. Superman just drops his Clark Kent identity and pretends to be the boy's dad. Weird, huh? It gets weirder. In one panel they are actually sleeping in the same bed. Later Superman Jr. loses his superpowers and Superman Sr. just leaves him on the street. Presumably Superman found a home for his former adopted son, but why just abandon him?