Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (10)--Superman and Batman Visit Krypton

Among the comics bought at the Phila. comic show was one with so many holes in the plot, I just had to comment. It's World's Finest no. 191. This was a series in which Superman and batman teamed up and was extremely popular. In this issue from the late 1960s, Supie and Batty journey back in time to the planet Krypton because Superman's parents mysteriously appear on Earth, mention they are about to commit a crime and then vanish. To begin with, has Superman forgotten he'll have no superpowers on Krypton? How will they get back before the panet explodes? They don't even travel in a time bubbble, Batman just puts on a space suit, hitches a ride on Superman's back and off they go (maybe he was used to riding bareback, if you know what I mean).

This also ties in with the theme of an earlier blog about how everyone and his brother--Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Mon-El, and now Batman and Superman--seems to have visited the doomed planet and Jor-El and Lara. I will have to do a time line at some point.

So Superman and Batman materialize on Krypton during a student protest against robot professors--yes, even though we are on a different planet and it's about 40 years before the 1960s, there are long-haired kids kicking up a ruckus just like on earth. Ridic! The two heroes break up the kiddies' fun by taking over the local weather-control station and starting a downpour. Evidently, Krypton was advanced enough to control the weather and have robot teachers, but they hadn't mastered space flight which would have saved them.

Jor-El, one of the few human professors, takes an interest in the costumed clowns--I mean visitors--and invites them to his home. They pass a Krypton movie house showing patrons carrying their own helmets with speakers and mini-screens (this contradicts another version of Krypton moviegoing shown in a Jimmy Olsen story wherein he visits the bottle city of Kandor and patrons experience the sensations of the movie including kissing without the aide of helmets. But maybe this was a fad in Kryptonopolis which did not take hold in Kandor.) But I digress.

The two earth heroes are welcomed into Jor-El and Lara's home. The scientist's wife remarks, "I have the feeling I've seen you before," referring to their brief appearance on earth. What Lara and the writers of this story have forgetten is that Superman did know his parents before. He was trapped in a time-vortex (or something) and wound up on Krypton just before Jor-El and Lara got married. He got to know them well and spent much time with them as Jor-El's scientific protege. He even fell in love with Lyla Lerrol, Krypton's leading emotion-movie actress (which goes back to the contradicting methods of Krypton cinema, perhaps I should write a disseration on that.) The four of them went out all the time, dancing and drinking in Kryptonian nightclubs. Superman was resigned to remaining on his homeworld and dying with his parents and new love, but he accidently was trapped in a movie rocket, took off, and headed into the same time vortex, returning to present day Earth.

All of this must have slipped Lara's mind. Anyway, it turns out the Els aren't crooks, but are leading a select troop of recruits to perform a secret mission on a Kryptonian island where committing crimes is the law and being honest is outlawed. So having proven his parents aren't theives, Superman heaves a sigh of relief and suddenly recalls he and Batman have no way of getting back to earth. He actually says, "I forgot about that." Luckily, the superheroes get caught in the same time thingie his parents did and are back on earth. It was part of a top-secret government project which must now be destroyed; otherwise Battie and Supie would be drawn back to Krypton. Sort of like the Time Tunnel. Remember that show? I recall asking if we could go to my great-aunt's house on Wednesday nights because she had a color set so we could watch it there.

Krypton--The Place to Be

Just finished reading the new Superman Silver Age collection--Tales from the Phantom Zone. It got me to thinking that a lot was happening on Superman's home planet Krypton before it blew up and it was all happening to Superman's parents Jor-El and Lara. Before the fatal explosion, several Earth people visited the doomed world--Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, two doctors (both healed an ailing baby Kal-El), even the grown up Kal-El himself--and they all dropped in on Mr. and Mrs. El. In one version, Kal-El is a phantom because he hasn't been born yet. In other, he's just as flesh and blood as any Kryptonian and falls in love with a glamorous movie star. In addition, the Els were visited by the youthful Mon-El of the planet Daxam who later crashed on earth and caught amnesia, then thought he was Superboy's older brother. He recovered his memory but was sent into the Phantom Zone for 1,000 years so he wouldn't die of lead poisoning. In the 30th century, Brianiac 5 developed a serum to cure Mon who then joined the Legion of Super-Heroes. But I digress.

Jor-El was a jack of all trades evidently. Not only was he a leading scientist, but also an undercover agent for the KBI (Krpyton Bureau of Investigation) and chief executioner (before he invented the Phantom Zone projector--a more humane way of dealing with criminals). This leaves a question, if Jor was such a respected member of society, why didn't his fellow citizens believe him when he said the planet was about to explode? Some day I will have research this and develop a time line of all the events that occured on Krypton before the big bang. I know there is a sci-fi novel on this topic. Perhaps I'll check it out for consistancy with the mythos of the comics.