The early 1970's was the period that Superman shed his silver age trappings of silly hoaxes and imaginary stories in an effort to making him more relevant to the readers of the 1970's (and perhaps to also compete with Marvel). One of the central tales in the revamping of the character was the above #247 (January 1972) where the question was asked " Must there be a Superman?".
The first time I saw the above cover (by Curt Swant/Murphy Anderson) featuring the Guardians of the Universe I thought (hoped?) that this would involve a meeting between the Green Lantern and Superman. Instead the tale which was Elliot S Maggins very first comic book story, revolved around the much deeper (comic book) concept of whether or not Superman's very presence on Earth was hindering the development and evolution of Humanity. At the time (1972) this was a pretty mindblowing concept and a cracking issue.
Afer being knocked unconscious while trying to avert a tragedy in space Superman is rescued by the Guardians of the Universe who tell him that his actions may be impeding the progress of humans.
While Superman considers what they said, he gets involved in the problems in a migrant camp where some striking workers are being verbally and physically abused by their boss. A teen (Manuel) who was being assaulted tells Superman of his story of moving from Mexico to the US to find better opportunities. While visiting Manuels village the locals plead with Superman to sort out their labour problems for them, Just then an earthquake strikes which Superman stops. He then tells the crowd that while he can solve problems like natural disasters, they must be responsible for the things that they can control.
As he flies away, he hears a news story about a ship being battered by the waves at sea and jets off to save them. Back on Oa, the Guardians watch his actions on a large screen and are convinced that they have succeeded in making him reassess his role in humanity's development.
In additon to the above main story, this issue also included an excellent back-up tale of "The Private Life of Clark Kent" by Denny O'Neil with some stunning art by the SwanAnderson team.
In this sotry Clark Kent learns that a receptioanist at WGBS' brother is running with a teenage gang. Clark decides to help and confronts the youths without the aid of his Superman alter ego. This 8 page tale has some fun touches like the above page where Clark trys smoking a pipe.
This issue rounds up with a nice reprint from "Action Comics" #338 (1966) - back in 1972 we got a lot of quality comics for our 25 cents (or in my case 7 1/2p).
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
"Swanderson" could do little wrong in my eyes. Regardless of the strangeness of a story, that artwork brought it home. Swan was dandy under lots of inkers but he shined brightest under Anderson's brush. It's truly sad that DC couldn't make the twenty-five cent price work at the time, because they delivered a solid entertainment package for that money.
ReplyDeleteI loved those 25 cent 48/52 page books they almost always had some classic strips old and new . Swamderson are a much missed class act
DeleteThose 25-cent era books have never been bettered, IMHO. The artists and writers were at their peak.
DeleteI remember buying this issue at the time (1972) and I still have the replacement copy I acquired over 40 years ago. A nice solid, entertaining read from an era when the Superman mag was a shining jewel on the spinner-rack. I don't think Swan ever had a better inker than Anderson, and their art is a perfect example of something that is greater than the sum of its parts.
ReplyDeleteSuperman was one of my favourite titles at this time . I don't think the character has been done better (I would add Jerry Ordways run to that) since the mid 1970s.
ReplyDeleteThis is a comic that I have, Paul, and have never read. Back in the early seventies, I was an avowed Batman fan, and never collected any of the Superman titles. Those were the province of my pal Nigel (co-contributor to the SuperStuff blog); by respectively collecting Batman and Superman we rarely came into competition for a particular comic.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I did go out of my way to collect all of the 25-cent Superman comics over the past couple of years with the intent of reading them someday ; you've given me the impetus to do just that. Wonderful Swanderson art.