CBR Live! Archive
Comic Book Urban Legends Addendum
- by Brian Cronin
- in General
Remember the one about how, for a time, it was actually part of Superman "canon" that Superman was hit by a duplicator ray on the way to Earth, creating a twin of baby Kal-El that was raised to be both a Super-Brat, then a Super-Bully and finally, a Super-Menace?
Well, reader John McDonagh let me know that even after the Superman books officially began doing "imaginary stories," that story was still considered canon! In 1962's Superboy #100, it had a pin-up detailing all of the routes taken by the various folks from Krytpon who ended up on Earth, and in it, it mentions the duplication ray.
It was not until 1964 that the story was officially determined to be an "imaginary" one.
Thanks for the extra info, John!
- Posted on February 8, 2008 @ 10:23 AM
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6 Comments
Steve Flack
February 8, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Is there a scan of this online anywhere? I'd love to see it.
T.
February 8, 2008 at 1:41 pm
What I'd love to see is a scan of the scene of the commenters mentioned in an earlier post...where the gangsters that find Super-Menace as an infant discover that he's superhuman. The commenter said the gangsters enter a room or something, see a baby sitting there, and immediately proceed to shoot at it! Was he pulling our leg or did this really appear?
T.
February 8, 2008 at 1:41 pm
oops, that should read "ONE of the commenters"....
JR
February 8, 2008 at 2:12 pm
That story's in the 2nd Superman Showcase volume, T. The gangsters actually fired at Super-Menace while he was coming out of the rocket he landed in.
T.
February 8, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Brian wrote:
I'm guessing that "both" is a mistake since you listed three things instead of two?
Sidney M
February 10, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I have a copy of "Amazing World of Superman", an oversize published in 1973. It has a bunch of photos from the TV show, reprints, a large foldout map of Krypton, and so on. If you go to the bottom of page 15, there's a map of all the Kryptonian survivors routes to Earth (Supergirl, Krypto, etc.) Super Menace is there also, listed under "historic accident". So if this character was officially declared imaginary by 1964, someone in 1973 goofed.
Also, and I'm only going by memory on this one since I don't have the original book, there was a Superman encyclopedia back in the 70s. It may have mentioned Super Menace. Again, I can't confirm that one but it might be worth checking out.