CSBG Archive
A Year of Cool Comic Book Moments – Day 101
Here is the latest cool comic book moment in our year-long look at one cool comic book moment a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here‘s the archive of the moments posted so far!
Today we look at one of the most poignant Silver Age Superman comics – drawn by Wayne Boring and written by Superman’s co-creator, Jerry Siegel!
Enjoy!
In Superman (Vol. 1) #141, Jerry Siegel penned one of the great Superman stories, a tale that was truly ahead of its time, where Superman is accidentally sent into the past and lives on Krypton in the time leading up to the destruction of Krypton.
He befriends his own parents and begins a relationship with a glamorous “emotion-movie” actress, Lyla Lerrol.
Throughout the story, he keeps trying to come up with ways to save Krypton, but fails each time (by the way, this was an over 25-page story, which was a ginormous sized comic story at the time).
Ultimately, in today’s “moment,” Superman actually decides that he is fine living with Lyla (as his wife) and his parents and living out the last days of Krypton…
It’s a striking work for its time, filled with a great deal of poignancy (of course, one could argue that Siegel is going over the top with the pathos, but come on, he was writing for a kid audience here, he had to make sure that they got the drama involved).
Right after this, though, through a series of fluke circumstances, Superman is sent away from Krypton in a rocket, and he is forced to deal with the fact that he is destined to live in the present. When he returns to the present day, he encounters a meteor shower that is all that remains of Krypton.
Brutal, but good, stuff.
16 Comments
R3D RJ
April 12, 2009 at 4:18 am
Wow, that’s all I could say about this one. =)
madlad
April 12, 2009 at 4:59 am
Wow, indeed.
Bob
April 12, 2009 at 5:47 am
Did he ever love a woman whose initials WEREN’T “L.L.”? Almost makes you wonder the real reason he and Lex Luthor stopped being friends!
Good pick, though. Very good.
McK
April 12, 2009 at 6:30 am
“Emotion movie” actress? Sounds like a PC term for a XXX star.
This is a great story though. I believe it’s in the first Greatest Superman Stories TPB (but I am not sure if it is in the newer edition with the Alex Ross cover).
Sebastian
April 12, 2009 at 7:21 am
Awesome! Her name is Lyla, like the alien girl Superman was married with in Godfall. Very nice.
McK
April 12, 2009 at 7:59 am
Actually, I stand collected. The story in the “Greatest Stories” TPB is another one, “Superman’s Return to Krypton.”
Awesome! Her name is Lyla, like the alien girl Superman was married with in Godfall. Very nice.
It’s also the same woman Kal-El is married to in Alan Moore’s “For the Man Who Has Everything”
Dean
April 12, 2009 at 9:01 am
Jerry Siegel is absurdly under-rated as a writer. I am routinely surprised when reading through one of those old collections to run across a truly arresting story. Maybe the art is dated and the dialog is corny to modern ears, but the story is great. When I flip to the front, it is often written by Jerry Siegel. The great post-modern work of Alan Moore on Superman and Supreme is mostly built around stuff Siegel wrote in the Silver Age. The same is true of Morrison.
chad
April 12, 2009 at 10:42 am
nice to see a moment with one of supes creators doing the story not to mention supes being happy even though he knows what is to become of krypton and his wife and parents nice moment
Kevin
April 12, 2009 at 12:11 pm
“Almost makes you wonder the real reason he and Lex Luthor stopped being friends!”
I laughed my ass off at that. Thanks Bob.
Go Fish
April 12, 2009 at 12:29 pm
i want one of those music-robots!
Adam Weisman
April 12, 2009 at 2:01 pm
>Jerry Siegel is absurdly under-rated as a writer. I am routinely surprised when reading through one of those >old collections to run across a truly arresting story. Maybe the art is dated and the dialog is corny to modern >ears, but the story is great. When I flip to the front, it is often written by Jerry Siegel. The great post-modern >work of Alan Moore on Superman and Supreme is mostly built around stuff Siegel wrote in the Silver Age. The >same is true of Morrison.
Yup. Anyone who thinks Superman is a “vanilla” character and is less interesting than Batman really needs to read the three Superman: The Dailies volumes free online at http://dccomics.com/dcu/heroes_and_villains/.
It becomes ABUNDANTLY clear from reading these that Superman is a GREAT character who has been largely mishandled and whitewashed by editorial ever since Jerry Siegel went off to fight in WWII. Also anyone who thinks superhero comics shouldn’t express political views might find these interesting — superhero comics were political propaganda tackling real-world injustices from day one — and frankly are a lot more interesting that way.
Shane
April 12, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Deja Vu I’d just finished Brad Meltzer’s ‘Book of Lies’ last week which references this particular story at one point. Definitely a classic story by Superman’s creator
Mike Blake
April 12, 2009 at 11:06 pm
The problem with the accretions on the Superman legend in the Mort Weisinger era was that eventually just about everybody in the cast visited Krypton in its last days. I remember Jimmy and Supergirl for sure, I think Lois Lane, and that maybe Superman himself went back as well. And they never stumbled across each other. Still, this was a great story.
Is this the one, by the way, where Kal-El works with Jor-El on building a series of huge space arks to take Krypton’s population to safety?
Brian Cronin
April 12, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Yep.
Nate
April 13, 2009 at 12:05 pm
And Supes gets to wander around in his costume as advertising for Lyla’s sci-fi movie. So well done.
And don’t forget how Kal chokes up when he first meets his mom and dad. When I read a reprint of this as kid Siegel hit all the right notes to make a kid understand the power of these moments.
The Duke
April 23, 2009 at 5:26 am
Ahh, back when comic writers had respect for their readers.