Around the Horn With Some Contributions

Superman Fan has been doing a series of posts on the Greatest Imaginary Story You've Never Seen (Part I and Part II). Actually, I have seen it; I have a coverless copy in my collection. It is a very cool story in which Jor-El and Lara escape to Earth with baby Kal-El when Lara (surprise) gets the brilliant idea of enlarging the test rocket ship with a ray she's been working on.

The rest of the story is kind of a Jor-El Ex Machina; with Superman's father solving all of the problems that his son would face in the "real" stories. Lex Luthor goes bald? Not with Papa El's magical hair restoring ray. Mxyzptlk creating constant annoyances? Jor erects a shield preventing him from entering our dimension. Kandor stuck in miniature? Jor-El rebuilds Lara's enlarging ray. Superboy in love with Lori Lemaris, the mermaid? Daddy gives her a pair of legs. But amusingly, when Superboy first encounters Kryptonite, Jor-El has a senior moment:

Yes, don't lift my son who probably weighs 150 pounds, instead drag that several-ton boulder of Kryptonite! Of course, after that he designs a Kryptonite disintegrator, so his reputation as a super-genius remains intact.

So far Osgood hasn't covered the final part of the story, but I will mention that it's another one of those endings where the inexorable nature of fate is once again highlighted.

Over at the Comic Treadmill, Mag notes the futility of Captain Boomerang attempting to send the Flash on a boomerang to the Moon; surely it would just return? What I find amusing, however, is that in each of Captain Boomerang's first three appearances, he had essentially the same deathtrap for the Flash. In Flash #117:

You can see that's not substantially different from the setting in Flash #124. Ditto with Flash #148:

Incidentally, in that last story, the Flash escapes by grabbing hold of the flag atop Mount Everest:

Bill Jourdain appeared on Comic Geek Speak to discuss the early days of DC comics (from about 1935-1947). Bill's always worth a listen due to his vast knowledge of Golden Age Comics.

The House of Cobwebs analyzes the horror that was Freddy, Charlton's attempted knock-off of Archie Comics. The post is much more entertaining and humorous than the actual Freddy Comics. I'll have to dig around and see if I can pull up an issue of that comic for a review.