The Comics Rack
The Forgotten Superman Story
Art by Neal Adams
by Bob Gay
Hidden behind a badly rendered cover by Neal Adams (Superman just ain't himself) is a story that DC conveniently forgot. It wasn't a dream. It wasn't a hoax. It wasn't even an imaginary story, but a poorly executed attempt to add yet another chapter to the already bloated Superman continutiy.
The editor responsible for allowing this tale to hit the stands was none other than Mort Weisinger. Weisinger, a former literary agent, and editor at Standard Magazines, joined DC in 1941 and became the editor of the DC Superman titles in 1948-49 after Siegel and Schuster were ousted from the company. By all accounts, Weisinger wielded a large amount of power at DC (for a time he was also editor of Batman) and, as a result, was feared (and loathed) by many creators and rarely questioned. Weisinger also had one major editorial dictum: that something new be continually added to the Superman mythos to keep reader interest.
Art by Curt Swan
The editorial pressure to constantly develop something new led to a tremendously creative period for not only Superman, but the Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane solo titles, as well. The concept of the Imaginary Story (which later became "Elseworlds") began during Weisinger's reign and Superman's personal life began to take some shape through the Jerry Siegel (albeit anonymously) scripted stories that examined the planet Krypton, Superman's lost loves and the personality of the Man of Steel. In fact, this period is so well remembered by fans that it is dubbed "The Weisinger Era" to set these stories off from those that preceeded and followed them.
Art by Curt Swan
The Weisinger Era, however, had a downside. I don't believe that Weisinger, or his stable of writers (outside of Siegel) had a long-term vision for Superman and simply looked on the character as a device to sell magazines monthly. Since all the stories were considered canonical unless they were Imaginary Stories, the Superman family of characters became loaded down with an increasing amount of excess baggage during this period. Green Kryptonite, the fragments of Krypton that were deadly to Superman, began to crop up more often during this time and more types were added as time went by (I believe they stopped with six). The red variety, which caused Superman to transform, in particular leading to some very silly stories. The single Bizarro, originally a sympathetic figure, became an entire planet of humorous, imperfect duplicates. The number of survivors of Krypton multiplied beyond reason. Superman went to ever greater (and outrageous) lengths to protect his secret identity and also developed new powers and abilities at the drop of a hat. Over time, the lack of editorial planning resulted in numerous blunders and mistakes that made Superman less the Superhuman envisioned by Siegel and Shuster and more a Super-Dope of unlimited power, who had no control over the events around him.
One of the greatest of these canonical blunders was the story featured in Superman #205,"The Man Who Destroyed Krypton!", which appeared in 1968; just under 2 years before Weisinger retired and Julius Schwartz attempted to revive the character. The story, written by Otto Binder and drawn by Al Plastino, opens with the obligatory splash panel and then shows us CIA headquarters, where a meeting is taking place. "Gentlemen! Earth is Doomed!", proclaims a word balloon and the next panel reveals that Superman is the only hope and that he has been contacted. Upon his arrival, Superman is challenged by the sentries and asked to show some credentials. Since he has none, Superman tunnels underground to prove who he is. Upon bursting out of the ground, Superman...well, let's let the comic take over the story at this point...(Click Picture 1)
As the briefing continues, we discover that Black Zero has purple eyes, a forked tongue and no fingerprints, leading one and all to the conclusion that he is an alien. Agent 009 is brought into the room, or rather an urn filled with ashes: all that remains of him. A tape made by Agent 009 reveals that Black Zero is going to wipe out everyone on Earth with the "Secret in his brain!" but, before Agent 009 could reveal anymore, something incinerated him.
"We've completely lost the trail," says the head(?) of the FBI.
"Relax! No rat can dodge me for long!" says Superman and, using his super-hearing, detects a double heartbeat, leading to the asumption that Black Zero is in the room.
Suddenly, flaming hands appear and attempt to off Superman in the same way that Agent 009 met his demise. No harm is caused, but a message from Black Zero to Superman appears on the wall saying that he'll never be tracked down, there is a secret in his brain and that the human race will be destroyed in three days.
Only Chief Inspector Watkins responds to this message and Superman wraps him in his cape and whisks him off to the Fortress of Solitude to show him how Black Zero can be defeated (the Fortress, in the Artic, which, as portrayed here, is contained in a rock hillside with green hills all around).
As the Inspector looks on, Superman inputs everything known about Black Zero into his Super-Computer. The computer does its thing and reveals that Blask Zero is standing right beside Superman disguised as Chief Inspector Watkins. Superman is shocked as the Inspector explains his disguise (never does explain the heartbeat) and then transforms into Black Zero. Fearing that a battle might wreck the Fortress (yeah, the fate of the Earth is only at stake), Superman grabs a microphone and calls for assistance from the Superman Emergency Squad in the bottle city of Kandor. Black Zero takes the microphone from Superman, shouts into it in Kryptonese and then uses the flaming hands trick to keep the Kandorians from rocketing to Superman's aid.
Black Zero then reveals that he speaks Kryptonese because he was assigned to be a saboteur on Krypton many years ago...(Picture 2)
Black Zero also reveals that he heard Jor-El tell people of the impending explosion of Krypton's core and figured he might have his work cut out for him, so...(Picture 3)
Sending a boring rocket into Krypton's core, Black Zero causes it to detonate, which starts up the chain-reaction once more...(Picture 4)
Superman goes into a rage, smashing a table and threatening to kill Black Zero, only to remember that he has a code against killing. Black Zero, laughing all the while, fades out through a wall, leaving Superman with the ticking of a clock.
Suddenly, Superman begins to hear voices, which turn out to be emanating from the Phantom Zone. Using a Phantom Zone viewer, Superman has a long conversation with Jax-Ur, who not only can tell Superman where Black Zero has his hideout (the Phantom Zone criminals can see any place on earth), but also wants vengeance for the destruction of Krypton. After a short digression explaining a sacred oath that all criminals on Krypton swore by (yet another new idea), Jax-Ur swears by the oath, is released from the Zone and the pair head for Black Zero's hideout.
Upon finding Black Zero, the pair first try to hypnotize him, but that can't be done because he has an anti-hypnotic shield placed around his brain. Next, Black Zero reveals...(Picture 5)
This bullet changes Jax-Ur into a giant snake, but he is ineffectual against Black Zero. Next, Black Zero creates a Green Kryptonite bullet that he sends towards Superman, but makes it swerve away at the last minute, so Superman can live to watch Earth explode. Jax-Ur slithers away, Black Zero tautingly gives a clue that the bomb is in the "emptiest place known" and Superman flies off to try to find the bomb.
After searching the emptiest places on Earth, it occurs to Superman that the "emptiest place known" is actually space and off he flies. He locates the bomb, Black Zero is in a spaceship and burns a message on an asteroid for Superman, warning him that touching the "anti-matter dart bomb" will cause the bomb to blow up and scatter deadly fallout over all the Earth. In addition...(Picture 6)
Clark continues to watch the clock, knowing that the bomb will hit in an hour. Jimmy offers Clark a Life-Saver and Clark dashes out of the office, a solution to the problem at hand. As Superman, he constructs a giant protractor to calculate the angle at which the bomb is dropping. Just in time, he bores a tunnel completely through the Earth and...(Picture 7)
Black Zero is devastated. Superman flies into the bomb and detonates it; barely surviving the explosion. Seeking revenge, Black Zero forms a giant hammer over Metropolis with the intent of smashing the city to bits...(Picture 8)
Which leads to the final page of the story and the conclusion...(Picture 9)
As a story, this was not one of Binder's best, but was fairly typical of the type of story that Weisinger allowed to be published during his tenure, making me wonder exactly how much "editing" was actually being done. There are holes in the plot that serve to create drama, but fail to advance the story. Superman only hears the double heartbeat once with no explanation of why he doesn't hear it later. The phrase "secret in his brain" is used repeatedly, but it is never explained. Dart-bombs, apparently, only explode outward from the front, since Superman can't explode the device when it is approaching the Earth, but can detonate it when it has passed through the Earth. There are also continuity errors, such as the pictured location of the Fortress (it seems this is a constant problem during the Weisinger Era, in that the Fortress and the key change from story to story.).
The portrayal of Superman is also typical of some of the Weisinger edited stories. Rather than being in control of events, Superman is controlled by them. He can't detect Black Zero without his Super-Computer. When the Superman Emergency Squad is trapped in Kandor, Superman can't contain Black Zero on his own. A Phantom Zone criminal, Jax-Ur, has to be brought to defeat Black Zero. Although Superman explodes the dart-bomb, this action occurs when the bomb is no longer a threat and it is left to Jax-Ur to "defeat" Black Zero by ending his life, in a fashion one would expect to find in The Spectre, not in Superman. And, if all this weren't enough, Superman, at the end of the story, suggests to Jax-Ur that maybe someday they will "get a crack" at the rulers of the pirate empire (the real villains), seemingly with no emotion: almost as if he were inviting a friend to a round of golf. Krypton's destruction was caused by an outside agency and Superman doesn't intend to hunt down those responsible immediately?
Art by Joe Shuster
As originally portrayed by Siegel and Shuster in Superman #1, Krypton was simply a "doomed planet" where "a scientist placed his infant son in an experimental rocket-ship, launching it toward Earth!" Later stories expanded this origin and, by 1968, readers had been exposed to the myriad people, places and history that made up the world of Superman's birth. One major plot point remained inviolate during all of these additions, however, and that was Jor-El's prediction of Krypton's doom. It is the treatment of this concept that makes this story a canonical blunder of major proportions.
If there was any emotional context to Superman (pathos, if you will), it was to be found in the destruction of Krypton. Superman not only lost the planet of his birth, he lost his parents as well and the repeated excursions to Krypton, through various means, only heightened his sense of loss. Most importantly, however, Jor-El was always portrayed as a hero: the person who saw the danger that was coming and tried to save a world, while those around him mocked his ideas. This heroism was not lost on Superman and his numerous attempts to save his parents provided an emotional undercurrent to the series, since for all his god-like powers, Superman couldn't change history and stop Krypton from exploding. Yet, "The Man Who Destroyed Krypton" dismisses Jor-El's sacrifice, turning him into a Chicken Little who rocketed his son into space for all the wrong reasons, and destroys the heroic legacy that was such a large part of the character of Superman.
Conveniently, and I will add mercifully, DC simply acted as if this story never happened and, as far as my research has found, Black Zero was never mentioned again. Crisis on Infinite Earths (1983) later negated all the continuity that had gone before and Black Zero was able to disappear into oblivion.
Or did he?
It seems that even bad ideas return and in the World of Krypton mini-series (1987-88), John Byrne resurrected the name Black Zero for a group of anti-clone forces (don't ask) who tried to blow up Krypton by setting off a bomb at the planet's core. Although they failed, the damage they did not only began to sicken the inhabitants of Krypton, it also made the core of the planet unstable so that years later...boom! A couple of later, post-Byrne Black Zeros had nothing to do with blowing up Krypton.
For more of the Weisinger Era, check out A Weisinger Era Gallery 1!
A tip of the hat to SJS for the layout suggestions! © 2007 by Bob Gay
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