Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Superman Screws With Jimmy Some More

Being Superman's Pal must have been every kid's dream.  After all, he's Superman!  What's not to love?  However, this is the 50's/60's Superman in this story, meaning he's a dick for little or no reason.  Let's expand in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #13: "Jimmy Olsen's Super-Illusions!"
I'm happy that the house is for rent--at least Superman's not torturing a family inside.  If he was, though, they'd come up with some hair-brained solution.  But why is Superman doing this to Jimmy?  Is it because of some reason that has an easily-fixed solution but Supes decides to do it the hard way?  Of course.

As for the eggs, Jimmy must be trying to recuperate from the horse incident.
To no one's surprise (whether or not you've read the splash panel), it's Superman who's behind all of this.  How he knew that Jimmy would notice the unbent bar out of all of his trophies is beyond me.
Then, somehow, despite Metropolis being, well, a metropolis, only Jimmy seems to notice the UPSIDE-DOWN HOUSE.
I know that Superman is supposed to set a good example for kids (especially after the Comic Book Code was put into order), but wouldn't it be easier to just lie?  Just this once?  He's got a good reason, after all (as we find out later), but this isn't teaching kids not to lie--it's teaching them to find loopholes.  Superman should change his name to Superlawyer.
Why indeed, Superman?  Why?  It's because it's fun, isn't it?
There it is, folks!  Supes is deliberately making Jimmy think he's crazy to avoid letting his secret identity get out, yet again.  As everyone has said before, this whole identity stuff is harder than it's worth.  After all, if he has to spend a whole day playing pranks on Jimmy to keep it a secret, why bother anymore?

Now that I think about it, Clark Kent's job is the real problem.  Sure, being a reporter gives him an advantage to helping people, because the news is always flying right into his lap, but on the other hand, he works with the most inquisitive people in the world, people who would give their lives to knowing who he really was.

It's also ambiguous as to whether or not they'd be willing to sell him out.  Here, Jimmy waits until they're out of earshot, but in other comics, he'd totally do it in front of everyone.  Ditto on Lois.

Also, I love Jimmy's line about "lame excuses" that he's clearly used to getting.  Hee hee, how's Supes gonna get out of this one?
Yep, Jimmy's resorting to blackmail!  Admittedly, it's not much in the line of blackmail, as all he's asking for is a free ride, but we all know how these things can escalate.  Also, does anyone find Jimmy's "beginning to end" line a tad bit sexual?  Something about it rubs me the wrong way.

So Superman spins Jimmy around and lets his vomit rain down on poor people below just to save his identity.  And because a super-being needs to get his kicks, too.
Wait a second, couldn't he just have swapped the film BEFORE any of this happened?  Why go through all this super-illusion shit in the first place?  For that matter, why not just run at super-speed and smash the camera?  It's just that easy.  I know that Superman needs to use his brain as well as brawn, but sometimes brute force really is the answer.

Then Jimmy laughs in Clark's face at the idea of him being strong.  Perhaps Jimmy is the real dick.  That's an M Night Shyamalan twist for ya.

No comments:

Post a Comment