Archie as Superman
- Posted by Johanna on April 8, 2008 at 4:40 pm
- Category: Archie Comics
Here’s one more excerpt from Archie’s Pals ‘n’ Gals #13. Who would have imagined Archie playing Superman?
Check those specs! Reporter my elbow — he looks more like Jimmy Olsen! And why is Veronica wearing pants made from a tablecloth?
“You’ll always be my Superman!” Awww… That’s just like in the Lois and Clark episode with the love potion where Lois goes mad for Clark and thinks he looks like Superman. At the end, she concludes that every woman in love thinks her man is Superman. How sweet.
The rest of the story is dumb jealousy stuff. Veronica decides to try and make Archie jealous, but he’s too smart for her obvious tricks, except when he isn’t. It’s a bit odd that Archie is playing Clark Kent during this — there’s no sign of a cape, or even an open shirt collar — but everyone refers to him as Superman.
What I also can’t figure out is why this story, why then? The Adventures of Superman TV show had stopped making new episodes in 1958, and the Broadway show wasn’t until 1966. If this was published cover-dated Summer 1960, it could have been created 1959? 1960? Was it an inventory story, or a reprint? So many unanswered questions.
April 8, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Inventory sounds like the best guess, especially using the shows “disguised as a mild-mannered reporter” phrasing.
But I wouldn’t discount inbreeding as well. Who were the Writer/Artist, and how close were they to DC at the time?
April 9, 2008 at 7:09 am
I don’t know — they didn’t use credits. Good question.
April 10, 2008 at 12:29 am
My best guess for the writer is Frank Doyle, but its definitely Dan DeCarlo on the art. Not close to DC at all. I wonder if “The Adventures of Superman” was in syndication at the time…
April 10, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Summer 1960… that was just about a year after the death of George Reeves, and the “Superman is Dead” newspaper headlines were probably just beginning to fade from the public mind. I’ll suggest that this was meant as a tribute to him.
Or else, since DC was starting to bring back superheroes successfully (the new Flash got his own magazine and Supergirl and Green Lantern debuted in ‘59, and the Justice League in ‘60), maybe this was meant to attract superhero readers to Archie, by inserting a familiar name.