And now, one of the greatest openings for a letter of comment in a Superman comic, ever.
…The writer goes on to say that, since the Phantom Zone villains can see everything that goes on in the material world and therefore they should know Superman is Clark Kent, why wouldn’t they pass that info on, somehow, to another Earth-bound villain who could wreak some havoc on the Man of Steel.
Which of course brings up the fact that the Phantom Zone villains, while trapped unseen in that other dimension, could see into the real world, and why they wouldn’t, say, hang around Lois Lane’s boudoir and later taunt Superman with that knowledge. “HA HA we saw your girlfriend naked!” “Why, you…SHUT UP, YOU VILLAINS!” “HA HA look he’s all mad!”
I figure Superman probably walked around with some low level of paranoia dogging his every action, wondering if, while he’s using the restroom, or digging for some super-boogers, there’s Jax-Ur, hovering invisibly in a ghostly world, staring directly at him, observing everything and smirking all the while.
“super-boogers”
I’ve lived too long, seen too much.
I will now respond to every indignity with “SHUT YOU, YOU VILLAINS!”
“Hey, Officer Shutke — shut you!” Heh.
That final paragraph also describes my understanding of The Almighty, courtesy of Catholic elementary school, up until I was about 13 years old.
Oops…editing error! (Cut part of a line, left the wrong word in.) Fixed now!
Holy shit. I’d honestly never thought of that before.
Silver Age sure was rife with disturbing sub-text.
Great post mike! loled during lunch.
Thinking about Silver Age DC is a guaranteed way to make your head hurt. I have similar problems with Superboy/Legion stories. When they used to signal him to come to a meeting, why did he always turn up exactly 1000 years later? Why not turn up 1000 years and twenty minutes later, to skip the boring bits? Why not skip ahead and find out who this month’s villain would be?
If he spent so much time there, wouldn’t he be ageing faster than everyone back in Smallville? Did he return to the present exactly 1000 years to the second after he left the future, or at exactly the same time as as he had originally left the present, so no-one would miss him? Would that de-age him?
I realise these are the thoughts of a crazy person, but they still bother me.
I’m sure the PZ villains were too busy dealing with their cats to spy on Lois.
I’d be more annoyed about Mon-El knowing all my secrets than the villains.
…
Man. I really want to go to the Phantom Zone now.