1. The Grayson Submarine
    Adventures of Superman Radio Serial - May 1941

    Jimmy, Clark, Perry and Lois all find themselves embroiled in the U.S. government’s attempts to protect inventor Charles Grayson’s groundbreaking new submarine from the destructive hands of enemy agents, personified in the mysterious Dr.Deutch (The counterintuitive spelling of his name actually plays a role in the next story arc).

    The series’ second recurring villain - depending if you count Keno and The Wolf altogether as part of The Yellow Mask’s entourage - Mr.Deutch personifies an increasing presence of “foreign agents” in these pre-war adventures.

  2. Action Comics vol.1 #36 - cover date May 1941 Fifth columnists are at work in Metropolis, undermining the rearmament movement and reminding Americans that their country is under no direct threat of war! Later on, they’ll blow up bridges and fly bombers - packed to the guts with deadly payloads - over the city, intent on blowing it off the map. You might think a direct assault would undermine their subversive message but … actually, I guess it does. Superman cleans their clocks for them anyway. Enemy agents find their way into the pages of this issue anyway, as competitor Prize Comics (published by Crestwood/Feature publications) run an ad promoting their own roster of superheroes - Voodini, the Black Owl and the Green Lama, among others - in the pages of Action. The superhero craze has created no small number of also-rans, including Superman’s Action co-star Tex Thomson. Now decked out with whip, mask and cape and going under the sobriquet Mr.America, Tex makes for Action’s third official super-hero (Zatara the Magician - superhero or adventurer? The distinctions are sometimes difficult to make - has been backing the book since the first issue).

    Action Comics vol.1 #36 - cover date May 1941

    Fifth columnists are at work in Metropolis, undermining the rearmament movement and reminding Americans that their country is under no direct threat of war! Later on, they’ll blow up bridges and fly bombers - packed to the guts with deadly payloads - over the city, intent on blowing it off the map. You might think a direct assault would undermine their subversive message but … actually, I guess it does. Superman cleans their clocks for them anyway.

    Enemy agents find their way into the pages of this issue anyway, as competitor Prize Comics (published by Crestwood/Feature publications) run an ad promoting their own roster of superheroes - Voodini, the Black Owl and the Green Lama, among others - in the pages of Action. The superhero craze has created no small number of also-rans, including Superman’s Action co-star Tex Thomson. Now decked out with whip, mask and cape and going under the sobriquet Mr.America, Tex makes for Action’s third official super-hero (Zatara the Magician - superhero or adventurer? The distinctions are sometimes difficult to make - has been backing the book since the first issue).

  3. The Nitrate ShipmentThe Adventures of Superman Radio Serial - April, 1941 Clark, Jimmy and their newfound pal Pug Flanagan find a ship to cart them home from Panama back to Metropolis, a secret treasure map in tow (even if Pug and Jimmy won’t shut up about it). Eventually, they discover a Nazi plot (in spirit, anyway, the radio show obliquely refers to Nazi agents merely as “foreign) involving the destruction of their ship over a hold full of nitrate bound for war-beleaguered nations. There’s a submarine, a torpedo and a cross-dressing German spy, but the crux of the episode really resides on the toublesome Pug finally trying his hand at selfless heroism. Superman continues to prove a good influence on the selfish and short-sighted, it seems…

    The Nitrate Shipment
    The Adventures of Superman Radio Serial - April, 1941

    Clark, Jimmy and their newfound pal Pug Flanagan find a ship to cart them home from Panama back to Metropolis, a secret treasure map in tow (even if Pug and Jimmy won’t shut up about it).

    Eventually, they discover a Nazi plot (in spirit, anyway, the radio show obliquely refers to Nazi agents merely as “foreign) involving the destruction of their ship over a hold full of nitrate bound for war-beleaguered nations. There’s a submarine, a torpedo and a cross-dressing German spy, but the crux of the episode really resides on the toublesome Pug finally trying his hand at selfless heroism. Superman continues to prove a good influence on the selfish and short-sighted, it seems…

  4. The Scientists of Sudden DeathSuperman daily newspaper strip (Apr 21 - May 22) The League to Destroy Superman gets an official moniker by way of The Scientists of Sudden Death – I told you it was a good name – and their chairman, crooked real estate magnate Ralph Roland, draws up the batting order: First it’s Dr.Carlos, then Coker, then three men with the unlikely surnames of Slag, Fant, and Sleez, and lastly the beautiful blonde big game hunter Liv Danvers, aka The Blonde Tigress! She blames Superman for the murder of her father and she is champing at the bit to have her chance at the Man of Steel! Dr.Carlos goes first, however, and becomes the first criminal to notice the apparent connection between Superman and Lois Lane. Abducting the star reporter, Carlos and his henchman place her in a glass-protected nook in the Doctor’s insidious hotbox, a steel-enclosed room which can have its temperatures raised high enough to kill even Superman! He may go down in the history books as the first baddie to use Lois as bait, but he doesn’t live to tell about it; succumbing to the terrible heat and helplessly watching as Lois’ glass-protected nook begins to buckle to the point of rupture, Superman has no choice but to break through the protective glass behind which Carlos, his henchman and the room’s temperature controls reside. Carlos doesn’t survive the tremendous heat now rushing into his control room, but the Scientists of Sudden Death have a whole roster waiting to take up the slack.

    The Scientists of Sudden Death
    Superman daily newspaper strip (Apr 21 - May 22)

    The League to Destroy Superman gets an official moniker by way of The Scientists of Sudden Death – I told you it was a good name – and their chairman, crooked real estate magnate Ralph Roland, draws up the batting order: First it’s Dr.Carlos, then Coker, then three men with the unlikely surnames of Slag, Fant, and Sleez, and lastly the beautiful blonde big game hunter Liv Danvers, aka The Blonde Tigress! She blames Superman for the murder of her father and she is champing at the bit to have her chance at the Man of Steel!

    Dr.Carlos goes first, however, and becomes the first criminal to notice the apparent connection between Superman and Lois Lane. Abducting the star reporter, Carlos and his henchman place her in a glass-protected nook in the Doctor’s insidious hotbox, a steel-enclosed room which can have its temperatures raised high enough to kill even Superman!

    He may go down in the history books as the first baddie to use Lois as bait, but he doesn’t live to tell about it; succumbing to the terrible heat and helplessly watching as Lois’ glass-protected nook begins to buckle to the point of rupture, Superman has no choice but to break through the protective glass behind which Carlos, his henchman and the room’s temperature controls reside. Carlos doesn’t survive the tremendous heat now rushing into his control room, but the Scientists of Sudden Death have a whole roster waiting to take up the slack.

  5. Action Comics vol.1 #35 - Cover date April 1941 Could Superman fly? The common wisdom surrounding the original Superman is that he could not, but rather had to – as they say – “leap tall buildings in a single bound” (a quarter-mile was the typical estimation of the vertical distance the Man of Steel could cover with a determined stride). His earliest appearances certainly tied Superman to the harsh dictates of gravity – he could fall, and fall hard. If Metropolis had a pothole problem, a heavily-plummeting Superman may have been the culprit. The transition to full flight was gradual, yet at this midway point between leaps and levitation Superman is already pulling off some questionable mid-air maneuvers. Although he still relies on pure horsepower to launch himself into temporary arcs above the earth, at this point he’s able to change direction, apparently alter his speed and effortlessly land even on the wing of a moving plane. The real answer to the question is that while Superman may not have been able to officially fly until 1943, he was flying in all but name well before that. Why the change occurred is a trickier question – it probably had much to do with the “whooshing” sound effect which heralded the start of every episode of the Superman radio show, and the very flight-like arcs Superman managed to affect in the Fleischer cartoons. There may have also been a bit of peer pressure coming into play. By 1940, the comicsphere was bulging with super-powered mystery-men aplenty, many of them capable of slipping the surly bonds, etc. While these include Timely’s Sub-Mariner and Human Torch, the deciding factor may have been Fawcett’s Captain Marvel, who took to the air years before Superman. Given that National was keenly aware of the Big Red Cheese being Superman’s biggest competitor – as the long-running lawsuit may attest – it’s not unlikely that the edict was handed down “Our guy can do anything their guy can do, too!”

    Action Comics vol.1 #35 - Cover date April 1941

    Could Superman fly?

    The common wisdom surrounding the original Superman is that he could not, but rather had to – as they say – “leap tall buildings in a single bound” (a quarter-mile was the typical estimation of the vertical distance the Man of Steel could cover with a determined stride). His earliest appearances certainly tied Superman to the harsh dictates of gravity – he could fall, and fall hard. If Metropolis had a pothole problem, a heavily-plummeting Superman may have been the culprit.

    The transition to full flight was gradual, yet at this midway point between leaps and levitation Superman is already pulling off some questionable mid-air maneuvers. Although he still relies on pure horsepower to launch himself into temporary arcs above the earth, at this point he’s able to change direction, apparently alter his speed and effortlessly land even on the wing of a moving plane.

    The real answer to the question is that while Superman may not have been able to officially fly until 1943, he was flying in all but name well before that. Why the change occurred is a trickier question – it probably had much to do with the “whooshing” sound effect which heralded the start of every episode of the Superman radio show, and the very flight-like arcs Superman managed to affect in the Fleischer cartoons.

    There may have also been a bit of peer pressure coming into play. By 1940, the comicsphere was bulging with super-powered mystery-men aplenty, many of them capable of slipping the surly bonds, etc. While these include Timely’s Sub-Mariner and Human Torch, the deciding factor may have been Fawcett’s Captain Marvel, who took to the air years before Superman. Given that National was keenly aware of the Big Red Cheese being Superman’s biggest competitor – as the long-running lawsuit may attest – it’s not unlikely that the edict was handed down “Our guy can do anything their guy can do, too!”

  6. Death RaceSuperman Sunday Newspaper Strip - March 9, 1941 to June 15, 1941 Following the eventful and dramatic Luthor, Master of Evil, with a significantly less shock-and-sci-fi story arc, the Sunday strip involves Superman (and Clark) helping a beleaguered racecar driver stay clean, sober, and safe from the threats of racketeers ruining the world of racing.  It’s not exactly a nailbiter, but it’s good to be reminded of Superman’s origins as occasional guardian angel for the needy (He does end up helping a lot of sports figures get back on top, though…)

    Death Race
    Superman Sunday Newspaper Strip - March 9, 1941 to June 15, 1941

    Following the eventful and dramatic Luthor, Master of Evil, with a significantly less shock-and-sci-fi story arc, the Sunday strip involves Superman (and Clark) helping a beleaguered racecar driver stay clean, sober, and safe from the threats of racketeers ruining the world of racing. 

    It’s not exactly a nailbiter, but it’s good to be reminded of Superman’s origins as occasional guardian angel for the needy (He does end up helping a lot of sports figures get back on top, though…)

  7. The League To Destroy SupermanSuperman Daily Newspaper Strip - March 10, 1941 to April 19, 1941 The daily newspaper strip will spend the better part of 1941 pitting Superman against a coterie of revenge-driven killers and madmen. Having put away a number of crooks and thugs, and having foiled no small share of inventive and insidious plots, Superman has easily acquired the ire of  all sorts of nefarious nogoodniks who have been, up to this point, merely sitting around and brooding about revenge. It takes a crooked real estate mogul named Roland to bring them together under a single roof, calling on his fellow crooks to contribute funds to make for a million dollar bounty on the Man of Steel’s head and then entertaining all comers as they pitch their schemes to kill Superman. It’s like Dragon’s Den for bad guys, an American Idol of super-assassins… Although the Superman Revenge Squad will become a popular set of adversaries later on in Superman’s Silver Age, Roland’s assembly predates them by a couple of decades - making them the FIRST team of baddies dedicated to Superman’s destruction (and possibly the first dedicated revenge squad in comics). They won;t have a name until the next chapter of the arc (it’s a good one, though), but they’ve already secured a place in Superman lore.

    The League To Destroy Superman
    Superman Daily Newspaper Strip - March 10, 1941 to April 19, 1941

    The daily newspaper strip will spend the better part of 1941 pitting Superman against a coterie of revenge-driven killers and madmen. Having put away a number of crooks and thugs, and having foiled no small share of inventive and insidious plots, Superman has easily acquired the ire of  all sorts of nefarious nogoodniks who have been, up to this point, merely sitting around and brooding about revenge.
    It takes a crooked real estate mogul named Roland to bring them together under a single roof, calling on his fellow crooks to contribute funds to make for a million dollar bounty on the Man of Steel’s head and then entertaining all comers as they pitch their schemes to kill Superman. It’s like Dragon’s Den for bad guys, an American Idol of super-assassins…
    Although the Superman Revenge Squad will become a popular set of adversaries later on in Superman’s Silver Age, Roland’s assembly predates them by a couple of decades - making them the FIRST team of baddies dedicated to Superman’s destruction (and possibly the first dedicated revenge squad in comics). They won;t have a name until the next chapter of the arc (it’s a good one, though), but they’ve already secured a place in Superman lore.

  8. World’s Best Comics Vol.1 #1 - cover date March 1941 Superman debuts in his third ongoing title for National, an adventure anthology book based on the formula established by the company’s earlier “World’s Fair Comics” experiments. Sharing the page count with Superman were Detective Comics’ gun-toting mystery man Crimson Avenger and Flash Comics’ magically gifted Johnny Thunder and his Thunderbolt, among other such colorful types as The King, the military trio Red, White and Blue and lesser-known tough guys with the appealing names of Punch Parker and Lando, Man of Magic. Of course, the most high-profile of Superman’s co-stars was Batman, still relatively new to the scene but a popular enough character to warrant tying the Man of Steel for the number of ongoing appearances. While neither character had yet met, this was their second appearance together, and they’d share this book in one manner or another for the better part of the next forty years. Inside the book, Superman receives an Action-sized parcel of adventure pitting him against The Rainmaker - a disaster-engineering baddie armed with a machine to manipulate the weather. The story goes much as expected, with the Man of Tomorrow triumphing against nature’s rawest fury and saving another town from a wrecked dam with such clean precision you’d think he majored in Wrecked Dams in college. One key scene underlines Superman’s early ruthlessness; we’re familiar with our defender of the underdog threatening crooks with bodily harm of all varieties, and we’ve seen him unperturbed by the sudden death of the deservingly corrupt. In this debut episode of World’s Best, however, we see Superman willfully send someone to their death – while the Rainmaker’s storms rage and the burst dam’s terrible floodwaters roil below, Superman kicks the villain’s house, occupant and all, off the cliff and into the tumultuous deluge. The Rainmaker emerges unhurt, luckily, only to perish by his own actions later in the story, but his survival certainly owes nothing to Superman…  

    World’s Best Comics Vol.1 #1 - cover date March 1941

    Superman debuts in his third ongoing title for National, an adventure anthology book based on the formula established by the company’s earlier “World’s Fair Comics” experiments. Sharing the page count with Superman were Detective Comics’ gun-toting mystery man Crimson Avenger and Flash Comics’ magically gifted Johnny Thunder and his Thunderbolt, among other such colorful types as The King, the military trio Red, White and Blue and lesser-known tough guys with the appealing names of Punch Parker and Lando, Man of Magic.

    Of course, the most high-profile of Superman’s co-stars was Batman, still relatively new to the scene but a popular enough character to warrant tying the Man of Steel for the number of ongoing appearances. While neither character had yet met, this was their second appearance together, and they’d share this book in one manner or another for the better part of the next forty years.

    Inside the book, Superman receives an Action-sized parcel of adventure pitting him against The Rainmaker - a disaster-engineering baddie armed with a machine to manipulate the weather. The story goes much as expected, with the Man of Tomorrow triumphing against nature’s rawest fury and saving another town from a wrecked dam with such clean precision you’d think he majored in Wrecked Dams in college.

    One key scene underlines Superman’s early ruthlessness; we’re familiar with our defender of the underdog threatening crooks with bodily harm of all varieties, and we’ve seen him unperturbed by the sudden death of the deservingly corrupt. In this debut episode of World’s Best, however, we see Superman willfully send someone to their death – while the Rainmaker’s storms rage and the burst dam’s terrible floodwaters roil below, Superman kicks the villain’s house, occupant and all, off the cliff and into the tumultuous deluge.

    The Rainmaker emerges unhurt, luckily, only to perish by his own actions later in the story, but his survival certainly owes nothing to Superman…

     

  9. Superman vol. 1 #9 - cover date March 1941 By 1941, there’s a huge demand for Superman stories and the pace is bound to exhaust the creative teams. Besides the two regular titles which Superman headlines, there’s another on the horizon, alongside an animated series waiting to get into the nation’s movie theaters.  In fact - thanks to the radio serials and both iterations of the newspaper strips - Superman is thrilling the nation on a daily basis, seven days a week, without a break. It’s inevitable – practically a matter of statistics – that Superman would occasionally enter a dry period, notably bereft of the frenetic and imaginative quality which typified these early years. The four stories which make up this issue have Superman dealing with fifth columnists, murder rings, alligators and steel-helmeted crooks - sounds good, but it’s actually pretty rote. Luthor takes an achingly obvious break from menacing the Man of Steel, as do any of the robots, giants, deadly gases and other science fiction story elements which are becoming the occasional avenue for the book, leaving behind Superman getting his knuckles dirty against some otherwise unexemplary examples of the kind of bad guys he’s been slugging in better stories for the last few years …  

    Superman vol. 1 #9 - cover date March 1941

    By 1941, there’s a huge demand for Superman stories and the pace is bound to exhaust the creative teams. Besides the two regular titles which Superman headlines, there’s another on the horizon, alongside an animated series waiting to get into the nation’s movie theaters.  In fact - thanks to the radio serials and both iterations of the newspaper strips - Superman is thrilling the nation on a daily basis, seven days a week, without a break.

    It’s inevitable – practically a matter of statistics – that Superman would occasionally enter a dry period, notably bereft of the frenetic and imaginative quality which typified these early years. The four stories which make up this issue have Superman dealing with fifth columnists, murder rings, alligators and steel-helmeted crooks - sounds good, but it’s actually pretty rote.

    Luthor takes an achingly obvious break from menacing the Man of Steel, as do any of the robots, giants, deadly gases and other science fiction story elements which are becoming the occasional avenue for the book, leaving behind Superman getting his knuckles dirty against some otherwise unexemplary examples of the kind of bad guys he’s been slugging in better stories for the last few years …

     

  10.

    The Dragon’s Teeth
    The Adventures of Superman Radio Serial - February 1941

    It’s a shame that this arc of Superman’s serialized radio adventures is also such a pivotal one, if only because it begins with Perry White’s exceptionally distasteful recounting of the “Orientals”’ many failings and vices, spoken with curt authority and tangible disdain. As I said elsewhere, it takes the Gold in the Racism Olympics - although you can count on good ol’ Clark to stand up for his fellow man. The Chinese aren’t all bad; they invented gunpowder, after all, he later remarks…

    At this point in the series, of the regular cast only Jimmy Olsen both knows of and believes in the existence of Superman. Perry still dismisses the whole idea as hogwash - despite having caught a glimpse of the Man of Steel during The Invisible Man - and Lois has never seen him at all - until now.

    Superman saves Jimmy and Lois from certain doom, revealing his existence to the keen girl reporter for the first time. At this stage, she doesn’t yet suspect his dual identity nor, for that matter, is there anything like a romantic triangle yet established for the characters, but finally Lois is part of the select few to know of Superman’s existence (in the radio serial, anyway, of course).