Showcase Presents Superman Vol.1 Reviews

Before going on with the reviews, let me explain a little something. I always tought I hated silver age super-heroes comics. I tried many times to read my Essential Fantastic Four Vol.1 but couldn't get past the extra-heavy dialogue. Same thing with my Essential Uncanny X-Men Vol.1 . I probably shouldn't write this but, reading these books was really a drag. Considering my problems with silver age, I wasn't planning on buying any super-hero Showcase Presents. Thanks God, my grandmother thought otherwise and gave me Superman's first Showcase as a gift for my birthday. I now love her even more than before...

Content
Action Comics 241-257 (June 1958-October 1959)
Superman #122-#134 (July 1958-November 1959)
560 pages
$9.99 US/$13.50 CAN

Writers
Jerry Siegel
Jerry Coleman
Otto Binder
Bill Finger

Artists
Curt Swan
Wayne Boring
Al Plastino
Kurt Schaffenberger

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The Super-Key to Fort Superman
Originally from : Action Comics #241
Writer : Jerry Coleman
Pencils : Wayne Boring
Oh my gosh. Just...wow. That's got to be the funniest story I read all year ! To say that this story caught me by surprise is a gross understatement. I expected something somewhat boring and dialogue heavy, but I got a story crazy, wacky and oh so funny ! There was way too many cool moments to list them all here but here are some of the high points :

• The Fortress of Solitude's giant door key...and its giant key holder.
• Superman having a room dedicated for each of his friends in the Fortress, including one for Clark Kent to preserve his secret identity.
• Each room containing gifts for them in case he was ever destroyed, including a hand-made sports car for Jimmy Olsen.
• Superman painting a martian landscape with a giant brush. Yep, you read it right, Superman PAINTING !
• Supes' interplanetary zoo full of "pets from another world". Inside the Fortress
• Tricking the trickster, Superman style !

From beginning to end, a very entertaining story. I'm just hoping the rest of the book is as fun as this !
Grade : A+

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The Man No Prison Could Hold

Originally from : Action Comics #248
Writer : Bill Finger
Artist : Wayne Boring

While "soaring in the ionosphere", Superman finds a strange little satellite. Our hero follows the thing's radio waves transmissions back to a small uncharted island where he discovers a Nazi scientist, Von Kamp, working on the top secret "Project X". Not one to shy away from a mystery, Supes makes up a plan to investigate on Von Kamp's whereabouts -- he's going to become one of his slaves ! A walk in the park, at least until good old Jimmy Olsen messes everything up...

All in all, this is another great tale featuring some pretty nifty ideas from Bill Finger like

• Superman throwing his costume in the atmosphere so that it falls back down exactly three hours later. Just enough time to become a slave and investigate.
• After having pulled one of his Superman kinda moves, our big guy hollows a ball-and-chain with his finger so that he isn't unmasked.
• Superman making an invisible glass boomerang out of sand to hook an escaping Jimmy Olsen and pull him back to the island.
• Jimmy actually thinking it was the wind that blew him back.
• Supes making a kaleidoscope out of sand and putting it in front of Project X's camera lens so that Von Kamp thinks his invention doesn't work and give up on the whole thing.
• And, best of all, the fact that this trick actually works!

Once again, a great read from Showcase Superman. If you don't already own it, get $10, run to your LCS and buy it. Forget the fact you don't like Superman. This is 560 pages of pure comics goodness.
Grade : A+

cover source : www.comicsvf.com