Episode 18: Superman Meets Luthor: War, Style, and the Stratosphere

Simon Carver

Welcome to the show everybody! I am Simon Carver, reporting to you once again from London. It is Saturday, March 15th, 1941, and I must tell you, the darkness over this city has a heavy weight tonight. Just this week, the Luftwaffe's bombs shattered the night near Buckingham Palace, and the wreckage at the Café de Paris nightclub is still being cleared. Yet, our candles are lit, our spirits are steady, and joining me from our warm New York studio on KDCR is my pragmatical partner, Robert Reed. How are things on the home front, Bob?

Robert Reed

Well, Simon, we are shivering over here in New York! The wind coming off the East River is colder than a polar bear's toenails, but the city is absolutely boiling with news. Everybody is talking about President Roosevelt signing H.R. 1776 -- the Lend-Lease Act -- just four days ago on March 11th. We are sending the tools over to you folks, just like Winston Churchill asked for on the radio last month. And if that wasn't enough, the President went and froze all Bulgarian assets in the country on March 3rd after they joined up with the Axis. It is black and white now, Simon. We are choosing our side, and we are backing the democratic way until total victory is won!

Simon Carver

Bulgarian assets frozen on March 3rd. That is an extraordinary piece of economic leverage, Bob. It is the real world matching the legal and physical struggles we are seeing on the newsstands. Just as our nation mobilizes, our modern storybooks are finding their own steel. Millions of Americans are finding hope in the ultimate champion of the helpless and oppressed, brought to us by two young lads from Cleveland who are working themselves to the bone to keep our spirits flying.

Robert Reed

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster! Those two boys are working like draft horses, Simon. They are churning out pages for Action Comics and the quarterly Superman book while running a syndicated newspaper strip. It is an American success story, pure and simple. They started with nothing, and now they are showing the whole world what a couple of creative kids can do when they have a big idea and the grit to chase it.

Simon Carver

And that creative grind is physically reshaping the character right before our eyes, Bob. If you look at the cover of Superman number five, which is gracing the newsstands this summer season, you can see how Joe Shuster's pen is hardening. The draftsmanship is becoming much cleaner, bolder. But the real story is that chest insignia, that S logo. It has been a fascinating evolution.

Robert Reed

That S logo started out as just a simple yellow triangle with a red letter, looking like some kind of high school track emblem. But now, in early 1941, it is turning into that bold pentagon shape. It has got that heavy border, the yellow background, and the red S is thick, almost like a piece of structural steel. It is not just an ornament anymore, Simon. It is a shield. It is like the emblem on a tank or the keel of the USS Missouri that they just laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard back in January.

Simon Carver

The USS Missouri keel-laying on January 6th. That is a marvelous parallel, Bob. The shield is becoming a symbol of national fortification. Shuster is drawing the Man of Steel with much grander, heroic proportions now -- broader shoulders, a thicker neck, a jaw that looks like it could dent an anvil. The lines are less sketchy, more defined, reflecting the industrial, muscle-bound energy of our wartime mobilization.

Robert Reed

It is the American way in ink, Simon. Bold, direct, and no monkey business. And speaking of no monkey business, we have got to dive right into the opening story of Superman number four, because Jerry and Joe are bringing back our favorite bald-headed menace, and he is bringing the house down. Literally!

Simon Carver

Luthor! Returning in the opening story of the Spring Edition of Superman number four. And this is a true masterwork of scientific terror, Bob. It begins with a sudden, artificial earthquake that completely devastates Metropolis. Joe Shuster draws these incredible, chaotic panels of skyscrapers snapping like dry pine needles, stone columns crumbling, and citizens running in absolute terror.

Robert Reed

Metropolis getting hit by a quake is unheard of, Simon! Clark Kent is in the Daily Planet office when the editor, George Taylor, screams at him to get first-hand details. Clark slips into a storeroom, sheds his civilian clothes, and leaps out the window as Superman. He supports a tottering office building with his bare hands while the tenants scramble to safety, then rescues a young boy pinned under heavy timber wreckage. But the real detective work begins when Clark Kent visits the laboratory of Professor Martinson, the brilliant scientist who invented this artificial earthquake machine.

Simon Carver

Professor Martinson's laboratory. But as Clark seats himself to interview the professor, Luthor's agent creeps up from behind. In panel six of page three, the thug strikes Clark over the head with a heavy object! Now, Clark has to protect his secret identity. So, what does he do? He temporarily halts the beating of his own heart! The thug checks his pulse, declares "not a tick! He's done for!" and hurls Clark's seemingly lifeless body straight out of the skyscraper window!

Robert Reed

Halt the beating of his heart! That is some high-caliber circus magic right there, Simon! Clark is falling down fifteen stories, but as soon as he is out of sight, he flashes his hand out, grabs the stone side of the skyscraper with a steely grip, and climbs right back up to the laboratory. Inside, Luthor is on a television screen, demanding Martinson hand over the plans. When Martinson refuses, Luthor's red rocket-plane appears in the sky and drops a massive bomb toward the building. Superman leaps out, catches the bomb with a flip of his wrist, and hurls it right back at the plane, blowing it to smithereens!

Simon Carver

A spectacular aerial counter-attack, Bob. But Luthor is not done. He challenges Superman to a scientific contest. "If your muscles can surpass my scientific feats, I will admit defeat!" They agree to a race around the world: Superman on foot versus Luthor's newly designed sky-vessels, these red-and-yellow super-planes that defy time itself.

Robert Reed

A race around the world! Shuster draws Superman sprinting over mountains and literally running across the surface of the oceans like a stone skipping across a pond, yelling "Get a horse!" at Luthor's pilots. But Superman wins the race easily! So Luthor proposes a second contest: who can rise the highest above the Earth and return safely? They rocket up through the fleecy clouds, higher and higher, straight into the dark, freezing stratosphere!

Simon Carver

Into the dark stratosphere. And here, Shuster's panels capture the terrifying vacuum of outer space. Luthor's vessel drifts into the clammy clutch of space, beyond the strong gravitational pull, and the pilots lose control. Superman, realizing they are doomed, begins "kicking furiously, his feet blurring like propeller blades" to fight the forces of gravity and drag the vessel back down to Earth. It is an astonishing display of physics-defying leg-work, Bob!

Robert Reed

Kicking his feet like propeller blades! Only in the funny books, Simon, but my goodness, it works! Once they land, Luthor tries three more tests: lifting a massive, electrically lightened boulder, surviving a hand grenade, and catching a cannonball. Superman just smiles and says, "You flatter me!" Then Luthor unleashes a cloud of poison gas, but Superman stands there completely unaffected. Luthor finally admits defeat and hands over the captive Professor Martinson. But there is a dark ending to this scientific holiday, Simon.

Simon Carver

A tragic final act, indeed. Back at the city, they discover Luthor used the contest as a mere diversion while his henchmen stole the Army's mysterious new weapon from Martinson's lab. Superman tracks the thieves to Satan's Canyon. Luthor is prepared, releasing a powerful gas that knocks Superman out, then burying him alive under a rockslide using his earthquake ray. But our hero burrows through tons of earth back to the surface, destroys the ray machine, and rushes back to Martinson's lab -- only to find the poor professor has taken his own life out of guilt for inventing such a terrible weapon. A somber reminder of the high price of scientific ambition.

Robert Reed

That Martinson tragedy is a tough pill to swallow, Simon, but the next story in Superman number four takes us right out of the canyon and straight into the Pacific Ocean. We are talking about the lost, sunken continent of Pacifo! It starts with Lois Lane and Clark Kent heading out to the West Coast to cover the massive floods that are drowning the coast under two feet of water. But on the mountain road, they are ambushed by Luthor's henchmen in a red roadster!

Simon Carver

An ambush on a mountain road! The roadster streaks down the cliffside at breakneck speed. To keep Lois from seeing his true strength, Clark presses a precise nerve on her neck to render her unconscious. He then grabs the steering wheel, but the driver reaches for the emergency brake. Superman beats him to it and literally crushes the steel lever to a pulp! The car plummets off the road to destruction, but Clark leaps away with the sleeping Lois in his arms.

Robert Reed

Leaping clear of a falling car! Talk about quick thinking. Clark hires a local pilot for a thousand dollars to fly them over the flooded area. Far out over the ocean, Clark's super-vision spots something bulky coming up through the water. It is a glass-enclosed city of ancient, weird design -- Pacifo, raised from the ocean floor by Luthor's titanic underwater machinery! But as their plane circles, the glass cover of the city folds back, and out flies a prehistoric monster -- a living, breathing pterodactyl!

Simon Carver

A pterodactyl in 1941! Shuster draws this green, winged reptilian nightmare clawing the plane's wings, tearing it to pieces. The pilot is killed, Lois is knocked cold, and Clark has to leap from the falling wreckage, clutching Lois as they are snatched mid-air by the pterodactyl's talons and carried down to the tropical jungle inside the glass dome!

Robert Reed

That sky-battle is wild, Simon! Clark slips away, changes into his Superman costume, and goes searching for water to revive Lois. But while he is wading in a swamp, a giant prehistoric rodent -- a rat the size of a grizzly bear -- creeps out of the underbrush toward Lois! Superman springs in, grabs the squealing beast by one leg, whirls it round and round overhead, and hurls it straight out over the ocean to its death!

Simon Carver

Whirling a giant rat like a hammer-thrower! That is a marvelous, kinetic panel, Bob. But while Superman's back is turned, Luthor's men kidnap Lois in a yellow flying vessel. Superman chases them to the central city, where he meets Luthor himself. Luthor proudly boasts that he salvaged Pacifo and recreated these biological monstrosities of the past to break the spirit of the world. He offers Superman a partnership, but our hero refuses, choosing instead to smash through the guards and rescue Lois from a chemical vat.

Robert Reed

And that refusal triggers the end of Pacifo! Luthor operates his controls, the glassolite dome closes, and the entire weird city begins to submerge back beneath the ocean. Monsters are closing in, but Superman grabs Lois, leaps upward, and smashes straight through the thick glass cover of the city! Tons of ocean water smash down, completely demolishing Luthor's empire. Superman swims Lois to shore at an incredible rate of speed, and Clark Kent gets a sensational scoop for the Daily Planet: "Sunken Island Menace Ended!"

Simon Carver

A sensational scoop, indeed. Now, Bob, let us look briefly at stories F and H in this same spring issue, because they show how Siegel and Shuster are balancing this wild, high-science fiction with very grounded, everyday social struggles. In Story F, we meet Paul Dorgan, an eminent sociologist who has written a manuscript titled "Prosperity's Foe." Dorgan is murdered in his office, and Clark finds a tiny scrap of paper in his clenched hand indicating a "power-mad individual" is behind the country's wave of industrial strikes.

Robert Reed

"Prosperity's Foe" is a great title, Simon! Superman investigates and runs into the notorious Barney Calhoun gang, who are sabotaging factories to keep the country in a depression. In one amazing sequence, the gang removes a section of the train tracks to derail the Streamline Limited. Superman runs ahead of the speeding train, waves his arms to warn the engineer, but the engineer just waves back, thinking it is a friendly greeting!

Simon Carver

Thinking it is a friendly greeting! That is classic comic-book irony. Superman has to spring onto the back of the final car, dig his fingers into the steel, and "put all his tremendous muscles into play" to drag the massive, screeching passenger train to a dead stop just inches from the missing rails! He then tracks Calhoun to his hideout, survives a blast of electricity, and hand-delivers the racketeers to the police.

Robert Reed

Dragging a steam train to a stop! That is what I call a back-strainer. And Story H is just as tough, Simon. It deals with a crooked labor racketeer named Gus Snide, who is extorting the truck drivers' union and threatening to paralyze the city's food distribution. When a union leader named Carlson refuses to cooperate, Snide's thugs kidnap Carlson's little daughter, Amy, and throw her into a car, speeding off toward a cliff.

Simon Carver

Amy Carlson in a runaway car! Superman streaks toward the cliffside, catches the car mid-air as it plunges over the edge, and carries it safely back to the road. To expose the racket, Superman actually pretends to join Snide's gang, letting them think he is going to help them corner the milk market. It is a wonderful, complex piece of undercover work that ends with Superman capturing the entire mob and returning the blackmail money to the truck drivers. These stories really show how the Man of Tomorrow is fighting for the working man, Bob.

Robert Reed

He is a working-class hero, Simon, through and through. And that brings us to Action Comics number twenty-four, dated May 1940. This story is a real humdinger. It starts with a wealthy, retired industrialist named Rufus Carnahan, who is on his deathbed. He places a startling ad in the Daily Planet: "Superman! I urgently need your assistance!"

Simon Carver

An ad in the newspaper! Clark Kent sees it, changes into his costume, and sneaks into the Carnahan mansion. The butler tries to throw him out, but Superman just runs right past him. Upstairs, the old man, Rufus, tells Superman a heartbreaking story. He has spent his whole life building a massive fortune, but he has completely neglected his son, Peter. Peter has turned into a weak-kneed, gambling spendthrift who has run up massive losses to a brutal roadhouse gambler named Jake Brent.

Robert Reed

A weak-kneed spendthrift! Old Rufus begs Superman to make a man out of his son, and he refuses to pay him a single dime for it. Superman gives his word. He follows Peter to a notorious roadhouse called the Purple Oar, where Jake Brent is physically shaking Peter down for a ten-thousand-dollar gambling debt, threatening to tell his father unless he pays up. Superman overhears the whole thing with his super-hearing and decides he has got to use some real ingenuity to reform this kid.

Simon Carver

Ingenuity, yes, but then tragedy strikes. Old Rufus dies, and his will has a peculiar clause: if Peter is involved in any more gambling scandals, he receives absolutely nothing from the multi-million-dollar estate. Jake Brent sees this as the perfect opportunity for blackmail. He sneaks into the Carnahan mansion to demand one hundred thousand dollars from Peter, but a mysterious figure shoots Brent dead from the window!

Robert Reed

A shot in the dark! Clark Kent is outside the mansion, and he uses his microscopic X-ray vision to search the murder room. Through the solid brick walls, his eyes trace the path of the bullet. He spots the lead slug buried deep in the far corner of the floorboards! But before he can act, Peter is arrested, and the jury finds him guilty of first-degree murder. He is sentenced to die in the electric chair!

Simon Carver

The electric chair! The execution is scheduled for tonight, and Peter is being led down the gloomy corridor toward the chamber. Superman has to find the real killer, a rival gambler named Benny Farrel, who was actually stealing Peter's inheritance. Superman corners Farrel at his gambling den, but Farrel's thugs start shooting. The bullets bounce off Superman's chest, and he realizes there are only ten minutes left before the switch is thrown!

Robert Reed

Ten minutes! Superman cannot carry Farrel to the governor in time, so he flies straight to the city power house, the place that supplies electricity to the prison. With a burst of amazing strength, he reaches out, grabs the massive, spinning steel dynamo, and literally rips the integral piece right out of the machine! The entire city of Metropolis is instantly plunged into total darkness, and the prison guards have to postpone Peter's execution because there is no power for the chair!

Simon Carver

Ripping a dynamo out of the powerhouse! That is what I call a literal power play, Bob! With the execution delayed, Superman flies Farrel to the governor's home, forces him to confess, and Peter is fully pardoned. The story ends six months later, with Peter Carnahan using his inheritance to build a home for underprivileged, wayward youths. A beautiful, redemptive arc that shows Superman is not just stopping criminals, but saving souls.

Robert Reed

It is a home run for Peter, Simon! But now let us look at Action Comics number twenty-five, from June 1940. This is the debut of Medini, the world's greatest hypnotist. He is this sinister fella in a white turban who is using his hypnotic powers to rob bank messengers, leaving them wandering the streets with total amnesia, completely unable to remember who they are or where the money went!

Simon Carver

Total amnesia! Clark Kent investigates, and Lois Lane tries to get a scoop by visiting Medini's mansion herself. But Medini is a master of occult methods. He stares deep into Lois's eyes, putting her under his complete mental control. Superman uses his X-ray vision and super-hearing through the window, detects the danger, and crashes through the glass. But as he confronts the hypnotist, Medini directs his powerful, flashing gaze straight into the Man of Steel's eyes!

Robert Reed

He hypnotizes Superman, Simon! The Man of Steel's muscles go completely limp, and he says, "My super-strength... failing me!" Medini orders him to go to the editor of the Daily Planet and stand there while Medini unmasks him for a fortune. Superman is trapped in his own body, but his mind is still fighting. To break the hypnotic suggestion, he leaps straight up into the sky, flying higher and higher into the freezing, thin air of the stratosphere!

Simon Carver

Into the stratosphere to freeze his brain clear! That is a fascinating piece of self-administered therapy, Bob. The intense cold and rapid change in atmospheric pressure break Medini's mental hold. Superman plunges back down, rushes to Medini's hideout, and discovers the hypnotist has taken Lois aboard a transport plane to escape with a stolen gold shipment.

Robert Reed

A gold shipment for the government vault in Kentucky! Medini hypnotizes the pilot and passengers, makes them jump out of the plane without parachutes, and leaves the craft falling to destruction with Lois trapped inside. Superman flying like a streaking dart, snatches the falling passengers out of the air, catches the transport plane in his arms, and makes a perfect landing, exposing Medini's racket once and for all!

Simon Carver

An extraordinary rescue, Bob. Now, let us move to Superman number five, the Summer Issue of 1940. The opening story, Story A, features one of my absolute favorite down-to-earth crusades. Superman is waging a one-man war against a predatory slot-machine racket run by a brutal gangster named 'Slug' Kelly. These crooked machines are being placed in candy stores right outside schools, taking the lunch money from innocent school children!

Robert Reed

Taking lunch money from kids is low, Simon! Clark Kent and Lois Lane see a young boy named Tommy running across the street, so desperate to win back his lost coins that he does not see a massive red truck speeding right at him. Clark has to act in a split second. He lunges forward, pulls off a neat flying tackle, and drags the boy under the truck's massive wheels, huddling safely between them. To protect his secret, Clark pretends to faint from fear as soon as they are clear!

Simon Carver

Faking a faint to hide his identity! Clark Kent is a master actor, Bob. Lois is completely disgusted, calling him a coward, but Clark just smiles inwardly. Superman then tracks Kelly's slot machines, visiting store after store, smashing the wooden cabinets to splinters, and throwing the metal gears into the river. When Kelly's thugs try to shoot him, Superman catches their bullets and "slaps them back" like a game of handball!

Robert Reed

Like handball! That is classic Shuster action. Superman corners the mob in their warehouse, and when they try to hit him with axes and iron clubs, the blades just blunt against his skin. He rounds up the thugs, carries them over his shoulders, and hangs them by their trousers right onto the moose head trophies on the wall, leaving them dangling like hunting prizes!

Simon Carver

Dangling from moose trophies! That is a hilarious visual, Bob. And Story B in this same summer issue is just as spectacular. It features a corrupt, power-mad politician named Alex Evell, who is trying to violently buy up and monopolize all the newspapers in the city, including the Morning Pictorial and Burt Mason's Daily Planet.

Robert Reed

Alex Evell is a real snake, Simon. He hires thugs to attack the Daily Planet's delivery trucks, throwing the papers down the sewers and setting the vehicles on fire. In one panel, a massive, tank-like truck tries to ram a Planet vehicle, but Superman flies in, grabs the truck's bumper, lifts it overhead, and "heaves it upright" over a tall brick smokestack, leaving the gangsters stranded high in the air!

Simon Carver

Lifting a truck over a smokestack! That is a grand, vertical image, Bob. Evell's men even try to burn Lois Lane alive in a building, but Superman bursts through the door, snatches their guns away, and bends the steel barrels around their necks like metal collars before carrying Lois to safety.

Robert Reed

Those steel collars are a great touch, Simon! But now we have got to talk about Story D in Superman number five, because this is one of the most bizarre, panel-by-panel adventures we have ever laid eyes on. It starts with a massive, unexpected depression hitting the country, with millions suffering from unemployment. Clark Kent is sent to interview Borden Mosely, a ruthless financial giant who seems to be behind the economic collapse.

Simon Carver

Borden Mosely. But as Clark enters Mosely's adjoining insurance office, he notes a "sickeningly sweetish odor of incense" in the air. Clark sneaks through the window and hides in a large cabinet to investigate. Mosely enters with his henchmen, talking about piling up profits while the country goes bankrupt. But they spot Clark's feet sticking out of the cabinet! They grab him, and as Clark breaks free, he pulls back a heavy yellow drape -- revealing a plaster bust of Luthor that literally speaks to deliver stock market tips!

Robert Reed

A speaking plaster bust of Luthor, Simon! It is a television receiver and a loudspeaker built right into the stone head! The thugs punch Clark in the jaw, drag him to the elevator shaft, force the heavy metal doors open, and throw him straight down a fifteen-story shaft to his death!

Simon Carver

A fifteen-story plunge! Shuster draws Clark falling into the blackness, but he alights unhurt at the bottom of the shaft, dusts off his suit, and says "Nice fellas!" before changing into his Superman costume. He confronts the hoodlums, lets their bullets bounce off his chest, and races up the side of the skyscraper to catch Mosely, who is escaping in a rocket-powered autogyro from the roof.

Robert Reed

Superman flies after the autogyro, rips off the spinning propeller blades, and crashes the plane into a mountain canyon. Mosely escapes through a secret entrance into the mountain, but Superman follows him. He encounters a massive steel door with a recording apparatus demanding a password. Before he can figure it out, a trapdoor opens, and Superman falls into a pit of sharp metal spikes!

Simon Carver

Falling into a pit of spikes! But Superman just sits on them, crossing his legs, and says "Odd -- but I'm actually comfortable!" That is marvelous. Luthor then pours a vat of powerful acid over him, but Superman's uniform -- made of a special cloth he invented himself -- is completely immune. He rips the acid vat from its mounting, hurls it at the steel door to demolish it, and finds Mosely standing before a massive television screen where Luthor's face is laughing at him.

Robert Reed

That television screen is a trap, Simon! As soon as Superman steps close, huge bolts of electricity roar toward him from two hidden antennas. The machine explodes, but Superman is unharmed. He rescues Mosely from the falling rocks, forces him to reveal the secret list of Luthor's hypnotic incense victims, and uses his super-speed to cure the prominent leaders of the nation, returning the country to its former prosperity!

Simon Carver

A triumphant victory for national prosperity, Bob. And that lead-in brings us to our final overview for tonight: Story G in Superman number five. This story involves a massive conspiracy surrounding a man named Morton Craig, who has been arrested for grand larceny. Clark visits him in jail and discovers Craig is suffering from a mysterious, severe case of anemia.

Robert Reed

Anemia! But as soon as a doctor named Dr. Bren gives Craig an injection of a wonderful new drug called Parabiolene, his eyes lose their dull appearance and take on a new sparkle. Superman investigates and discovers a notorious gangster named Carlin has kidnapped the drug's inventor, Professor Carl Grinstead, forcing him to manufacture Parabiolene to enslave wealthy patients.

Simon Carver

Enslaving patients with a miracle drug, Bob. Superman battles rival gangs who try to seize the formula, rescues the professor, and brings the racketeer Carlin before the state parole board to ensure Craig is released and Carlin is sentenced. It is a fantastic, fast-moving yarn that shows how even our medical breakthroughs need the protection of the Man of Steel.

Robert Reed

It is a modern crusade, Simon! And that is all the time we have for tonight's standard broadcast, folks. But before we sign off, we have got to thank our listener from the future, Mr. Moore, who has been sending us short-wave messages through the corridors of time. He tells us that this run of comics is going to be talked about for eighty years! If you want to send us a letter, write to us at distinguishedcomicsradio@gmail.com.

Simon Carver

That is distinguishedcomicsradio@gmail.com. Send us your favorite panels, your thoughts on Luthor's earthquake machine, or your questions for Mr. Moore. Join us for our next broadcast, where we will return with part two of our deep dive into the shadows of Gotham City with Batman 1940. From a quiet, cold, and blacked-out London, where we keep our eyes on the sky and our fingers on the dial, I am Simon Carver.

Robert Reed

And from our warm New York studio, where the Cubs are getting ready for spring training and the music is hot, I am Robert Reed. Keep your courage up, keep reading those funny pages, and good night!

Simon Carver

Good night, everyone.