Superman #101 (1955)
written by unknown
pencils and cover by Al Plastino
Superman was seriously lacking decent villains in the 50s if his biggest adversary was a rainbow.
We begin with Metropolis donating gold for a new playground, which Superman is squeezing in order to melt it. Which already raises a couple of questions, including but not limited to:
How rich are the people of Metropolis?
How is a freaking playground supposed to cost?
Why squeeze the gold instead of heat vision?
Seriously, that is a huge ball of gold!
Superman is canonically 1.91 meters tall (well 6 ft 3 in, but I refuse to do math in US units).
By taking the image in comparison, that ball has a diameter of 94 cm; that results in a volume of 0.43 cubic meters.
Assuming that’s a solid sphere… and really why would Superman just create a hollow shell… that ball weighs 8.4 METRIC TONS (that’s 18,518 lbs!!!).
As of 2025, this ball would be worth OVER A BILLION DOLLARS.
Clearly something easy to lose track of.
Superman is completely unable to find the gold again.
But he has other things to worry about, because SUDDEN GLASS METEOR!!!
Once Superman smashes it, he’s suddenly surrounded by a rainbow…
…and anything that gets close to him is turned to glass!
And it works at a considerable distance!
Naturally, this makes the news…
…including the Daily Bugle!!!
In order to protect herself from Superman’s new power, Lois decides to get lead poisoning.
It doesn’t work. AT ALL.
Is the Daily Planet’s main target audience legally blind? What is it with the constant giant text on the first page?
This issue had a publishing date of September 1955. Compare other front pages.
This scares the people of Metropolis so much that they decide to actually care for themselves.
The only people not running away from Superman are the gold thieves.
Superman deduced that the thieves couldn’t have gotten very far and that they were probably hiding “beneath a network of lead pipes”.
Superman’s plan to find the thieves was therefore:
Step 1: figure out the thieves were hiding in an underground lead tunnel
Step 2: create a giant glass meteor
Step 3: blow it up
Step 4: fake a rainbow effect around himself
Step 5: prepare glass replicas of countless stuff at super-speed
Step 6: substitute the objects with replicas faster than the eye can see
Step 7: make Lois coat her car in lead
Step 8: replace Lois and her car with glass replicas
Step 9: start a fire
Step 10: wait for everyone to flee
Step 11: wait for the thieves to come out of their hideout
Step 12: arrest the thieves
Yeah, uhm, there were a couple of redundant steps, considering Superman figured out immediately the thieves were in the tunnels, he just didn’t know exactly where.
I would’ve gone with something slightly simpler:
Step 1: figure out the thieves were hiding in an underground lead tunnel
Step 2: explore the tunnels in 0.000000001 nanoseconds, considering you can fly faster than time
Step 3: arrest the thieves
Historical significance: 0/10
The cover is sometimes confused with Superman #125, which is a completely different story (which will be in the retrospective).
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Talk about going through extreme lengths for no reason!!! You had 90% of the job ready the panel after the theft!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Sometimes there are no words.
What else was in Superman #101?
Another two Superman stories, both with uncredited writer.
The second story has Lex Luthor on a hypnotizing helicopter.
But the story is really about Lex leaving clues to Superman to prove he’s the superior mind.
A sort of riddler, if you will.
There’s a reason why Superman is not called the World’s Greatest Detective.
The second story is just mean to Clark.
It’s a bout a club of “meek people” who try to instill courage into Clark Kent in order to motivate themselves… so Superman decides to give them other examples to follow while ensuring Clark is considered the worst coward by other self-proclaimed cowards.
And you wonder why the writers of these stories are unknown.
“Plot Convenience Herald” is getting better and better. Bravo!
Also, that “Clark Kent Exhibit” couldn’t have had more generic items in it if they tried.
Ironically, if Superman really had contracted a case of Rainbow Doom, he could have flown over the led tunnels, turned them to glass, and exposed the crooks.
This plot (for lack of a better word) reads like something from the “consequences” game, where one person writes a couple of sentences, folds the paper so only the last few words are visible, and passes it to another to continue the story. I remain convinced this technique was used by Fletcher Hanks.
Say what you want about the interior stories, but that is one great cover. Al Plastino is such an underrated Superman artist.
The sight of civilians running in terror from the hero seems to anticipate the ’60s Marvel vibe. By the Bronze Age, plenty of covers would show Superman endangering the public. But Superman #101 must be an early specimen of that theme.
I also think “The Rainbow Doom” is a cool name for a sci-fi concept—up there with “Phantom Zone.” It’s a pity that in the end it’s just another elaborate ruse employed by the Man of Steel; I’d like to see a modern writer use it in a more menacing way.
Finally, I want to thank you, Archeologist, for promoting these stories from the early 1950s. Superman’s second decade of publication, 1948-1958, is woefully unrepresented in reprint volumes, perhaps because it’s been overshadowed by the Silver Age stories of 1958 and following. Your reviews show there was some memorable (if weird) material produced at the time.
How? How? HOW did this series become such a parade of folly!?! WHEN did the editors decide that this superhero was worth only the FIVE years old???? AAAAAAARGH!
Lucky for the world that Marvel came along!