JIMMY OLSEN 118 (1969)
by E. Nelson Bridwell & Pete Costanza
I always suspected Jimmy’s touch was dangerous, but this is way too literal.
We begin with Jimmy saving the life of a random Native American in a way that I sincerely hope wouldn’t work in real life (otherwise that’s really embarrassing for the snake!).
He seems like a nice guy.
Which of course means he immediately dies.
But not before giving Jimmy yet another superpower!
Which is to bring any picture he touches to life. (!!!)
At least temporarily.
“Wisely and carefully”, sure. And I have a bridge in Metropolis to sell you, Jimmy.
Soon enough, Jimmy is covering a story about rare books when some crooks show up.
How slow is Jimmy if they manage to do THIS!?
Which of course means Jimmy has to use his latest power to get out of trouble.
Next day, Jimmy and his horribly misshapen right hand (WTF, Pete Costanza!?) are summoned for an interview with Senator McClure.
You might remember McClure from something else.
Sorry, I just had to do it!
It’s a trap: there is no senator waiting for him.
I swear the criminals on Jimmy Olsen are the only humans dumber than Jimmy Olsen.
If you told me we’ve ever get a team-up between Jimmy Olsen and the Jolly Green Giant, I would’ve expected the Hulk before we got to THIS.
The criminals do manage to get the drop on Jimmy, though… with knockout gas, of all things.
There is a reason for why they didn’t just kill him: they want him to get a fake Luthor working for them.
Jimmy does manage to find a way to deal with this. We don’t find out immediately, but if you’re read enough comics it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.
Especially once the fake Luthor kills Superman.
Except of course he isn’t, because once this Luthor disappears the real Superman shows up.
If you didn’t figure out that Jimmy used a stamp to create the fake Superman, you really weren’t paying attention.
And now we get to the best moment of the story: Jimmy realizing that HE SUCKS.
Yes, WE ARE REALLY DOING THIS.
I absolutely love the fact that Superman wastes ZERO TIME getting rid of the power! ANYTHING to avoid anybody else having powers!!!
This series had an average of 748,000 copies printed and 460,000 sold, in case you ever needed an indictment of the human race.
Historical significance: 0/10
What a shocker.
Silver Age-ness: 12/10
Even by Silver Age standards, this is amazingly logic-free!
Does it stand the test of time? 0/10
Bland script, terrible art, and holy crap that ending!!!
Stupid Jimmy Olsen moment
Getting rid of the power! I can give him SOME credit for realizing he sucks at being a hero… but if he didn’t want it he didn’t have to destroy the doll, he could’ve given it to somebody else. Come on, Jimmy knows every single superhero on the planet at this point, NOBODY is worthy!?
Superpowers count: 43
Adding life touch, perhaps the most dangerous of all of Jimmy’s powers!
Jimmy’s power in this story is very similar to that of Quality Comics’ Kid Eternity, who could summon famous figures to fight for him by saying “Eternity”. The summoned was supposed to be deceased, but being a Golden Age strip, that rule was sometimes waived or ignored.