SUPERMAN #30 (1944)
by Jerry Siegel & Ira Yarbrough
cover by Jack Burnley
The first appearance of Mister Mxyztplk. Not to be confused with his Silver Age version, Mister Mxyzptlk. The two names are spelled differently, but I wonder how long it took before anyone noticed.
One minor thing out of the way: Mxy technically appeared first in Superman’s newspaper strips.
But that’s because of a scheduling problem: Jerry Siegel was in the military at the time, causing a delay in the publishing of Superman #30.
So despite the fact that Mxy first shows up in a strip by Whitney Ellsworth (who went on to become the producer of Superman’s 50s TV show) and Wayne Boring, he was technically created for the comics.
Mxy is introduced, of all ways, by being hit by a car.
Only to resurrect himself and drive an ambulance up a building.
That goes nowhere, but if you’ve followed other Superman media you might be familiar with Mxy making a scene in a museum looking for “McGurk”.
Who turns out to be a statue that comes to life.
This exact scenario was replicated nearly word-for-word in the “Superman: The Animated Series”…uhm, animated series. Now THAT is a deep cut!
We have seen time and time again that, in the 60s, people were REALLY casual about hallucinations. Apparently it goes all the way back to the 40s!
When Superman finally meets Mxy, he’s surprised to meet another person who can fly.
Which is not too strange: it’s not particularly clear when Superman himself started flying within the comics. Plus his relationship with the other super-heroes at the time is uncertain at best (plenty of Justice Society members could fly).
Mxy then proceeds to make all sort of annoying stunts.
Never thought I would ever see a comic where Superman asks someone to blow him, least of all to Mxyzptlk.
Once the pranks stop, Mxy explains his origin: he’s the court jester from the Fifth Dimension, and he came to Earth by learning the magic words that allow him to move to Earth and back.
But Mxyztplk is as much of an idiot as Mxyzptlk, and tricking him into saying his word backwards is not that hard.
He still gets the last laugh by making fun of Lois, though.
Okay that’s actually pretty funny. You might wonder why Clark isn’t fired by publishing that article, but it’s not that kind of story anyway.
Historical significance: 8/10
One of the most persistent Superman foes, showing up in every decade.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Mxy brings A LOT of Silver Age-ness everywhere he goes, even before the Silver Age existed.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
I have a soft spot for Mxy, I know. If this was the early Golden Age he would be too silly, but by this time Superman had turned into a much more light-hearted series. Plus the fact that entire scenes were lifted from this comic to a cartoon airing nearly 60 years later has to count for something!
Besides, you can’t really complain that a Mxyzptlk story makes little sense or that it’s goofy… that’s the entire point of doing a Mxyzptlk story!
How close is this to the modern character? 10/10
Other than the fact that this Mxy is using another kind of magic, it’s still the same character: a mischievous imp with immense powers but who is actually a harmless idiot.
He was a somewhat popular Golden Age adversary for Superman, showing up about 20 times.
However that’s tricky because it’s not easy to distinguish between the Golden and Silver age versions, even if you go through the trouble of the precise spelling.
There are conflicting opinions when the Silver Age version shows up, but it’s generally considered to start from 1958 or 59.
Despite being one of the goofiest Superman villains, he’s proven to have remarkable staying power.
Not only he survived Crisis and following reboots, but he’s managed to stay relevant: he’s incredibly useful when the writers need something that completely breaks the established rules.
I’ve always liked Mxyzptlk: he can be funny, he can be scary, but he’s always so damn entertaining.
As I mentioned, “Superman: the Animated Series” is the only adaptation that I know of that explicitly goes for the Golden Age version… for the looks, at least.
