Superman’s Christmas Adventure #1 (1940)
by Jerry Siegel & Jack Burnley
Since the hero origins retrospective is in the 40s already, what better time to review the very first appearance of Santa Claus in DC Comics?
Slow news day at Metropolis, it seems.
For reference, this is the front page of the New York Times on Christmas Eve 1940.
But I’m sure there’s a bombshell story about toy trains just waiting to be reported.
I like to think Clark is stuck here just because he simply loves toy trains well into his adulthood.
Which makes sense, Superman deals with trains A LOT.
Although sometimes I think Superman doesn’t like trains very much.
But no, the real story is about a boy too poor to get presents.
Also notice he doesn’t say his name or address to Clark, he just knows it.
That would be a perfect setup for Superman’s radio serial, where A LOT of episodes were about the Daily Planet launching a campaign against racism or corruption.
But don’t worry, things are going to get crazy soon enough.
Before we get to Santa, however, we have Superman spying on a spoiled boy complaining about his presents. This is explicitly before Christmas, so he’s also opening his presents early.
And then SUPERMAN KIDNAPS A CHILD.
Yep. That just happened.
As if that wasn’t creepy enough, he then spies on a little girl.
As you probably realized, this was all just to show to the spoiled rich kid that poor people exist.
If the story ended here, there wouldn’t be much to talk… it’s a sweet and extremely basic plot.
But I did promise you absurdity and Santa Claus, didn’t I?
Ladies and gentlemen, meet our villains: Dr. Grouch and Mr. Meaney.
And yes, those are their REAL names.
Dr. Grouch and Mr. Meaney are angry at Santa because he gives away toys, but they’d prefer to use his factory for products they can sell.
Notice one of the toys is a Krypto-Raygun™, which is a bit weird.
Kryptonite won’t be invented in the radio show until 1943 and in the comics until 1949. One might think that’s simply a reference to Krypton, except the first Kryptonite story is ALSO the first story when Superman himself learns he’s from Krypton!
[EDIT: see the comments for way more information]
Dr. Grouch and Mr. Meaney are already incredibly rich. It’s not about the money: the concept of giving away stuff offends them on a personal level.
Okay I get the toy gun, but… why exactly do Santa’s elves have electric rods!?
Santa proves too much for these two, so their next target is the Daily Planet.
Early Golden Age stories have a very weird relationship with thought balloons. The way we see then today hadn’t been firmly established yet.
Notice that Dr. Grouch is apparently famous enough for Lois to instantly recognize him, and that despite being rich a-holes with their own flying fortress their master plan is setting fire to the Daily Planet without using any henchmen.
Once they leave Clark uses super-breath to take out the fire, and apparently Mr. Meaney is also sufficiently famous to be the only other suspect.
You have to give it to these guys, they’re relentless.
If taking over Santa’s worship was THIS easy, why did you flee to Metropolis the first time!?
Of course Lois Lane managed to sneak into their ship before they left, so they end up Lois Lane-ing her.
Are these guys a threat to Santa or not? Make up your mind, comic!
Don’t worry about Lois Lane, she’s fine. This is how they flirt.
Oh for the love of… Lois, is it too much to avoid being kidnapped for five minutes!?
Seriously, she’s kidnapped LITERALLY TWO PANELS AFTER SHE WAS RESCUED!!!
The THIRD attack on Santa’s workshop (!!!) involves kidnapping his reindeer as well.
This looks like a job for Superman, SOMEHOW.
Kind of weird that he doesn’t get the message through super-hearing. Even in 1940, it should already be sensitive enough.
And there you have it: the first time Superman met Santa Claus.
I’ve said enough that Golden Age are extremely efficient, and that’s typically a compliment… but this can be taken to absurdity. THIS IS TWO PANELS LATER.
So all the potential tension has already vanished, since Superman has solved the case in no time.
OR IS IT?
This means, of course, that Superman is the one to deliver presents on Christmas Eve. Get used to this because it basically happens in every single Christmas story featuring Santa.
Notably, Santa is the one who forgives Dr. Grouch and Mr. Meaney.
And that’s the real meaning of Christmas, folks: give presents to everybody or one of them may end up kidnapping your pets and setting fire to your workplace.
Plus I suspect Lois is thankful because this whole experience has taught her a new kink.
And so we end bringing the story back to its beginning, with the rich kid giving away presents.
Historical significance: Milk / Ho
Santa is 100% canon for DC Comics. And it’s not just pre-Crisis.
Silver Age-ness: Cookies / Ho
Things will get weirder in future encounters with Superman.
Does it stand the test of time? Coal / Ho
This is almost a Golden Age Captain Marvel story. Not a bad thing in itself, but FAR to simplistic to be done today even as a children’s tale.
To be fair, even as a guy who doesn’t particularly care for Christmas, this was fun.
And that is all! There are so many Christmas stories featuring Superman (and other DC characters) that I may end up making this a yearly tradition.
Enjoy your holidays, otherwise Superman may kidnap you during the night and force you to spy on little kids.
OH MY GOSH THE KRYPTO-RAYGUN MADE AN APPEARANCE!
The Kyrpto-Raygun is a toy advertised in Action Comics #8 (towards the end). It’s the gun from the planet Krypton that Superman carries around with him all the time and uses to take pictures if criminals (it’s a camera) and then projects the images on the walls of a courtroom in his Clark Kent persona as evidence. The Krypto-Raygun is made of a special metal from Krypton – Kryptonite!
What’s that? You never heard of Super man carrying a gun made out of krytponite around with him all the time (a gun that takes pictures for some reason)? You never heard of Clark Kent presenting evidence in court, using Superman’s alien gun to display photos? How is that even admissible evidence (the alien gun could be fabricating images for all they know)?
That’s because the Krypto-Raygun never showed up in the regular stories. It’s just a dumb toy gun that projects comic book panels using a light bulb inside. You can buy reels of “movies” of Superman stories (including several that were never in the comics) to project.
It is the first mention (at least in the comic books) of the name of Superman’s home planet, the nickname “The Man of Tomorrow,” and of the word kryptonite (although kryptonite the alien metal from Krypton is obviously very different from kryptonite the deadly radioactive remains of the planet Krypton).
Well, not exactly.
Krypton was first used as a name for Superman’s planet in Superman #1 (1939) and the first time he’s called “The Man of Tomorrow”, to my knowledge, is “New York World’s Fair Comics No. 1” which we’ve seen with the first appearance of Sandman.
The Krypto-Ray Gun is used in Action Comics #32, as a direct tie-in to the actual toy.
That story has a cover date of January 1941, so it might have been on the newstands together with this Christmas special!
The toy might indeed be the first use of the word Kryptonite anywhere, though. I’d have to do more research on that, but your catch is definitely worty of a Discount No Prize!
Thank you for the information! It’s a delight to see the actual toy and find out I was wrong – Superman did briefly use it in the comics!
I will quibble a little: Action Comics #8 is marked January 1939 and Superman #1 is from summer 1939 (and The World’s Fair is from 1940) so I think this makes this ad the first *appearance* (maybe) of “Krypton” and “The Man of Tomorrow” although not the first appearance *in a comic book story*. Although for all I know there was an even earlier appearance in a radio ad or something. Technically, “The Mighty Man of Tomorrow” is on the toy’s *catalog,* but there’s a drawing of the catalog in the ad – I don’t know whether the ad (which incorporates the phrase via the drawing of the catalog) or the catalog hit the streets first.
My impression is the toy company wanted to do comic book tie-in picture reels, asked who the most popular comic character was at the time, then got a dossier of info from Detective Comics that said something like this:
Superman, the “Mighty Man of Tomorrow” is an alien from the planet Krypton. He fights crime, and his secret identity is reporter Clark Kent.
The planet may very well have already been named by Siegel and Shuster as they expanded Superman’s origin story for the Superman #1 they were working on, or maybe someone at Detective Comics named it. “The Man of Tomorrow” definitely seems like it came from Siegel and Shuster: early Superman’s powers came from how he was from a much older, more advanced planet where the people were more technologically *and* physically developed. You’d have to really know the character well to pick that moniker.
Clark has a lot of brass, bursting into his boss’ office demanding “LISTEN, WHITE!” He’s lucky Perry didn’t tell him to do something physically uncomfortable with his toy repair idea after that. Show a little respect for your boss, Kent.