It’s the fourth anniversary of the site! To celebrate, I’ll have a look at one of the first comics I read.
I’ve already covered some of my firsts: Fantastic Four #57 was my first Doctor Doom story, and Legion of Super-Heroes #288 was my first Legion story.
But I’m not sure which was my first Superman story: it was either World’s Finest #217 or this one.
Which is a somewhat controversial story.
Superman #330 (1978)
by Martin Pasko & Curt Swan
cover by Ross Andru
Why was it controversial? Because it introduced a “solution” to Superman keeping a secret identity with his glasses that was SO unliked it was immediately wiped from continuity!
We can’t give Martin Pasko all the blame for this, because it was “based on a story concept by Al Shroeder III”.
He was a frequent letter writer. According to his obituary from 2021, he also found love thanks to comics.
One of Al’s many letters in the back of a Superman comic book caught the eye of Barbara Long of Jugfork, Mississippi. She wrote to him and he wrote back, beginning a romance that has lasted over 40 years.
This is a 1978 story, meaning that by this time Clark Kent is working as a newscaster for WGBS.
It’s interesting to see that this was the case in the first Superman story I read, since I never think of Clark as anything but a newspaper journalist.
The WGBS is about to be hit by a falling satellite. This looks like a job for… Clark Kent???
But it was only a dream.
I’ve always REALLY liked the idea that Superman needs to sleep because his mind has to rest at some point, even when his body doesn’t.
Strictly speaking it’s not entirely necessary: he’s an alien, so they could’ve said that Kryptonians never sleep. But it’s a good way to keep him more human and relatable.
I might do a deep dive to find the first time he was ever shown to be sleeping.
The heart of this story is the examination of Superman’s disguise, something that has been constantly debated since 1938.
I will give my thoughts on the subject soon, but it’s worth noting that the story is RELENTLESS in mocking the idea that the glasses are enough.
The best argument for the glasses working is probably the Christopher Reeve portrayal in the movies, which is THE standard on how to handle the switch between Clark and Superman.
But let’s be completely honest: despite this being a masterpiece of a performance and as close as humanly possible it is to look like two different people when you take off the glasses…
…realistically speaking, this should NOT work on people who are close to both your identities.
And to make things worse, it’s one of the reasons why I don’t like Clark Kent being a TV newsman.
Because while it’s believable that the random person on the street wouldn’t recognize the face of a newspaper journalist, it becomes a problem when millions of people see you every day.
This is when Superman comes across our villain of the story, Spellbinder.
Who is actually a Batman villain, debuting in 1966.
He’s definitely upgraded his arsenal, adding a Super Shock-Absorbing Chin-Guard™ to his helmet.
Which works if Superman is using only enough strenght to knock out a regular human, but unless he’s got Inetron in there… does Spellbinder REALLY think it’s going to be enough if Superman gets serious?
He then tries the old “endanger civilians to distract the hero” trick, which Superman deals with in a rather weird way. Why didn’t he just pick up the girl?
My theory is that Superman is so bored of his job that he’s always trying to figure out convoluted ways to use his powers just to keep himself entertained.
If this was the Silver Age, Superman would’ve been immune to hypnotism unless Kryptonite or magic was involved. By the 70s, however, the rules were relaxed a little.
Kind of weird that Superman doesn’t seem to know who Spellbinder is. Granted he’s not HIS villain, but he tends to be knowledgeable about this stuff.
Spellbinder got away, and Superman doesn’t have a way to protect the citizens of Metropolis from being hypnotized by him.
So his solution is to announce he’s going to HYPNOTIZE THE ENTIRE CITY.
Because OF COURSE he has super-hypnotism.
It’s also INSANE that people are going to be okay with this! Granted he’s Superman, so even if they disagreed… what the heck could they even do?
As mentioned the rules about Superman’s invulnerability were relaxed a bit by this point, but even then he’s certain he wouldn’t be vulnerable to “regular” hypnotism.
And then Lana Lang catches Superman with his cape down! Now that’s embarassing.
Except Lana doesn’t recognize him as Clark Kent. AT ALL.
Superman just rolls with it. Also he’s not entirely lying, since he WAS planning to face Spellbinder while in his Clark Kent identity.
She doubles down on the idea that the two identities absolutely look nothing alike.
This causes Superman to scrap his plan to approach Spellbinder as Clark Kent, and he hypnotizes himself into being resistant to hypnotism.
This prevents Spellbinder from hypnotizing Superman…
…but only through his light show, because SOMEHOW sound hypnosis still works.
Superman’s fine, but understandably upset.
Superman has already solved the mystery. Did you?
Now that he knows Spellbinder uses sound, defeating him is trivial.
Spellbinder is big into vinyl.
But Spellbinder isn’t the real attraction of this story: it’s the explanation on how the disguise works.
Which Superman finds out when he asks a Daily Planet artist to draw sketches of both Superman and Clark Kent.
The explanation given is that Superman is always, ALWAYS hypnotizing people into thinking Clark Kent is a weakingly. And he did it for YEARS without even knowing it!!!
The glasses are the secret. Because they’re made of the same material from the ship that brought him to Earth, they’re both indestructible and SOMEHOW they intensify super-hypnotism.
That opens sooooo many questions that I’ll discuss later, but at least it explains what happened in THIS story.
There’s even an explanation for why this wasn’t affected by all the times he’s lost his powers.
I mean it all makes sense right?
Except…
Does the hypnotism also work on pictures?
Why is Superman only NOW thinking the disguise is stupid?
Does it work on Supergirl, who never comments on the disguise?
What about the times Batman disguised himself as Clark Kent? Did he disguise himself as the frail Clark or the one that Superman knows?
If he figured out the secret, why didn’t he tell Superman?
Historical significance: 0/10
This ignored, HARD, by future stories. To give you an idea of just how much this was removed from continuity… not only it was eventually categorized as taking place on “Earth-32”, the one used for all the stories that make no historical sense… the DC database has this little gem.
Because the differences between Earth-One and Earth-32 characters are so minor the DC Comics Database has decided to use the Earth-One’s version for the details that are identical”
And the Database is EXTREMELY pedantic on categorizing alternate Earths, but even they didn’t care enough for this one.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
On its own it KIND OF works, and it has some classic Curt Swan artwork which is always a treat.
However it’s such a HUGE retcon to how Superman works, such a trouble for figuring out past issues, and it spends so much time basically insulting the readers for believing the glasses would work on their own, that I’m glad it was ignored.
Ultimately any attempt to rationalize the glasses is doomed to failure. Yes it CAN be believable that it could fool strangers, but realistically it’s never going to work on people who interact with Clark on a daily basis.
Christopher Reeve gave a masterful performance, but come on: do you REALLY think he would’ve fooled his close friends and family?
The glasses work because it’s a grandfather clause: they work because they’ve always worked.
That’s it.
Making fun of the disguise doesn’t tarnish Superman’s legacy or his stories, and it’s such an integral part of the mythos that you can’t touch it without breaking something.
Giving an explanation is futile. Why does nobody recognize Superman when he puts on a pair of glasses? Because he’s Superman, just chuckle at the idea and keep reading.
Interesting letters: not from THIS issue but oh boy, did this get reactions! Superman #335 has TWO pages of letters on the topic.
Some positive.
Some negative.
Some mixed.
We even get the reaction of the guy who had the idea for the story! He liked it, but even he brings up another potential problem I didn’t address… what about the robots?
In this era, most of the time the letters page is dedicated to a single previous issue, so I couldn’t find other letters talking about Superman #330.
I have to wonder: over the following months, did the positive letters still outnumber then negatives?
I know that John Byrne tried to address this when he rebooted Superman in Man of Steel. In addition to the glasses, he had Clark Kent’s hair slicked back, while Superman’s was more wavy.
Happy anniversary!
I never minded the glasses explanation. It makes as much sense as any example of comic book logic. I was more concerned about the heroes not aging, as Mr. Schroeder mentioned in his letter.
I can also buy it that Superman was hypnotizing people without knowing it. Given that he’s an alien and that only a few people have his powers, who knows the limits of how they work? Most people aren’t fully aware of the effect they have on others (such as if someone has a crush on them) unless they are told.
Though the “super hypnotism” idea never caught on, it made for one of the most delightful stories ever–and one which left a vivid impression on me. Marty Pasko seemed to be cutting loose as a writer, producing one funny scene after another, especially with Superman’s “inner monologue,” as you show here. There’s another panel at which I remember laughing our loud, where he asks (regarding concealing his identity behind glasses): “Who am I trying to kid?” Then he reflects (quoting from memory): “‘Kid’ is the right word–I was a teenager when I came up with this disguise!” So much of the issue reads as if Pasko felt liberated to at last say the things he (and we) had always wanted to say.
Curt Swan also seemed to take his art up a notch on this story, as if he felt it was a milestone. He was the master of depicting an urbane Superman, as in those panels where he views himself in a mirror. His drawing of the “frail” Clark Kent, with the receding hairline and hollow cheeks, is weirdly touching to me–perhaps because it somehow shows what Superman thinks of himself; in this era, he was always so humble and self-deprecating.
At the time, I remember disapproving of this revelation about Superman’s secret identity. And as you say, DC editorial ultimately dispensed with it. Action Comics #501 (Nov. 1979) always struck me as a deliberate rebuke to S #330: in it, Clark dresses in a Superman uniform and removes his glasses, and is STILL not recognized by the WGBS/Planet staff. Ridiculous, of course; but it drove home the point that the Spellbinder episode was to be disregarded.
Thank you, finally, for linking to the obituary of Al Schroeder; I regret I only knew him from his letters, but I was glad to read that he led a rich, full life.
I appreciate the intelligence, humor, and warmth you put into the reviews on this site. Thanks for that, too.
What goes around comes around. In the current Superman run, the reason why his secret identity isn’t known is… super-hypnosis. During the Bendis run, Superman decided that serving The Truth means not living a lie and he revealed his identity to the world. With Bendis thankfully gone, DC has backtracked by having Luthor hypnotize the world into forgetting Superman’s identity, with the added bonus that if someone stumbles into the knowledge, they’ll have an immediate heart attack. That’s Luthor, always being helpful. He’s actually trying to serve humanity by making Superman more effective.
Sooner or later, this is going to collapse and we’ll get another reboot. I can’t see convolutions this complex lasting.