Superman #14

Superman #14 (1942)
by Jerry Siegel & Leo Nowak
cover by Fred Ray

This is one of the most famous Superman covers ever, and for good reason!
It also nothing to do with any of the stories inside.

Our story begins with Perry White assigning Clark Kent and Lois Lane on the latest news… someone saw a mermaid.

This has a cover date of February 1942, and according to the sources I could find it was published on November 1st 1941.
A single month between cover and publishing date feels a bit off, but assuming that’s the case… yeah there wasn’t anything going on in the world on November 1st 1941, so you might as well cover a mermaid sighting.

They interview a fisherman that gives them a description of his sighting.
This is one of the most unique mermaid designs I’ve ever seen: it’s like she’s wearing a sweather that is also her skin.

And this was just Perry’s way of messing with his reporters!
I understand that this is VERY early in the DC Universe, but… you have a superstrong guy running around and plenty of mad scientists that regularly break the laws of physics, is a mermaid REALLY that unbelievable?

Leo Nowak is an underappreciated Superman artist, possibly because he was drafted in 1943 and left comics after the war.
While his style is still very distinct from the Golden Age, he manages to do a fantastic job with some of these panels. Particularly when he has to draw the ocean.

That being said, he doesn’t really sell the fact that the fisherman just knocked the mermaid unconscious. If it wasn’t for the dialogue, you’d think she was mildly inconvenienced.

Superman saves her from “some monster from the deep” (I guess a regular shark wouldn’t have been impressive enough)…

…and then from the fisherman going full Achab.

Superman can understand everything she says thanks to one of the early explicit uses of super-intelligence.

This is Princess Kuella from an undersea kingdom.
I should point out that Aquaman debuted a couple of months earlier.

Superman’s adversary is going to be the mermaid warlord who is after the princess…

…and this is early enough in his career that she believes he can’t win, so she decides to surrender.

Superman follows her kidnappers back to Not Atlantis.

This society is a little messed up. The king doesn’t seem too heartbroken at having to sacrifice her to a monster because she contacted the surface world!

Still… early Golden Age or not, this is Superman we’re talking about.

He still has to prove himself in a race, to see who can swim with the most awkward pose.

After winning that easily, he has to deal with a slightly goofy monster.

Naturally this does nothing to convince the warlord he shouldn’t invade the surface.

Absolutely out of nowhere, the warlord is able to hypnotize Superman. It will take years before his invulnerability encompasses being immune to all kinds of esoteric attacks.

With Superman out of the way, Discount Namor here launches his full-scale invasion of the surface world.

Which lasts less than half a dozen pages, because Superman already recovered from hypnosis.
If this was any other hero I would complain about them not shooting him while he was hypnotized, but with Superman… sounds legit.

Superman may have stopped the invasion, but the villain’s vessel ends up BLOWING UP THE CITY and the princess kills herself!

This is a rather confusing ending because NEXT PANEL, Superman says that the undersea people will continue living thanks to the princess’s sacrifice.
Not only the extent of the damage isn’t clear, but what did her sacrifice accomplish!?
Granted Superman is here just because she went to the surface, but why couldn’t she let him save her?

I’d love to read this article. Superman was the only person there, so is the whole article based on his word alone!?

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 Historical significance: 0/10
The princess is a sort of predecessor for Lori Lemaris, who won’t be created for another 17 years.
It’s not impossible that Bill Finger and Wayne Boring were thinking about this story when they created her, but I doubt it.
(yes I will eventually review Lori’s first story)

Silver Age-ness: 2/10
It’s quite tame in its silliness from what you’d get in the Silver Age, plus there’s the downer ending.

Does it stand the test of time? 7/10
Early Superman stories tend to be less fantastical than what the series will eventually become; while there are PLENTY of mad scientists, more far-out stories are definitely more rare before 1945.
Having a full undersea adventure makes this story stand out, and it’s definitely brave to end it with the princess sacrificing her life… even if I still don’t get how that helped anybody.
It’s not a bad foundation, but the worldbuilding isn’t anything spectacular… this is a VERY generic undersea civilization… and as usual in the Golden Age, there’s almost no characterization.

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What else was in Superman #14?

In the first story (also by Siegel and Nowak), the villain is a hypnotist. Superman pretends to be hypnotized like everyone else by using is X-Ray vision to see through his own eyelids!
That’s a unique use of his powers, I can’t remember another time when he does this.

He also doesn’t attempt to save one of the henchmen from dying. Already by 1942 Superman wasn’t as ruthless as his earliest stories, but there isn’t a clear code against killing yet.

The second story (once again by the same creative team) is about an inventor who created a new fire-extinguishing chemical. You have to love Lois Lane deciding to interview him while the fire is still going on!!!

The third story is the mermaid one. In the fourth and last one, the villain is mad scientist Lightning Master who suspiciously looks a lot like Lex Luthor.

I should point out that Lois Lane is already being kidnapped in 90% of the stories where she shows up, and Superman STILL doesn’t believe her when she says she’s in danger.

Yet another case where the villain dies at the end. If you’re a Golden Age Superman villain and you’re not Luthor, Toyman, Prankster or Mr. Mxyztplk… there’s a VERY good chance your first appearance will be your last.