Superman #125

Action Comics #125 (1958)
by Jerry Coleman & Wayne Boring
cover by Curt Swan

When discussing the silliest parts of the Silver Age, this comic is bound to come up.
But is it really that silly? Let’s find out.

We begin with Superman investigating the origin of a small earthquake beneath Metropolis.

He also comes across a “midget spaceship” (!!!) that got stuck underground, and it blows up next to him.

Trying to stop some criminals in a runaway car, Superman discovers he’s no longer super-strong.

He still has his invulnerability though. This is interesting: you don’t typically see Superman lose SOME of his powers, it’s typically all or nothing.
Also: we are never actually shown the criminals shooting at him.

As promised by the cover though, Superman has developed a new superpower!
We don’t learn what it is just yet; the comic wants to play this up as a mystery…

…only to reveal it one panel later.

Yep. Superman now has the power to shoot tiny replicas of himself.

 

It’s unclear whether Superman has told the public that HE doesn’t have any powers besides invulnerability. It’d be pretty stupid if he did… although he IS still invulnerable, so it’s not THAT much of a problem.

So not only Superman as Clark Kent is jealous of Superman… now Superman is jealous of Superman as Superman?

At this point in time, Metropolis and Central City are the only two cities on the planet defended by someone with superpowers and superspeed.
So how come the crime in Metropolis is SO bad that criminals just randomly walk the streets threatening to blow up people!?!?

Superman’s tiny duplicates have everything from the original, from his powers to his obsession to capturing criminals in the most unnecessarily convoluted ways possible.
Seriously, you can FLY FASTER THAN TIME and to stop a regular guy you need to turn his clothes into ropes!?

Superman even goes as far as wishing his duplicates could die in a mission!!!

The duplicate doesn’t manage to take care of the Kryptonite meteor, so the criminals throw it back at him with the catapult they’re already carrying around.
Sounds legit.

The duplicate ends up sacrificing his life to save Superman.

And we close with Superman regaining his powers without ever giving the tiniest thought to the potentially sentient life that just sacrificed himself

Superman just says he has his powers back, but he never says he lost the power to shoot tiny replicas of himself out of his hands.
In my headcanon, he retains that power for the rest of the pre-Crisis continuity and is just too selfish to ever use it again.

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Historical significance: 1/10
Since I only count in-universe events for this category, while fondly remembered and homage this would have been an easy 10/10… until 2024, where on Wonder Woman vol6 #10 (of all places!) we get this argument between Damian Wayne and Superman’s son John.

Well… maybe he’s not his son, maybe it’s a bigger finger duplicate!

Silver Age-ness: 100/10
One of the most egregious examples. It has a random unexplained “midget spaceship”, extremely easy powers, ubiquitous Kryptonite, an insane Superman… let’s give it 10 per each finger.

Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
To answer my original question: yes, this is still VERY silly and could only work in the Silver Age… if you play it straight.
And yet, I’m not willing to give this a 0/10 because this is a fine basis for an actual story: there IS something worth exploring about Superman’s reaction. You could play his frustration as a metaphor for how Superman can feel like everyone only cares for his powers and not for him as a person!
Obviously you’d have to find a slightly less silly premise for how he get such an overtly silly power, and you would definitely need to use less Kryptonite, but it COULD work.
I’m honestly shocked that, as famous as this story is, nobody has ever even attempted to do a more serious adaptation of the premise.

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What else was in Superman #125 ?
We have three stories in total, all written by Coleman.

We have an Imaginary Story (with Shaffenberger pencils) about Lois dreaming she has powers.
I’m 90% sure the plot was completely recycled in a “Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane” story; I might even have reviewed it, but the Lois stories have scorched enough of my neurons that I honestly don’t remember.

Clark also gets powers in her dream, and it’s a fascinating look at how pathetic Lois thinks he is.

We also have the “untold tale” of Superman’s time between his Superboy years and his college years.

Al Plastino does the artwork here, and it’s his usual high quality… except I really don’t buy this is a younger Clark.

Over the years there have been like half a dozen stories telling how Superboy became Superman, and they’re probably all incompatible with each other.

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By this point, the Superman comics have started printing letters.

You can tell they ask very basic information; it’s possible that letters like these influenced the editors to ensure stuff like this would be repeated over and over again.
Also, unlike later years where the answers in the Superman books will be almost invariably adversarial against readers, all the answers are quite polite.

Also, I don’t recall ever reading Superman’s nickname “the world’s mightiest man”.
If anything I associate that wording with the original Captain Marvel.

And finally: Silver Age Superman is scientifically accurate.

Sounds legit.