Superman #158

Superman #158 (1963)
by Ed Hamilton & Curt Swan

It’s weird that this cover isn’t more well-known, because this is one of the most classic Superman stories of the Silver Age.
This time we’re looking at a GOOD story too!

For some reason, the image that has come to represent this story is the teaser page of its second part.

But let’s start with the beginning, with several super-powered men stealing rare elements.
I wonder who is commenting on the rocket one: did the person reporting seeing this through “binoculars” have super-vision?

Superman is not around to stop them, and neither is Supergirl: in fact she won’t appear in this story at all.

Which is a bit weird: this story has A TON of continuity, especially for a Silver Age story, so you’d expect Superman helping Supergirl in space was a reference to something specific.

Once Superman gets to Earth, he can’t stop the super-thieves despite the humans doing their best to distract them by describing everything they do.

Superman thinks these must be Kryptonians, but immediately dismisses the idea that they’re from the Phantom Zone.

But he recognizes they’re from Kandor, for… no particular reason?
Seriously, unless I missed it, he doesn’t outright say why he dismissed the Phantom Zone origin so quickly. Which is a strange omission because there ARE several ways he could’ve deduced it.
Maybe he memorized the faces of all the citizens of Kandor, or the Phantom Zone convicts, with super-memory? Or his super-senses picked up something from the thieves?
It’s a weird omission from a story that will go through great lengths to attempt explaining everything.

Superman explains Kandor to Jimmy, despite the fact that he’s already been there in Jimmy Olsen #53… which even gets a footnote.
Footnotes to specific issues are so rare at DC in this period that I’ll keep a counter.
Continuity footnote: 1

While at Kandor, Superman meets a friend of his deceased father: Nor-Kann (this time spelled without the hyphen), a scientist who will become a recurrent character in Kandor stories.

Superman is not very popular in Kandor today.

Superman deciding to talk to an angry mob, because he believes they’re still fundamentally decent people who will listen to reason, is such an intrinsically Superman thing to do.

Something else you might recall from Jimmy’s adventures: yellow telepathic search dogs!

I have absolutely no trouble believing that Superman has enough mental fortitude to fool telepathic search dogs.
I find it hard to accept that Jimmy has a brain they can track.

Superman decides to hide at Nor-Kann’s house, which makes sense since he’s the only Kandorian he’s seen today that didn’t try to stone him to death.
Just how close was he to Jor-El, by the way, to keep a life-sized hologram in his house for decades?
Or is that a common thing Kryptonians do? It would explain the mannequins in the Fortress of Solitude if it was.

The reason why there are Kandorians outside the city is that a scientist named Than-Ol has a size-changing ray now.
This is where Superman could have easily said “Yes I recognized Than-Ol when I saw him, that’s how I knew those people were not from the Phantom Zone”. So weird that the comic didn’t take the opportunity.

With the entire city is out to get Superman, how is he going to… oh who am I kidding, I already shared the teaser page, you know where this is going.

It is kind of fun to consider that Superman, who doesn’t wear a mask to prevent people from realizing he’s Clark Kent, now needs a mask to make people believe Nightwing is not Superman.

The thieves don’t have powers on Kandor, but they do have more experience than Jimmy in flying.
Well, Jimmy has gained the power of flight MANY times, but how many of those times did he do anything with it?

Superman takes away one of the devices that allow the thieves to grow, and hides his escape with smoke. Maybe it’s the pose, maybe it’s the scene, but he REALLY looks like Batman doesn’t he?

Uhm, if Than-Ol is using this technology to enlarge his crew, why would he use a different one to enlarge the city?

One of the advantages of this story is that it has time to breathe, because it takes up the entire issue instead of half of it like usual.
That allows for a good scene of Superman reminiscing about how it feels to walk around the last remnants of Krypton.

Obligatory reference to Superman #141. That might potentially be THE most referenced Superman story in the Silver Age… not that I blame them, it’s one of the best and it fits perfectly here.
Continuity footnotes: 2

The fact that lead stops X-Ray vision comes from the fact that in real life lead is a great shield against radiation.
But how does that shield against telepathy?

You know if you included in your costume a cowl, like Batman’s, it would have allowed you to protect yourself against telepathy AND without looking ridiculous.

No visit to Kandor is apparently complete without an appearance by Superman’s body double Van-Zee and his wife, the human Sylvia who is a lookalike of Lois Lane.
They both originate on Lois Lane #15, which doesn’t get a footnote.
Given how unusually good this story is to introduce everything, they could have easily given a footnote to this… as well as come up with a footnote for that Supergirl adventure we didn’t see.
I wouldn’t normally do this, but in this context it stands out.
Missed footnotes: 2

The reason why Superman goes to Van-Zee is that he’s been unable to enter Than-Ol’s lair, and he hopes to sneak in by pretending to be him.
And the panel where he tries genuinely shocked me: he wonders if his voice sounds close enough.

Guys, I’ve been doing these reviews for almost six years by now, and I’ve encountered A LOT of stories with lookalikes… and I’m pretty sure this is THE FIRST MENTION WHATSOEVER that two people who look exactly the same don’t necessarily have the same exact voice!!!
Seriously: we’ve had AT LEAST three Superman doubles, not to mention a double for every single person of his supporting cast, plus several impostors… and the ONLY time I don’t have to complain about nobody thinking about the voice is a Superman story from 1963!!!

The impersonation works, and Superman confirms his suspicion: the way Than-Ol wants to enlarge Kandor WILL destroy the city.
I really like the subtext that Superman was genuinely hoping Than-Ol had found a different way that could restore Kandor for good.

See, this is why the Legion never nominated you for the Espionage Squad when you were Superboy.

With Superman captured, Jimmy summons the Superman Emergency Squad and Van-Zee becomes the new Nightwing. Didn’t even wait the second Nightwing story for the change!

The Superman Emergency Squad demands him to be given to the authorities, which is just a trick to rescue him.

Superman and Jimmy are taken back outside of Kandor, where Superman conveniently can make himself grow back to regular size with a gun from a Kandorian criminal…

…specifically Zak-Kul, who made a single appearance in Action Comics #245 but who doesn’t get a footnote.
Missed footnotes: 3

The details of the escape seem a little weird.
Superman is brough out of Kandor with the same flight belt that the criminals have; once there he looks for the growth rage, turns back normal, and then closes the bottle.
How much of a head start does he have on the thieves if they still aren’t out of the city?
Also, the criminals can’t grow before they have left the bottle, and they don’t have powers until they are outside. Since the “cork” is typically left on, I assume the thieves previously had a way to force it open… but Superman doesn’t have the time to seal it properly?

Instead Superman is certain he can’t stop the thieves from leaving Kandor and gaining powers, so he decides to hide in the Phantom Zone.
I’m not considering the lack of a footnote for Jax-Ur a missed reference, since he doesn’t play a part in the story; Zak-Kul’s ray was instead crucial.

Sure enough, the thieves escape from the Fortress of Solitude: they plan to restore Kandor to its proper size.

So is Superman trapped in the Phantom Zone now?
No, because he set it as a timer, presumably out precaution from either exiling someone by mistake or from someone using this against him. This is a GREAT idea!

Less great: Superman taking the time to explain to Jimmy why this technology won’t restore Kandor to size permanently, even going as far as using a model for the demonstration.

I guess Curt Swan REALLY wanted to draw the Eiffel Tower. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good scene that does explain the concept well, but it feels like Superman should be too much in a hurry to bother.

Superman didn’t tell the Kandorians about ANY of this, because he feared they would have accepted the destruction of their city if it meant returning to normal size.
Remember this for the post-issue analysis, because it will be historically funny.

While Superman was explaining to Jimmy why using Than-Ol’s ray to restore Kandor to its proper size would be a disaster… Than-Ol had the time to use his ray to restore Kandor to its proper size.
Whoops.

You would expect Than-Ol to use this occasion to declare that the Earth belongs to the newly powered Kandorians… but no, he’s just after Superman.

And now we have Superman against an ENTIRE city of powered Kryptonians!!!

Why is there Kryptonite on Kandor in the first place? It wouldn’t harm any Kryptonians in their city (pre-Crisis it only hurt Kryptonians under a yellow sun), but if so what did they use it for?
Did Superman bring some for sentimental value or what?

“I could time travel to solve this problem, but it’s too time sensitive to be resolved by time travel”.
Sounds legit.

Superman dropped by Atlantis for literally ONE PANEL.
What weapons do they have to make Lori Lemaris believe they’ll stand a chance against thousands of super-powered Kryptonians?

The city begins disintegrating, but Superman has JUST enough time to shrink it again.

And that’s already the end!

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Historical significance: 6/10
Superman and Jimmy will have other adventures as Nightwing and Flamebird, with other people (notably Van-Zee) taking the mantle.
You might think that Robin choosing the codename Nightwing is just a coincidence… but nope, in 1984 he explicitly took the name from this!
There are also other characters named Flamebird, but I don’t think they’re ever explicitly linked to the Kandor version.

Silver Age-ness: 10/10
This is one of the most quintessentially Silver Age stories.

Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
Most of my nitpicks were just for fun. If you adjust the pacing a little and update some of the sillier details, the vast majority of the story can easily be done today.
I especially really liked the quiet moments, when Superman can reflect on how it feels to be around the last remnant of Krypton. Even Jimmy wasn’t as annoying as in his series; in fact he plays a much minor role in this than expected.

Continuity footnotes: 2
Missed footnotes: 3
I guess it wasn’t as many as it seemed at the time. But I guess it goes to show how RARE they are than even a couple feel like a lot!!!

Stupid Jimmy Olsen moment
How DID you “operate it wrong”, exactly?

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Remember how I said that Superman’s attitude towards restoring Kandor would be historically funny? Well, in 1979 he eventually WILL succeed in restoring Kandor, in a story that directly references this one.

This time, however, Superman has the right technology to restore Kandor.

But after restoring the city, it turns out that the effect does not work on inanimate objects and the entire city crumbles.
And I guess it works on clothes because Comics Code.

So why do I find it funny? Because not only this is the same result that in Superman #158 he didn’t want to reveal to the Kandorians because he felt they would still try…

…and when the time comes, the Kandorians accept to losing the city if it means they can rebuild their civilization at normal size!!!
I suppose you can interpret Superman #158’s version as Than-Ol’s ray being lethal for Kandorians as well, not just the building, but that’s not exactly what Superman said.
So it’s possible he COULD have restored the Kandorians in 1963 instead of 1979.

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Interesting letters: there are some reactions to an earlier issue that showed Krypton in its last days.

I agree with Michael that this was a dumb critique, but given the subject I find the response slightly distasteful.

Future Superman writer E. Nelson Bridwell gives a convoluted explanation for how Supergirl was able to fly on Krypton.
I vastly prefer the editor’s explanation.

Like DC Comics would ever seriously kill Superman for real.
At most he would be revealed to have been in suspended animation.

Come to think of it, Lightning Lad was ALSO later revealed to have been in suspended animation (or replaced by an alien blob in one of the dumbest retcons ever).