Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!

Quite simply: to the spandexed super-set what Chuck Berry was to rock'n'roll.

... which is to say: remove his contributions from the equation... and -- just like that -- you're minus one art form.

Working from the baseline assumption that no one reading these words can possibly be unaware of the basic grammar of the Superman canon... I'm going to skip all of the "origin" stuff, and proceed directly to the foggy reminiscence and half-baked conjecture portions of our scheduled program.

The surest way I know of to "define" Superman is by comparing and contrasting him with the only two individuals on the planet who might rightfully claim to be his peers and equals (albeit in altogether different senses of the words).

The first of these is -- of course -- the Batman.

In retrospect, it isn't so much that the pairing of "The World's Most Incorruptible Hero" and "The Most Dangerous Man on the Planet" was such an unmitigated stroke of genius as it is a genuine source of befuddlement that it took DC Comics as long as it did to bring them together in the first place.

I know of no more natural and/or productive pairing (both from a "characterization" standpoint, and in the purest "storytelling" sense) in all of comics, save -- perhaps -- for the Batman/Robin combo. No matter how either one of the characters has been interpreted (or re-interpreted) by their respective Boswells, over the decades... the other has always served to crystallize him that much more readily, and to greater explication.

(It is no coincidence, I think, that both characters suffered, temporarily, in the 80's when a wrong-headed decisionby the SUPERMAN scribe of the day to recast the two as bitter procedural foemen had Superman and Batman all but lunging at one another's throats. The end result was as disorienting as it was inexplicable; much like the effect one might experience while watching Rocky and Bullwinkle vowing eternal blood vendettas against one another.)

Often as not, the plots of those Silver Age Superman/Batman pairings (as chronicled, most often, within the pages of WORLD'S FINEST COMICS) revolved around that central premise, outright: that these two (three, if you're counting Robin) were-- and, by all rights, ought to be -- the fastest friends within the DC universe entire. Every other cover, it seemed, promised the most dire and irrevocable of circumstances, should the team either "break up" or else have yet another character added to the interpersonal dynamics of same [see cover, above].

If there was any drawback inherent to the monthly teaming of these two worthies, it was this: they were, at times, almost too effective, as a result. If any given situation could not be readily addressed by (say) the all-powerful Superman punching his way through a mountain range with his head... then the all-but-omniscient Batman would devise a stratagem by means of which the implacability of geography was no longer an overriding concern. (In simpler terms: it made the cobbling up a new menace for "the World's Finest Team," month in and month out, something of an ongoing "headache" for the writers.)

When it came to recurring nemeses, however... Superman had enough problems, al by himself. There was (for example) the clockwork dependability that -- every other month, or so -- Lex Luthor would make his ruinous presence felt, once again.

It is interesting to note, here, how very similar Superman's Bestest Buddy and Superman's Foulest Foeman were, in one crucial regard: both of them -- Luthor and the Batman -- could offer equally compelling arguments for laying claim to the title of "Smartest Fellah On the Planet."

The chief difference between the two, however (other than the undisputed fact that the Batman was a "snazzier" dresser, I mean) was this: while the Caped Crusader had diversions aplenty with which to occupy his vast and brooding intellect... the sum totality of Lex Luthor's benighted existence, quite literally, revolved around the fact that there was a "Superman" in the world in the first place. [And -- as the accompanying cover illustrates -- said "super-obsession" had occupied a prominent pedestal within Luthor's mental pantheon from childhood on up.]

There was (literally) no limit to how far Luthor would go -- no hardship he would not willingly (even cheerfully) endure, if the Canaan at the end of the road counted a tombstone with Superman's name chiseled onto it as its chiefest landmark. Even if it meant journeying to another planet entirely -- there to re-establish himself as a super-hero -- Luthor was prepared to pay the ferryman's going rate, and then some. [See cover, below]

In this regard, Lex Luthor was much of a muchnesswith Sherlock Holmes' "Moriarty," or Nero Wolfe's wraith-like "Arnold Zeck": he was more defined than definitor. One simply could not imagine the Lex Luthor of the period as ever watching television; reading fiction; or even indulging in a half-hearted game of chinese checkers, without the bulk of his intellect whirrring and spinning along the axis of How Best To Kill a Superman, all the while.

(One wonders how Luthor might have chosen to occupy the remaining allotment of his days if, perhaps -- just perhaps, mind you -- he'd ever managed to annihilate the Man of Steel, once and for all. Certainly, no other member of the Justice League (save, perhaps, the equally brilliant [and obsessive] Batman) could have offered the same challenge -- the same sport -- as did "the Man of Tomorrow." Little excitement, really, in stalking the wild Atom, or Aquaman... once you've finally "bagged" that greatest, most impressive of all trophies: the Big "S," himself.)

(As for myself: I like to imagine him devoting himself anew to those long-neglected "tap" lessons, and taking a wildly enthusiastic Broadway by storm in a revival of THE KING AND I. That's probably just me, though.)

OTHER CLASSIC DC/MARVEL HEROES of the Silver Age
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