Great Moments In Comics #39

Previously in “Great Moments In Comics”: Jimmy Olsen blew up an entire mountain. And himself with it.

I can’t get away from this story. It’s just too rich not to milk. So, more. It’s all from SUPERMAN’S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN #93, the first issue published after the Adam West BATMAN show proved to be a monster pop-culture phenom–meaning that DC piggybacked Batman onto every comic they could that year, and that included JIMMY OLSEN, who became for one story “The Batman-Superman of Earth-X!” Here are some annotated highlights, picking up from the moment where we realize that the explosion actually hurled Jimmy across the dimensional planes:

 

 

Also, as Jimmy helpfully notes on the next page, on THIS Earth, bullfighter capes are BLUE, not RED.  TWIST! Jimmy, granted super-powers by the combination of the explosion’s energies and the sun of this parallel Earth, saves Perry from the marauding bull, establishing a deep and warm relationship between them. (Perry and Jimmy, not Perry and the bull.) 

 

 

 

TWIST! On this world, Clark Kent’s just an ordinary guy who is not only the Tours Custodian of the World’s Fair, but he’s also a leading science-fiction author. As ordinary guys are. Jimmy decides to use his newfound powers to defend this Earth as the living embodiment of one of Kent’s characters: 

 

 

 

That is the saddest Batman cowl I have ever seen. Anyway, adventure follows adventure until Jimmy figures out his weakness on this world.  Bet you can’t guess. Go on. Try. Guess. 

 

You are WRONG.

 

 

NATURALLY. 

 

Anyway, all’s well that ends well after Professor Potter finds Jimmy and his droopy Batman cowl and brings him home:

 

 

Whenever you need evidence that the writers of 1960s Superman comics were almost literally making up their stories as they went, look for telltale clues like how the crappy, mismatching lettering of Potter’s last sentence doesn’t match the rest of his balloon, meaning the whole notion was an afterthought added by the editor. (I’m not castigating; these writers were making, like, eight dollars a page, which I personally think entitled them to write like the wind.)  (Also, the liberal use of the word “luckily” is a big clue, too.)