In 1998, some time-travel shenanigans occurred in the Superman books that allowed the creative teams to tell stories as though they were taking place in the various historical eras of the franchise. Simonson and Bogdanove, the creators working on the Superman: Man of Steel book, told stories with a “Golden Age” setting, recreating the Superman of the 1930s, and they used that setting for stories that certainly qualify for inclusion in this series of articles.
“Man of Steel #80”
SUMMARY
Issue: Superman: The Man of Steel #80, June, 1998
The story begins with a nearly-verbatim retelling of events from Action Comics #1. Superman invades the governor’s mansion to prevent the execution of an innocent woman, then beats up a man who is abusing his wife. The differences from the source material begin with some allusions to whatever ongoing time-travel plot caused this temporal diversion, but they grow more distinct as we go on.
The actual plot of this issue begins with a meeting of the reporters of the Daily Star newspaper with their editor George Taylor.
They discuss the reports of a so-called Superman seen around town. This takes place before even Lois has actually met Superman in person, so the reporters can’t be sure he even exists for real. One suggests he could be propaganda drummed up by fascists. Lois says that doesn’t work because those groups already have a mascot for that role, Lawrence Dennis, whom they call the Atomic Skull.
Dennis was a Hollywood actor whose career was on a downturn and he became convinced that it was because of his political beliefs. He felt he had no choice but to accept payment from the Germans to appear as an Aryan hero called the Atomic Skull.
Lois says she’s busy with this American Nazi story, so Taylor assigns Clark the Superman investigation. Clark justifiably assumes that it won’t take much time or effort on his part to look into his own secret identity’s activities, so he insists he go along with Lois. Along the way they take note of a massive Swastika billboard on a Flatiron-esque building.
Lois accepts the tag-along Clark as they go to Hob’s Bay, the poorest section of Metropolis, and look into several immigrant-owned businesses there that have been vandalized recently. The owner of a bakery gives an account of how local boys, ones he’s known since they were children, have become cruel and run amok with racist hatred. This interview is interrupted when those very boys show up wearing swastika-emblazoned jackets that declare them the “True Patriots Club” and cause more trouble. What follows is a good old fashioned scene of Superman defeating these Nazi punks, ruining their jackets as he goes.
Lois and Clark then go off on their separate investigations, with Lois finding a conspiracy of several prominent political and industrial figures who support the American Nazi cause. Unfortunately, Lawrence Dennis recognizes Lois and she is captured, leading to a car chase recreating a similar scene from Superman’s debut issue, only this time the baddies are Nazis instead of just tough guy goons. That original chase was the source of the famous image on Action Comics #1, with Superman smashing the bad guy’s green car. I guarantee you know the one without me needing to include the image.
After Superman saves Lois, we get to the Nazi rally where Lawrence Dennis is in his Atomic Skull costume giving a speech.
Superman leaps on stage and confronts Dennis, who folds immediately and admits on a hot mic that the American Nazis have given American secrets to the Germans. The weapons manufacturer who is financing the American Nazis doesn’t want that coming out, so he tries to have that giant swastika fall on the stage to crush Dennis and a good portion of the people in the audience.
Superman catches the swastika and prevents this mass crushing event, giving this crowd its first public showing of the Man of Steel in action. Dennis seizes the moment to get back over the speakers and say that this proves the Nazi promise is no myth: the Superman in the flesh. And they should salute it. Superman doesn’t love it when a lot of people in the crowd start Sieg Heil-ing him.
After an American Way speech about how bigotry is bad, Superman smashes the giant swastika and that’s a wrap on the Nazi rally for today, thank you very much.
Lois returns to the paper with story copy in hand, only to find that Clark has already beaten her to it. He was, after all, assigned the Superman story. In the end Taylor recognizes that the two stories are the same and they get to share the byline.
SUPERMAN VS BIGOTS
It’s an unavoidable fact that the term “Superman” has an association with a translation of Nietzsche’s concept of the Übermensch, which in also gone on to be used to prop up Nazi beliefs. The concept of the Nazi superman are and the heroic figure of Superman, I’d say, ideational cousins. Two different wish-fulfillment power fantasies: one of being powerful enough to be cruel without fear of reprisal, the other of being powerful enough to help without fear of reprisal.
It’s entirely realistic that people could see Superman as a symbol of values not intended. This stories and others like it show that Clark hates that.
Also, pretty realistic to have a Hollywood actor who gets unpopular and decides that means he needs to lean into right-wing beliefs, unfortunately.
STRAY THOUGHTS
- The Atomic Skull is a recurring Superman villain name and it is one of the best names in superhero comics and I will not be accepting different opinions at this time. There have been many versions of the Atomic Skull, this being the only Nazi version. The iteration that was used in comics of this era was Joe Martin, a superhuman figure with mental problems that led him to conflate real life with an old movie, which I suppose is the tenuous connection to Dennis being a Hollywood actor. I find it interesting that they chose “Atomic Skull” as his name instead of just “Atom Man” which is an existing Superman villain who was a Nazi in the radio show (and would also appear in my beloved Superman Smashes The Klan). If you’re going to create a propagandistic hero figure to show how great your “Master Race” is, why work in Skull imagery? Is it a phrenology thing? You’d think it’d give Dennis an “Are we the baddies?” moment or something?
- Speaking of, there was a real Lawrence Dennis. He was NOT a Hollywood actor, but he was a fascist. Per Wikipedia, he was “an American diplomat, consultant, and author. He advocated fascism in America after the Great Depression” and while that article goes on to say he didn’t like Hitler and thought Nazis should, at least publicly, tone down their bigotry, he’s definitely Nazi enough that I’d call him an American Nazi. Still, if there is a reason beyond coincidence that that name was used here, I don’t know it.
- As mentioned above, this story takes place between panels and alongside Action Comics #1, as a sort of alternate telling. We get whole scenes from that issue either retold or reimagined, but there’s more: Among the American Nazis in the cabal that Lois uncovers are Senator Barrows and weapons manufacturer Emil Norvell, both of whom were corrupt officials used as villains in the first two issues of Action Comics. They weren’t explicitly fascist in those issues, just corrupt and willing to profit off wars, but it isn’t much of a leap.
- Sure would be nice if this story had a title other than Man of Steel #80, but unless the “Another Daring Adventure of Superman” on the fist page is intended as a title, there’s not one.