Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "dailies"

Superman: The Dailies, 1941-1942 by Jerry Siegel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the last of the golden age Superman daily strip books and I'm sorry to see them end.

The bulk of this book is consumed by the Scientists of Sudden Death who set out to kill Superman in order to collect a million dollar award from a group of criminals. Among the group is a fairly complex character named Lil Danvers (nicknamed the Blonde Tigress.) She sets out to kill Superman because she believes Superman to be guilty of murdering her father.

The plots really are testing the limits of the Man of Steel. We see a lot of death rays and even a duplicate Superman. Poor Lois Lane is the scientists' favorite designated hostage and Superman's chief challenge is to foil their trap while still managing to save Lois. However, Lois does emerge from the shadow and get to the bottom of the murder Superman's been accused of by questioning a witness-at pistol point. Yes, indeed, this book features pistol packing Lois Lane. Love it!

My only complaint with the story arch was the end of Lil Danvers which seemed too pointless, but still not enough to ruin a story arch that ran for eight months.

The final story coincided with the release of the Max Fleischer Superman cartoons and it's a doozy. Someone's trying to sabotage the new Superman movie and the producer of the film notices that Clark Kent has a resemblance to the Man of Steel and hires him to act in the picture. So Superman has to make the movie, catch the bad guys, and avoid Lois Lane seeing him dressed as Superman lest she learn the truth. This was just a really fun serial.

I have to say I wish the other 25 years of the Newspaper strip were made available. Clearly, the newspaper strips offered a wonderful way to experience Superman adventures different from other mediums such as radio. There's still the Sunday strips (which are in a separate volume)but it's hard to imagine they'll be as fun as these dailies.



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