THE SHOWDOWN BETWEEN SUPERMAN AND LUTHOR (1963, FROM SUPERMAN #164 REPRINTED INSHOWCASE PRESENTS SUPERMANVOL. 4)

Today's re-read is a single 1963 issue of Superman. There are a number of Silver Age stories of the Man of Steel that I love - particularly those involving the variously crazy effects of Superman. They tend to be very weird indeed but often have plots that don't really stand up. It's a short 17 story written by the science fiction author, Edmond Hamilton with art by Curt Swan and George Klein. It's a classic story where the roles of hero and villain become reversed and Luthor shows himself to have a sense of humanity and sacrifices the possibility of defeating Superman in order to save the population of a desert planet.

Superman worries about people losing faith in him

Essentially, this is a Lex Luthor story. He challenges Superman to a fight on a world - "man-to-man" - where Superman's powers would be removed. Clark Kent decides to accept the challenge, believing that people would lose faith in him if he didn't. It's all very gentlemanly: Luthor and Superman meet to agree terms, take a rocket to a desert world and strip off to engage in bare-knuckled boxing. In the fight, Superman takes a black eye but decks Luthor who then disappears leaving Superman to cope with a fast-growing cacti forest. Superman has flashbacks to life on Krypton and gets disoriented in a sandstorm.

Luthor discovers a city under attack by giant birds and acts to save the city's population. The people see Luthor then as their saviour and convince him to help them search for water (they are on the brink of extinction). They see Superman as the villain and Luthor - in a role reversal - ensures that Superman is treated fairly.

Superman and Luthor strip down and grapple with each other

The portrayal of Luthor by Hamilton is far more nuanced than we come to expect from this period. He's no moustache-twisting flat character, instead he's more a proud scientist who simply wants to receive recognition for helping people. Luthor's villainy is shown as a product of being in Superman's shadow. Throughout, we read Luthor's thoughts in speech bubbles where he tries to convince himself that he's simply acting to win over the people of the desert planet in order to defeat Superman. The duel continues with Luthor using the ancient forgotten technology of the planet - an anti-gravity tornado and an automaton bloodhound - until Luthor actually fakes his defeat in order for Superman to travel to an ice planet in order to send water to the desert planet. When Superman calls Luthor out about taking the fall, Luthor denies it - but thinks: "He huessed my motive in losing the duel... but I'll never admit to him I went soft!" (Interestingly, there's a panel where Superman is shown to behave churlishly when he tells Luthor he would help the desert people "...even if they did think me a villain.").

A confused Superman thinks he's home

Superman appears in this far less one-dimensional than he appears in a lot of Silver Age adventures. He almost seems neurotic in much of the narrative: acutely worried what others think of him, pretty useless at fighting, completely disoriented for much of the time, pre-occupied with his loss of his home planet and distressed when he is considered the villain. I'll skip over the homoerotic overtones of the topless fight with Luthor. It's interesting to consider what sort of character Kal-El/Clark Kent would be long term without his powers. Certainly, he's pretty smug when he's invulnerable.

Even though this could be seen as a slight Superman story, it has all the elements of a classic tale: the rivalry with Luthor, the trope of a weakened hero, space action plus the presence of Krypton hanging over Superman's life.

Luthor can't open up to Superman

The artwork retains the fifties, George Reeves, physical depiction of Superman. To me he looks like he's a broad, well-built man about 45. He looks like a beefy John Hamm here. Panelling and artwork - which I do like a great deal - is conventional and really of the period. There's no sense yet of anything edgy or weird.