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Superman in Crisis

SiC 17 — The Enemy Within (05:30:1985)

Reviewing Action Comics 570 (1:26) and World’s Finest Comics 318 (21:29) before responding to your feedback (38:49)!

2 replies on “SiC 17 — The Enemy Within (05:30:1985)”

Both “Alter Ego” and “The Superman Who Came to Dinner” were, as you point out, kind of “lightweight” stories of not much consequence, but at least “The Superman Who Came to Dinner” had a bit of an advantage in being slightly humorous. The “Alter Ego” story really leaned into the idea that Jimmy was normally “full of himself”, which I don’t think had been very well established as his character in previous stories. He had certainly grown in self-confidence since his days as a goofy cub reporter who would drink any random serum or potion that someone put into his line of sight, but I wouldn’t say he was egotistical. Maybe others would read some of his more recent exploits that way, though, I guess.
The World’s Finest story, “Lonely in a Crowd” was almost reminiscent of the earlier days of “World’s Best” and “World’s Finest” comics, in which Superman and Batman were in the same book, but with separate adventures. That doesn’t make it a bad comic, just a bit unusual for the times, and, honestly not all that unusual based on the issues previous to this one, where Superman and Batman didn’t seem to interact much, even when they were working on the same “cases”.
I’m looking forward to getting back to “Crisis” soon, because I find myself oddly engaged in the series, much more than when it was originally published, and that’s mainly due to your coverage, so thank you for that.

After some continued bingeing, I have caught up with the podcast, and can now comment in real time! I’m sure you’re delighted! 🙂

I agree with you that the “Alter Ego” story really does sound like something you might find in “Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen.” Those sort of weird things don’t seem to happen to Jimmy anymore these days. It’s too bad, really. I also agree with you that both stories feel a little inconsequential, but I think that’s okay. Sometimes I feel like we’ve forgotten, in the era of big comic events, that not every issue has to be of huge significance. There’s nothing wrong with telling a story that just keeps you entertained for a little while. That’s a perfectly worthwhile goal.

I was interested to see that Inspector Henderson was part of the comics in this era. Of course I remember him from the George Reeves TV show, and I did know that he appeared in some of the post-Crisis Superman comics. I didn’t realize that he had been there before the Crisis as well. Just for completion, Henderson also appeared in a few episodes of “Lois and Clark,” the 90s TV series with Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. He was played there by Richard Belzer, who was basically doing a variation on his “Homicide” and “Law and Order” character.

In the big feedback episode, you mentioned that you remembered my name from Crisis to Crisis. I’m afraid that you must have me confused with someone else, because I’ve never listened to that podcast. I keep meaning to, but there are a lot of comics podcasts out there, and only so many hours in the day! You might have seen my name in the comments on some of Rob Kelly’s podcasts over at the Fire and Water Network, however. Anyway, no harm done, but I did want to set the record straight!

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