Hey, Gang. I recently bought Superman #165 (Nov. 1963) to get an AR Saturn Woman/Proty II cameo and was blown away by the backup story.
In the story, Superman loses both his powers and his memory due to red K. It's a special kind of red K that lasts weeks instead of 2 days. During this time, he adopts a new identity, Jim White, and falls in love with a woman, whose initials suprisingly are NOT LL, but rather, SS (though she does have the double L in her first name, Sally).
Jim and Sally become engaged, but before they can be married, "Jim" is thrown by a horse, breaks his neck, and is paralyzed! He tells Sally to move on with her life and forget about him, but she refuses and remains by his side. Later "Jim" falls into a river, apparently drowns and is presumed dead.
Later, Superman gets his memories and powers back, but has no recollection of what happend while he had amnesia. At the end of the story he is shown musing about wanting to find a woman who will love him for himself and not be dazzled by his fame and powers, while simultaneously, Sally is shown vowing to love him forever (as Dana Reeves did at Christopher's memorial service, FYI).
Both the splash page blurb and the editor's note at the end of the story proclaim this to be "The Most Ironic Superman Story Ever Told!"
Posted by Stratum on :
Wow. Just wow.
That is...wow.
Jamie
Posted by Lightning Lad on :
I just recently purchased the Go Foward dogtags from the Christopher Reeve Foundation. I got a chill reading the synopsis you provided, Jim, while looking at my keychain and one of the tags. Posted by jimgallagher on :
I forgot to mention. At one point in the story Sally tells "Jim" not to lose hope because a certain surgeon may be able to give him a 50/50 chance of regaining the use of his body.
Posted by Valor1 on :
Thanks for posting this Jim, I have to check my collection - I am sure I have this issue ... somewhere.
Posted by Omni Craig on :
I'm glad you pointed this out Jim. I just reread this classic in the past month or so, and I completely missed the comparison I'm ashamed to say.
Now I have to go reread it again, with new eyes!
Posted by jimgallagher on :
This story was on my mind lately, so I thought I'd bump it up. It still amazes me how life imitates art sometimes.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
I missed this thread the first time around. Wow...pretty amazing. I think I have the issue at my Dad's house (his comic)...I'll have to go and grab it to read it first hand.
Glad you bumped this Jim.
Posted by Ultra Jorge on :
Damn it nearly gave me goose bumps as well. Poor Sally.
![[Shudder]](graemlins/shudder.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)