Despite the title, SHOWCASE PRESENTS SUPERMAN FAMILY: VOLUME 1 is not a collection of the SUPERMAN FAMILY comic book series, but actually the first 21 issues of the 1950s title SUPERMAN’S PAL JIMMY OLSEN. No offense to the red-haired, cheek-freckled, bow-tied cub reporter of The Daily Planet, but the name-fudging was a wise marketing move on DC Comics’ part.

From page 2, the tone of the entire thing is set as Jimmy finds himself in an embarrassing pratfall (”That ice cream in my eyes – it’s made me lose control!”) worthy of Charlie Chaplin. Er, make that Tony Danza. Oh, that Jimmy! What will he do next? Substitute as a circus clown? Become invisible? Visit a dinosaur island? Go undercover as a hobo? Think he’s a merman? This is a book that – a thousand times over – answers “Yes!”

Of course, part of the fun is how dated these G-rated comics are. Especially when things that meant nothing then strike today’s reader as somewhat curious, like:
• Jimmy taking a puff of the “royal hookah pipe” when’s named king for a day.
• Jimmy convincing some teens that they’re having “loco weed hallucinations.”
• Jimmy getting amnesia and thinking his name is “Dick Hunter.” (This is followed by a story in which Jimmy is stripped to his underwear by a pack of monkeys.)

Given Jimmy’s willingness to take on mob guys and other assorted lowlifes, he’s either got balls of steel or cursed with brazen naivete. I’m going for the latter, since regular he-men don’t go around dropping “super-duper” and “swell” into their everyday vernacular, nor have their entire apartment turned into a shrine to Supes. You’d think Superman would have better things to do (like saving people) than help Jimmy brush up on his marble skills and act as his personal chauffeur everytime he’s signaled by Jimmy’s special wristwatch.

Then again, in three separate stories, Superman gets choked up when his friendship with Jimmy appears to be over. But they always make up with such eyebrow-raising exchanges such as: “Gosh, I’m glad I’m not really ‘allergic’ to you, Superman!” “So am I, Jimmy! All the gold on earth isn’t equal to our ‘golden’ friendship!” Yes, that’s one unusually close relationship – “a little too close, if you ask me!” says Lois Lane.

With its cornball humor and squeaky-clean demeanor, who exactly was the target here? Kids who found ACTION COMICS too intellectually challenging? That would account for the momentary and awfully specific time slip that turns Superman into Superbaby (”Me save you from bad mans!”). And speaking of Miss Lane, that bitch gets showcased in four stories of her own to close out this collection, including her first-ever solo appearance from 1944, which ends with her being told, “The next time I commit suicide, it’s going to be over you!”

Until future volumes include the Bottle City of Kandor, SUPERMAN FAMILY isn’t worth a round of hari-kari (at least not compared to other SHOWCASE volumes like JONAH HEX and HOUSE OF MYSTERY), but it’s worth at least a bite on the fleshy part of your hand, just enough to draw blood … something that certainly would make a puss like Olsen faint. –Rod Lott

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