Superman (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1959.
Synopsis for "Superman versus the Futuremen"
One day in Washington, D.C. at FBI headquarters, two FBI agents are startled by the appearance of a strange ship in their office. Emerging from the craft are two men claiming to be from the year 2000, and that they are part of the Earth Bureau of Investigation (or EBI for short.) They claim that Superman is really a criminal named Shark, who came from their time, stole a potion that gave super powers and escaped into the past, and that they have come seeking the criminal's arrest. Their initial encounter with Superman leads to the Man of Steel fleeing them, and escaping to his Fortress of Solitude. Believing he may be captured by the EBI and taken back to the future, Superman records a tell-all tape about his true origins and trusts it to Perry White, who promises to only listen to it should Superman be arrested and taken to the distant future. The EBI agents get a hold of a special form of Red Kryptonite that will destabilize Superman's powers, making him appear as though he's a menace, before his powers are nullified for two hours. This leads to Superman's powers going berserk, and then Superman eventually becoming powerless. Now powerless, Superman is easily captured and taken to the future, where he is supposedly to be put on trail.
However, it turns out that the Futuremen are really criminals themselves, and after immobilizing Superman and hiding him in plain sight at the Superman museum, they smuggle him off Earth and take him to the asteroid belt. Superman soon learns that Earth, in this future, is experiencing a water shortage, and plans are in motion to use one of Saturn's moons -- which is a large chunk of ice -- to create more water for the planet. The crooks demand that Superman take control of the moon so that they can ransom it off for a large sum of money. When Superman refuses, they seal him in a cage made out of Red Kryptonite and demand that he do so, lest they use an atomic weapon on the 1959 Earth, to put it in the same drought condition as the Earth of the year 2000.
Superman uses his x-ray vision to blast a passing asteroid causing it to smash open his cage, freeing him. He then goes after the Futuremen and easily takes them into custody, turning them over to the future Earth authorities. He then brings the Saturnian Moon to Earth and replenishes the planet's water supply. The authorities on Earth give Superman documents citing that he was framed and allow him to return to his own time. Superman returns to the present and manages to get to the Daily Planet, destroying the tape confessing his secret identity before Perry White and Lois Lane can learn it.
Appearing in "Superman versus the Futuremen"
Featured Characters:
- Superman (Flashback and main story)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Earth Bureau of Investigation (EBI)
- Futuremen
- Boka
- Vard
Other Characters:
- Jonathan Kent (Flashback only)
- Martha Kent (Flashback only)
- Superboy (Flashback only)
Locations:
- Earth-One (1959, 2000)
- Earth (Flashback and main story)
- Fortress of Solitude
- United States of America
- Metropolis
- Smallville (Flashback only)
- Kent Farm (Flashback only)
- Washington, D.C.
- Asteroid Belt
- Krypton (Flashback only)
- Earth (Flashback and main story)
Items:
Vehicles:
- Kryptonian Rocket (Flashback only)
Concepts:
Synopsis for "The Sleeping Beauty from Krypton!"
Lois Lane is a contestant on the show "Bid the Price" and correctly appraises the value of a giant gong Superman once used on a Kryptonite robot constructed by Lex Luthor. As the winning contestant, Lois is gifted with props from the film "The Krypton Story" including a replica of the ship that brought Superman to Earth, a Kryptonian woman's outfit, a Kryptonian camera and slides with images from the film.
Lois gets the idea to try and use these items to trick Superman into revealing his secret identity. Putting on the costume and a blond wig, Lois tracks down Superman and convinces him that she's really Rama, his apparent babysitter from Krypton. Explaining that she was put in suspended animation and launched from Krypton before it exploded by his father, she explains that she passed through a cloud of Kryptonite dust that temporarily nullified her powers. Using the props that she won on the game show, Lois manages to fool Superman, who reveals his secret identity of Clark Kent. However, returning home, Superman realizes that he's been tricked because there would have been no way "Rama" would have learned that her powers were temporarily lost from Kryptonite if she was in suspended animation the whole time.
Learning that it was really Lois Lane hoaxing him, Superman then comes up with a way to "disprove" that he's really Clark Kent. The next day, Superman appears before Lois and tells her that he's in love with Rama and intends to marry her. Lois reveals to him that she is really Rama and that she knows his secret identity. When Clark Kent suddenly appears before both Lois and Superman, Lois is still not convinced. Believing that Clark is really one of Superman's robots, she has him stand in front of an x-ray, which proves that he's really a human. Next, convinced that Superman is truly the robot, she has the Man of Steel exposed to electromagnets, which yield no results. Once more convinced that Clark Kent and Superman are two different people, the flustered Lois realizes that it was all a hoax and that Superman trying to teach her a lesson. When Lois leaves, "Clark Kent" unmasks himself, and is revealed to be Superman's friend Bruce Wayne (AKA, Batman) who was called in to cover for him.
Appearing in "The Sleeping Beauty from Krypton!"
Featured Characters:
- Superman (Flashback and main story)
Supporting Characters:
- Lois Lane (First appearance as Rama) (Flashback and main story)
Antagonists:
- Lex Luthor (Mentioned only)
Other Characters:
- Bruce Wayne
- Kryptonians
- Grilling (On a TV or computer screen)
- House of El
- Spectrum People (On a TV or computer screen)
Locations:
- Earth-One
- Earth
- United States of America
- Gotham City (Mentioned only)
- Metropolis
- Daily Planet
- Metropolis Observatory
- Science Museum
- Superman Museum (Mentioned only)
- United States of America
- Krypton (Flashback only)
- Kryptonopolis (On a TV or computer screen)
- Krypton Zoo (On a TV or computer screen)
- Kryptonopolis (On a TV or computer screen)
- Earth
Items:
- Kryptonite Dust (Flashback only)
- Super-Robot (Mentioned only)
Vehicles:
- Kryptonian Rocket (Flashback and main story)
Notes
- "Superman versus the Futuremen" is a two-part story and is reprinted in Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Archives Vol. 2 and Showcase Presents: Superman Vol. 1.
- "Superman versus the Futuremen" attributed properties to red kryptonite never seen before or since: "Red Kryptonite that our scientists have discovered in the future! This freak variety will not kill Superman, but will cause him to lose his super-powers for two hours -- time enough for us to capture him!"
- "The Sleeping Beauty from Krypton!" is reprinted in Superman Annual #5, Superman: The Man of Tomorrow Archives Vol. 2 and Showcase Presents: Superman Vol. 1.
- Issue includes a brief origin recap for Superman. Page is a swipe from Action Comics #1.
Trivia
- E. Nelson Bridwell called "Superman versus the Futuremen" "the last Earth-2 Superman story" something Bob Rozakis reiterated in the Daily Planet letter page.[1]
See Also
Recommended Reading
Links and References
- ↑ Vol 75 number 5 week of Feb 5, 1979