Episode #82: An Imaginary Summer 2009 Part II: Superman's Other Life!

Superman's Other Life appeared in Superman #132, October 1959, published on August 6, 1959. Mort Weisinger was the editor, and the cover was drawn by Curt Swan and inked by Stan Kaye. Otto Binder wrote this story, which was pencilled by Wayne Boring and inked by Stan Kaye. This story was a full length tale, in an era when many comic book titles carried several unrelated stories, even about the title character. It was reprinted in The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, Superman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, vol. II and Showcase Presents: Superman vol. I.

Batman and Robin went to Superman's Fortress Of Solitude to show their appreciation to the Man of Steel for rescuing them from a criminal's trap during the previous week. They show their appreciation in a very unusual way. They use some photographs Superman had somehow made of Krypton from the light that had reflected from the planet before it exploded, and scan them into Superman's Univac computer. They programmed it to show what Superman's life would have been like if Krypton had not exploded, in an audio-visual, almost Second Life presentation.

In this unusual imaginary story Kal-El (Superman's Kryptonian name) got a baby brother from his parents. Kal-El grew up to become a Space Patrol officer, but instead of his desired job as a patrolman, he is designated as a dispatcher. Ironically the Space Patrol uniform is an exact copy of his Superman costume. Krypton got its own super hero in the form of Futuro, who received his powers in a lab accident. Kal-El even dressed in his Clark Kent suit for a costume ball on Krypton, from his study of Earth with kryptonian telescopes.

Lois Lane even made an appearance, up to her old tricks to deliver another scoop to the Daily Planet newspaper. She was a stowaway on an Earth rocket that landed on Krypton. Her preference for super powered men is also explored when she fell in love with Futuro, who was equally smitten with her. He decides to return to Earth with her, where he would still have super powers. Futuro did not leave Krypton without a protector, but exposes Kal-El to the same equipment that gave him superpowers, which also made Kal-El's Spaceman uniform indestructible. And so Kal-El became the Superman of Krypton.

Superman Fan Podcast can be found at http://supermanfanpodcast.mypodcast.com/ , http://www.gcast.com/u/Billy_H80/http_supermanfanpodcast_gcast_com_rss_xml.xml , http://archive.org/ and most other podcast aggregaters. Send e-mail to supermanfanpodcast@gmail.com . The podcast theme is Plans In Motion composed by Kevin MacLeod, part of the royalty free music library of http://incompetech.com/ .

My Pull List is my spoiler free comic book review blog of the titles I read every week. It can be found at http://mypulllist.blogspot.com/ . Send e-mail about this blog to mypulllist@gmail.com .

Superman and all related characters are trademark and copyright DC Comics.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Superman Fan Podcast and, as always, thanks to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.