The Fortress at 50: A Man of Varied Interests

Celebrating 50 YEARS of Superman's
Fortress of Solitude

Part of Superman's motivation in building the Fortress of Solitude was for it to be a temporary refuge from his enormous responsibilities....where he could engage in various hobbies and activities free from the demands of his frantic schedule.  In short, it was a place for him to enjoy a little "me time" (as our Oprah-fied society might put it).

So...what did he do when he visited that icy clubhouse of his?

...and you know, nothing quite relaxes a guy more than watching a
simulation of his native world exploding over and over and over again.

Comments

[John Trumbull]

Your posts made me read through my Fortress of Solitude tabloid last night, and yeah, the exploding Krypton video on perpetual loop is pretty creepy. It's like Bruce Wayne continually watching footage of his parents getting shot.

Actually, on second thought, Bruce would probably do that if he could. Sicko.

[Captain Average]

I heard that the Playboy mansion has a lot of the same ameninties.Is anything normal-sized?It's either shrunken cities or giant robots! Sheez!
Other thoughts:
Bowling Superman has a nifty hook on his ball.It actually rolls and rises in the air, although I don't know why that would be better.
Does he feed Garganto sugar cubes or prehistoric carrots?
If those are wax figures, what's in those little panels he opens?
I don't care if he is Superman, he can't get any detail with that huge paintbrush.
I love that he's actually in a wrestling ring with that robot. Does he use a giant folding chair to cheat?
A regulation chessboard's not good enough for Supes.It has to be Giant!
Krypton:If the Kent farm got plowed under, would he take pictures? Weirdo.

[Hube]

Dude -- thanks for making me spit up my morning coffee laughing!!

[Mark Engblom]

"and yeah, the exploding Krypton video on perpetual loop is pretty creepy...

A big part of the creepy factor is the work Superman went through to set up the 3-D loop. You'll note that Superman "overtook the light rays emanating from Krypton" and used them to create the explosion loop...which is an incredible amount of work to pour into something so emotionally painful. Oh...and how about Superman's assessment that it no longer tortures him to look at it? Nice!

[Mark Engblom]

"I heard that the Playboy mansion has a lot of the same ameninties."

Well, after a quick Google search, the Playboy Mansion didn't get started until 1959, so the Fortress beat it by a year....so maybe Hugh got some of his ideas for Bunny Central from Superman's swingin' super-bachelor pad.

"Is anything normal-sized? It's either shrunken cities or giant robots! Sheez!"

Yeah, like I noted in Wednesday's post, Superman likes to do things in a BIG way. Or, more accurately, an enjoyment of making himself seem small....which seems like a rich source for psychological analysis.

"Bowling Superman has a nifty hook on his ball.It actually rolls and rises in the air, although I don't know why that would be better."

Also...is it REALLY that "super" to use 100 pins instead of 10? Is there a "sweet spot" to hit a triangular formation of a 100 pins like there is for 10?

"Does he feed Garganto sugar cubes or prehistoric carrots?"

Considering Garganto was never seen again, I'm guessing he didn't feed him anything.

"If those are wax figures, what's in those little panels he opens?"

Those are special security features Superman built into the figures, so if an unauthorized person was able to get into the Fortress, the security sensors would be triggered and blow the statues to smithereens to protect the secret identities of his friends (since Superman was such a stickler for labeling). More on that tomorrow!

"I don't care if he is Superman, he can't get any detail with that huge paintbrush."

What, is that the Grinch clawing his way out of the Martian soil?

"I love that he's actually in a wrestling ring with that robot. Does he use a giant folding chair to cheat?"

No, but he created a robot version of Mean Gene Okerlund to interview him so Superman could look into the camera and trash talk the atomic robot.

"A regulation chessboard's not good enough for Supes.It has to be Giant!"

Yup...again with the giant stuff. By the way, I wonder what the Fortress toilet looks like? (or maybe he just uses the Atomic Disintegrator Pit)

"Krypton:If the Kent farm got plowed under, would he take pictures? Weirdo."

I think we all know the answer to your question, though we dare not speak it.

[John Nowak]

I like the little periscope his Kryptonite Suit has.

Off topic but kind of cool: in the original radio show, they stated that Krypton was "counter-Earth" -- in our solar system on the far side of the sun.

[Mark Engblom]

"Dude -- thanks for making me spit up my morning coffee laughing!!"

We aim to please here at Comic Coverage, Hube!

[Mark Engblom]

"Off topic but kind of cool: in the original radio show, they stated that Krypton was "counter-Earth" -- in our solar system on the far side of the sun."

Yeah, that's right! I also recall that instead of landing as a baby, Superman landed in his rocket fully grown and wearing his costume...and just casually and randomly decided to adopt the identity of "Clark Kent". Very, very strange. Probably the first "botched" adaptation of a comic book character in pop cultural history.

[Hube]

The "Monitor Stuff" just kills me. I especially like how a "Daily Planet Emergency" could be even remotely as dire as "White House Emergency" (meaning a dire national/international problem), "Kandor Emergency" (a whole city), and especially "Interplanetary Emergency" (speaks for itself).

What does it mean when the "Daily Planet Emergency" light goes off? One of the gears on the presses busted off? A paperboy's bicycle tire got a flat? A corner newspaper kiosk got broken into?

[Mark Engblom]

"What does it mean when the "Daily Planet Emergency" light goes off? One of the gears on the presses busted off? A paperboy's bicycle tire got a flat? A corner newspaper kiosk got broken into?"

I think it was when Jimmy mistakenly called Perry White "Chief", requiring Superman's intervention to save Jimmy from Perry's desk-overturning rampages....or perhaps Lois cooking up another zany marriage scheme.

Yeah...you'd think he'd have a monitor buzzer for "Metropolis" in general (since it is kind of his "home turf"), but "Daily Planet" specifically? It's a mystery.

Speaking of Superman's bizarre doting on the Daily Planet gang, it kind of reminds me of that scene in "Superman: The Movie" where Lex Luthor reveals his nuclear missile plot to a helpless Superman (wearing the Kryptonite necklace while treading water). Superman's reaction to the untold death and destruction the missiles would cause?

"But, Lois....Jimmy!"

Yeah, Superman....Lois and Jimmy....and millions of other people, too!

[Chris]

What's the point of making four statues showing Bruce Wayne and "Bruce Wayne's Secret"? Is that in case someone wipes his mind or something? Couldn't he write it down instead of spending an hour to make up four different statues out of wax?

And I doubt that it'd go over well with Batman that Supes casually made up wax figures with cards saying, "Bruce Wayne's Secret" on them-especially since any one of the dozens of people that have either deliberately or accidentally made their way into the Fortress of Solitude could see the things.

[ShadowWing Tronix]

"Yeah, like I noted in Wednesday's post, Superman likes to do things in a BIG way. Or, more accurately, an enjoyment of making himself seem small....which seems like a rich source for psychological analysis."

Somebody cue up Five For Fighting's "Superman" song.

[Mark Engblom]

"What's the point of making four statues showing Bruce Wayne and "Bruce Wayne's Secret"? Is that in case someone wipes his mind or something? Couldn't he write it down instead of spending an hour to make up four different statues out of wax?"

I'll be exploring some of those questions in tomorrow's post...not that I'll actually be supplying any answers to those questions...but I'll explore them nonetheless. The more time I've spend poking around the Fortress of Solitude, the more I realize Superman had a serious screw loose....which you'll see tomorrow.

[Pat Curley]

The radio program had him getting named by a boy whom he had saved from a trolley car crash in Indiana. Of course, it also gave us quite a bit of the Superman legend as we know it; Perry White, the Daily Planet, Jimmy Olsen, Kryptonite, teamups with Batman and Robin....

[Greg Walter]

I am really enjoying the Fortress series. It makes me wonder about alternate-world Fortresses. I think the Red Son one was somewhat spooky with the reprogrammed criminals as Superman-robots. I think. Don't have it handy.

[Mark Engblom]

Hi Greg! Glad to hear you're enjoying the series. It's quite a bit more work than I usually do (at least this many days in a row), but it's truly a labor of love when it comes to a nifty old concept like the Fortress. When it dawned on me that its 50th anniversary was right about NOW, I realized I had to pull out all the stops and do something special.

Hmmm...your comment on alternate fortresses in intriguing. I can recall a few offhand, such as Bizarro's comically pathetic fortress on Bizarro World.