An (Interplanetary) Olympic Moment

As the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics get underway, how about a look at Superman's stint as an athlete in the Interplanetary Olympics?  

Way back in Action Comics #304 (1963), Superman and Lana Lang were transported to the planet Vorn by a scientist named Rogan (no relation to Seth). Rogan explained that Superman was selected to compete against other super-strongmen from across the galaxy. The prize? A jewel-like crystal ball of unlimited energy for the winner's home planet.

At Lana Lang's urging, a reluctant Superman took his place in the opening ceremony alongside Borko of Gorn and Boscar of Krag...

 

(click on the panels for a larger view)

First up was the Super-Bowling event, which involved hurling a massive boulder into a grove of "metal-trees". Following the impressive performances of Borko and Boscar, it was then Superman's turn to bowl...

After enduring a round of sarcasm from Rogan and dismay from Lana, Superman proceeded to the next event: the Obstacle Swimming Race! In a gigantic pool stocked with alien creatures, Borko and Boscar simultaneously swam and smashed monsters until they successfully reached the other side. How did Superman fare?...

After still more recriminations and excuses, the humbled Man of Steel tried his hand at the Super-Javelin Throw...

Following yet another miserable performance, Superman was disqualified and sent back to Earth in disgrace amid a chorus of boos and jeers from the spectators. 

However, upon returning to his Fortress of Solitude, Superman revealed to a tearful (and astonishingly tiny-waisted) Lana that the Interplanetary Olympics were actually fixed and part of a larger criminal scheme to steal his power!

Tuning in the planet Vorn on his Fortress viewscreen, Superman exposed the plan of Rogan and his criminal band (using one of the most long-winded word balloons in comic book history)...

So there you have it.  Superman wasn't a super-failure after all, to the relief of Lana Lang and Superman fans everywhere...

OLYMPIC UPDATE: Obviously, the Interplanetary Olympic Games turned Borko and Boscar from competitors to friends...very special friends.

Comments

[buttler]

It's funny, that's exactly the pep talk I always gave myself growing up. "Maybe that girl laughed at you when you asked her out, but you're still earth's super-champion!"

[Brian]

Cool! And let's not forget this! Apparently, it was supposed to be a tie-in for the 1980 Olympics, but when the U.S. pulled out, it was shelved, then reworked and published as a miniseries.

[Mark Engblom]

Ah, the Contest of Champions! Yes, that definitely had an Olympic flair to it. I had toyed with covering it during the Olympics, but decided against it (not a whole lot of Olympic-like events....just brawling). But....it had a custom-built stadium!

[SLK]

Thanks for another great column, Mark. I've never read this story but after reading your synopsis, I will look for it. It is probably explained in the story itself, but one thing that strikes me as unusual here is Lana's featured presence, instead of good ol' Lois.

[Michael Rebain]

This was the first issue of Action Comics I ever bought (and the second "Superman" comic I read) when I was seven. I remember it fondly and recall trying to assimilate all the concepts featured in a typical one-off Silver Age Weisinger edited story, including this Lana Lang person (since I was fairly well informed about all the characters from the TV show, but she was never featured there) and Supergirl, who was the back-up feature.

Great Swan art as well.

[Pat Curley]

SLK, a mysterious beam carried Lana (in her TV news helicopter) and Superman to the planet where the Olympics were being held. Although it is never discussed in the story, I guess the idea was that Lana could report to Earth the result. Oddly, she never bothers to film anything (not much of a TV newser).

Basically her function seems to be giving various expressions of dismay as Superman fails. There were lots of other Olympic tie-ins by DC during the Silver Age; I feel a post coming on!

[Pat Curley]

BTW, Mark, the story is a wholesale swipe from Action #220, with only some name changes. The similarities include the power crystal trophy, the mysterious ray pulling Superman into space, the fact that Superman fails at each competition, etc.

The main difference is the ending; it turns out that Brunno, the winner of each event, was a robot being controlled by crooks who want the power crystal, and that the reason for Superman's ineffective performance was a piece of Kryptonite in the stadium.

[Mark Engblom]

"Oddly, she never bothers to film anything (not much of a TV newser)."

Check out the panel of the opening ceremony above. It looks like she's filming the procession...but that's about it. She's just too distraught for the remainder of the story to film anything else.

As for Action #220, I saw that during my little stroll through Superman covers and figured it was an earlier version of the story. As you know, this sort of thing happened often, especially in the era before big time comic book collecting, when there was almost no way kids would have ever seen the previous versions of the stories.

[SLK]

Thanks for the explanation about how Lana gets involved, Mark (I agree Lana was probably used because of her TV news job and the idea that she could film Supes).

Even so, it's kind of surprising because I don't think the adult Lana was ever really featured too much(sans Lois)in Superman or Action; the grown-up Lana Lang was basically used as a supporting character in Lois'comic. Nice to see Lana on her own here.

And it was interesting to see the adult Lana drawn by someone other Schaffenberger!

[Pat Curley]

Ah, good catch, Mark.

On the swipes, supposedly Weissinger figured that if it was six years old or more, nobody would have read it.

The odd part is the timing; why were they running an Olympics story in 1963 anyway? The earlier story was published in 1956, an Olympic year, and would have been on the newstands during the Summer Games.

[Silver-Chef]

Uh...I'm from Pittsburgh and a Steeler fan. I just want to know why Boscar is a deadringer for Hines Ward with a fake mustache !!!