Superman Plays Football is about as strange a turn from the polemical socialist action of the first three issues as the title would suggest. Clearly, the title was still finding its feet, trying to branch out into different kinds of narratives and seeing what works. A lot of these early stories are great, but this one never quite gelled for me.
There’s still an aspect of corruption here, as the opposing football team hires thugs to take out star players, but it’s pretty cartoonish and not particularly interesting. Superman’s approach to solving this is also pretty baffling in general. He disguises himself as substitute player Tommy Burke, drugging him and kidnapping him in order to take his place and foil the scheme by winning the football game. In the end, Burke is fine with it because it makes him famous, and it sidesteps what could've been an interesting ethical dilemma.
Siegel and Shuster's Superman is rash, violent, and chaotic, but everything he does is presented, unambiguously, as morally correct. He is an Ubermensch in both body and soul. This is another story without Lois as well, which is really starting to stick out, especially since when she does show up she’s one of the strongest female characters in this era of comics. Tommy’s girlfriend is the female lead, and she’s a shallow nothing of a character. Superman just running through tackles makes for good physical comedy, and all the odd creative choices keep it from being boring, but there’s really not a lot here. The book definitely needed to try new things to keep itself fresh month to month, but this one just doesn’t work.
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