This is part of an ongoing series where I review Golden Age Superman, weekly, issue by issue, starting from the very beginning.
Though many of these early stories deal with serious themes and political ideas, at the end of the day Superman is still very much a comic book, with lots of silliness, one-liners, and slapstick. Superman: Wanted is the most overtly comedic story in the book this far, centering on two egotistical, brash, and somewhat incompetent detectives who compete to catch Superman for a 5000$ ($109,960.79 adjusted for inflation) reward. On the one side, there is Detective Captain “100%” Reilly, a Chicago detective sent to deal with Superman after the slums demolition last issue (in a nice bit of continuity), who has “been assigned to track down 800 men… and today, all 800 of those men are in prison”, and sets the reward in order to get more information on Superman before claiming it for himself. On the other side there is amateur detective Mortimer Snoop, who also wants the reward. He is by far the cartooniest character in the series up to this point, complete with a checkered jacket and a bowtie. It’s a great cartoon name, too.
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| This unnamed police officer has the same outfit as Snoop for some reason |
It's also another issue allegedly ghost-drawn by Wayne Boring. At this point, Siegel and Shuster were putting out a 13 page Action Comics story every month, as well as stories for Slam Bradley and Spy in Detective Comics, Radio Squad in New Fun Comics, and the daily Superman newspaper strip. It's clearly too much output for one artist, so the ghost-artist setup would make sense. Again, it's not something I have enough expertise to really break down in depth, but here are some of the other ghost-artists working for the studio in the late 1930s and early 40s: Paul Cassidy (1938-1940), who later added the 'S' symbol to Superman's cape, Leo Novak (1940-1943), who was the first to depict Lex Luthor as a bald man, John Sikela, who joined in 1940 and would go on to be a lead artist on Superboy, inker Ed Dobrotka, who co-created the villain Toyman for Action Comics #64, 15 year-old Hi Mankin, and inker Paul J Lauretta (Lambiek Encyclopedia). More would join during the war, particularly once Shuster got drafted in 1943 (Siegel was considered unfit due to his failing eyesight), but that's a topic for another day. Anyway, that's all the ghost-drawing I will be covering in this series for a while.
This issue marks another first for the book, and likely for the genre in general: the secret identity drama. In trying to catch Superman, the detectives inevitably stumble on the fact that Superman has an alter ego, and try to track down the man behind the suit in order to make their case easier. The first time they see Superman in action is when a mental patient attempts suicide. It’s laid on really thick, referring to the man as a “lunatic”, “demented man”, and “maniac”, but it’s mostly there as an inciting incident rather than to explore anything to do with mental health. After catching the man, Superman shunts him onto an orderly at the hospital, in a hilariously callous scene that’s very much in keeping with early Superman’s characterisation.
During all this, Snoop and Reilly are waiting near the spot where Clark deposited his clothes, to see when Superman comes back for them. The two detective try to trick each other by pretending to leave, but by the time they both come back Clark has already swooped in and taken the clothes. However, Snoop managed to grab a note from Clark’s pocket, indicating where he’s going to be that night: the Duncan reception (good thing Clark doesn’t write “property of Clark Kent” on his suits). At the reception, the detective start to search everyone, which is bad news for Clark, as he’s wearing his costume under his suit. Despite the general light tone here, this sequence is actually quite tense, and the sell Clark's genuine fear of being outed really well. However, Reilly’s refusal to cut Snoop in on the reward leads the amateur reporter to turn off the lights, allowing Clark to change in the dark and easily defeat them both. In a rather abrupt ending, Reilly returns to Chicago in disgrace, now called “99% Reilly” in the headlines. However, the police still considers Superman a fugitive. He doesn’t clear his name or get the case against him thrown out, the police are just unable to catch him and don’t discover his secret identity. It’s a weak status quo ending to an otherwise strong, fresh story that continues to build the foundations of the genre that are still in place over eighty years later.
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