Mr. and Mrs. Superman meet the Harlequin! Lois is captured by the super villainess, but she’s got bigger problems when the gang’s boss turns out to be The Sporstmaster! Will Green Lantern Alan Scott appear to help his JSA teammate? Chris and Cindy cover this exciting adventure from Superman Family #206 (April 1981)! Plus, YOUR listener feedback!
Subscribe via iTunes or Spotify.
This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK
- Visit our WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com/
- Like our FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork
- Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts
- Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts
- Email us at supermatespodcast@gmail.com
Clip credits:
“Mr. and Mrs. Superman” by Terry O’Malley, of Stop Calling Me Frank https://www.facebook.com/rockSCMF
Superman serial (1948) opening theme by Mischa Bakaleinikoff
Adventures of Superman (1952-1958) closing theme by Leon Klatzkin
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Excellent! A Mr & Mrs Superman story just in time to serve as an apéritif for the House of Franklinstein!
Can’t wait for the November show, which will be the digestif… that is the plan, right? Right?!
Seriously, though, loved the show as usual, as it seems like another fun story (seriously, you guys really need to use your powers to get us a nice little Mr. & Mrs. Superman tpb if nothing else). My only quibble would be that Superman should have shot Sportsmaster into the basket from the 3-point line.
Otherwise, I very much share your opinion on the Stargirl show (loved it so much), as well as the way Sportsmaster and Huntress were done kind of dirty.
And Cindy, yes, you and Chris have the same accent, but you make it sound so much more pleasant…
We’ll see how exahausted we are from HoF before deciding when M&MS (why do I suddenly have a sweet tooth?) will be back, but it will probably be before the end of the year.
I really hope we can manifest that trade paperback! I read your comment about our accents to Cindy, and you got a laugh from her.
1 man earth 2 superman was NOT carefull about his secret
2 is there some loophole we could use to hear why parry white never got permoted?
3 Wolverine not withstanding in any geek fight side with Roy. Did he create Wolverine? heavens no What he DID do was inspire my love of obcure 40s heroes. LOTS of whom died in failed Wolverine pitches. See? There is a conection!
4. Sure it’s BAD that infinte crisis killed earth 2 superman Remember the REALLY bad part? They just Left the body! How Many people are fighting over a dead kyption from another univrese
We’ll run out of JSA-connected stories soon, so at some point we may just shift to covering the series in general. Still thinking on that one.
I try not to think of Infinite Crisis.
that was my thing in the 90s find an awful story pitch a way to fix it! Leave no turd unpolished!
Please do, go back to the earlier stories – Superman was in the JSA, that’s all you need. You have to keep this show going at least until we get that DC finest collection of Mr. and Superman.
Also, I love it.
I used to actively avoid any Superman Family issue that had a Mr. & Mrs. segment, and this particular one just reaffirms the very low opinion Kid Me had of the feature. I hated these things on the few occasions I stumbled into one, and this was exceptionally bad. Such terrible writing, and even for its era the art was nothing to write home about.
The pointless inclusion of GL is particularly galling, since any halfway competent writer would have explained a sudden Superman appearance by having him alerted via Lois’ jewelry. She’s not wearing it, sure, but the story could have spared one panel showing Harlequin slipping the “signal ring” on her own finger and gloating over her loot. That would have opened the door for her own anxiety when Sportsmaster threatens her to unintentionally summon Superman – which also gives him a chance to boast about his super-speed letting him arrive in the nick of time. Ditch the idiotic “Cal” infiltration altogether (and why does he always disguise himself as a young Fidel Castro anyway?), get rid of the “secretly an agent of the law” nonsense so Harlequin remains a villain, and you can skip the sad, pointless GL appearance as well.
Still campy and full of coincidence, but the very worst elements of the story vanish and the reader can feel a little smart if they correctly guessed how the ring would play into the climax. Instead we get a reveal that feels like an utter cheat and a lame cameo and retcon that does nothing for the characters involved (and will be undone in the future). Sure, you might have to draw out the pacing on Sportsmaster’s threat a bit to give more narrative time for the “fear and anxiety” to take hold, but it must work pretty darn fast anyway for Lois and Clark to be so (over) confident about the ring as a safety measure. You have the page space to spare without the lame GL and Cal bits.
Pragmatically, I’m betting after this incident Lois is going to go to sleep some night and when she wakes up Clark will have surgically implanted a “panic gem” in her somewhere without her knowledge. Because whatever Earth you’re on, superdickery is a thing in this era. and treating your wife like you’re chipping a pet is definitely superdickery.
So, I take it you didn’t like the story? I couldn’t tell. 🙂
Agree to disagree on just about every point. I didn’t like the brief cameo by GL when he could have participated, but other than that, I had fun with this one.
Here on F&W our motto is “Find Your Joy”. We tend to not cover things that we don’t at least like in some way. We try not to podcast about stuff we actively hate. So, if you hate the feature, don’t expect us to join in on that bandwagon. If you want to listen, we’re more than happy to have you, but I just want to be clear we come from a place of love for these stories, warts and all.
Another great episode. I’m glad you’re hoping to do these on a quarterly-ish basis. I like the simplicity and fun of ENB’s stories here similar to his writing in the SuperFriends comic book series Rob covered.
You’re right that Superman’s reaction when the bullets are bouncing off his chest is reminiscent of how George Reeves reacted to bullets. I feel like the Earth-2 Superman’s powers in these stories are perhaps depicted as relatively modest in comparison to the Earth-1 Superman, similar to how the powers were limited in the George Reeves series in comparison to later depictions like the Christopher Reeve movies.
That’s so cool that you met Julius Schwartz. I think of him as being from a long-ago era and didn’t realize until looking it up that he lived until 2004, but I guess even that’s more than two decades ago now.
It’s great seeing images from the comic book, including the cover showing all the different segments of Superman Family. I remember buying some of these when I was getting into Superman comics as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s. I always thought the Earth-1 Lois looked stylish like she does on this cover.
ENB definitely knew how to write a contained short story with a satisfying beginning, middle and end. That’s a lost art nowadays in many mainstream comics, me thinks.
Earth-Two Superman’s power levels did seem to be a bit lower than his younger counterparts…unless they needed them to be equal, as in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
I’m glad Cindy and I hit those late 90s/early 2000s conventions and met some of the Golden/Silver Age creators that are no longer with us. I took it for granted at the time, but it was really quite a blessing.
Lois was quite the fashionista! The Bob Oksner art in those Earth-One Lois stories is top notch. As Shag would say, she’s hot!
Love Superman Family and love Mr And Mrs Superman. So glad to see more of this.
This was, for sure, my introduction of Harlequin and Sportsmaster. I love how ENB had a love for the corners of the DCU and made sure he shared it. He fed my love of Black Orchid by putting her in Super Friends.
And yes, there is a little ‘screwball comedy’ low undercurrent in all these stories. It’s charming. It isn’t too overt (like you said Supes never said ‘you got some ‘splaining to do’) but there are hijinks that make them fun.
Describing Schaffenberger/Adkins as ‘mac and cheese’ comfort food is perfect perfect.
(I will also say that the Supergirl story ended the long ‘Lesla Lar’ plot that had been bubbling in her section for months!)
This was one of the issues I didn’t buy off the stands, so I had to meet Sportsmaster in Best of DC Digest #21 (a JSA issue) via a reprint of B&B #62 where he and Huntress fight Starman and Black Canary. And nothing else ever came of those stories. NOTHING. 😉
I think I first met Harlequin in Who’s Who! I didn’t have access to a comic shop, so no Infinity, Inc. for me.
Thanks for letting us know what Supergirl was up to in the same issue!
I did’nt even know there was an earth 2 Parry white. The internet is baffling on subject and I simply must know more
The story of Clark becoming editor over Perry White (after Earth-Two’s George Taylor) was told in Superman Family #196 (July/Aug. 1979). He reappeared in issue #216 as well.
Mike’s Amazing World lists his ACTUAL Golden Age appearances, because of course, Superman’s printed history doesn’t jibe exactly with what was established as canon on Earth-Two. Perry was the editor for the Daily PLANET through most of the Golden Age as well as into the Silver Age and beyond.
https://www.mikesamazingworld.com/main/features/character.php?page=appearances&characterid=56
The Molly Mayne Harlequin brings back good memories from Infinity Inc. , one of my favorite series from back in the day. And it doesn’t get much better than Sportsmaster. He’s another long-time favorite and his portrayal on the Stargirl TV series was so well-done. In fact, I would argue that there has never been a better DC based live action TV show. I would never have believed in the mid-80s that Beth Chapel, Yolanda Montez, Rick Tyler, Jade, Obsidian, and Mr. Bones would be TV stars.
Superman’s disguise as “Cal” made me wonder if any version of the character has had a semi-regular alter ego like Batman has with Matches Malone.
Glad to see this show back!
Yeah, Stargirl was great. We really enjoyed it and miss it, but I’m kind of glad, like Superman & Lois, it never had the chance to get “bad”, and outlast it’s welcome.
Hmmm, has Superman had another alter-ego he used like Matches? I don’t know. I guess the future Superman in Batman Beyond’s time took another non-Clark Kent identity in the comics, didn’t he?
Any story with Molly makes me happy. Her pursuit of GL was just beyond cute in that romance book kinda way.
Her longing for Alan takes on new meaning with the modern retcon, doesn’t it? Poor Molly.
Ach, that’s a different Earth, this Molly is dragging a clean-shaven Alan off round the world on cruises. They’re good.
This is the first story I’ve heard with Molly
I have to ask did molly ever meet Harley Quinn ?
It seems like to me they would get along .
Great episode.
She may have, but not that I’m aware of. Anyone else know if Molly/Harlequin ever met Harley Quinn?
It would be really funny if Green Lantern had to save Lois this issue.
I picture Superman and Lois played by Chistopher Reeve and Teri Hatcher in these stories.
That would have been a fun switch up!
I can see those two in these stories. The screwball aspect matches the Lois & Clark vibe well.
Another delightful episode from a delightful podcaster (and her sidekick, Chris).
I would have first seen Harlequin in the story with the Injustice Society, mentioned several times, originally from All-Star #41. No, I did not have that issue, but I did have JLA #113 (the Sandy issue) which reprinted it. I devoured those 100 pagers and it really is where my love of DC history comes from. I had more of a memory of that story being the one where Dinah is inducted into the JSA.
Anyway, this story brings the I Love Lucy vibes for me, especially when Clark throws up his hands on the top of page 2. And Lois is just so cute and stylish drawn by war hero Kurt Schaffenberger.
Great stuff, although I will agree with you that they could (should) have used GL more.
Looking forward to the House of Franklinstein!
Man, I love those 100 pagers. I was lucky enough to buy a bunch of them, particularly Batman-related ones in the late 80s before the prices went nuts on them. So many great reprints! After my beloved digests had dried up, they reconnected me to DC history.
Honestly, these episodes are such a treat, I’ve likely mentioned previously that finding these dollar comics in the UK at the time was tough, but I did manage to get a fair few years later, and they were always the best thing in the book. Just looking at Kurt ‘s art makes me ridiculously happy, and Dan Adkins was a great inker for him. Pair them with Nelson, throw in an unexpected antagonist and we have pure joy. Thanks for sharing it.
Kurt’s art is pure comfort food for me, for sure. I have banged on about this many times, but his consistency is almost like artists following animation models sheets. So consistent and polished. Just beautiful stuff!
Another fun nostalgic episode, Chris and Cindy! Like you, I wish Green Lantern had had more to do. Ideally, as someone mentioned in an early comment, GL would have saved Lois while Superman saved Harlequin (in a way that allows her to escape, of course).
I do hope you’ll jump to the stories that didn’t have JSA guest-stars after you run through the ones that did. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the story that introduced the Earth-Two Insect Queen, for instance.
The Insect Queen saga is high on our list to cover once we’ve exhausted the JSA-related stories. I think given the wonderful response we’ve had to the series, the listeners will follow us to those tales that just focus more squarely on the Superman mythos.