Superman Gets Sick: The Last Days Of Superman

Sure, Superman is more powerful than a locomotive, but even though he can handle the biggest threats and largest menaces....there are things that can stop even a Superman.


Amazingly, it could be a miniscule microbe that could finally spell doom for the Man of Steel, leading into...."The Last Days Of Superman", the comic being covered today.


Superman #156 (October, 1962) was by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan and George Klein, with Swan/Klein giving us the cover.

Superman's Death Sentence

It all started innocently enough, with Jimmy Olsen calling in Superman to have him stop a collision between a space capsule and a green meteor.  Superman deflects the meteor to the ground, saving the capsule, but Jimmy Olsen the Daily Planet photographer and Superman go to investigate.  At the crash site, Superman reads Kryptonian writing on the meteor, telling that it contained samples of Virus X, a plague that had been released on Krypton years before (and Superman recalled as a baby, hearing of this from Tharb-El, and how he treated the virus and sent it into space).  Superman buries the meteor with a boulder, as a wind blows from the direction of the meteor towards Superman.  As Superman approaches Jimmy Olsen while he takes pictures, Superman feels ill...and thinks he might have caught Virus X! 

Going to an Earth doctor, the doctor says he has no way to check Superman in any meaningful manner, but that his increased heart rate and sudden weakness lead him to believe Superman has less than 30 days of life left.  Superman leaves the hospital and his Daily Planet friends, and contemplates how to better the world, enlisting Supergirl's help to gather others, as Superman has his robots construct an isolation chamber around him (as Superman feels weak when talking to Jimmy Olsen).

The Super-Comrades Of All Time

As Supergirl recruits more help, including Krypto the Superdog, Lori Lemaris of Atlantis, the Legion of Super-Heroes (except for Brainiac 5, who mysteriously won't join in) and the Kandorian Superman Emergency Squad to perform many duties to make the Earth better and to keep the planet safe from threats that will menace the planet after Superman is gone, Superman gets another bout of weakness as Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane visit Superman in his self-imposed exile in the desert.   The heroes find ways to stop a rouge planet from eventually crashing into Earth as well as stopping a cloud of space fungus that would kill all plant life on Earth should it have reached our planetary orbit.  All this activity has stressed out poor Lois Lane, who faints from the pressure, with Jimmy Olsen taking her back to Metropolis in the Flying Newsroom, only to come back to find Superman has left his cell. 

Annoyed by the lack of participation by Brainiac 5, Supergirl heads back to the future to confront the intelligent Legionnaire, finding he had not turned to evil like his ancestor (and Superman foe, Brainiac), but instead was working in the lab to find a cure...but was unable to find one on Earth.

Superman's Last Day Of Life

Jimmy Olsen goes searching for Superman, as Supergirl helps the Legion and Superman's Robots in clearing space in Antartica, preparing to melt its ice to allow the land mass there to be inhabited by humans.  Superman had gone back to Smallville to contemplate the loves of his life: Lois Lane, Lana Lang and Lyla Lerrol of Krypton, then to Gotham City to say goodbye to Batman and Robin, then carves a message in the moon, revealing his identity (and hope for the world), before returning to his isolation chamber in the desert, where Jimmy and Lois help the now weakening Superman.  Supergirl, Lori Lemaris, Krypto and the Superman Emergency Squad stop an Atlantean monster before going to meet with the Legion and Superman.  There, Supergirl decides to go back to Krypton to find Tharb-El and see if he had found a cure.  On Krypton past, Supergirl overhears Tharb-El tell of an element 202 which would kill the virus, but Kryptonians as well; so he exposes his sample of the virus to the element, and sends it into space. 

Wait....Tharb-El killed the sample before it reached Earth?  Then, why is Superman dying?  Mon-El (at the time, a silent resident of the Phantom Zone) provides the answer....a small piece of Kryptonite had logged in Jimmy Olsen's camera, and made Superman sick every time Jimmy came near (the virus was never active or infectious).  Finding the Kryptonite, Superman recovered (and Supergirl and Krypto erased Superman's alter ego message on the moon).

So, it appears hypochondria is a surprising weakness of Superman's... ...amazing how the power of the mind can make one weak.  Still, it pays to be vigilant, as, for a run of Action Comics in the #360s, Superman would encounter Virus X again...and be infected, but that's a tale for a different time!

This full length tale from Superman #156 has been reprinted many times, including in the Limited Collectors' Edition C-52 (October, 1977), Superman in the Sixties (1999) and in Superman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told (2004).



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The Adventures Of The Legion Youth

Much has been made about the Legion of Super-Heroes, but one of the defining traits of the group of future heroes is their youth...

....yet, there have been times when they have been too young!

Here are those adventures!

The Menace of Dream Girl

First up is Adventure Comics #317 (February, 1964) by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte, which is the first appearance of Dream Girl, as well as the first mention of the Time Trapper (who hides beyond his Iron Curtain of Time, which doesn't even allow Superboy and Mon-El to break through).

Dream Girl applies for Legion membership, showcasing her powers of accurately dreaming the future (only a few days in advance), and, due to her beauty, quickly gets all the male Legionnaires on her side (earning the ire of the female Legionnaires).   Dream Girl is accepted as a member, and studies the Legion constitution....but for what seems a nefarious purpose.  First, sending Lightning Lass on a mission that removes her lightning powers (which is a removable offense of the Legion of SUPER-Heroes).

Then, coming up with reasons to remove other members from the team, including bringing Lightning Lad, Bouncing Boy, Shrinking Violet and Ultra Boy on a mission which turns them into babies!  Dream Girl confides in Superboy and Star Boy, her plan was to save Legion members that were to die in a space crash, but it was only robot duplicates that were destroyed. 

Fearing the ill will of the team, Dream Girl leaves the team (keeping track of Star Boy, who would later become involved with the seer from Naltor), everyone is reinstated to the Legion, with Lightning Lass now having new powers to reduce the mass of anything (as opposed to lightning powers).  The battle with Time Trapper continues on and off for many issues after this....until....

The Menace Of The Super-Babies

The final appearance of Time Trapper in Adventure Comics was in Adventure Comics #338 (November, 1965) by Jerry Siegel and John Forte, where the Time Trapper sends his agent, Glorith of Baaldur, back from his headquarters at the End of Time, to face the Legion, supplying her with a device to breach the Iron Curtain, to go along with her hourglass, which reduces anyone in age to protoplasm.

Saturn Girl gathers Legion members to prepare them for a final battle with the Time Trapper, as Saturn Girl has been contacted by Glorith, who meets with the Legion at an abandoned amusement park in the 30th Century.   Glorith shows the team her ring which can penetrate the Iron Curtain, and gets them to touch the hourglass, but, thanks to chemical mist from a nearby fountain, the Legion members present (Saturn Girl, Chameleon Boy, Invisible Kid, Ultra Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Element Lad and Light Lass) into infants! 

The Time Trapper, observing Glorith's failure, comes back in time himself, exposing her to the hourglass (without chemical protection, reverting her to protoplasmic slime), then, convinces the unknowing infant Legion to commit crimes for him.

Brainiac 5 and Superboy follow the Trapper and the youth, eventually convincing him to restore the ages of the afflicted Legion members (and thanks to a mischievous baby Star Boy and the wisdom of Brainiac 5) are able to trap him behind his own Iron Curtain (for a time).

The Five Legion Orphans

The last of the youthful adventures of the Legion is Adventure Comics #356 (May, 1967) by E. Nelson Bridwell, Curt Swan and George Klein, and this story started on a happier day....for some members of the Legion.

It was Parent's Day, with the various members of the Legion celebrating with their parents.  But, that excluded the orphans....Superboy, Brainiac 5, Mon-El, Element Lad and Dream Girl.  The five, responding to an alarm on the planet Zinth, try to retrieve a crystal from a pond, but all five regress in age after exposure.  They end up in an orphanage, and are all adopted by parents from the planet Baskh.  Brainiac 5, whose intellect is unaffected by the de-aging, works on a cure for himself and his friends, eventually coming up with one. 

After being cured, the Legion find that the people of Baskh lost their kids after a radioactive meteor passed through their solar system, and came up with the idea to regress and adopt the Legion members.  They regretted their actions, but Dream Girl gave them hope....she dreamed that they would soon have children again, due to the fallout fading from their planet.

Now, it is true that Superman had many other adventures where he was turned into a Superbaby, but....

...those are adventures for another time!