Showcase Presents: Superman Part 5

This is the fifth of numerous posts on Showcase Presents: Superman. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the stories.

Now, this won't be like most comic blogs with scanned pictures posted throughout. Mostly because I don't have a scanner, but the stories should speak for themselves, but also because I want to go through the whole book in the next few weeks, and I want non-comics readers to enjoy the kookiness that us comics readers understand from the Silver Age. While I may mock these stories, I am not making anything up, this is all straight from the comics! While I may mock, I love these stories and the character of Superman. This is great stuff! The cover scans are from The Comic Book Database.


Superman #124


"The Steeplejack of Steel"


Tagline: "Superman becomes a steeplejack."


The first question I asked about this story is what the heck is a steeplejack?! Well, obviously a steeplejack is "is a craftsman who is prepared to scale tall buildings and in particular church steeples to carry out general repairs." In this case, someone who builds sky scrapers.


So, this story starts with Superman flying around Metropolis until he hears some cracks which he traces back to a skyscraper that us being built with "shoddy building materials." Instead of busting the builder right there, Superman decides to disguise himself as a construction working to figure out who is supplying the builder! Like a drug bust!


When Superman applies, as Kirk Brent, the builder realizes he must be a fake due to the lack of callouses on his hands, so he must be the city's building inspector. The builder decides to scare "Kirk" to make him quit. To cover up his abilities, Kirk does "gymnastics" on the top of the building. The builder even throws a hot rivet right at him (!). Superman is able to cover up who he truly is by quickly fashioning asbestos gloves! Don't worry, he can't get cancer.


Superman diverts a train, uses his heat vision, is smacked by girders, and is buried in cement all as attempts to keep his job and continue his investigation. He is then able to catch the builder and his supplier together, apprehend them, and reinforce and finish building the skyscraper all in one page. He then assures us that the two prisoners will have a great view of the newly named "Superman Skytower" from their jail cells. No ego on that guy!