Comic Review #36: Adventure Comics #327 (1964)

                                     

 

I love my old man. He likes fishing, Star Trek, Huckleberry Hound, Drew Barrymore and watching old music informercials. So on this Father's Day I dedicate this sure to be insane story to him and all fathers. I also want to talk about some fathers from comic books. Uncle Ben the surrogate father of Spider-Man was pretty great but he's also dead. Iron Man's dad is an asshole. Captain America's dad died before he was like 10 and then they retconned him into being a abusive drunk. Splinter is a pretty great dad though. He knows ninjutsu and is a mutant rat and loves his ninja turtle children.  So comic dads are a mixed bunch. I guess comic writers didn't have great parents? I have great ones though!

Adventure Comics was one of the first comic books DC ever started publishing. It was home to Superboy for decades. It was where the Legion of Super-Heroes got their start. It was home to Starman, Plastic Man, Superboy, Supergirl,  Aquaman, Dial H For Hero. It was the grab-bag of DC comics for about 48 years. In 2009 they brought it back for another 32 issues and no one seemed to care. Kinda  sad. If I could I would bring back Adventure Comics just because I had that power. 

I'm only going to talk about the story entitled "The Menace of Superboy's Father!" which is possibly the greatest title ever. All other titles will never reach the beauty of that one. This was also a reprint from Superboy #48 but I went with this one because I could tell a damn great cover from some well drawn but forgettable cover. You know you wanted to see Pa Kent rush into the boys room with a huge ass piece of Kryptonite. It doesn't happen in the story but you want to know how insane the story in this comic is and it shows that off perfectly.

Anyway this fine piece of literature starts with Pa Kent taking money out of the bank and giving it to notorious criminal Blackmarket Bolton. I'm going to assume Blackmarket Bolton appeared in one Superboy comic and that was it. He gets some Kryptonite from the man and we are all wondering what the hell Pa Kent is gonna do. We aren't left wondering for long because Pa Kent literally pulls the Kryptonite out and cuts it in half with a table saw. You'd think that Kryptonite would be stronger than a regular old table saw but you'd be wrong because it cuts that shit clean! He leaves some Kryptonite for Superboy and we are all left wondering what the christ is going on in this lunatic asylum known as a comic book? 

Superboy shoves lead all over the Kryptonite and puts it who knows where. Superboy then waits to see if the Prowler who he thinks put the Kryptonite there will come out but all that comes out is Pa Kent, who still has another hunk of Kryptonite. Superboy then goes to the General Store owned by the Kents and has to get out of ANOTHER Kryptonite trap. Pa Kent then goes outside and in a hilarious scene jumps on the damn tree Superboy is on and tries to climb it. Superboy then finds out that Pa Kent thinks he and Clark Kent are two different people and that he has done something to Clark. Superboy flies to the roof just in time to see that Pa Kent is about to walk into a damn fire because he's gone fucking bananas and thinks hes invincible. Superboy doing the logical thing creates a giant water pistol out of some trash and saves his dad.

Pa Kent thinks this is just a rain shower so he goes upstairs to close the celling skylight. He then sees a customer and decides to walk off the roof to meet the man because he's fucking out of his gourd. Superboy has to go get his giant human sized fishing pole (I'm just assuming because Superboy stories of the Silver Age were so fucking crazy that he had one just laying around somewhere) and saves the man. Superboy then goes home and changes into Clark Kent. His dad comes home and puts him to sleep and still believing both of them are two different people puts Kryptonite underneath his bed. Thankfully Clark uses his fire breath to just send the Kryptonite to the floor below. Superboy then goes to the General Store to shock Pa Kent out of his delusions by pulling up the entire General Store and flying away with it. Because this is a Silver Age story this bit of insanity works! Pa Kent is back to normal!

Superboy then goes after Blackmarket Bolton and Pa Kent throws the Kryptonite in the lake and I don't think that's a very safe idea because I'm sure people swim in that lake and who knows what Kryptonite can do to a person. He really should have called Kryptonite Control which I am assuming and probably rightly so is a thing in the DC universe. He and his son have a great dinner together and all is well.

FINAL VERDICT: I had a great time reading this comic book. It's fun, goofy, lighthearted fun that I enjoy from this era of Superboy. It's got charm out the wazoo and the art is great. I love that Pa Kent looks like the stereotypical man of the era with his suit and tie. I also must mention that this story takes 8 PAGES to tell. It's nuts and I love it.