Snapshots of Jimmy Olsen #19: Big Jimmy

Source: Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #90 (1966)
Type: Experimental android chameleon (it's a whole type!)
Just how cool Jimmy Olsen's life was in the late Silver Age cannot be overestimated, as we will soon see. This is a cub reporter/photographer who has full access to the Daily Planet's jet-helicopter, which occasionally gets into dogfights with would-be Superman villains.
And in this particular case, Jimmy has to make an emergency landing in a futuristic alien city left in a desert valley (Metropolis - it's like Springfield in so many ways) by failed alien colonizers!
It makes me question Superman's sense of observation. Anyway. Jimmy is being pursued by a criminal Odd Couple, Silk the vain dandy and Mole the unkempt rat. They've assembled a Superman-fighting arsenal, but have a sadistic streak that makes them willing to derail their time table to kill Superman's sidekick for fun. Their shooting damages Jimmy's signal watch (but doesn't break his wrist, he's lucky), so he tries to hide and finds himself trapped under a statue (he's not so lucky). But luckily (lucky again), a misshapen gray monster helps him out and...
...becomes him! Sort of. The aliens mind-beam the truth to Jimmy and the readers. They're from a planet named Borog, so naturally, they had to find a way to live somewhere else. They built this city on Earth, and put their golem-like servant there for whatever purpose. It's supposed to be able to take any person's face - why is a mystery, but it could only be for infiltration, couldn't it?) - but it proved defective.
Yeah, our robot thing didn't work right, so we're abandoning the mission and our big futuristic city full of artwork. Goodbye. Hey, who are we to say we can understand an alien mindset. But what is Jimmy going to do with a 12-foot-tall monstrous version of himself? Silk and Mole catch up to them, Jimmy bolts, and they think "Big Jimmy" is the original Olsen, transformed by alien tech into this dumb beast. It's the kind of thing that's been known to happen before. Their plan: To make money off him in exhibitions. But first, some sadism. They want to "play" with him, make him dance by shooting at his feet, and try their kryptonite-filled Superman dummy on him too.
I don't know if it works, but things gets even more awful from there, which will require the real Jimmy to intervene.
But he's captured too, and forced to make coffee and feed his giant doppelganger while Silk and Mole argue over who gets to "blow his brains out" (actual quote, who knew 1966 comics were that violent?). And then it starts to look like Big Jimmy ISN'T all that defective when he seems to take on Silk's face!
Mole, who's been picked on enough by his partner for his appearance gets a good laugh, but nobody laughs at Silk, and:
Jimmy's utility belt has a full make-up kit, guys. Changing Big Jimmy into Big Silk was child's play. Bam. Bam. Good riddance. Yow! Jimmy better not let Superman hear his thoughts! But the question remains, what will Jimmy do with Big Jimmy now?

It's all taken out of his hands when the aliens return to Earth to get their creation back. They never figured anyone could use and abuse it this way - these are not the smartest of aliens - so they'll take it home with them, and in my version at least, dissect him to see what went wrong. Sorry Jimmy-Friend!

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