Source: Superman vol.1 #60 (1949)
Type: Disguise
We can't blame all the Superman craziness on the Silver Age. He was up to his hoaxer's tricks long before. Why, look at this story from 1949...
So Superman's disguised himself as Perry White to get in front of an assassination situation when the editor gets death threats. Nothing special about that, right? What if I told you Superman first entombed Perry inside a cave for the better part of a week? With radio, food and books, but still... He then has the Daily Planet out Superman's secret identity as Perry White, revealing the real one has to stay secret:
It's not about keeping his loved ones safe, it's about all the little people wanting a piece of him (like that lady in "Grounded" who wanted him to operate on her husband). There's an incident with a giant shoe I won't get into, and then Super-Perry survives another assassination attempt that destroys the Planet's printing press. But the news must go out!
On cue, Lois Lane gets captured by the racketeers and "as if by coincidence" a rock slide frees Perry from his mountain stronghold. He gets a ransom call for Lois when he gets into the office, and heads for her location based on a note left by Superman. Perry walks in and does his best to act like he's Superman, but when a book drops on his foot and he cries out in pain, they realize he's not super and knock him out. The big bad boss shows up to torture Perry, but OW!
So what the hell? It goes like this: Superman followed the crooks back to their hide-out but needed to flush out their boss. He creates the avalanche freeing Perry and hopes for the best. He's left a note for Perry and the editor takes the bait, walking into a house full of armed thugs that have twice tried to kill him before. They don't shoot so as not to waste bullets on "Superman", so Superman, hiding in the house, makes that book fall on Perry's toe. They knock Perry out rather than kill him and then call the boss so he can do it himself. While one of them makes the call via semaphore, Superman switches places with Perry at superspeed. And that's how you catch racketeers when you have super-powers AND super-boredom.
I'm just not sure what it does to the Daily Planet's circulation to print outlandish hoaxes as fact on a regular basis.
Type: Disguise
We can't blame all the Superman craziness on the Silver Age. He was up to his hoaxer's tricks long before. Why, look at this story from 1949...
So Superman's disguised himself as Perry White to get in front of an assassination situation when the editor gets death threats. Nothing special about that, right? What if I told you Superman first entombed Perry inside a cave for the better part of a week? With radio, food and books, but still... He then has the Daily Planet out Superman's secret identity as Perry White, revealing the real one has to stay secret:
It's not about keeping his loved ones safe, it's about all the little people wanting a piece of him (like that lady in "Grounded" who wanted him to operate on her husband). There's an incident with a giant shoe I won't get into, and then Super-Perry survives another assassination attempt that destroys the Planet's printing press. But the news must go out!
On cue, Lois Lane gets captured by the racketeers and "as if by coincidence" a rock slide frees Perry from his mountain stronghold. He gets a ransom call for Lois when he gets into the office, and heads for her location based on a note left by Superman. Perry walks in and does his best to act like he's Superman, but when a book drops on his foot and he cries out in pain, they realize he's not super and knock him out. The big bad boss shows up to torture Perry, but OW!
So what the hell? It goes like this: Superman followed the crooks back to their hide-out but needed to flush out their boss. He creates the avalanche freeing Perry and hopes for the best. He's left a note for Perry and the editor takes the bait, walking into a house full of armed thugs that have twice tried to kill him before. They don't shoot so as not to waste bullets on "Superman", so Superman, hiding in the house, makes that book fall on Perry's toe. They knock Perry out rather than kill him and then call the boss so he can do it himself. While one of them makes the call via semaphore, Superman switches places with Perry at superspeed. And that's how you catch racketeers when you have super-powers AND super-boredom.I'm just not sure what it does to the Daily Planet's circulation to print outlandish hoaxes as fact on a regular basis.
Comments
Wait..what? Why is there a giant shoe?
I went and Googled it after writing the above, and the story was "The Super-Cigars of Perry White" from Action Comics #436. Aside from the details of the kids who gave him the cigars--they were mutants, and they had four thumbs, not none--I remembered it pretty accurately for something I last read more than 20 years ago!
As for the shoe... if I must...
Super-Perry lets it be known that he'll handle any case of swindling or racketeering. It's brought to his attention that 1$ tickets for a daylight cruise to buy shoes for European children were counterfeited and sold, overbooking the cruise.
So Super-Perry cobbles together a giant shoe (symbolic!) and hitches it to the cruise ship, giving all ticket holders a place to enjoy the sea breeze. Sorry you asked?