Biography of Superman (Earth-Two), 1939

The following is a **biography of Superman for the year of 1939**.

## Biography

### Superman's restoration project

At the start of the year, Clark Kent sat in on a trial for Frankie Marello, a teenage boy charged with assault and battery. Frankie's mother pleaded with the judge that his behavior was a product of his upbringing in the rough, underprivileged slums of Metropolis, and Clark quietly knew that she was right. The judge sentenced Marello to two years in a reformatory. A few of Frankie's friends were in the gallery, and Clark overheard them discussing a meeting later that day with "Gimpy," who they blamed for Frankie getting in trouble. Clark became Superman and trailed the boys, eavesdropping on their discussion with the shady adult man known as Gimpy. Gimpy had been using the boys to rob unwatched houses for supposedly easy money, then anonymously calling the police on them and taking what they had stolen. The impressionable youths confronted Gimpy, but he got them off of his back with a set of such jobs. Superman caught Gimpy in the middle of ratting out the boys, and beat him up to encourage him to get out of town, which Gimpy assured him he would. Superman went around town picking up the boys before they could be caught by the police and bringing them to safety. Gimpy returned with a rifle to try to shoot one of the boys, but Superman got in his way and took the bullet himself. He threw Gimpy into the river in hopes of finally teaching him a lesson. Seeing Superman in action, the boys were persuaded to behave in the name of honesty and justice. Seeing the negative effect that their squalid living state had on their behavior, Superman singlehandedly demolished the slums after getting the boys to safely evacuate everyone and their belongings. He knew from recent events that the government would build new, higher-quality housing in the event of a disaster, and as a result the "slums" of Metropolis became much more livable for its denizens.

### Superman the fugitive

Superman's large-scale destruction of a portion of the city did not go unnoticed. The Metropolis police hired a renowned detective from Chicago, known as 100% Reilly for his perfect capture record, to bring the seemingly untouchable Superman to justice. Meanwhile, Clark again asked Lois out on a date, but she told him in no uncertain terms that she despised him and already loved Superman. Superman jumped into action upon hearing of a pending suicide attempt at a mental hospital, as a patient was threatening to throw himself from the window. Superman saved him, but in the process left his pedestrian clothes in an alley nearby. Reilly and another detective, Mortimer Snoop, found the clothes, and waited beside them for Superman to return. Reilly had advertised a bogus reward in an attempt to gain information on Superman, and Snoop now looked to claim it. After the patient was safe, Superman reclaimed his clothes when both Reilly and Snoop tried to trick the other into thinking they were leaving. However, Clark did leave behind a note about a reception he was attending that night, and Snoop recovered it. Snoop and Reilly showed up at the party at almost the same time Lois also arrived and tried to get Clark to help her find and protect Superman. There was little Clark could do, and he still had his Superman costume on under his clothes. The two detectives got into an argument over the reward money, and Reilly insisted that he alone would get it. A spiteful Snoop turned the lights off to disrupt Reilly's plans, giving Clark enough time to become Superman. When the lights came back on, Reilly tried to grab him, but Superman easily escaped his grasp. The next day, Reilly returned to Chicago, conceding his first defeat and becoming known as "99% Reilly."

### Superman's prison reform

Responding to an anonymous request at the *Daily Star*, Kent met with escaped convict Walter Crane, who requested that he run a story on the inhumane conditions at Coreytown prison and showed grievous injuries on his body as evidence. Kent published the story, and two days later Superintendent Wyman at Coreytown came to the *Star'*s offices to complain. He knew that Crane had to have been the source, and demanded that Kent take him to him. Kent seemed hesitant to expose his source, but acquiesced and gave Crane up to Wyman. This drew him a great deal of ire at the office, but he explained to George Taylor that giving Wyman up would allow him to go to Coreytown and gather evidence of Wyman's wrongdoing. Taylor gave him leave to do just that, and Kent put his plan into action. He traveled to Coreytown in disguise and got himself arrested and sent to prison in a matter of hours thanks to the town's thoroughly corrupt punitive system. Kent experienced Wyman's torture firsthand, easily enduring brutal whips to the back and work that would be unreasonable for any normal man. That night, in Superman garb, he got photos of Wyman whipping Crane as suitable evidence, then bound Wyman in the stocks, retrieved the governor from his mansion, and got a confession out of the superintendent. Back at the *Star*, George Taylor commended Kent, lauding him for his photos that would bring down Wyman and improve conditions at Coreytown.

### The crooked oilers and Metropolis's driving problem

Clark heard of a man committing suicide in the office of an oil broker, and one of his fellow reporters suggested that he'd done it after investing too much in a stock that had fallen through. Furthermore, he believed that the owners of the oil derrick in question, Meek & Bronson, were being deceptive in their sale of the stock. Clark looked through the broker's files to find the other stockholders and bought up the stocks from them, under an alias and at great personal expense. He traveled to the derrick and found that no work at all was being done on it: the owners were focusing strictly on making money off of the stocks. That night, Superman planted the derrick in the ground and sprung a giant fountain of oil. The next day, Meek & Bronson tried to buy back the stocks from Kent, but he refused. They sent a couple of hitmen after him, to naturally no effect. After being sufficiently evasive, Clark finally offered to sell the stocks back to them for a giant profit of one million dollars. Knowing that they would make seeveral million off of the oil, the two hesitantly accepted. That night, Superman took the two from their beds and to the derrick, where they witnessed him utterly destroy the derrick and engulf its contents in flames as punishment for their greed and deception.

After an acquaintance of Superman's was killed by a reckless driver, he took it upon himself to improve the driving situation in Metropolis. From confronting drunk drivers to repairing roads, Superman accomplished a number of deeds, some morally dubious, to make driving as safe as it could possibly be for the city. In the end, he showed the mayor the significant death toll suffered by Metropolis's drivers, and convinced him to overhaul traffic regulations in the city.

### Superman at the World's Fair

Clark and Lois were assigned to report on the New York World's Fair, and Clark took the opportunity to help the expo out as Superman. An exhibit for infantile paralysis designed to raise funds to fight that condition was in a position where it couldn't be finished in time for the fair, and Superman quietly used his unmatched powers to easily construct it in moments. Later, Clark and Lois walked through the fairgrounds, and Lois spotted wanted criminal Nick Stone. Stone reacted defensively, punching Clark and ostensibly knocking him out. Stone kidnapped Lois, and Clark donned the Superman costume to pursue him. He trailed Stone's car to his crew's hideout, where they were planning to steal some priceless jewels on exhibit at the fair and kill the suspect, Lois. Superman arrived in time to catch the bullet from Stone's gun in mid-flight, saving Lois's life once more. He delivered the crooks to the police and rescued Lois, trying to avoid responding to her frequent declarations of love for him—when she saw him again as Clark, she made sure to tell him that she hated him. George Taylor commended Clark for his reporting when he returned to Metropolis.

### The Ultra-Humanite's small-time schemes

Clark soon became aware of Metropolis's Cab Protective League, a supposed union organization trying to muscle smaller, independent companies into joining or out of business, even going so far as to run down competing drivers. Superman easily put a stop to the league and brought its leader, a man named Reynolds, to justice. However, on the police-car ride to prison, Reynolds used a modified cigarette to knock out the police with gas and escape. Superman investigated the vicinity and found a small cabin where Reynolds was hiding out. However, he also met a bald man in a wheelchair wearing a scientist's garb who called himself the Ultra-Humanite. He described himself as "the head of a vast ring of evil enterprises," and explained that Reynolds was one of his many henchmen. He claimed to have the world's most powerful mind as a result of an unspecified scientific experiment, and planned to use it to dominate the world. Trying to apprehend the mad scientist, Superman walked into a powerful electric trap, knocking him dizzy long enough for Reynolds and Ultra-Humanite to tie him to a table saw. As Superman's head made contact with the blades, the metal shattered, sending a sharp fragment into Reynolds's neck and killing him. More of Ultra's henchmen came in, carried his handicapped frame out of the cabin, and set fire to it in an attempt to finish Superman off for good. Superman recovered and escaped, following Ultra's plane into the sky with a mighty leap and knocking it to the ground. Examining the wreckage, Superman realized that the Ultra-Humanite was strangely nowhere to be found. Around this time, Superman skillfully maneuvered between his two personae to avoid police scrutiny while bringing an escaped criminal to justice.

Hearing of a subway accident taking place underground, Superman investigated the area and found that much of the building material used there was of shoddy make. He witnessed another man, who was also examining the material, get accosted by a pair of criminals, who threw him in front of a coming train. Superman rescued him, and took him above ground to an isolated rooftop to speak with him. The man was a city inspector, who'd also concluded that the subway, built by a company called Star, was built on the cheap, and suspected that the thugs who attacked him were on Star's payroll. Superman investigated Star's offices, and eavesdropped on the boss there chastising his employees for failing to kill the inspector. Superman barged in and forced a signed confession out of him while the thugs escaped. Superman trailed them to a seemingly deserted cabin, where he fell into a trap that encased him in a thick block of crystal. The trap had been devised by the Ultra-Humanite, who had escaped his plane by parachute before its crash. Superman broke through his encasement, but the Ultra-Humanite was able to escape and make his getaway through a trap door. Superman brought the other two to justice and delivered the Star boss's confession to the city inspector, as well as handing in an exposé on Star's dealings at the newspaper. With the case closed, Superman gravely pondered the threat of the Ultra-Humanite.

### The Kidtown problem

Clark was sent to report on Kidtown, a home for troubled and underprivileged youths, which was undergoing financial troubles: if they couldn't get together two million dollars in two weeks, they would be foreclosed upon. Clark was determined to help them, and decided to use the money he'd made from the oil sale to cover half of the cost. For the rest, Clark happened to be assigned to interview explorer Warren Kenyon, who claimed that there was a massive but essentially inaccessible Spanish treasure horde at a specific point in the ocean. After Clark published the story, he rented a ship and hired a crew and set sail for the point in question to cover the other half of Kidtown's debt. Unfortunately, his crew was made up of thugs who'd read the story and were trying to claim the treasure themselves. The same gang also stole a submarine for themselves and were heading for the same location. Nonetheless, Superman was able to retrieve the treasure, and easily fended off the criminals who tried to take it from him. He made an anonymous donation to Kidtown, successfully bringing them out of their financial woes.

### Cracking down on gambling

After witnessing a man attempt suicide due to his gambling debts, Superman took it upon himself to put an end to the pervasive issue of gambling in Metropolis. He went on a path of destruction across several crooked establishments, exposing them for running rigged games. Club owner Marty Kaye and numbers runner Jack O'Leary in particular felt Superman's wrath. Seeing the kind of familial tension that gambling could cause, Superman encouraged, or even intimidated, gamblers into kicking the habit. After the police commissioner had told Clark Kent that there simply weren't enough resources to take on gambling next to more serious crimes, Superman found that he was in fact deliberately harboring and protecting gambling establishments in exchange for a payoff. Superman intimidated seemingly all of the major influences in the gambling scene into leaving the city, and Clark ran an eye-catching exposé on the matter.

### The ex-world champ

Superman witnessed another suicide attempt, this time by a man jumping off a bridge. Rescuing him, Superman found him to be Larry Trent, former boxing heavyweight champion of the world. Trent had suffered a series of major setbacks in his career after having been double-crossed out of the title by his own manager, Tom Croy to the point that he was barely able to get by financially. Superman asked him if he would regain his self-respect if he were to become champion again, and Trent agreed. Superman offered to fight for him in the ring while simultaneously training him up for a proper return as a way of restoring his reputation and self-esteem, and Trent accepted. Superman fought a number of bouts, using makeup to disguise himself as Trent, much as he had done for football player Tommy Burke, restoring Trent's reputation as a competitive fighter. Tom Croy approached Superman, and offered to manage him again. Superman accepted, fully expecting Croy to try to double-cross Trent again. Superman soon earned a shot at the heavyweight title, and he and Trent agreed that Trent should be the one to win it for himself. When the time came, Croy tried to force-feed Trent a drugged drink during the fight, trying to make him lose and win big betting on the fight as he had done previously. Superman stopped him, and also stopped a backup crook who simply tried to shoot Trent. Trent won the fight and regained the title, fully restoring his career.

### The Boravian Civil War

Clark was assigned to interview a scientist named Adolphus Runyan, who apparently had a fantastic new invention to demonstrate. He showed Clark a deadly, mask-penetrating gas which could be used as a chemical weapon, but that he only planned on allowing to be used in the event of a "defensive war." Suddenly, three criminals led by a man named Bartow burst into the room and demanded the formula to the gas. The meek Clark Kent retreated, but eavesdropped and heard that Bartow planned to sell the formula to a weapons dealer. He left and wrote up the story for the *Star*, then learned that Runyan had been killed by Bartow and his men. As Superman, he went to Bartow's hideout, and stowed away on his plane as they flew to Boravia, a country embroiled in civil war. When Bartow found Superman on the plane several hours later, he sabotaged it and escaped via parachute just above Boravia, but Superman grabbed on to him and the two fell together to the war-stricken ground. Soldiers loyal to the Boravian regime attacked Superman as Bartow escaped. A rebel plane flew overhead and bombed the area, knocking Superman out cold.

Other soldiers recovered him and put him before the firing squad as he awoke. Bartow arrived and bragged that he was going to sell the formula to a manufacturer named Lubane before confidently walking away. The firing squad had no effect on Superman, who went to Lubane's offices and witnessed Bartow handing off the formula and a sample of the gas to Lubane. Bartow left, and Superman confronted Lubane, who in a panic dropped the gas and accidentally killed himself. Superman traveled to the central government building of Boravia, where leaders from the two factions were squabbling over terms. Superman threatened to destroy the building with them in it unless they came to terms, and the terrified leaders agreed. Later, Clark tracked down the plane Bartow was taking back to Metropolis, and telegraphed George Taylor to have police waiting for them. Bartow and his men were arrested and sentenced to death for Runyan's murder. Having recovered the formula from Lubane, Superman destroyed it, deeming it too dangerous to exist.

### The construction murders

After a string of five deaths in as many days at a skyscraper construction site, Superman took it upon himself to investigate the next night. He found a nightwatchman sawing at a bar, ensuring that whoever stepped on it would fall. Superman confronted him, and the frightened man fell into his own trap. Superman narrowly caught him before he fell to his death, and the man told him he had been paid to sabotage the building by a thug named Butch Grogan. The terrified nightwatchman died of a heart attack. Superman went to Butch's home, chasing him out into the street and getting him to confess that he himself was getting paid by Nat Grayson, rival construction-company owner to the company building the tower in question. A police officer told both men to freeze, but Superman got away quickly, while Grogan tried to run and was shot dead. Superman confronted Grayson in his office and violently convinced him to turn himself in. Grayson confessed and was sentenced to death for the murders. By this point, Superman was developing a major reputation among Metropolis's criminals—an incoming big-shot criminal named Mike Caputo doubted Superman's power, and was quickly run out of town.

### Ultra-Humanite's naval racket

When the steam liner *Clarion* burned offshore, Superman got to work rescuing all of its passengers, delivering them safely to dry land. The next day, Clark investigated the *Clarion'*s wreckage, and found that it had been sabotaged. Speaking to the general manager of the ship's company, he learned that they had suffered a series of sabotages lately from a gang demanding protection money. The manager received a phone call from them, and Clark listened in, recognizing the Ultra-Humanite's voice. A representative went to deliver $5,000,000 to Ultra, and Superman followed him. Superman saw Ultra there, but it was only a visual projection, demonstrating that the villain had learned to be cautious. Superman stopped the handoff and brought Ultra's thugs to justice.

### Superman battles yellow journalism

Clark soon encountered a dishonest yellow journalist for a rival paper named Gene Powers, who covered news of a woman's suicide attempt even after she specifically asked him not to. Clark was assigned to interview one Senator Hastings, but upon arriving at his home found that he was behaving very strangely. He stuck around the area after leaving, and saw Gene Powers going in shortly afterward. Using his X-ray vision, Clark watched Powers discussing his blackmail of Hastings. Powers and others at his paper had kidnapped and drugged Hastings in order to take compromising photos of him and blackmail him, threatening to publish the photos. Superman soon learned that the editor of the yellow paper was behind the plan. He confronted all involved and soon demolished the paper's presses, putting it out of business and ensuring that the fallacious pictures of Hastings never got out. Hastings was reelected to office shortly after.

### The Purple Plague

A horrible malady known as the Purple Plague, named for the colorful skin blotches suffered by those afflicted, began spreading across Metropolis. Clark met Dr. Henry Travers, who was working on a cure for the disease. Travers called Clark to tell him he'd succeeded, but sounds of a struggle over the phone sprung Superman into action. Travers had been kidnapped by thugs, whom Superman managed to trail. They threw Travers off of a cliff from their car, but Superman rescued him safely. The next day, Travers tested the vaccine in front of his peers, but it was a failure. He was shamed and disgraced, but Superman encouraged him to try again. Travers got to work, and later that day Superman was knocked unconscious by a sudden blast from a powerful electric-laser weapon. The beam was a product of the Ultra-Humanite, and Superman once again found himself in Ultra's lair. Ultra attempted to hypnotize the hero, and Superman played along, pretending to be under his spell. Ultra sent him onto his aircraft with one of his underlings, which he was using to deliberately spread the plague across the city. Superman took down the craft and put an end to Ultra's biological attack. He found a young boy with the plague on the ground and took him to Travers, whose new serum was a success, making him a savior of thousands of lives or more. Superman returned to the Ultra-Humanite's stronghold, where Ultra tried to fire the electric beam on him once more, but Superman turned it back on him, causing Ultra to blast himself with it at close range and seemingly kill him.

### The corrupt orphanage

While walking to work one day, Clark saw a young boy laid out over some railroad tracks as a train quickly approached. Shedding his street clothes in favor of the Superman uniform, and outpaced the rain to save the boy in the nick of time. The boy was unconscious, and Superman brought him to safety long enough for him to recover while he redonned his work clothes. The boy, Frankie Dennis, woke and told him that he hadn't eaten in two days, so Clark treated him to lunch. He explained that he had run away from an orphanage, where the superintendent, Lyman, was cruel and abusive. Frankie obviously didn't want to go back, but Clark convinced him to be his "undercover man" to take Lyman to task and save the rest of the orphans from his abuse. Clark took him back to the orphanage, where Lyman reacted angrily to Frankie's attempt to run away, before softening upon seeing Clark. Clark returned with Lois to officially check out the orphanage for a potential report, but they were followed by a pair of rival reporters, limiting their ability to investigate. The children seemed mostly happy, but Clark and Lois could still tell that something was amiss: Frankie seemed to want to tell Clark something, but held back when he saw Lyman. That night, Superman investigated the orphanage himself, finding a suspicious ledger that showed him paying a conspicuous amount of money to a grocer. Investigating the grocer, Superman found that the ledgers didn't match up: Lyman was embezzling money. When he returned to the orphanage, he found that it was on fire and Lyman was fleeing. Superman knocked him out and rescued those inside the building, including Lois, who had come on her own to investigate. Lyman was arrested for embezzlement, arson, and child abuse, while the orphanage was rebuilt and a kind new superintendent hired.

### The smuggling story

Clark was promoted at the *Daily Star* for his work on the Larry Trent story; consequently, Lois was demoted to writing a love column. Clark attempted to ask her out, but she rejected him as usual. However, she soon seemed to change her mind, and asked him out instead. In truth, Lois had simply found a lead for a story to potentially get her old job back. They went to a dark and dingy club, where the two danced, and Lois quietly encouraged a gangster named Lew Frawley to cut in. He did so, and she grabbed a piece of paper out of his pocket. Lois and Clark left soon after, but Lew and his gangster buddies caught on and led them to a boat at the nearby waterfront. He punched Clark into the water, allowing the criminals to escape while he turned into Superman. He met them at their destination with jewels that they had smuggled from Europe, and easily beat them up and took them to justice, depositing Lois safely outside of the police station. Later, Lois tried to submit a story on what she'd gone through, but Clark beat her to the presses.

## Notes

1. ↑ This is the first issue in which Metropolis is mentioned by name.

## See also

* Biography of Superman (Earth-Two), 1938
* Biography of Superman (Earth-Two), 1940
* Biography of Lois Lane (Earth-Two), 1938-1939

## References

1. ↑ *Action Comics* #8a: "Superman in the Slums." (January 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
2. ↑ *Action Comics* #9a: "Wanted: Superman." (February 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
3. ↑ *Action Comics* #10a: "Superman Goes to Prison." (March 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
4. ↑ *Action Comics* #11a: "Superman and the 'Black Gold' Swindle." (April 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
5. ↑ *Action Comics* #12a: "Superman Declares War on Reckless Drivers." (May 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
6. ↑ *New York World's Fair Comics* #1a: "Superman at the World's Fair." (April 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
7. ↑ *Action Comics* #13a: "Superman vs. the Cab Protective League." (June 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
8. ↑ *Superman* #1e: Untitled text story. (July 1939) Siegel, Jerry and Joe Shuster.
9. ↑ *Action Comics* #14a: "Superman Meets the Ultra-Humanite." (July 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
10. ↑ *Action Comics* #15a: "Superman on the High Seas." (August 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
11. ↑ *Action Comics* #16a: "Superman and the Numbers Racket." (September 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
12. ↑ *Superman* #2a: "The Comeback of Larry Trent." (Fall 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (p), Cassidy, Paul (i).
13. ↑ *Superman* #2b: "Superman Champions Universal Peace!" (Fall 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (p), Cassidy, Paul (i).
14. ↑ *Superman* #2c: "Superman and the Skyscrapers." (Fall 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (p), Cassidy, Paul (i).
15. ↑ *Superman* #2d: Untitled text story. (Fall 1939) Siegel, Jerry and Joe Shuster.
16. ↑ *Action Comics* #17a: "The Return of the Ultra-Humanite." (October 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
17. ↑ *Action Comics* #18a: "Superman's Super-Campaign." (November 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
18. ↑ *Action Comics* #19a: "Superman and the Purple Plague." (December 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
19. ↑ *Superman* #3a: "Superman and the Runaway." (Winter 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).
20. ↑ *Superman* #3h: "Superman and the Jewel Smugglers." (Winter 1939) Siegel, Jerry (w), Shuster, Joe (art).