It’s the spring of 1963 March, Jimmy Olson is dressing up and as a girl and no is saying “What the???” Jimmy liked to dress up as almost anything. The imagination of these tales is staggering. Here is an article I dug up on Jimmy Olson.
The many transformations of Jimmy Olsen
Especially in the days of the Silver Age, Jimmy would often find himself temporarily transformed, for better or worse, or undergo a disguise for various purposes. The transformation tradition is still sometimes referenced in current day comics, usually through homage or parody. The following is a partial list of some of the various forms and powers that Jimmy has experienced:
1. Giant Turtle Boy: One of Jimmy’s most frequently cited transformations was that of his turning into a giant turtle boy in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #53 (1961).
2. Elastic Lad – Whether by serum or by alien virus, Jimmy could sometimes stretch himself, akin to Plastic Man or Mister Fantastic. Jimmy first appeared as Elastic Lad in Jimmy Olsen #37 (1959). As Elastic Lad, Jimmy became an honorary member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #72 (1963)
3. Flamebird- name he took as a costumed superhero, with Superman disguised as Nightwing, in the shrunken Kryptonian city of Kandor. These names were inspired by two native Kryptonian birds, the nightwing and the flamebird.
4. Speed Demon – In 1956, a month before the debut of Barry Allen as the new Flash, Jimmy drank a potion produced by a Professor Claude and briefly gained super-speed.
5. Radioactive – After being exposed himself, Jimmy began to irradiate everything in his presence.
6. Gorilla – Jimmy switched minds with a gorilla in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #24 (reprinted in #114). He went about his reporting duties as a gorilla in Jimmy’s clothes.
7. Monstrous beard growth – The machinations of the sinister Beard Band cause Jimmy to grow an immense beard.
8. Alien-form – Aliens transformed Jimmy into a telepathic Jovian.
9. Wolf-Man – In the vein of the popular Michael Landon 1950′s film I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Jimmy found himself transformed into a werewolf in Jimmy Olsen #44 (1960).
10. Hippie – Jimmy grew a beard and joined a Superman-hating band of hippies in Jimmy Olsen #118 (1969). On the cover of this story’s issue, Jimmy’s seen wielding a rather humorous sign saying “Superman is a freak-out!”
11. Viking – Jimmy put on viking armor and mistakenly thought he’d been transported 1000 years backward in time.
12. Transvestite – Jimmy would occasionally go undercover dressed as a woman, such as in Jimmy Olsen #44 (1960). Grant Morrison paid a brief homage to this in All Star Superman #4.
13. Doomsday – Also in All Star Superman #4, Jimmy takes a serum and becomes a version of Superman’s foe Doomsday.
14. A genie
15. A six-armed man
16. A fire-breather
17. A water-breather
18. A human porcupine, in Jimmy Olsen #65 (1962).
19. A gorilla’s husband
20. Superman on another planet, but he got upset because the civilian knew who he was.
So that is the article. Pretty cool stuff. Here is a panel from ODD comics #2 in which we follow Jimmy on a cross-dressing adventure.
October 30, 2009 at 3:41 pm |
Jimmy Olson will do anything for a story.