Born on The Fourth World: Part XIII
Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #138, June 1971
‘Everybody’s in this one!’ says the cover of Jimmy Olsen #138, and the statement is, for the most part, correct, with one important exception - which we come to. The title of this chapter is ‘The Big Boom!’ and there is immediately no doubt that the story is headed towards an explosive climax.
The opening splash page has Guardian and the senior Newsboys, tooled up and flanked by a squad of soldiers, charging through the Project facility, towards the reader. Their faces are etched with grim determination. They now know that the ‘Destructive DN Alien’ originated from the Evil Factory and so they are racing to assist Superman, Jimmy and the junior Newsboys in stopping the creature, before it is too late.
They pile into trucks and speed off, tearing through a double page splash of Kirby’s classic photo montages. The Evil Factory has jammed all communications, so they have no idea if Jimmy and his friends are even alive.
They are still alive, but they are all trapped inside a giant egg. As Scrapper puts it, ‘A big, stupid alien egg!’ Even Superman’s incredible strength is no good against the interior of the outsized ovum. ‘It has a wild atomic structure which yields and hold against my strength!’ says the Man of Steel.
As the heroes struggle inside their rubber roe, the Four-Armed Terror is continuing its crazed rampage through the base, destroying everything in its path to get to the atomic power plant, where it can slake its uncontrollable thirst for nuclear energy.
Jimmy wonders if there is a way that they could make the bendable shell hard and brittle. Superman remembers that, in the first place, the creature broke out of the egg using ‘body electricity.’ He begins to rub his hands together to create ‘a spectacular burst of crackling energy!’ It works and the egg disintegrates.
Superman immediately flies in pursuit of the monster. Jimmy and the Newsboys call after him to wait, but he has not time to reply. He must stop the monster before it causes an atomic explosion.
Meanwhile, back at the Daily Planet, Perry White is meeting with a friend of Jimmy’s, Terry Dean. The pair share pleasantries, before Perry asks her if she has any clue as to Jimmy’s latest story. Terry says that she remembers him mentioning something about Morgan Edge. Perry is immediately concerned about Jimmy’s safety, saying that, ‘Edge is not above gambling with a human life!’
If only Perry White knew the half of it, because elsewhere, Morgan Edge, acting on a tip off from Inter-Gang, is leaving Metropolis to its atomic fate, via a helicopter sent by Darkseid. He casually leaves his office, and all his staff, to burn in the imminent nuclear holocaust, with a smile on his face, as one would expect any CEO to do so.
Back underground, Superman has intercepted the Four-Armed Terror. As the beast hurls boron steel rods at the Man of Tomorrow, an army of more DN Aliens begin to pour through a ‘dimensional threshold’ from the Evil Factory, sent by Mokkari and Simyan!
Guardian, the senior Newsboys and the army arrive, just in time to help with the battle. Superman asks Big Words Snr if, ‘the test tunnels are still here?’ Big Words Snr confirms that they are, adding that the Project has ‘been planning to tap the Earth’s core for power!’
While everyone continues to fight the monsters, Superman picks up the reactor and runs towards the test tunnels. The army of Four-Armed Terror’s give chase. Superman runs at ‘sonic speed’ as the countdown to atomic meltdown reaches its final ten seconds. Just in time, Superman reaches the ‘deep core tunnel’, a wide, bottomless pit. He hurls the reactor into it, then ducks to one side, as the DN Aliens hurl themselves into the abyss, following their food source, ‘like maddened lemmings.’
The countdown reaches zero, and thousands of feet below; the reactor explodes, causing seismic tremors, felt hundreds of miles away. But Metropolis, the Project, the Wild Area and all their inhabitants have been saved from destruction. Superman has done it again.
An hour later, the Man of Steel and the Guardian have wandered back into the facility, to find Jimmy and the junior Newsboys. They find that their sidekicks are sulking. ‘We were kept out of the big action!’ says Big Words Jr
‘Yes,’ says Jimmy. ‘You have no right to hog the nitty gritty market!’ The Guardian (not to mention the reader) cannot understand what Jimmy is talking about. He points out that, ‘Superman saved us all!’
‘So, what does he want?’ asks Gabby. ‘A good conduct medal?’
I think that this petulant ending is Kirby telling on himself. On the cover of Jimmy Olsen #138, it says that ‘Everybody’s in this one!’ When, in fact, one very significant character does not get much of a look in at all; the title character, James Bartholomew Olsen.
Jimmy will be really struggling for the spotlight in the next issue too, as we meet arguably the most bizarre character in the entire DC multiverse; Goody Rickles!
But that will have to wait as, next time in Born on The Fourth World, things get serious for Orion and The New Gods.
Death is coming, and in the Fourth World, death wears skis...
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