Superman #37 (November 1989)
Superman #37 (November 1989)
Jimmy Olsen hates Superman, and punches him with a flying car. Unfortunately other kids happen to be in the car at the time, otherwise I’m pretty sure Jimmy would have burned to death in a heat vision-caused explosion.
Why does Jimmy hate Superman so much? Because a few weeks ago in Action #643, Superman gave him a hug upon returning from outer space and accidentally infected Jimmy with an alien virus. The Eradicator then mutated the virus and thus Jimmy himself, turning him into an elastic monster with freaky DNA (in Adventures #458). Luckily, Superman happens to have buddies at a secret government facility specializing in freaky DNA experiments, so he takes Jimmy there to be cured. Jimmy thanks Superman for all his help by throwing a huge tantrum and being rude to one of Superman’s friends, simply because of his hideous appearance:
The science guys at Cadmus inject Jimmy with a plot device that will eventually cure him, and then they leave him to rest – unfortunately, Project Cadmus happens to be inhabited by a group of mischievous newsboy vendors from the 1940’s (it’s a long story) who are feeling restless that day and decide to break out of the facility in the aforementioned flying car, the Whiz Wagon, taking Jimmy with them.
On their way to Metropolis, Jimmy and the Newsboys run into Superman, and since Jimmy is driving the car with his mind, his feelings of hostility make the Whiz Wagon start throwing explosives at Superman and then ramming him in the head. Superman manages to deactivate the Wagon’s engine and, in a remarkable demonstration of self-restraint, he picks up the car and flies it back to Cadmus instead of just letting Jimmy fall to a certain death. The Newsboys get a mild scolding from their guardian, The Guardian, but Jimmy has learned nothing from the experience and insists on being a little shit towards Superman.
Plotline-Watch:
When Superman is first taking Jimmy to Cadmus wrapped up in his cape, Jimmy gets a vision of Husque, that otherdimensional guy from Adventures #443, asking Jimmy for help to find his sister. Jimmy’s like “Oh, yeah, I remember her…” but the vision ends just as it was getting to the good part.
The Misadventures of Jose Delgado: Lois Lane definitely breaks it off with Jose (for the second time), but at least the poor guy manages to get some goodbye smooching action out of her. Then Jose gets caught up in a bank robbery and is forced to shoot a machine gun at a woman… but you know what, at this point he’s so used to his bad luck that I bet the event barely registered for him.
Reference-Watch:
This is like a remake of an old Jack Kirby issue of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen (even the cover is an homage to this one), with the only difference that instead of being so damn preppy all the time, Jimmy spends the whole issue feeling sorry for himself, hating Superman and making zingers at his expense. My favorite is this one:
WTF-Watch:
When the Newsboys hear there’s a friend of Superman at Cadmus they think it might be another superhero, and Tommy (the leader) says “Like The Flash?” Then Flip (the token black kid) adds: “…or Cyborg, from the Titans.” Come on, DC. You could have at least gone with a more prominent black DC hero, like… uh… never mind.
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