I have been going down a little rabbit hole here on the site, looking at the origin of Comet the Super-Horse. It started with my review of the children's book Comet!, a remarkably faithful adaptation of the Silver Age origin. With that done, I thought I'd look at the actual origin in Action Comics #293.
With those out of the way, I thought I would take a look at one of the wackier books from the early Bronze Age, Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #92. Leave it to writer E. Nelson Bridwell to take a look back at DC's history and faithfully stick to the details. And leave it to the early Bronze Age to have Lois undergo a rather Olsen-esque transformation into a centaur and a horse. Also, leave it to this time era to make things be a little cringe-y and weird.
The art really sings here. We start out with a Curt Swan/Neal Adams cover with the Lois centaur while Superman look on shocked. The inside art is Swan again, this time inked by Mike Esposito. Esposito really overpowers Swan's work here. Still, things are truly gorgeous here.
But please, buckle up. Like many stories from this era, there are more plot turns in this one than in years of current comics. It is a wild ride ... no pun intended!
On to the book.
'The Unbreakable Spell' opens with an amazing splash page.
If you thought Lois as a centaur on the cover was bananas, then seeing here as full on super-filly in a relationship with Comet on the first page is even more insane.
Sigh all you want Lois, you look pretty happy galloping alongside a playful Super-horse!
But how do we get here??
Lois is on assignment in what looks like the sweltering Southwest. She is heading to Satellite City to see Superman launch an artificial comet into space.
On the road to the launch, Lois' jeep conks out. With little choice, she begins walking in the blazing heat. She succumbs to the heat, passing out.
But luckily ('luckily' could be used over and over in this story synopsis), Comet was nearby. His telepathy picked up Lois's distress and so he rescues her. He takes her to her hotel.
We have all hear about how artists hate drawing horses. Swan and Esposito do a great job here.
What I do find interesting is that Lois doesn't seem to know about Comet at all. She doesn't recognize him, even when she has cooled off and sees him flying away.
Remember, Superman is there to launch an artificial comet. Bridwell reminds us that part of Comet's story is that Prince Endor of the Sorceror's Planet gave him a partial cure to his curse. When near the presence of a comet, Comet returns to human form.
Feeling the transformation coming on, Comet, luckily stumbles onto a ghost town where he can land and transform into a human. Inside the town, he finds clothes that fit and a trunk filled with a magician's gear. He heads into town.
I suppose that this aspect of his history ... occasionally becoming human and courting Supergirl ... is a bit too weird for the children's origin.
Now 'Bill Biron', Comet drives Lois' jeep back to the hotel. Luckily when the enging cooled it was able to be driven.
Thrilled to have the jeep back, the owner immediately hires Bill to do a magic show at his establishment.
Lois is completely smitten.
This encounter with Lois get Biron into remembering his own origin.
Here we see, once again, how Biron became Comet. Courting Circe, the centaur thwarted Maldor, and then was tricked into drinking the wrong potion. Thus the centaur became a full horse.
Pained by the error, Circe gave him immortality and god-like powers, albeit as a horse.
Maldor held a grudge and so banished Biron in horse form to an asteroid near the Sagittarius constellation.
Luckily, Kara's rocket, racing away from Argo City, zoomed by and destroyed the aura that trapped him.
This is a very faithful retelling of the Action origin, right down to the panel construction in some cases.
But then things get nuttier. In the magic show crowd are two assassins gunning for Lois. Biron's telepathy picks up the threat and he is able to thwart it.
With his feeling for Lois growing, and with her feelings for him just as strong, Biron decides to reveal everything. He tells Lois the whole story, something even Supergirl doesn't know. And Lois is turned on by it. That upper pink panel is amazing!
Despite having always been told his curse is unbreakable, Biron decides to reach back into the past telepathically to Circe to see if anything has changed.
Assassins! Love! Everything happens here!
But wait ... there's more!
Circe doesn't hear the telepathic plea. But Maldor does!
Initially, Maldor hopes to get even more revenge on Biron. But then he also is completely smitten by Lois. He tries to woo her but she refuses his advances.
Angry at her rejection, he decides to curse Lois.
Suddenly she is horse.
Now I don't know why he would make her a super-horse, but he does. The spell is purportedly unbreakable (hence the story title). Pleased with his malevolence, Maldor disappears back into the past.
What irony! Biron is now human! Lois is now a super-horse! I love this sort of twist in the Bronze Age. Goofy but delicious.
And turnabout is fair play. When the very human Biron almost get killed by wolves, it is Super-filly who comes in for the rescue!
Very nice art from Swan and Esposito, worthy of any Western book on the shelves.
Remember though, Biron is only human when a comet is near. The artificial comet Superman launched has left the system. Biron reverts to his Comet horse form.
After a near miss with some rustlers, Comet and Lois discover each other. Unfortunately, their telepathy cancels each other's out, so they cannot communicate. But who needs to talk?
The two super-horses frolic together, flying, bathing, and even some playful snowball fighting.
Hmmm ... do we even dare that things became even more heated????
Superman finally enters the story. He is bringing back the frame of the artificial comet but a nearby Kryptonite meteor makes the frame deadly to the Man of Steel. The two super-horse work together to save their friend.
In that brief moment, Superman gets a message from Circe in the past. It turns out Maldor's spell isn't unbreakable. A quick bath in rainbow light (created by Superman with some atomized water and Lois reverts to human.
Luckily ... or unfortunately ... or luckily and unfortunately, the spell removes all memories Lois might have while she was a horse. For me, I wish she did remember. Such potential for future stories!!
Amazingly, Biron never knew his super-filly was Lois. He was worried that Lois might be hurt when she went 'missing'. After dumping the K-Comet in space he sees Lois back at the hotel. He wonders if he will ever be Bill Biron again and see her.
Perhaps the most interesting twist in this is that Lois retains the knowledge that Comet is Biron. Only she knows it! Now there is a history nugget that could be used for a story. But I don't think it ever was.
What can I say about a bonkers story like this other than that I completely loved it. So many plot twists. A complete primer on Comet's history courtesy of Mr. Bridwell. Assassins, horse love, and dueling spells! All this with solid art.
What is not to love!
Overall grade: A
12 comments:
I don't think it's weird per se for Comet to court Supergirl as a human (if he did it as a horse, that would be weird), but there is a semi-implication of zoophilia in there that kids might pick up on nowadays. After all, Biron was a centaur before he became a full horse, not a human. I'm a bit worried that I've marred your opinion of what was meant to be a sweet and simple story at the time.
But let's focus on this story- I think it's pretty good. I'm willing to buy into most of these fortunate 'coincidences'. Somewhat surprisingly, the only thing I don't buy is that Comet and Lois's telepathies would cancel each other out. They could have communicated without discovering the identities they dated in and that wouldn't have changed the story otherwise.
Thanks for this review, Anj, it’s such a fun, daffy story. The likes of Lois, Biron, and indeed, Supergirl, were so fickle when it came to romance, like newborn lambs imprinting on the first thing they saw.
I love the idea of telepathy through time. I wonder why Comet didn’t see if Circe was still alive in the current day, though… if she can bestow immortality it’s logical to suspect she’s immortal herself. I must say, I always found Superman Family good Circe more interesting than Wonder Woman’s evil Circe.
Maybe Lois should have remained a filly and stayed with Comet. Superman was never going to come around, and Lois needed a nice stable relationship.
At any rate, she missed a good opportunity to get some good stories for the Daily Planet: "I Ran in the Kentucky Derby", "I Was a Horse on Gunsmoke and Bonanza". Typing up those stories would have been difficult with those hooves, though.
But that Biron/Comet looks to be something of a two-timer, romancing both Kara and Lois at the same time. And he had been in love with Circe, too!
By the way, DC Database credits Leo Dorfman as writer of this story.
‘… a nice stable relationship’. Oh, well done Professor!
Love the comments! 'Stable relationship' indeed!!
Fascinating on the writer. I'll have to check. Dorfman wrote all the other Comet stories so that makes sense!
@Martin Gray:
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, Circe was still alive at that point and she was at least semi-evil. She's the one who gave Superman the lion head that gets brought up in many discussions of the Silver Age. That may have been a different Circe though (possibly a descendant), considering she and Supes seem on good terms in this story. Or it could be they forgot about that story- who knows?
One of the first Superman comics I ever read. That was no Circe, that was Saturn Girl helping hoax the Superman Revenge Squad.
Martin and H, you are both right, just referring to two different stories. In "The Lady and the Lion" (Action Comics # 243, August 1958), an ancestor of Circe gives Superman a lion head for rejecting her offer of marriage. in the end, Superman discovers that (SPOILER ALERT).................................
the original Circe was from Krypton.
Superman # 165 (November 1963) "Beauty and the Super Beast" features the Saturn Girl (actually Saturn Woman now) Superman Revenge Squad story.
Oops! Quick correction on my comment above. The Circe in Action Comics # 243 was a DESCENDANT of the original Circe, not her ancestor. I confused the 2 terms, maybe because I had just read the word "ancestor" in the original story.
I caught that! But we’ve probably all made that goof at some point!
So Comet, Supergirl’s Super Equine Stalker…his “Hall Pass” is Lois Lane??! That vaults a romantic triangle into bizarro Quadrilateral Territory…
Next to Bizarro the silver age character who had the most potential for pathos was Comet/Biron/Bronco Bill, he is a centaur who wants to be human and ends up trapped in the immortal superhuman body of…a horse. No wonder he stalked Supergirl, he was trying to hold onto his badly compromised humanity.
:)
JF
Thanks, Prof- I couldn't remember whether it was her or a descendant with the same name and look. Gives me a good reason to dig out that Showcase Presents volume, at least.
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