Action Comics #309 is noteworthy among Silver Age Superman comics. The story is nothing particularly out-of-the-ordinary – your usual “Superman is being celebrated by the public and Lois/Lana use the opportunity to try and prove that he is also Clark Kent but he comes up with a clever method of fooling them” story. (The fact that a trope this complex is a stock Superman plot is one of the many things that is gloriously weird about the Silver Age.) Lois and Lana are prepared for all of Superman’s previous tricks and eliminate Superman Robots, Batman posing as Clark Kent, Chameleon Boy of the Legion of Super-Heroes shapeshifting into Superman, etc., by process of elimination.
But despite all of this, Superman and Clark Kent manage to appear in the same room, and naturally the secret is revealed in the final page of the story:
However, what is not generally known is that Edmond Hamilton wrote additional pages of the story, which were edited out. Although Curt Swan’s pencilled pages have, according to all reputable sources, been destroyed, I recently had the opportunity to see the original final pages of Hamilton’s script. Although I wasn’t able to get them to a scanner – the person in possession of the pages wasn’t willing to trust me with them – he did allow me to photograph them, and they are still mostly legible.
This is an important part of comics history, and I feel privileged to share it with you. It is worth remembering that the Silver Age was as often subversive as it was wacky.
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Thank Rao you were able to reveal this to the world, Mr Godking! It’s men like you that keep America strong! Even though you’re… like… Canadian. And stuff.
Some thoughts:
I was already thinking after the last panel that there was no way Superman was going to just let Kennedy know his secret identity. And the line “…subvert innocents like LOIS and LANA!”: listen Supes, if Kennedy, disguised as you could bed both of them, then there is nothing innocent about them. I think it also says something about those times when the line “..if I can’t trust the President of the United States then who CAN I trust?” was meant to be taken seriously.
This is awesome. I have doubt to it’s veracity, But it’s still excellent none the less.
After having carefully examined the kerning and fonts in this document, I have concluded that it is a forgery of the liberal media intended to subvert the character of Superman.
You had me going until Kennedy started talking about screwing all of Metropolis. Silly MGK, don’t you know that Silver-Age male characters had no genitals to speak of?
Clearly, this is no work of fiction, and was cut not for length, but for the fact that is the SHOCKING TRUTH behind one of America’s greatest mysteries!
The world must know!
See, John Horus? See what the right way to kill a president is?
Clearly, these pages were forgeries, created by Lex Luthor and sent through the dimensional vibration barrier to Earth-Prime in an effort to shame and discredit Superman’s reputation. We can only be grateful that Mort Weisinger was on the case.
I just surprised Kennedy didn’t ask Kal for Supergirl’s whereabouts.
That’s some good fanfiction. But where was the gay sex? Kennedy/Superman or Lee Harvey Oswald robot/Narration box? Too hard to decide.
So why did Superman pick Oswald, anyway?
He had to have a reason…
The most absolute brilliant thing about this is not just the premise, but that you managed to render it all in wonderful Silver Age logic.
If the Silver Age has taught me anything, it’s that you should kill anyone who refers to himself as “a man of the world”.
Ah, the silver age. It was a more innocent time.
HA! Brilliant! What an excellent way to start off the work day.
It read like the episode of The Venture Brothers where Colonel Bud Manstrong was being offered Vice Presidency.
I bow to you sir, not just for the quality of your humor, but to the lengths you will go to lend it authenticity.
How’d you generate the pages? It looks like a graphic, but I can’t rule out that you printed them out, crumpled them up and took pictures of them.
Joe:
That background is clearly a black & white topographical map of Kiev.
And I wish I had been around in the Silver Age. I would’ve written a Black Widow comic or something about a dreamland where a radiation-powered, insane Kennedy murdered thousands after running roughshod over Moscow.
On the first page, one of the “er”s is underlined with squiggly red.
*sighs* I fall for them every time… you think I’d have learned by now!
This is even more shocking than the time Superman called Sarah Palin a “witless, soulless whore.” Supes is just OFF DA HOOK, fo’ sho’.
Gotta agree with spacebattle here. I really thought there was going to be gay!
Superman’s not a dick, he’s the smooth flatness of a Ken doll.
You totally should have saved this for Nov 22.
SICK!
Also, I don’t think it’s real. Everyone knows Edmond Hamilton only used a manual typewriter. These pages were obviously typed on a Selectric. Duh.