Flying Photo-Journalists: The Other Relentless Redhead Reporters

Jimmy Olsen, a name synonymous with relentless redheaded reporters. While multiple versions of the "Action Ace", Jimmy's predominant nickname, existed... the two most notable were the Daily Planet's Jimmy of Earth-One and the Daily Star's Jimmy of Earth-Two. Each young lad grew into manhood, fullfilling a lifelong goal of being a renowned reporter. Each focus, at least at first, on photojournalism. As the go-to photographer of their respective newspapers, the Olsens over time earned the trust of their editors-in-chief, Perry White and George Taylor, to transition into well-regarded writers as well.

A key factor towards the success of each Jimmy was his friendship with coworkers Lois Lane and Clark Kent, who were seasoned journalists that groomed them over time. In addition, both Olsens became well known as becoming the best friends of their worlds' Supermen, whom they assisted in various adventures... becoming something of sidekicks to the Men of Steel. While the Earth-Two Jimmy had only his wits and his natural skills to aid him, the Earth-One Jimmy also had several temporary superhuman powers gifted to him by his friend Professor Potter from time-to-time.

The Earth-One Jimmy had one other secret to his success, a miniaturized lookalike of himself from the bottled city of Kandor. Kandor had been shrunked by the amoral android Brainiac from the doomed planet Krypton-One, and later retrieved by Superman where he placed it in his Fortress of Solititude. In gratitude for all his help, the Kandorians created a couple specialized Squads of select citizens from among them. Although each member was tiny, these individuals of the Superman Emergency and Lookalike Squad proved invaluable at times to both Kal-El in both his Superman and Clark Kent identities, and those of his friends in Metropolis.

Among these, Zol-Lar proved especially adept at being an apt superpowered substitute for Jimmy, whom he looked like. When temporarily enlarged, Zol-Lar would impersonate Jimmy while flying at superspeed. On Earth-Two, in place of Zol-Lar, there was another redhaired photojournalist named Tubby Watts who also on possessed superhuman speed and flight. Using the speed formula 3X2(9YZ)4A which his pal Johnny Chambers used, Tubby was able to pinch hit for Chamber's alter ego Johnny Quick on occasion. 

While not as physically fit as his world's Jimmy, Tubby's appearance matched the temporarily overweight Jimmy of Earth-One. And more importantly, Tubby was just as faithful and tenacious, both in reporting the truth and helping his heroic best friend to expose evildoers.

I Love Lucy: Said Jimmy Olsen and George Tompkins

A fascinating case study in how Earths One and Two diverged yet still mirrored one another is the example of the sister of Lois Lane. Or rather, each sister of both Lois Lanes. Each woman on the surface appeared to be exact duplicates, as were their famous siblings. But upon closer examination, the life choices of Lucy and Lucille resulted in different eventualities for these two members of the Superman Family.

The first to appear was Lucille of Earth-Two. Both were, at least as adults, brunettes... although it seems that Lucy had blonde hair that darkened later in life. Eventually, the Earth-One Lucy would dye her hair blonde, and later have platinum blonde lockes. And it seemed that unlike Lucy, Lucille did not have 20/20 vision, as she wore prescription glasses. However, Lucy may also have had poor eyesight, and simply wore contact lenses.

The first time Lucy was shown was when cub reporter of the Daily Planet, Jimmy Olsen, met her. Learning that she was a flight attendant, Jimmy instantly fell for Lucy and hatched various schemes to sway her to him, including pretending to be a famous cowboy and an inventor. Despite his sincere feelings, Lucy could not recipricate these, as she had a wandering eye. Besides this, she was resolved to never settle down and marry until first her older sister was married. This is the first main difference between the two Lane sisters, their ages relative to each Lois. Lucy's roommate was Lois. But who was Lucille's?

While Lucy was the second born of Sam and Ella Lane, Lucille appears to have been the first born of the Sam and Ella Lane of her world. How would we know this? Because she already had an adolscent child while Lois was still unattached. When Lucille first appeared, she was already a mother completely flustered with that daughter, Susie Tompkins. While the name of Susie's mom had yet to be revealed, it was evident that this mother of Lois Lane's niece Susie was Mrs. Tompkins. Indeed, Lucille already had an established family with her husband George and their daughter, ahead of Lois, who married Clark Kent years later.

And it was at this wedding that apparently Lucille met a much younger Jimmy, as she was Lois' maid of honor while he was Clark's bestman. Given that she was already married and much older than Jimmy... while the Earth-One Jimmy and Lucy were about the same age... this and a future occasion, while celebrating Clark and Lois' anniversary, were the extent of their interactions.

Lucy never had time to marry, as she would adopt a secret identity as actress Sandra Rogers, and nearly marry Jimmy's secret agent alter ego of Magi. Later, while on an undercover mission, Lucy seemingly died in a  remote jungle, but was revived ... only to become an extremely aged woman. Although this process was reversed, the progressive damage done to her toxic relationship with Jimmy led to the couple finally, permanently, breaking up. While Lucille made a career as a housewife and a mother, Lucy transitioned from being a flight attendant to a nurse for the disadvantaged.

Children Copying Courageous Crusaders: The Jimmy Olsen Fan Club and Junior Justice Society

Fan clubs of famous celebrities are commons, wherein a group of youngsters regale in the exploits in tales of their favorite hero or heroine. Two of the most proiminent ones on the parallel planets of Earths One and Two were the Jimmy Olsen Fan Club and the Junior Justice Society. While undoubtedly there were fans of the Justice League and of the other older Jimmy Olsen of the Daily Star, each on their respective worlds, they weren't as organized as these gregarious groups highlighted today.

The Jimmy Olsen Fan Club of Earth-One modeled themselves after the legendary cub reporter for the Daily Planet. They would listen to their mentor as he presided over their meetings, sharing memorable experiences with them. On occasion, these teens assisted Jimmy in some of his adventures. They were primarly based out of Metropolis, where there headquarters was located.

The Junior Justice Society of Earth-Two modeled themselves after the adult team of the same name, Notable members of the Junior JSA included Bill Townsley, Billy Peters, and Lefty. When they first appeared, individual members helped the adult Society to combat racist propaganda originating from Nazi Germany. Among their notable adversaries are the rival kid gang known as the Crimson Claws, and their mentors' arch-foes in the Injustice Society of the World... both of whom they have a hand in defeating! They were primarly based out of Civic City, where there headquarters was located.

The Other Heroes of Earth-X - from Earths One and Two

By far the most famous superheroes on Earth-X were the Freedom Fighters, who migrated from Earth-Two in order to combat the Axis Powers that dominated that world. Brought there by Uncle Sam, among their most prominent members were the Ray, Black Condor, Phantom Lady, Human Bomb and Doll Man. All former members of the All-Star Squadron, which itself had scores of members to defend their world which included teams such as the Justice Society and Law's Legionnaires, there were several others who joined Sam and for a brief period of time were themselves Freedom Fighters.

Sadly most of these individuals evidently perished on Earth-X... such as Red Bee, the Jester, the Spider, Quicksilver. Others left that planet relatively soon after their arrival there. The Blackhawk Squadron ventured back to Earth-Two in 1943, sometime later during the Convergence event Plastic Man... presumed dead by his teammates... ended up on Earth-Twelve where his son would follow in his footsteps and eventually met the Inferior Five. Then there was the case of Dan Richards, aka Manhunter.

Richards decided he wanted to return to Earth-Two, which is evident as he would have a child there, then a grandchild in Marcie Cooper, herself girlfriend to Infinity Inc.'s Obsidian aka Todd Rice. His method for returning was through the dimension-spanning android Manhunters, originally designed by the Guardians of the Earth-One Universe, who initially recruited Richards as well as Paul Kirk to become their agents. Although he was sent to Earth-X so that these androids could extend their influence to another universe, Richards ultimately decided to retire his costumed identity. 

However, upon returning to Earth-Two in 1943, he must have brought back with him another superhero native to Earth-Two... Captain Triumph. Triumph briefly joined the All-Star Squadron,  no doubt learning from the more experienced members on a few unspecified adventures together.

Early in that same year, Triumph first journeyed to Earth-X, apparently accompanying Rod Reilly aka Firebrand, who desired to journey to that world and had an undefined ability to cross dimensions.

Accidentally journeying to Earth-X thanks to a device created by his friend Professor Potter, Jimmy Olsen of Earth-One discovered there that he gained powers (due to an exploding volcano) comparable to those of his pal Superman. Adopting the alias of Steel-Man, a fictional creation of writer Clark Kent of that world, Olsen battled the evil LUTHAR League and its leader. That leader, who appeared like the Joker of Earths One and Two, was in actuality Kent himself. Clark lured Jimmy into a trap, allowing him to steal Steel-Man's powers, although Olsen used Krypton gas to render the villain's powers inert. 

Clark was originally Kal-L, sole survivor of the planet Krypton in his universe known as Viro. Instead of landing on Earth-X in his home dimension, he ended up on Earth-Two where he used his powers for good as Wonder Boy. When his abilities began to wane in the mid-1940s, he traveled back to the world he was meant to live on… Earth-X. Sadly, as an adult Clark Kent, his thirst for his former amazing abilities turned him corrupt.

Once that threat was dealt with, Jimmy returned to Earth-One along with Professor Potter. And then, the Allied Powers of Earth-X finally lost to the Axis Powers, with the Freedom Fighters as the last surviving superheroes opposing them.

* Although it has been disputed that this didn't appear to be the same Earth that the Freedom Fighters operated on, as there was no reference as to World War II having continued past 1945. However, Uncle Sam told the Justice Society and Justice League in 1973 that the German forces were unable to invade America until "5 years ago", in 1968. Two years prior to that, in 1966, Jimmy Olsen arrived on Earth-X and became Steel-Man over a period of mere weeks. Of course, there is no record of his meeting the Freedom Fighters, who may have been busy in Europe.

Funny Faced Friends, Fiends, Foils, & Foibles

Professor Potter, the well-intentioned yet absent minded uncle of Lana Lang, provided many misguided adventures for his friends and family due to his bizarre inventions. The one most effected by his dabblings into the scientific mysteries of the universe was undoubtedly his young associate, Jimmy Olsen. And Potter's golden age counterpart was likewise a source of trouble on occasion.

Among the most successful creations of Potter's was the serum that allowed Jimmy to transform himself into the stretching superhero: Elastic-Lad. 

Prior to this, the Professor unleashed his z-rays on Olsen, transforming the lad into villain Future-Jimmy with mental abilities... which he soon thereafter reversed. Another time, a pill thought to cure a toothache, turned Jimmy into a giant! Potter had previously spawned an evil clone of Jimmy Olsen, and later still would transform Olsen himself into a bizarro much like his own imperfect duplicate Bizarro Jimmy on planet Thrae. Eventually, while on that world, Jimmy used the duplicator ray that initially created duplicates of Superman's friends and foes on Potter, creating a Bizarro Professor Potter who reversed the process, returning Jimmy to his normal humanoid appearance again.

In fact, on the square shaped homeworld of the Bizarros, there were several familiar if hideously disfigured faces beside Jimmy. Some were Bizarro-Lex Luthor, Bizarro-Joker and Bizarro-Titano. These mirrored the villains brought to psuedo-life by the Earth-Two Potter, aka Funny Face, to rob for him. These were Machine Gun Mike, Viper and a lizard giant... all based on comic strip characters Funny Face's bio-ray brought to life. And in fact, shortly after this first caper, Funny Face reappeared behind the scenes to produce a series of Superman-themed cartoons, where synthetic two-dimensional Supermen and Lois Lanes had a series of adventures in their own virtual reality, scenes by audiences across the United States.

To combat these, Lois Lane slyly activated the device while captured by the criminal, and brought to life comic strip heroes that mimic different persona's of Earth-One Jimmy Olsen. Among these was the red-and-yellow costume clad hero Streak Dugan, who like Jimmy's Kandorian alter ego of the masked red-and-yellow clad Flamebird, came equiped with advanced gadgets to fight the forces of evil. Each comic character could grow large, just like Jimmy as Elastic Lad and during his gigantic Turtle Boy phases.

Perhaps the most dangerous villains that Potter and Funny Face unleashed on their respective Earths was the medieval malcontents known as Krogg and Torgo. While Earth-One was saved from Krogg thanks to the combined efforts of both Supermen, the original Superman on Earth-Two enlisted the aid of the caped knight Prince Peril, a more noble psuedo-personage than the dark knight Bizarro Batman whom modern Superman encountered.

The Men who aided Jimmy Olsen aka Mister Action

Jimmy Olsen, both Jimmys actually, were young hotshot reporters for their respective Metropolis' biggest newspapers. As on Earth-One with the Daily Planet, so on Earth-Two at the Daily Star... many of these paper's most celebrated stories were penned by these two red-headed youths. And while they owed their success in part to the Supermen, they also were aided in their quest for the truth... and in fact their very survival, to the Professor Phineas Potter of their twin world's. While these two men had divergent paths, they ended up mirroring one another in life.

The Earth-One Professor Potter was a well-intentioned yet absent minded uncle of Lana Lang, provided many misguided adventures for his friends and family due to his bizarre inventions. Among the most successful creations of Potter's was the serum that allowed Jimmy to transform himself into the stretching superhero: Elastic-Lad. He also developed a variation of the duplication machine, which had originally been created by another scientist that spawned Bizarro clones of Superman and other individuals. 

The Earth-Two Professor Potter was originally an aspiring cartoonist who developed a bio-ray that could duplicate fictional characters and turn them into 3-dimensional characters, including Superman's alter ego of Flying Tiger. After a couple forays into felony as Funny Face, Potter retired from his criminal career and turned his desire to bring things to life into a career as a physician. Years later, he modified his bio-ray to enable him to duplicate organs, which he used to clone an organ of the younger Jimmy Olsen of Earth-One to save his world's Olsen. Interestingly, it was while that Jimmy still had the Elastic-Lad serum in his veins, and so this now was a part of Earth-Two Jimmy's physiology, although there was no record of the older Olsen becoming an "Elastic-Man".

The Other Dynamic Duos.... From Kandor and the 30th Century

Batman and Robin were the source of inspiration for many a costumed crusaders, and in these two cases it showed that the concept they embodied was universal and timeless. In the Bottled City of Kandor, last remaining metropolis of the deceased Krypton-One then residing in Superman's Fortress of Solitude, Superman and Jimmy Olsen journeyed there to track down Kryptonian raiders who had threatened Earth-One with a series of thefts. Learning they were outlaws, the pair adopted the aliases of Nightwing and Flamebird inspired by a pair of Kryptonian birds and Gotham City's Dynamic Duo.

Soon thereafter, Kal-El relinquished his Nightwing costume and gave it to distant relative Van-Zee, who had previously imitated his Superman alter ego on occasion. Later, former Phantom Zone inmate Ak-Var married Zee's niece while employed under Van and became the new Flamebird. The pair had scores of adventures in Kandor before it was eventually enlarged. 

Their counterparts were another duo in the tradition of Gotham's gladiators... Crimson Avenger and Wing. After several solo adventures, the pair became members of Law's Legionnaires and later the All-Star Squadron. It was with their fellow Legionnaires that the duo saved Earth-Two from Nebula Man, although ultimately at the cost of their very lives due to radiation exposure.

In the 30th Century of Earths One and Two, the descendant of their worlds' Batmen operated in successive generations culminating in Bron Wayn and Brane Taylor. These futuristic caped crusaders faced fearsome threats such as Bron's foes Muto and Joker and Brane's enemies Xerxa and the Dome. Inspired by Wayn's predecessors the sixth and fifteenth Batmen and Taylor's is the original Brane and Ricky of decades earlier.

Working alongside Bron was his era's Superman, aka Clar Ken, just as Brent had as an ally his nephew whom he adopted in Ricky Taylor. Each of Wayne's descendants during this time came equipped with science undreamed of in the 20th century, such as sophisticated belt jets, advanced communication equipment and teleporting technology... it was their tenacity and courage that helped them utilize it effectively as crime fighters in their time.



Supermen Families: Offset Adventures

The Superman Family was prolific in having their tales chronicled, and not only alongside their most famous member. At least on Earth-One, as its members operated just as well individually as collectively like the Marvel Family.

In place of Lar Gand aka Mon-El who fought alongside Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th Century, there was Doctor Occult who had similar abilities fighting alongside Superman in the All-Star Squadron. Other legacy characters were Eltro Gand and Halk Kar who met his Superman on one adventure with Halk's tale paralleling Lar's first encounter with the Boy of Steel. While Halk eventually returned to native Thoron, Eltro would assume Lar's heroic career a thousand years in the future, and this would parallel Richard Occult's tales both in a similar costume to Gand's and in his famed trench coat which both wore.

And rather than the bizarre mis-adventures of "Superman's Pal", wherein Jimmy Olsen was transformed by all manner of strange occurrences including a female 5th dimensional imp while wearing his trademark green suits... there was the wacky tales of the Justice Society's mascot Johnny Thunder, who's every wish and whim was turned on its head by an imp from the Thunderbolt Dimension. Other tales with Superman assisting mirrored those of another redhaired reporter Tubby Watts and his pal Johnny Quick. And Jimmy's latter day tales, when he teamed up with the Golden Guardian and the Newsboy Legion on Earth-One would be mirrored by the original Earth-Two adventures of the first Guardian and the Legion's parents, themselves children at the time.

On Earth-Two, there wasn't a "Superman's Pal...Jimmy Olsen" or the "Daring New Adventures of Supergirl" and the like. Sure, they had their own red-haired cub reporter in Jimmy, their own Girl of Steel (Power Girl, whose only solo tales were in "Showcase" #97-99), and the Metropolis Marvel's one true love in Lois. Nevertheless, there were adventures on Kal-L's world that offset those on Kal-El's world, even if their participants weren't Halk Kar of Thoron, James Olsen of Metropolis, the Masked Wonder of Smallville or Kara Zor-L of Kandor.

The Adventures of Superboy were balanced out by those of Darrell Dane aka Doll Man. Darrell was a miniature version of Superman on Earth-Two as was Kal-El's cousin Don-El on Earth-One. While both Don-El as Captain of the Superman Emergency Squad and Kal-L the Masked Wonder only had a few adventures, Superboy and Doll Man each had hundreds of tales between them.

Then there was the Federal Man, aka Steve Carson. Steve like his counterpart Cory Renwald was a government agent. Both Cory and Clark had common step-parents with Jonathan and Martha Kent, with Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster being the creative "parents" of both Renward and Carson. On occasion, Steve even wore a spandex costume, thus at times mirroring on Earth-Two the later teen tales of the Superboy of Earth-One

Instead of the adventures of the younger adolescent Superboy in the 30th century, there were the tales Earth-Two's Wonder Woman had when travelling to the 30th century of her world. Earth-One Superman's alter ego Clark Kent was at times impersonated by the Kandorian leader of the Superman Lookalike Squad, Vol-Don. Vol-Don's Earth-Two counterpart Dave Clark aka Midnight had scores of tales mirroring thos of the "Private Life of (Earth-One's) Clark Kent".

Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl had mostly solo tales in Action Comics, then Adventure Comics, followed by her first self-titled series which led to her featured in Superman Family and concluding in a second self-titled series. Kara Zor-l aka Power Girl was featured alongside the Justice Society of America in stories chronicled in All-Star Comics followed by Adventure Comics and later Infinity Inc.

While Supergirl had a scant few adventures as a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Power Girl had a scan few sole adventures apart from the teams for which she was a member. Supergirl's early tales, where she was pals for with Lena (Luthor) Thorul were offset by the solo adventures of Lena's cosmic twin Liberty Belle aka Libby Lawrence that proceeded Power Girl's first appearance

Then there was that one true love, Lois Lane, who had golden age adventures in the backpages of Superman starting in issue #29 through #42, before graduating into a co-star in the Mr. and Mrs. Superman tales in a few issues of "Action Comics" and "Superman" before their continuing series featured in Superman Family #195-222.

Although not nearly the volume of cases that her Earth-One counterpart had in "Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane" #1-137, this would be compensated by the adventures of a contemporary of Earth-Two's Lois in Jane Arden, also a news reporter. She had scores of tales in Quality Comics. Jane Arden's Earth-One counterpart Meg Tempest was always a background character in Lois and her friends adventures.

Superman Family: Superman's Pal - Jimmy Olsen

Many adored the Supermen, and a few were close friends. However, his closest pal throughout the cosmos was Jimmy Olsen. The Jimmy of Earth-Two started out as a cub reporter/photographer of the Daily Star while still in his early teens, and orphan. On Earth-One, Jimmy was a little older when he joined the Daily Planet staff.

And on the silver age world, Jimmy had a fairly impressive career, and not simply in journalism. His propensity for getting into difficult situations was resolved thanks to his special signal watch, which could summon Superman in a pinch. However, there were times when he transformed into a giant Turtle Boy, Wolf-Man, Speed Demon, a human porcupine and his most famous alter ego... Elasti-Lad. It was in this alias that he was recruited into the Legion of Super-Heroes as an honorary member, at one point his female teammates attempted to elicit strong feelings in Olsen's on-again off-again girlfriend Lucy Lane, to no avail. At least he had his Jimmy Olsen fan club to fall back on for moral support, and the Newsboy Legion of Project Cadmus.

On Earth-Two, he had no ginko juice to drink, and thus never became Elasti-Lad. Nor any of the other more comical identities of his young counterpart. Nevertheless, he was heroic particularly when he twice took down the deadly Avenging Archer, initially during his first big break into the newspaper industry. Alas Lucy's twin Lucille was already married, and his potential fan club was more enamored in his world's premier team and became the Junior Justice Society. And it would be Johnny Thunder of that Society who would have similar zany adventures to Earth-One Jimmy, while the Johnny of that Jimmy's world had a mostly non-descript life like Earth-Two' s Jimmy. Later in life, when the older Olsen had an incurable disease, it was a cloned organ of his doppleganger that saved his life (and perhaps bestowed him with some of the latent abilities picked up from young Jimmy's various adventures).

Male-Manipulating Malevolent Maidens

Rona was an escape prisoner from the 7th dimension, sealed in a marble statue and left in the 3rd dimensional realm of Earth-One. When she mentally connected with young reporter Jimmy Olsen, she sought to gain his affection upon her release from her immobile state, Rona displayed tremendous mental abilities allowing her to transmute and materialized objects with only a thought. Eventually following their initial encounter, Jimmy and Rona decide to wed, after she provides Olsen with a serum that strengthens his physique. During their courtship, Rona finds a romantic rival in Lucy Lane. Despite winning the hand of Jimmy in marriage, the Interdimensional Patrol arrived during the wedding ceremony to incarcerate Rona. Their charge against this malevolent maiden? Murder, as she used a substance known as Curare to transform several former husbands into lifeless statues. After Jimmy was given an anecdote devised by Superman to save his life, she left behind Earth-One.

Lady Satan was a femme fatale on Earth-Two with the modus operandi of having a series of men married off, then slaying them to collect their insurance policies. She eventually came to the attention of beat cop Chuck Lane, also known in his other identity as the Jester, who in thought to be a costumed criminal but in reality is a masked manhunter. When she chose as her next prey Chuck's partner police detective Hustace McGinty, both Lane and Jester became involved in this case. While unable to materialize objects (a power possessed by Jester’s Freedom Fighters teammate Miss America), the Lady was able to make objects disappear through misdirection.

Rona would reappear several months after her last appearance, attempting to thwart the wedding of Jimmy and Lucy while removing competition and for his affections, even overpowering 5th dimensional Miss Gzptlsnz who likewise schemed against the couple. Once more, the Interdimensional Patrol arrived to recapture Rona, this time never to be seen again!

Lady Satan soon after her first appearance reentered the life of Chuck Lane, thus time attempting to enter into a partnership with him. She deduced that Lane and the Jester were one and the same, and saw use for both in outwitting the police while making him a partner on crime. Instead, Jester outwitted Lady Satan while ensnaring her as his fellow police officers encircled and captured her.