Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I always liked the idea of Amnesium in concept because it showed Superman as a supergenius scientist, chemist and inventor. That's the problem: how do you show Superman is a great genius, when pretty much any equipment he'd make would be made superfluous by his powers?

It's been said on many occasions that Amnesium's rays are blocked by lead, which means it is a radioactive element (possibly a derivative of Kryptonite?).

Knowledge of Amnesium must have lasted up to the 30th Century, because at one point in the Paul Levitz run on LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, Element Lad created Amnesium as a weapon (why he didn't do this more often is anyone's guess).

There was one occasion where Superman used Amnesium on the members of the Justice League, in the Gerry Conway story where they were "Exiled from Earth," to remove all memories of each other's secret identities.

What I find really amazing, and a sign writers don't do their homework these days, is Mark Waid constantly having the JLAers reveal their identities to each other. Sure, buds like Hal and Barry know each other, as well as Superman and Batman. But for the most part the League didn't pry into their members' business.

Which is strange, because in a Waid JLA story, he had the members tell each other their secret identities. I mean, wouldn't this have been a good place to mention the Gerry Conway story? Ditto for JLA: YEAR ONE, where the (ahem) "founding JLAers" reveal their identities to each other?

Waid's supposed to be the #1 DC trivia guy. For one thing, why didn't Flash and GL mention they knew each other's identities? And two...how is that at all consistent with the Amnesium tale, set in the Satellite Years?

Here's my No-Prize attempt: the Amnesium exposure in the "Exiled to Earth" story removed memories of the chronologically earlier "Year One" revalation. Furthermore, the reason Hal and Barry didn't act like they knew each other was because the BRAVE AND THE BOLD stuff didn't happen, in the revised DC timeline, until AFTER JLA.

(I guess it doesn't matter anymore, because JLA: YEAR ONE is out of continuity thanks to INFINITE CRISIS.)

What?!! Oh I don't remember..... ???

I never knew Supes invented Amnesium. Or maybe I did and just forgot. ;)
Julian, I think you are referring to Gardner Fox's story "Super-Exiles of Earth" from Justice League of America #19 (http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=17645&zoom=4). This was well before Conway's run on the JLA.

There was also a Marty Pasko story "The Great Identity Crisis" from Justice League of America #122 (http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=28966&zoom=4). In that story, the JLA is nearly defeated when Dr. Light scrambles their secret IDs. The Batman thinks he's Ollie Queen, the Atom thinks he's Hal Jordan, etc. At the end of the story, the JLAers agree to reveal their IDs to each other to prevent a similar problem from happening again. This story was a "casebook" adventure (an early retcon, I guess), and chronologically it fits somewhere around issue #75 (after GA changed costumes but before the satellite HQ).

I couldn't begin to comprehend the continuity changes that have been conceived in the past 20 years, but I think I've reached the point where my brain can't ingest too much more. Exposure to Amnesium would be overkill.

YEAAAAH, my bad, it was #19. Well, no matter who wrote it, it was a pretty bad story. For one thing, their exile sentence made no sense. If the JLA really HAD gone rotten, why would they turn themselves in so meekly? Second, last time I checked, it was "innocent until proven guilty." They wouldn't be forced off earth until their "innocence is proved to the satisfaction of the court!" That's just not how the American legal system does it.

If the JLA, guys that can move continental plates, really DID turn bad...they would send regular cops with guns and nightsticks after them? NO.

Also, Dr. Destiny is a knucklehead. He's got the Materiopticon, a machine that can make dreams a reality (which apparently, he built out of parts from prison because obviously in jail they'd let a known criminal genius inventor tinker with electronics), and a gas that can make anyone dream about whatever he likes...and he's still in prison? The Dream-JLA he created is running around stealing everything that isn't bolted down, and he's sitting pretty in JAIL? And in that issue, he has the nerve to call himself a mastermind.

As far as I can tell, Amnesium is just a substance that was found in space and brought back and kept by Superboy, initially.

That's right, of course it came from space (see link below). Superman didn't invent that anymore than he invented lead.

see here: http://www.supermanica.info/wiki/index.php/Amnesium

Otto Binder was big into amnesia stories.

Who knew Julian was such a huge Otto Binder fan?