Superman's "Mopee" Tales

[Klar Ken T5477]

"Mopee", eh?

Isnt he the weird-oh with the wand who was revealed to have been the real creator of The Flash IIRC?

[Johnny Nevada]

IIRC, that Skinner episode has the Judge declare that no one must ever mention the Armin whatsisname thing again under penalty of death (or something). Whatever. Yeah, I *really* hated that episode (not as much as I hated "Homer's Enemy", but it's up there...). And yes, the Halloween episodes "don't count" re: the show's usual canon (yeah, I maintain the show has some semblance of consistency/continuity... probably more than the average cookie-cutter sitcom... but that's another argument).

More on-topic:

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SUPERMAN #137 (1961) "reveals" that Superman's rocket was duplicated by an energy ray, creating an antisocial evil twin, Super-Menace that followed Superman all through his entire life, and finally had a showdown with an adult Superman. Apparently, something as important as Superman having AN EVIL TWIN THAT FOLLOWED HIM HIS WHOLE FRICKIN LIFE was not important enough to mention again. Alas, it may be possible that Super-Menace is canon: a poster in the SUPERMAN SOURCEBOOK shows the precise moment that Super-Menace was created.
<<

The story's reprinted in "Showcase Presents Superman" vol. 2. There, it's revealed that the evil twin stayed hidden from Superboy/Superman/the world at large until both were grown men, though Super-Menace caused an occasioal bout of anonymous trouble while growing up. Not exactly following him his whole life, I guess---just the usual "evil twin" cliche to me  :-)

>>
Everybody knows that Marty Pasko story, "The Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis!" that has Superman use his glasses to magnify his hypnotic ability, which is why the Clark Kent disguise is so effective. It also has Superman hypnotize AN ENTIRE CITY, a feat he's thankfully never duplicated.
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I remember this one... wonder what the letter column responses about this one were like (or for these other "Mopee" stories, for that matter :-) ).

[DoctorZero]

As I recall, no one bought Pasko's explanation as to why the glasses helped Superman fool people into believing he and Clark Kent were different people.

As for the Simpsons, I believe they relish the Mopee factor.  Smithers will point out to Burns his varried history with Homer with Burns admitting he doesn't recall a thing.  Sideshow Bob will be sentenced to death by beheading at the end of one show and show up perfectly healthy the next time he appears.  Occasionally throw away explanations are given, but more often than not they don't even bother.  As a joke they will point out past stories with characters not remembering them (Flanders asking Homer about why he doesn't use his "Mr. Plow" snowplow to rescue their children trapped in the snowbound school;  Homer will act like Flanders is crazy.  Flanders will point out that Homer is wearing a "Mr. Plow" jacket.  And Homer still doesn't remember).

Bob Haney probably does take the award for creating more Mopee stories than any other writer.  

Say, does unfinished continued stories count as Mopees?  Then how about Metamorpho being wanted for the murder of Saphire Stagg's husband and going on the run with Element Girl Urana Blackwell in the final issue of Metamorpho?  Or the Metal Men being made into, essentially, androids in the last five issues of Metal Men, only to reappear as robots when they refurfaced in Brave and the Bold?

[Super Monkey]

While DC loves top make huge deals out of re-cons and restarts these days to boost sales, back in the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages it seem to happen all the time!

Lots of good ones:

The 1st Krptonite ever seen in the comics was colored Red, not Green! This version of Red K was re-Con into Green K, later another completely different Red K appeared which we all know and love.

Originally, The people of Krypton were called Krptonites! Later this was re-con by renaming them Kryptonians.

Superboy was never part of the mainstream continuity until many years after his comic was released, it wasn't until well into the 1960's that Superman's origin finally included him, thus making him official.

Speaking of Superboy, his comics re-con countless things, mostly people meeting a lot sooner than what was written in the Superman comics.

Some of Superman's powers was re-con in and out of continuity depending on the story.

Sandman saga anyone?

The list is endless..

[MatterEaterLad]

But, did any of it bug you?

I usually think its interesting to follow, and the product of one character continuing for so long and everyone plumbing the past for a new story angle...it also says something about the history of comics and where they went and what writers were up to what.

It bothered me most in Superboy, because beside the fact that he was introduced later and had to be fit in in bits and pieces with Superman, sometimes with lots of conflicts, the thing about the past is that its over and you can only squeeze so much in...with Superman, its the "present" and the possibilities for new stories are infinite..

[Super Monkey]

no, it didn't. I never really care that much. I mean, it does makes things a bit wacky when writing entries, but that's part of the fun.

[MatterEaterLad]

Yeah, I kind of like the differences when it comes to Supermanica, its comic history...continuity glitches can be fun to me...

[Uncle Mxy]

It's one thing for there to be retcons.  It's another for some new piece of continuity that would clearly have a shattering effect on past and future stories to be introduced in one story, then be ignored for all of time.

The color of Kryptonite, the fact that it stands for a rock and not a race, etc. stayed the same after the change.  Superman didn't have one issue that described his life as a Superboy, never to be mentioned again.

The Sandman saga is closer to the mark, but persisted for almost a year until Denny O'Neil left Superman.  It was part of a deliberate "shake things up at DC" movement, and went to the same place that powerless Wonder Woman and the other stuff that didn't work went.  It's a pre-cursor to the Post-Crisis, where you have months and years of Superman that even the fans of Post-Crisis Supes generally wish to see blotted out -- Bluperman, the Superman: For Tomorrow storyline, etc.