Sunday, October 4, 2015

Jimmy Olsen Proves The Truth Of Godwin's Law!

There was a bit of a meme back in Silver Age DC.

There were an awful lot of people in Superman's life with the initials L.L.: Lois Lane, Lana Lang, Lori Lemaris, Lex Luthor...Surely just a coincidence combined with a preference for alliterative names.

But someone noticed, and they decided to make a "thing" out of it. And there were a lot--an awful lot--of stories that had increasingly strained discoveries of "hidden" LL's as their punch line.

Eventually the even based an entire issue on some nutsoid LL character using LL to kill Superman:

As my buddy Siskoid blogged about recently, Jimmy Olsen got in on the act:

Even Krypto got entangled in the odd cult of LL:

And so it was game on, as DC writers seemed to get into a contest over who could have the oddest, silliest, most far-fetched way of working LL into their stories.

And, as Godwin's Law tell us, the inevitable result was...

All right, this is not a dream, not a hoax, not an illusion. Please don't ask how or why (please, please!), but Jimmy Olsen actually traveled back in time, and used his knowledge of forthcoming WWII events to convince Hitler he was psychic...and Hitler made Jimmy Olsen his chief military advisor.

Yeah, let that sink in.

And not just a general, either--

Well, Himmler suspects that Jimmy is a traitor, so he actually sets a honey trap for Jimmy. But Jimmy sees through it, and turns the young woman in, "proving" he is loyal...


Yes, I'll just pretend I enjoy kissing the hot Nazi woman...Oh, Jimmy.

But Lotte Lutz is not the most amazing or most egregious LL in the story. No, it's this:

Eventually Jimmy screws up, and Himmler and Goering are trying to chase him down, when...


Worst shot in the world?!? Seriously...

Any, at that exact moment, the "time-bomb" runs out of juice, and Jimmy is brought back to the present...where he realizes:

Ho. Ly. Crap.

I think I can say this without fear of contradiction: when you start using parts of the Nazi swastika to make your LL's, you've probably gone too far. Even though the idea of Goering and Himmler getting beaned by giant L's does have some appeal...No, no, sorry. When your little meme runs into Nazism, you've just gone too far. Period.

Fullest apologies for stepping into Siskoid's Jimmy Olsen turf...

From Jimmy Olsen #86 (1965)

3 comments:

  1. For all the LL dopiness they've foisted onto the reading public, that is still a great Superman cover.

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  2. SuperRAINMAN can find all the hidden LLs...

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  3. "aLLiterative"
    "EventuaLLy"
    "kiLL"
    "siLLiest"
    "ALL"
    "iLLusion"
    "naturaLLy"
    "FuLLest"

    Just what are you playing at, you fiend! Trying to lure us into your sinister plot!
    Hm? Just what do you have to say to that, "sneLL"? If that is your real name!

    ReplyDelete