Supermen Emergency Squad
Supermen Emergency Squad aka The Emergency Squad
An elite corps of "tiny Supermen" (Act No. 291, Aug 1962: "The New Superman!")—Kandorian men clad in red-and-blue costumes identical to Superman's—who monitor Superman's activities constantly by means of sophisticated "Earth monitor screens" in the bottle city of Kandor (Act No. 276, May 1961: "The War Between Supergirl and the Supermen Emergency Squad!"; and others) and periodically leave their bottle city to come to the aid of Superman in special emergencies. Because, like all Kandorians, they acquire super-powers identical to Superman's immediately upon departing the confines of their bottle city, where atmospheric conditions identical to those of their native planet Krypton prevail, they are a formidable fighting force, described in one text as "an intrepid army of super-powered, lilliputian Men of Steel" (Act No. 276, May 1961: "The War Between Supergirl and the Supermen Emergency Squad!") and in another as "the tiny Supermen of Kandor" (S No. 167 , Feb 1964: "The Team of Luthor and Brainiac!" pts. I-III—"The Deadly Duo!"; "The Downfall of Superman!"; "The Hour of Kandor's Vengeance!").
The Supermen Emergency Squad is also referred to as the Superman Emergency Squad (Act No. 291, Aug 1962: "The New Superman!"; and others) or, simply, as the Emergency Squad (Act No. 303, Aug 1963: "The Monster from Krypton!"; S No. 167 , Feb 1964: "The Team of Luthor and Brainiac!" pts. I-III—"The Deadly Duo!"; "The Downfall of Superman!"; "The Hour of Kandor's Vengeance!").
The "captain" of the Supermen Emergency Squad is named Don-El (SA No. 5, Sum 1962). Van-Zee is one of the Squad's members (S No. 148/2, Oct 1961: "Mr. Mxyzptlk's Super-Mischief!"). Like all Kandorians (S No. 179/2, Aug 1965: "The Menace of Gold Kryptonite!"), the members of the Supermen Emergency Squad are fully aware that Clark Kent is secretly Superman (Act No. 276, May 1961: "The War Between Supergirl and the Supermen Emergency Squad!").
In their earliest textual appearances, the members of the Supermen Emergency Squad are described as having been specially selected for Squad membership on the basis of their close physical resemblance to Superman (Act No. 276, May 1961: "The War Between Supergirl and the Supermen Emergency Squad!"; S No. 148/2, Oct 1961: "Mr. Mxyzptlk's Super-Mischief!"), but this particular concept is soon discarded in favor of a Squad characterized by a more varied appearance (S No. 167 , Feb 1964: "The Team of Luthor and Brainiac!" pts. I-III—"The Deadly Duo!"; "The Downfall of Superman!"; "The Hour of Kandor's Vengeance!"; and many others). The Supermen Emergency Squad is not to be confused with the Kandorian Look-Alike Squad.
Seated at their monitor screens in the bottle city of Kandor, the Squad's "watchers" maintain a constant vigil over Superman's activities (S No. 167, Feb 1964: "The Team of Luthor and Brainiac!" pts. I-III—"The Deadly Duo!"; "The Downfall of Superman!"; "The Hour of Kandor's Vengeance!"; and others). In emergencies, they are empowered to activate the Superman robots in the Fortress of Solitude (Act No. 292, Sep 1962: "When Superman Defended His Arch-Enemy!"). Among their ongoing assignments is that of safeguarding the Fortress against intruders (S No. 160/1, Apr 1963: pts. I-II—"The Mortal Superman!"; "The Cage of Doom!").
Their primary mission, however, is to fly into action the moment Superman summons them or to rush to his aid when they see him in jeopardy. When the watchers observe that Superman needs the Squad's assistance, they sound the emergency "siren-alert" that summons the Squad members into action. Hastily boarding a Kandorian rocket ship, the Squad members soar to the top of the bottle, to the place where the giant cork seals shut the entrance to the city. Exiting from the rocket ship, they cling to the smooth glass wall of the bottle by means of special suction cups affixed to their hands and feet while the rocket's pilot sprays them with a rare "enlarging gas," developed by a Kandorian scientist, which temporarily enlarges them from their customary microscopic size to "a few inches" in height.
Then, aided by their increased size and strength, the Squad members strain their backs against one side of the giant cork, prying it up just enough to enable them to crawl through the tiny gap into the Fortress of Solitude, where, freed from Kandor's Kryptonian atmosphere, they instantaneously acquire super-powers identical to Superman's and soar into the outside world through the gigantic keyhole in the Fortress of Solitude's massive front door (Act No. 276, May 1961: "The War Between Supergirl and the Supermen Emergency Squad!"; and others). By August 1965, a special doorway has been installed in the giant cork to facilitate "easier exit from the bottle" (S No. 179/2: "The Menace of Gold Kryptonite!").
In the vast majority of the texts in which they appear, the members of the Supermen Emergency Squad wear red-and-blue costumes identical to Superman's (Act No. 276, May 1961: "The War Between Supergirl and the Supermen Emergency Squad!"; and many others). On occasion, however, they have worn either costumes similar to Superman's but lacking capes (S No. 158, Jan 1963: "Superman in Kandor" pts. I-III—"Invasion of the Mystery Super-Men!"; "The Dynamic Duo of Kandor!"; "The City of Super-People!"), or distinctive purple-and-red Kandorian costumes (S No. 156, Oct 1962: "The Last Days of Superman!"pts. I-III—"Superman's Death Sentence!"; "The Super Comrades of All Time!"; "Superman's Last Day of Life!"; and others).
In May 1961 the Supermen Emergency Squad joins forces with Supergirl to carry out an elaborate, and ultimately successful, ruse designed to persuade John Kiley and his cohorts that Kiley was only experiencing a drug-induced hallucination when he saw Clark Kent change into Superman (Act No. 276: "The War Between Supergirl and the Supermen Emergency Squad!").
In October 1961 the Supermen Emergency Squad helps Superman thwart the mischievous machinations of Mr. Mxyzptlk (S No. 148/2: "Mr. Mxyzptlk's Super-Mischief!").
In August 1962, during a period when Superman's vulnerability to Kryptonite has been temporarily replaced by a vulnerability to gold, Superman is rescued from a potentially fatal overexposure to gold by members of the Supermen Emergency Squad (Act No. 291: "The New Superman!").
In October 1962, after exposure to Red Kryptonite has temporarily transformed Superman into two separate individuals, a mature, responsible Clark Kent and an unprincipled, irresponsible Superman, the entire city of Kandor is imprisoned in the Phantom Zone by the arrogant Superman in order to prevent the Supermen Emergency Squad from interfering with his plan to keep the personalities of Clark Kent and Superman separate forever. Ultimately, however, Clark Kent frees Kandor from the Phantom Zone, and soon afterward he succeeds in bringing about the reuniting of Clark Kent and Superman into a single individual (Act No. 293: "The Feud Between Superman and Clark Kent!"). During this same period, when Superman is believed to be dying of an incurable malady, the Supermen Emergency Squad joins forces with Krypto the Superdog, Supergirl, the Legion of Super-Heroes, several of Superman's Super-robots, and Lori Lemaris and the mer-people of Atlantis to carry out two of the gigantic super-tasks that Superman hopes to fulfill as his final legacy to humanity, viz., the melting of the Antarctic ice, "to make Antarctica a fit place for millions to live in the future," thus ensuring "a home for Earth 's expanding population," and the injection of a colossal sea monster—which has been growing to ever more titanic size due to the stimulation of undersea radioactivity—with a special "shrinking formula" so that it will not one day become so terrifyingly gargantuan that it menaces the safety of Earth (S No. 156, Oct 1962: "The Last Days of Superman!" pts. I-III—"Superman's Death Sentence!"; "The Super-Comrades of All Time!"; "Superman's Last Day of Life!").
In December 1962 Superman enlists the aid of the Supermen Emergency Squad in apprehending two members of the Superman Revenge Squad, but just as the tiny Supermen are closing in on the villains' spacecraft, the villains blow themselves and their craft to smithereens rather than submit to capture (Act No. 295: "Superman Goes Wild!").
In January 1963, after Superman has been taken captive in Kandor by the "fanatic scientist" Than Ol, the Supermen Emergency Squad joins forces with Jimmy Olsen and Van-Zee to engineer his successful escape (S No. 158: "Superman in Kandor" pts. I-III—"Invasion of the Mystery Super-Men!"; "The Dynamic Duo of Kandor!"; "The City of Super-People!").
In August 1963, after exposure to red kryptonite has temporarily transformed Superman into a horrifying Kryptonian monster known as a "drang," the Supermen Emergency Squad turns out in force to prevent the drang from entering the Fortress of Solitude, unaware that the monster is actually Superman. Ultimately, however, the effects of the red kryptonite wear off, restoring Superman to his normal human form (Act No. 303: "The Monster from Krypton!").
In February 1964 the Supermen Emergency Squad apprehend Lex Luthor and Brainiac and bring them to Kandor to stand trial for their crimes. The Kandorians are ultimately compelled to let the villains go free, however, in order to save the life of Superman (S No. 167: "The Team of Luthor and Brainiac!" pts. I-III—"The Deadly Duo!"; "The Downfall of Superman!"; "The Hour of Kandor's Vengeance!").
