Saturn

Latest revision as of 12:32, 12 May 2007

The sixth planet from the sun. Superman No. 147/3 describes Saturn as a planet “where there has been no crime at all for centuries .. . and where everyone can perform amazing mental feats!” The complete absence of crime on Saturn is caused by the weird “radiations” emanating from the “meteor- fragments that form Saturn’s rings,” radiations which somehow “cancel out Saturn people’s criminal traits!” (Aug 1961: “The Legion of Super-Villains!").

Among the particles that make up Saturn’s rings, asserts Superman No. 122/1, are those composed of a so-called “musical mineral,” an exotic substance that emits musical sounds (Jul 1958: “The Secret of the Space Souvenirs”).

According to Superman No. 128/1, Saturn’s “smaller moons” are actually “gigantic, porous ‘snowballs,’ “satellites that are literally “composed of frozen snow” (Apr 1959: chs. 1-2—”Superman versus the Futuremen”; “The Secret of the Futuremen”).

Saturn Queen, a member of the Legion of Super-Villains, is a native of Saturn (S No. 147/3, Aug 1961: “The Legion of Super-Villains!”). Saturn Girl a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, hails from Titan, the largest, brightest, and most massive of Saturn’s ten satellites (Adv No. 247/1: "The Legion of Super-Heroes!").

In February-March 1951, Superman demolishes an unidentified planet that may one day strike Earth, blasting it apart with asteroids diverted from Saturn’s rings (WF No. 50: “Superman, Super Wrecker”).

In February 1957, for a twelve-hour period, Superman’s personality is imprisoned in the body of Jimmy Olsen and vice versa, as the result of both men’s having unwittingly exposed themselves to the effects of a Saturnian “mentality exchanger” discovered by Superman while exploring the remnants of a long-dead Saturnian civilization (S No. 111/1: "The Non-Super Superman”).

In July 1958, Superman journeys to Saturn to obtain a sample of the exotic “musical mineral” from Saturn’s rings, and later to Rhea, one of Saturn’s moons, to obtain a strange knotted tree. These are but two of a series of eight so-called “space trophies” which the Man of Steel gathers during this period for inclusion in a time capsule which the Metropolis Museum plans to bury in the ground as a gift for the people of the fiftieth century A.D. (S No. 122: “The Secret of the Space Souvenirs”).

During a time-journey to the twenty-first century CE, a time when all life on Earth is threatened with imminent extinction as the result of the oceans having been accidentally dissolved “by an atomic experiment,” Superman tows several of Saturn’s “snowball” moons to Earth to alleviate Earth’s catastrophic scarcity of water (S No. 128/1, Apr 1959: chs. 1-2—-”Superman versus the Futuremen”; “The Secret of the Futuremen”).

In August 1961, Superman transforms Saturn Queen from an adversary into an ally, and there turns the tables on the Legion of Super-Villains, by exposing her to the radiations of meteor fragments taken from Saturn’s rings and thus curing her of her “villainous tendencies” (S No. 147/3: “The Legion Super-Villains!”). (TGSB)

[edit] Links

• Saturn at Nine Planets
• Saturn at Sloar Views
• NASA's Saturn site