Moon

Revision as of 10:45, 23 June 2006

A planetoid located about 256,000 miles away, the moon is the only known natural satellite of the Earth.

In February 1950, Lex Luthor fuses “a couple of handfuls of dust from the dark side of the moon” with several other “strange materials” in order to produce the first known sample of synthetic Kryptonite (Act No. 141: “Luthor’s Secret Weapon”).

In September-October 1950, when Superman believes he is dying of kryptonite poisoning, he engraves a gigantic message on the surface of the moon in hopes of bequeathing mankind a farewell “guiding principle.”“Do good unto others,” reads the message in mile-high letters, “and every man can be a Superman! [signed Superman (Clark Kent)].” A short while later, however, after having learned that he is not dying after all, Superman returns to the moon and erases the name “Clark Kent” from his message just as the moon is about to appear from behind a cloud and expose his secret identity to the entire world (S No. 66/2: “The Last Days of Superman!”). In another telling, when Superman believes he is dying of exposure to Virus X, he uses his heat vision to inscribe this message -- later Krypto and Supergirl use their vision to erase it (S No. 156, Oct 1962: "The Last Days of Superman!").

In January-February 1953, when Professor Wilson divides the formula for his “four-dimensional projector” into seven parts and hides them in seven inaccessible places, one of the hiding places he chooses is the moon’s largest crater (WF No. 62: “The Seven Secrets of Superman”).

In January 1956, when a Metropolis multimillionaire offers a reward of $100,000 to the first man to land on the moon, Superman flies to the moon, inscribes a gigantic message (“Superman was here”) on the surface to prove he has been there, and then returns to Earth to collect his reward, which he distributes among the stockholders of the Superman Stock Company (S No. 102/1: “Superman for Sale”).

A text for August 1956 recounts the events surrounding Superman’s battle with Drago, a renegade scientist of the thirtieth century C.E. After escaping from prison on the moon, Drago and his gang of fellow convicts transform the moon into a jetpropelled spaceship and propel it out of its orbit, using it as their headquarters in an attempt to devastate and conquer the Earth. The villains are apprehended and the moon is restored to its rightful orbit, however, through the heroic efforts of Superman, whose presence in this future era is the result of his exposure, in August 1956, to the terrible radiation of a defective atomic pile, which caused him to lapse into a sleeplike coma from which he only awakens a thousand years later (S No. 107/3: “Rip Van Superman!”).

In March 1957, Superman helps lift the spirits of crippled youngster Tommy Snead by taking Tommy on a brief journey to the moon (S No. 112/1: “Superman’s Neighbors”).

In October, 1969, Superboy, in a complex plot involving the ressurected body of Cleopatra, the ancient Queen of Egypt now disguised as a visiting student from modern Egypt named Cleop Amahdi, is deceived into believing that he has accidently killed a fellow student at Smallville Highschool. He sentences himself to eternal exile on a red sun planet, where his "powers will be lost forever." While leaving Earth, he pauses on Earth's Moon. There, he spends much time in deliberation, first thinking, "Just exiling myself isn't enough! I--I'm guilty of destroying a human life!" However, he then begins to doubt that he actually killed anyone and so returns to Earth to discover that Cleop couldn't have been killed by him because she had already been killed thousands of years ago by an asp in ancient Egypt. (SB No. 160: "I Choose Eternal Exile!")

In July 1976, Superman strands the Solomon Grundy of Earth-2 on the Moon, reasoning that since Grundy is not really alive, Earth's satellite is the safest place to imprison the rampaging monster (S No. 301: "Solomon Grundy Wins on Monday").