Steve Lombard

Revision as of 14:10, 16 July 2005

The practical-joking sportscaster for WGBS-TV who is Clark Kent's rival.

Introducing Steve Lombard, illustration by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson

Nicknamed "Grizzly," Lombard is the former quarterback for the Metropolis Meteors, a professional football team.

In June 1973, Lombard saves a falling baby, in the process re-activating a chronic knee injury and blacking out. Passer-by Frederick Fowe, a self-described "scientific miracle-worker," treats him with a "violet healing ray that derives its power from the sun." Unbeknownst to both doctor and patient, however, Fowe's ray has the added effect of animating an energy being, resembling the quarterback but with "a form consisting of indescribable, unearthly matter from the sun, with no will of its own, molded by the fire of Steve Lombard's thoughts and his drive to win." Garbed in Steve's football uniform, the energy being enacts Lombard's will on the gridiron, scoring the game-winning touchdown at super-speed --an achievement that the real Lombard claims credit for, prompting his introduction to reporters Lois Lane and Clark Kent, who he instantly and obnoxiously antagonizes. Shortly thereafter, the energy being makes another appearances in Metropolis, responding randomly to the angry desires of a passing citizen and destroying a parking lot, until Superman divines its nature and directs "the space-bound tackler" to return to its home, a large sun-spot on the surface of Earth's sun, where it fades away, "converting back into raw solar energy." Consequently, in a fit of remorse, Steve Lombard quits football during a confession broadcast over television, only to be hired on the spot by Morgan Edge as "the new WGBS Sportscaster," sharing the "six o'clock report" with Clark Kent (S No. 264, Jun 1973: "Secret of the Phantom Quarterback!").