Mr. Burton
A wealthy citizen of Metropolis, nostalgic for the thrilling days of yesteryear, who wants to finance the construction of a time machine so that he can visit the past. When Burton accidentally falls off his penthouse balcony and Superman swoops to his rescue, both men suffer blows on the head and imagine that they have been magically transported into the ancient past, to the days of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, where they undertake a series of exciting adventures. Regaining consciousness back in the present, Burton concludes that the twentieth century, with its democracy and modern conveniences, is probably the best era to live in after all, but a wound in Burton’s shoulder, identical to one he received during his sojourn in the past, raises the intriguing question, never resolved in the text, of whether Burton and Superman merely shared a common fantasy or whether they somehow actually made a journey into the past (S No. 38/2, Jan/Feb 1946: “The Bad Old Knights!â€).
