Sgt. Buck Brewster

A “tough”, vindictive sergeant in the United States Marines. When, by special arrangement with the Pentagon, Clark Kent is permitted to enlist in the Marine Corps so that he can write an article on boot camp for the Daily Planet, his superior, Sgt. Buck Brewster, who has taken a liking to Kent’s colleague Lois Lane, becomes determined to find some legitimate excuse for denying Kent a weekend pass so that he, and not Kent, can escort Lois to the upcoming Gala Marine Dance. Brewster’s petty scheme takes the form of assigning Kent the camp’s roughest, messiest, most distasteful jobs—and then surreptitiously sabotaging Kent’s attempts to fulfill them—so that he can deny Kent his pass when he fails to perform his tasks properly. At the same time, Kent’s dilemma becomes one of performing the chores properly—so as to avoid being “washed out” of the Marine Corps before he completes his assignment for the Daily Planet—without betraying that he possesses super-powers and thereby endangering the secret of his dual identity. Ultimately, however, Kent prevails, outwitting Brewster at every turn, completing every dirty, unpleasant chore assigned to him, taking Lois to the dance, and accumulating the material he needs for his article on boot camp (S No. 179/3, Aug 1965: “Private Kent, the Fighint Marine!”).