Earlier this year I read Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus Vol. 7 and with that completed reading the Superman titles from the 1940s. A bit of a mad project of mine and it certainly took a lot longer than I expected!
I found that by the late 1940s, some of the early Golden Age wackiness was gone but it wasn’t quite replaced yet by Silver Age oddballs and villains.
However one story jumped out at me and the apparent randomness of it – “Black Magic on Mars!”. This was the lead story from Superman #62, cover dated January-February 1950.
The title alone was enough to catch my eye. Although this was happening more frequently, Superman nipping out to other parts of our solar system was still a relatively rare occurrence.
The other reason this story caught my eye was that it guest starred Orson Welles. Yep, that one! This really seemed out of the blue to me. Golden Age Superman tales didn’t tend to have celebrity cameos let alone guest star. So I’m quite amused and puzzled by this!
Why Welles?
I don’t think there had been any prior link between Welles and Superman. Although of course when you’re only reading the stories as presented in the Omnibus volumes you’re not going to get their wider context. For example, for all I know there might have been contemporary interviews with Welles where he’s quoted as saying how much he loves Superman.
The other possibility for a connection is Welles’ 1938 radio play based on the “War of the Worlds” by H. G. Wells. This was certainly a sensation at the time. Judging by the number of Golden Age stories inspired by it, it must have lodged itself into the imaginations of comics creators too. However, that was well over ten years before this story was published.
Maybe the title itself is a clue. The set up for the plot is that Welles is on location for a film called “Black Magic”. This is actually a film from 1949 that Welles indeed starred in. So was this story a bit of a cross media promotion?
After all, by the late 1940 and early 1950s, Superman had become very successful. So perhaps this is simply a case of canny film producers trying to drum up some interest in Welles’ new film.
Or perhaps a writer or editor simply hit upon the idea of what if the War of Worlds guy actually went to Mars!
Tin Pot Martian Dictator
The plot of the film does not involve going to Mars as our heroes indeed do in the story:
Taking a break from filming, Welles and a friend stop to watch an experimental rocket launch (no safety precautions in the 1940s!). Welles finds himself trapped on the rocket and winds up on Mars where he encounters the Martians and their very Hitler-like leader. He manages to radio an SOS back to Earth and Superman zips across space to Mars to help deal with the Martian dictator.
“Black Magic” on Mars?
Not really! The closest we get to interplanetary black magic was Welles wearing his film costume throughout the adventure. His character in the film is Cagliostro, a hypnotist and magician so that is the tenuous link.
Despite that, this was a really fun story! For once the cover wasn’t too misleading. The story really does guest star Welles and partly takes place on Mars. Although it has to said that Welles cuts a much more heroic figure in this story than he did in real life (not that I can talk!).
For more details about the film “Black Magic”, there’s a Wikipedia page about it.
Finally, if you want to find out more about this issue of Superman, the GCD has an excellent and detailed page about it.
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