I’ve Got a Super Secret!

            Yes, that’s what we kids loved, after reading this story from Superboy #90, cover-dated July 1961.  We knew that Pete Ross knew Superboy’s secret identity.  But Pete, like the best friend we wished we could be to the Boy of Steel, vowed never to reveal the accidentally learned knowledge.  It was written by Otto Binder (yes, the sci-fi Otto Binder) and penciled by George Papp.

            It was the third of three stories in this issue.  Yes, youngsters of the modern age of ever-running serial tales, in the Sixties nearly every comic-book story was SELF-CONTAINED in ten or less pages, unless it was a “three-part-NOVEL,” which filled an entire issue. 

            This implications of this tale, cranked out (I assume) as one of dozens to fill the publication schedule, were more far-reaching than any of us pre-teens could have imagined when we gulped the story down.  The twist of Pete Ross’ Super Secret came when later tales showed him protecting Superboy’s identity by creating a diversion for Clark’s quick-change act, or whatever further angle could be wrung from the idea.

            Much later, we learned that Pete had a son named Jon. A storyline in Superman #457, cover-dated March 1976, showed Superman revealing his identity to Jon Ross, only to be scorned as a liar. 

            And in 1986, knowledge of that secret cost Ross his life.

            Yes, as part of Alan Moore’s deaths-travaganza, the two-part conclusion to the life of the Silver Age Superman, we find that Toyman and Prankster teamed up to learn Superman’s SI.  So they tortured and killed Pete in learning it. 

The preceding is just a prologue to these pages from the original comic.  Now you too can learn “Pete Ross’ Super-Secret!”

            You can learn about Bertillon and his identifying system at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Bertillon

            Growing up, I had a best friend, and we were this loyal, but his family moved to California due to work before we reached the teen ages of Superboy and Pete.

            Jazz on the radio!?!  Here’s a reminder for us kids that Superboy’s adventures occurred in the long-ago time BEFORE we came along to terrorize the radio airwaves with rock ’n’ roll.

            Before we get to the big revelation, note in Panel Two that Pete and Clark are wearing the same dang clothes for hiking and camping as in school or at the roller rink.

            We have to give credit to Pete for being able to lie still after THAT lightning flash.  Could he believe his eyes? Dare he?

            You can’t blame Pete for thinking he might have dreamed up the image of Clark switching to the dynamic Boy of Steel.  Still, the ensuing stalking and home invasion is a lot more worrying to a grownup than an eight-year-old.  I mean, kids are USED to sneaking around, especially spying on siblings to catch them doing something Mom and Dad have proscribed.

            And the whole let’s sew-a-costume schtick is super transgressive!  But the silly “I’m temporarily blinded” trick is something us young readers accepted as totally plausible.  Whether it makes sense to build an observatory next to a cliff is a different argument.

            This part of the tale reminds me of a story in 1983’s Superman Annual #9, in which Curt Swan (greatest Superman penciler of ALL TIME) gets to fly with the Caped Wonder.  It was all a dream … or WAS it? https://comiccoverage.typepad.com/comic_coverage/2008/06/the-highlight-reel-i-flew-with-superman.html

            What a STRANGE TWIST OF FATE it was that Pete had entered the exact correct branch of these very certainly deadly-unsafe mine tunnels as the bank robbers!  But, wait!  Should Superboy be … clanking?

            And the bit about Pete’s switch to Superboy cosplay is the hardest thing to swallow.  Nobody could switch clothes and rub in hair dye and all that jazz before the bank robbers got hungry and left, or passed out from boredom. 

            But, that’s the way it was in the Silver Age, kiddies!  Come to think of it, maybe the problem with us was that we grew up thinking behavior like Pete’s was perfectly fine! 

            See you next time, friends.  But before then I might be peeking into your windows or snagging some of your clothes to steal your identity!