The Origin of Steve Lombardi! Falling Babies Edition!

Dear Ones, I will be off the grid next week for the holiday season, so I'll see you again on Monday, December 28th.  Happy holidays of all stripes to everyone who observes whatever.  If it's about peace, love and compassion, I'm all for it.  Have a happy one and stay safe!

But before we go....

Superman #264 was fairly noteworthy in that it introduced Clark Kent's nemesis, Steve Lombard.  I started reading comics in 1974 and only occasionally picked up a Superman comic, but it seemed to me like Steve had just always been there.

The Steve Lombard I saw was generally your typical arrogant ex-jock.  But it turns out that, from day one, he had his moments of awesomeness.  Thusly:

If you're wondering why he's using football lingo, he was a Super Bowl-appearing quarterback.  I don't know what the actual term is for such a thing, but he was going to play in the Super Bowl the next day.  I guess the child was lucky Steve didn't go 100% football mode and spike the kid.  Although that would have sold some comics!

Oh, yeah.  He had bad knees, and that pretty much ended his football career.  It didn't have to end his success with the women, though.  If you could say you had to stop playing football because you were injured saving a baby, the dames love that sort of thing.  That's actually what I told Beloved when I was explaining why I had never actually played in the Super Bowl.

Anyway, Lois has kind of a strange thing going on where Steve is concerned:

At first I though she was angry at Clark for interrupting their quality flirty-time, but I think she was genuinely annoyed that Clark was late.  But Steve has a thing for Lois:

And, as we all know, the best way to get a woman to lose interest in your romantic rival is to bully him using your expertise at a sport you play professionally:

But nope.  No dice:

Yeah.... I don't think Lois bought what Steve was selling.  I may be wrong, but it appears that anyone short of Superman himself just doesn't do it for her.

But Steve is far too good of a putz to leave the comic so:

And Clark's loss is our gain, because love him or hate him, the scenes at the Daily Planet got a little less boring with Steve around.

And then we get into the incredibly boring Untold Tales of Krypton back-up feature:

I love me some Elliot S! Maggin, but... yeah, I quit reading once I saw that title.  Someone let me know if I'm missing out on something.

So, I will see you guys again on December 28th!