In Which Adam Overthinks Superman's Encounter with Bluto from Popeye

Dear Ones, I'll be taking a break next week, what with Labor Day and all that.  But to ensure that we temporarily part with a smile on our faces, let's check out the second appearance of Captain Strong, courtesy of Action Comics #439:

Yup, it has all the elements of a classic Popeye tale.  Popeye romances Olive, Bluto shows up, and chaos ensues.  Although I don't remember Bluto dressing like a caveman:

And then things go way off the source material:

If your standards include the word, "midget," you need to elevate your standards.  More to the point, I'm really not sure what to make of all that.  So, was Bluto an alien and I missed it?  I think in one version of the comics, he was the child of the Sea Hag.  Why not go with that?  I'm not trying to nit-pick, but having someone turn out to be an alien or a robot is pretty cliche.

Then again, that's 439 issues into the title's run, so I guess I can just shut my big mouth.

Here's a power that took me a minute to figure out:

Okay, once I figured out what the mad scientist guy did (which was essentially make himself super skinny like the Thin Man from the Liberty Legion), I kind of understood the power set.  

But when he refers to it as a battle between someone who shrinks horizontally versus someone who shrinks vertically, that didn't make any sense.  And here's why:  If the Atom just shrunk horizontally, he'd still be the same width.  He'd be a big red and blue pancake.  

In order to make yourself tiny, you'd have to shrink both vertically and horizontally.  And I am no scientist, my friends, so Dr. Bad Haircut there certainly would have figured that out before he started yappin'.  

Maybe he deliberately gave out incorrect data to give himself an edge in battle.

Nah.

But enough of that.  Here's a great bit from Superman #144, courtesy of Robert Giles:

Superman accidentally blew up the Earth?  When the man commits a "d'oh!," it's a super "d'oh!"  But I love how all Supergirl can do is moan about it's going to inconvenience her.  Ah, teenagers.

Well, I'll see you Monday, September 8th!  Stay safe, and we'll pick things up from there!