How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

October 13th, 2007

Filed under: Comics

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

I had always thought that this idea originated with Dr. Strangelove, but apparently Superman was the first (scene from Action Comics #22, March 1940)

Dr. StrangeloveTechnically, Superman’s riding a torpedo, not a bomb, but the effect is the same.
Tom CorbettSpeaking of torpedoes, according to the IMDB, the scene in Dr. Strangelove was based on an old episode of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet where Tom rode an “atomic torpedo”, so maybe it does all tie in to Superman.

4 Responses to “ How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ”

  1. H
    October 14th, 2007 at 9:09 am

    This is big stuff. As a scholar of scenes of heroes riding bombs, I had the earliest known scene as Aquaman doing it in 1947 (courtesy of Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog’s reporting).

    Aquaman did it again in 1975. But clearly Superman’s 1940 ride is the earliest of these and will be hard to beat.

  2. Kevin Melrose
    October 14th, 2007 at 10:22 am

    Captain Marvel Jr. also rides a bomb on the cover of Captain Marvel Jr. #19 (May 1944): http://superherouniverse.com/superheroes/images/shazam/wallpaper/captain-marvel-jr.jpg

  3. SanctumSanctorumComix
    October 15th, 2007 at 10:43 am

    Man of Steel, indeed.

    ;-)

    Sorry. Not a very medical observation, but it’s still funny.

    ~P~

  4. Chuck McKay
    October 17th, 2007 at 10:19 pm

    The phallic implications are way too obvious.

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