Dangerous Origins, part 3 – Steel Sterling

September 30th, 2005

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

After his father was killed by mobsters (in a charming neologism, the comic states that he was “racketeered to death”1), John Sterling decides to become a super-hero and fight crime. Luckily, he’s a brilliant chemist2.

I've invented a formula!

He invents a special formula to give him super-powers. This isn’t one of your run-of-the-mill super-hero formulas that you just drink or inject. No! This formula has to be added to a big vat of molten steel.

I'll add the formula to this steel!

John stirs the steel with a metal spoon and the spoon dissolves. Of course John doesn’t let a little thing like that stop him. He climbs up to a platform above the huge vat of molten, burning steel and dives in!3

I'll dive into this giant pot of molten steel!

I would expect such a reckless act to result in a horrific death, but what do I know? Sterling not only survives, but becomes the original “Man of Steel.”4

The comic says is best:

He has survived and Steel Sterling is born! A man with the resistance, the magnetism, and the strength of steel!

Steel Sterling: “At last! Safe against all forms of destruction I’m ready to crush out crime”

Steel Sterling premiered in Zip Comics #1, published by MLJ (later Archie Comics) in Febraury 1940. The art is by Charles Biro and the script by Abner Sundell.

Notes:
1. Can a word from a 65 year-old comic be considered a neologism?
2. Why are all comic book chemists brilliant? Just for once I’d like to see a “moderately competent chemist.”
3. I like the way he confidently dives in; no mere feet-first jumping for him. Somewhere off to the side I can envision this panel of judges all holding up scorecards: 9.8, 9.4, 9.6, 9.4, and from the Russian judge, 4.0.
4. Steel used this nickname long before that copycat “Last Son of Krypton” stole it for himself.

9 Responses to “ Dangerous Origins, part 3 – Steel Sterling ”

  1. David Oakes
    September 30th, 2005 at 2:08 pm

    OK, I am willing to try and rationalize Kryptonian optics. Or injecting yourself with chemicals that just transformed your hands into water. Heck, I will even incorporate Hostess Cupcakes into the hip, edgy, and even competant Gail Simone Catman if I have to.

    But even I have to draw the line at leaping naked into a vat of molten steel. Wha..?

    (It’s not just that all comic book chemists are geniuses. It’s that they are all completely off their freakin’ gourds!)

    (Love the delicately placed plume of steam, though…)

  2. M
    October 2nd, 2005 at 1:27 pm

    Head first seems like a good choice to me, if it doesn’t work it’s over as quickly as possible.

    I wonder though, steel is very dense and even molten isn’t it more visous than water? He’s liable to crack his skull, and just how fast does he need to hit in order to be completely submerged?

  3. Kurt
    October 3rd, 2005 at 8:50 pm

    I’m with the Russian judge. At that angle there is no way he rips the entry.

  4. Dvulture
    October 3rd, 2005 at 10:32 pm

    I think is can be considered a neologism. Or at least a “has-been” neologism, I don’t know.

  5. Sleestak
    October 6th, 2005 at 7:36 pm

    The Fortress of Solitude was ripped from Doc Savage also

  6. Art Wi
    June 5th, 2006 at 3:44 pm

    Oh my God…

    That was totally awesome

  7. Harvey
    March 4th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

    It was totally worth the risk just to gain the magnetism of steel.

  8. Jack Hare
    November 11th, 2008 at 3:07 am

    Well, “archaeologism” (aside from being, as of this post, itself neologistic) sounds a bit too much like the start of a very bad Indiana Jones joke.

    Given the typical logic of comic book names, I’m amazed that he didn’t go with molten silver instead.

  9. Mplsray
    November 28th, 2011 at 10:14 am

    Time magazine beat Zip Comics #1. From the Oxford English Dictionary entry for the verb “racketeer”:

    1928 Time 30 Jan. 11/2 In 36 years in Chicago I have never been held up, robbed, or racketeered.

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