Superman #57
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSuperman #57 (March 1949) is a Golden Age anthology that punches above its weight on several fronts. Its cover image of a super-powered woman in a cape—long circulated under the shorthand 'Lois Lane as Superwoman'—actually depicts Lois 4XR, a far-future descendant introduced in the 'Every Man a Superman' time-travel story, a distinction that makes the issue a genuine early prototype of the super-powered Lois concept that DC would revisit repeatedly through the Silver Age and beyond. The third story, 'The Son of Superman,' carries a quiet but meaningful continuity flag: the DC Database notes it is considered an early Earth-One Superman tale because it references Superman's career as Superboy—a history that, per DC's later multiverse framework, never happened on Earth-Two. Taken together, the issue sits at a creative crossroads where Golden Age formula storytelling was quietly laying the conceptual groundwork for the time-travel, alternate-lineage, and Superboy-linked mythology that would define the Silver Age Superman.
In "The Menace of the Machine Men!", Superman is hurled into a distant future where superpowers are commonplace, encountering a woman whose striking resemblance to Lois Lane leaves him questioning her true identity. With Wayne Boring’s dynamic art and Stan Kaye’s crisp inks bringing the futuristic world to life, this 1949 classic explores identity and legacy in a setting both wondrous and unsettling.
In a future where every man has superpowers, Superman finds himself stranded among a society transformed by abilities he once alone possessed. He meets a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Lois Lane—could she be a descendant, or something more? As he navigates this world of empowered citizens, the mystery deepens, and the truth about her identity remains just out of reach.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The issue was published bi-monthly by National Comics Publications (DC's corporate name at the time) and went on sale December 29, 1948, carrying a March 1949 cover date. Writer Edmond Hamilton—already one of the most prolific science-fiction authors of his generation—scripted at least the lead story 'The Menace of the Machine Men!'; the Grand Comics Database notes that 'Every Man a Superman' was long attributed to writer William Woolfolk but that his authorship cannot be confirmed through pay records, per researcher Martin O'Hearn. Wayne Boring, who by this point had become the primary Superman artist, handled pencils throughout the issue, with Stan Kaye on inks and Ira Schnapp lettering the cover. GoCollect lists Whitney Ellsworth as editor, while DCU Guide credits Mort Weisinger for at least one story's editorial oversight—suggesting the issue may have crossed editorial desks, which was not uncommon for anthology issues of the era.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date March 1949 (on-sale December 29, 1948); published bi-monthly by National Comics Publications Inc. at a cover price of ten cents across 52 pages.
- First (intro) appearance of Lois 4XR—a far-future descendant of Lois Lane who has super-powers because humanity in the year 2949 has evolved them—in the story 'Every Man a Superman.'
- The Wayne Boring cover depicts Lois 4XR in a cape, not present-day Lois Lane; the image is frequently but incorrectly cited as an early 'Lois Lane gains powers' cover, a misconception noted by multiple sources.
- Lead story 'The Menace of the Machine Men!' features Lex Luthor as the hidden mastermind behind an alien-robot invasion ruse, written by Edmond Hamilton with art by Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye.
- 'The Son of Superman' story is flagged by the DC Database as an early Earth-One continuity tale because it references Superman's Superboy history—a past that, under DC's later multiverse framework, belongs to Earth-One rather than Earth-Two.
- The issue contains a full-page house advertisement for Superboy #1 (also cover-dated March–April 1949), DC's first new superhero solo title to launch since World War II.
- The plot of 'Every Man a Superman' was later revised and reused in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #28 (DC, 1961).
- Stories from this issue were reprinted in the Canadian Superman #57, two separate issues of the Swedish Stålmannen series, a 1974 Swedish Stålmannen jubilee album, and excerpted in the 1995 hardcover DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes (Little, Brown).
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Reprinted in Western Comics #9 (1949), Stålmannen #5/1952 (1952), Stålmannen #7/1952 (1952), Stålmannen #5/1953 (1953), Stålmannen #6/1953 (1953), DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes #[nn] (1995), Superman: The Golden Age Omnibus #7 (2023), Stålmannen #4/1949, Stålmannen #5/1950, Superman #57
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