Here’s My Bed of Roses, All For You

October 6th, 2005

Filed under: Comics, Medicine

Jimmy Olsen had his hand burned in an explosion. It doesn’t look bad to me — just a few small first-degree burns — but apparently it’s enough to stop Jimmy from playing guitar (and the world breathes a sigh of relief).

Superman, modest as ever during the Silver Age, steps in and heals the burns by blowing on them with his super-breath. He’s long been able to cool things down or freeze them with his super breath, but this is the first time I’ve seen him actually heal with it.

Jimmy's burned his hand

And why does Jimmy need to be able to play guitar? So that he can record a county song written by the computers in the Fortress of Solitude — one that’s “guaranteed to be a hit.”

Country Music

Clearly writer Cary Bates doesn’t think much of doctors — or country music.

(From Superman Family #176, “Jimmy Olsen — Nashville Super-Star” by Cary Bates and Kurt Schaffenberger)

11 Responses to “ Here’s My Bed of Roses, All For You ”

  1. Devin Harris
    October 7th, 2005 at 1:58 am

    Isn’t that his strumming hand? Unless he’s planning on some serious finger-pickin’ banjo playin’, I can’t see where his injured hand would be getting much of a workout. I think it was just an excuse for Supes to hold his hand in that one panel.

  2. CH Wilson
    October 7th, 2005 at 2:51 am

    Seriously, though. Bluegrass music? I think that formula might actualy exist…

  3. Nala
    October 7th, 2005 at 10:50 am

    Then there was that never before reprinted Action from 1962 when Superman cured Lois’ father’s hemorrhoids with his heat vision. But I think he was only able to do that because he had a Godzilla head or something.

  4. Chuck T.
    October 7th, 2005 at 11:37 am

    Gah. “Super-Doctor” just gave me a weird, icky feeling.

  5. Gordon
    October 7th, 2005 at 12:52 pm

    You know, I hate to be nit-picky, but wouldn’t a blast of “Super-Cold Breath” give Jimmy frostbite?

  6. Seth Finkelstein
    October 7th, 2005 at 1:58 pm

    I could believe that the burn, while not medically serious, was irritating enough to throw off his playing (i.e. he doesn’t mean he can’t play at any level, but that he thinks it wouldn’t be good enough for a master recording performance). But if the super-computer can generate hit lyrics, given DC universe tech it should be able to generate the hit recording too.

    Maybe Supes is doing cryosurgery :-)

  7. Stevie Wonder Man
    October 7th, 2005 at 5:34 pm

    Oh, god, Superman and Jimmy are playing doctor. Seriously, would you ever refer to yourself as “Super-Doctor” with someone you’re just friends with? It’s almost enough to make you forget the appearent healing properties of cold air.

  8. Scipio
    October 7th, 2005 at 9:10 pm

    Clearly writer Cary Bates doesn’t think much PERIOD.

  9. John Nowak
    October 8th, 2005 at 8:47 am

    Seth speaks truly. Heinlein’s “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” (1966) may have been the earliest story to use computer-synthesized video as a plot point, and the first film to use CGI was likely “Westworld” (1973), so by 1976 it should have been pretty obvious that synthesized sound was possible.

    On a side note, there was an EC SF story from the 1950s, titled “Brain Child” which involved a sentient computer. A human read a dictionary to it so it could skip back and forth on the tape to assemble sentences. Heck, in 1950, who could have imagined that synthetic voices would be in ovens?

  10. Captain Infinity
    October 8th, 2005 at 10:49 pm

    Dammit, Olsen, those burns were a warning to stay the hell out of Nashville. Don’t make us go all hillbilly on you.

  11. N
    October 10th, 2005 at 7:30 am

    Re: Capt. Infinity

    That’s hilarious!

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