Thursday, November 24, 2011

Reign of the Supermen #400: Superman Balloons

Source: Various (see below)
Type: ObjectsTo all our American friends, a most Happy Thanksgiving. It's also the end of Reign of the Supermen's daily run (becomes a weekly Saturday feature starting this weekend)! Both are causes for a little cheer, and what says cheer more than balloons! We turn first to that venerable helium-filled tradition, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for some truly massive Superman balloons. 1987's above is nice, but check out these vintage blow-ups from 1940:
And 1966:
Which is not to say Superman balloons weren't used in actual Superman stories, because they were. The following is probably less than exhaustive...
In Adventure Comics #208 (1955), for example, Superboy covers up sightings of a "flying boy" by inflating his own indestructibly stretchable costumes with super-lung power, making LIKE a balloon.
In the very next issue (Adventure 209), the Superboy Week Fair unveils the Superboy blimp!
In Superman #81 (1953), Superman blows into his own suit, fills it with phosphorescent mollusk shells, and lights up the whole city under threat from a power outage.
And Super-Friends # 9 (2009) shows that the tradition is still alive as the Super-Friends break out the super-balloons (with cameo by Super-Turtle!) for Superman's birthday.

Maybe you have another favorite super-balloon story my cursory research didn't find? Let us know. And then, it's back here for more Reign on Saturday AND make sure you swing by Monday for a celebratory It's-Stopped-Reigning contest!

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