Mort Weisinger was the editor for the Superman titles for more than twenty years, from the late 1940s through the late 1960s. He was not a man to shy away from readers; in fact, he often asked the readers themselves what they would like to see. Occasionally Weisinger’s direct style could lead to some rather, shall we say, interesting replies to letters sent in by readers. Here are five odd responses Weisinger gave to readers over the years. (Thanks to Mark Engblom of the website Comics Coverage for finding some of these letters.)
1 Note to self: don’t ask Mort Weisinger about people from Atlantis. In Adventure Comics #264 in 1959, reader Jon Beach wrote in to ask, “In your May issue, in the story about Aquaman’s mother, it clearly showed her with legs, like a normal human being. Yet, [in] the story, ‘The Girl from Superman’s Past,’ published in Superman Comics, the girl [Lori Lemaris] had the tail of a fish. If both these girls came from Atlantis, wouldn’t they look alike?” Weisinger replied, “Are you serious? We’re publishing fiction, not documented history. Different stories present different conditions on different worlds. If not, all stories would be monotonously alike. The Atlantis Aquaman’s mother came from has a different set-up than the Atlantis presented in the Superman story. We try to be consistent in our ‘ground rules’ for each of our characters. For example, Ma and Pa [Kent] own a general store in every issue. It isn’t a general store this month and a bowling arena the next. If we show the Green Arrow visiting Mars, it is entirely likely he’ll meet inhabitants and creatures different from those encountered by Jimmy Olsen and Batman. If writers didn’t use their imaginations to vary conditions, all comic book stories and science fiction movies would become so repetitious you’d soon lose interest.” Yikes. Oddly enough, exactly a year later another fan asked pretty much the same exact question. Weisinger figured it must be something he was going to keep getting asked, so he came up with an actual answer: “Lori has a fish-tail because she is descended from a merman and mermaid race. While Aquaman’s mother came from Atlantis, his father was an ordinary Earthman—and Aquaman inherited his legs from his father.”
2 Metropolis Mailbag—your place to learn the birds and the bees. In Superman #136, we meet a man from the future who says he is destined to marry Lois. Superman seems to think that sounds logical—“I guess if it’s destined, it’s destined”—but Lois changes her initial “no way” tune when she sees the weird-looking guy (who turned green and alien-looking due to comet radiation in the future) revert to a good-looking guy. So they go through with the marriage, but when they go back to the future, they both become green. Lois is despondent, so her husband sacrifices his own life to send her back in time. A few months later, in Action Comics #266, an alien named Jena the Space Girl blackmails Superman into marrying her and then tries to use a special love potion to make him love her. He uses the opportunity to fake being in love, but an overbearing boorish type of love. He becomes so annoying that she breaks up with him. So young Tony Armalis writes in to say, “As a faithful reader of the Superman ‘family’ of magazines, I can’t help but notice that many of your readers are clamoring for Superman and Lois Lane to get married. Well, I have news for them, they ARE married! But not to each other. Lois married X-Plam in the July 1960 issue of Superman Comics and Superman wed ‘Jena the Space Girl’ in Action Comics No. 266.” Weisinger sets him straight by pointing out to him, “You’re quite right—except that neither one of these marriages were ever consummated.” I bet the parents who needed to give a definition of that word that day were quite pleased with Weisinger.
3 More than kissing cousins? In 1960’s Action Comics #303, Bruce Cutler of Huntsville, Alabama, wrote in to say, “Recently I sent you a letter suggesting that Supergirl would be the most likely candidate to marry Superman. You answered that she is too young. This is absurd! She is older physically and mentally than any regular human. She is pretty, and goes with Superman on missions anytime she wants to. Also, being invulnerable, it would be difficult for Superman’s enemies to harm her. So why not have a wedding?” Now, you would think that there were all sorts of reasons Weisinger could give for why Superman shouldn’t want to marry his cousin, but instead, he just goes with, “Even if Superman were interested romantically in Supergirl, she is still a minor, and would have to wait at least three years to be eligible for a wedding license. And who knows who Supergirl will meet during the next three years?”
4 Weisinger 1, Detail-Oriented Fan 0. In 1968’s World’s Finest #173, reader Fred Haynes writes in to vent a little bit: “I consider myself an expert on Batman. In fact, I probably know more about him than anyone else short of Bob Kane. And I don’t like some of your recent issues, which have had Robin popping corny puns. Until that ‘camp’ stuff started on TV, Robin never made with the puns when he was fighting crooks. I especially dislike those ‘Holy this’ and ‘Holy that’ expressions. What’s so ‘holy’ about these stories anyway?” Weisinger then puts a beat down on the kid: “If you were a real Batman expert, you’d know punning was part of Robin’s personality from the day he first donned that red vest of his. And we sometimes think the ‘holeiest’ things about our mags are the heads of certain self-styled ‘experts.’” Ouch!
5 That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. In 1964’s Superboy #110, reader Claude Diamond wrote in with his displeasure: “Shame on you! You’ve often stated that it is against Superboy’s code to destroy life. However, in the recent story, ‘The Mystery of Sorcery Boy,’ you show the Boy of Steel snatching up a trout from a stream and bringing it to his friends. Obviously they weren’t going to put it in a fish pond, but feast on it. Isn’t that a goof?” Weisinger calmly just made up a “fish tale” of his own: “We received many other protests from readers about this apparent violation of Superboy’s code. What was not shown was that the trout was already dead, having been struck by lightning and was just floating in the water when Superboy found him.” Riiiiight.