In HE COULD STOP THE WORLD, published in July 1937, but actually happening in May 1936 according to Farmer's Doc Savage chronology--- Doc Savage fought thirty-foot giants, evil scientists on Mt. Shasta in California, and freed women (including his cousin, Patricia Savage) who were perceived into growing into giantesses...yet it turned out to be a trick of magnifying glasses or mirrors. The other woman that was mentioned was the daughter of a high California official.

Now small-minded and the mean-spirited and the petty might think Siegel stole the plotline totally from the earlier Doc Savage story (at least earlier in its publication). Yet it seems we have here, instead, is a case of two heroes, with their very different methods, attacking the evil scientists' from two different angles. Doubtless there were three women in the same room---Lois, Patricia Savage, and the daughter of the California official. (Lois was thrown in at the last minute, being captured by one of the "giants".) Each author avoided details that did not directly touch on their story, and perhaps Doc would not permit mention of Superman to be passed on to Dent. So Siegel didn't mention Doc Savage, and Lester Dent didn't mention Superman.

Of couse, it's possible that each of them was attacking at a different angle, and never saw the other....

One wonders if Doc and his men got a look at the other hero attacking, and what they thought of that colorfully-clad, super-strong hero who could leap hundreds of feet in the air.

Certainly Doc wouldn't have approved of some aspects of Superman's early career...the occasional killing, the taking of the law into his own hands. On the other hand, in Doc's very first adventure, he himself killed. It was only later that he became against the taking of human life in almost any circumstance.

Doc may have been less surprised at Superman than his fellows. There is some reason to believe that Professor Daniel Hardin in GLADIATOR was Wyliese for Dr. Clark Savage Sr. If so, we can presume that Doc's father would have told Doc of such an extraordinary being.

He might have called Superman down and talked to him, and tried to maintain communication with this extraordinary being---mentor him, in some ways. We know as time went on, Superman became more and more careful of human life, and more and more respectful of the law's restraints (although Doc himself was not averse to flouting the law when need be, as shown by his sending his captives to the "crime college" he maintained.)

One wonders, when Lois was free, if she tried to interview or even flirt with Doc Savage. One wonders at Patricia Savage's reaction to Superman, on meeting someone who was so much stronger than her cousin.

Of the two accounts, not unnaturally, the written, Doc Savage account was a little more accurate than the comic book story. In the comic book story, the giants were portrayed as much larger, maybe sixty feet tall. The Doc Savage story makes it clear that their dimensions were more modest, maybe thirty feet tall. (Even so, at that height, the growth hormone that made them so much taller would have to also make their strength quintupled pound for pound, otherwise the cube-square law would have kept the giants from moving, being burdened by a weight comparable to me having half a ton on my back.) Superman could fight these giants with comparable strength. Doc, of course, used his magnificent intellect.

Superman fought crime from 1932 on, but his adventures weren't published until 1938. Superman's side of the story didn't appear until 1941, and Siegel, as he doubtless did with many of his stories, streamlined the details and left out extraneous elements, such as another group of adventurers also fighting the evil scientists. (One was called by Siegel Professor Zee. One wonders if it's any relation, perhaps the brother, of Per Degaton's employer, also called Professor Zee....)

Still, it's good to know, as these two champions of the oppressed, these two who were, in their own ways, both supermen---that their paths crossed at least once.

PARTIAL LIST OF SOURCES:

Of course, TARZAN ALIVE and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE by Philip Jose Farmer.

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF HORATIO HORNBLOWER by C. Northcote Parkinson.

Those interested with comments, suggestions, things I have forgotten, things I messed up, contact me at...
E-Mail:al.schroeder@nashville.com

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Speculations Copyright © Al Schroeder. "The Hulk", of course, is currently owned by Marvel Comics Group. All other characters copyrighted by their respective owners.