Greetings comic lovers and welcome back to casually comics the channel where we chat
all things comics from reviews of comics new and old to history to anecdotes to really
wherever our whims take us.
So last time we talked, about the riddler and saw his first appearance wherein he gave
batman 2 puzzles and one riddle leading me to say that he should be called the Puzzler
cause that’s the kind of a list material you can expect here on casually comics.
Well I was informed by commentor Wil Day that there was already a puzzler and he appeared
in the golden age back in 1942.
So well I had to investigate a chance to meet the real puzzler I can’t pass that up.
So I looked into it, and he’s using the wrong name too!
So I can still take the name so let’s take a look at why there’s still room for me
to be the true Puzzler.
But first if you’ve got your villain name all picked out hit that like button.
So the Puzzler appeared in Action comics #49 back in 1942 so get ready for classic superman
action as Superman encounters his newest and cleverest opponent The Puzzler according to
the cover.
Also the puzzler’s not on this cover so that should already tell you something.
He has no costume...strike one.
Also the opening page describes him as a rascal...strike two.
So Clark Kent is with Lois at a ping pong competition cause it’s a slow news day in
metropolis I guess.
But Clark notices something is off with the ball so he changes into superman and plays
ping pong with himself so he can palm the ball the fact that this means that he gets
to show off in front of Lois is just a happy bonus.
He takes the ball outside after completely upstaging the champion carl prentice and it
explodes.
Lois and clark then learn that there was a threat made against ping pong champion carl
prentice’s life by the puzzler, why...cause why not.
Take that Ping Pong enthusiasts.
Despite not knowing who the puzzler is clark decides that this ping pong messiah may still
be in peril so stakes him out I think he was just trying to avoid having to go back to
work and write up the press releases for metropolis cities ping pong tournament but that’s just
me.
Thankfully he’s right and the puzzle has painted a bullseye on carl prentice’s car
and he’s just like dang kids.
Youths!
And gets in and drives it anyway.
But the bullseye is really a marker for the puzzler’s henchmen Ha Ha clever guy the
puzzler.
Firstly no not really he painted a bullseye.
Secondly an exploding ping pong ball and a target neither of these are puzzles.
Superman saves carl prentice and takes the henchmen to prison where they are broken out
of prison by the The puzzler and we get out first look at him and he’s a doctor strange
knock off in a purple suit and I can say that cause hugo strange first debuted in 1940 and
he stuck around take that puzzler.
Why was he trying to kill Carl Prentice never explained it’s not even like he stole my
ping pong dream!!!
Nope nothing.
He then sends a note for clark kent to come interview him and signs it the puzzler lois
gets the note and instead of alerting the police is like this tea is hot, also take
that Clark this is for making me right the ping pong story and goes to the interview.
So we get the puzzler’s life story.
A genius at solving puzzles I decided to utilize the principles that win games to launch a
crime campaign unrivaled in history that i’ve been successful is a testament to my brilliance.
Yeah this is going to be a great article.
Then he kidnaps here cause I mean it’s what you do it’s superman book etiquette.
So superman has to go get her but wait not even the man of steel could be prepared for
the ultimate puzzler, to be challenged to a game of checkers.
Ladies and gentleman the gamer.
You had one job puzzler one.
A battle of wits eh I accept.
I love it.
Other heroes are playing chess and clark is literally playing checkers.
And so begins one of the most fateful games of checkers the world has ever known.
My god will a man who could kill you by looking at you win at this game that he can play at
superspeed which he does to win.
I love that the puzzler calls himself a checkers expert well then you should have tried to
blow up the checkers tournament missed opportunity.
Also there’s this panel of Lois saying the puzzler got away but he’s right there so
I spent several panels waiting for his prison escape only to realize it was a poorly dubbed
panel and he was never supposed to have been there.
No he was still in the loose puzzling away.
The puzzler sends Lois anther letter which clark intercepts which leads him on a random
quest for puzzle pieces, Yes finally a puzzle...kinda.
But none of that matters cause the puzzlers been kidnapping people with last names like
chess pieces and no Clark’s not going to play chess don’t be silly he already matched
wits with a game relished by true intellectuals...ping pong.
So superman xrays his way to the puzzlers secret lair and well he’s kidnapped lois
again cause of course he has and this time he challenges to Superman to a true puzzle,
a game of poker with his henchmen and him.
Does the puzzler just not have people to game with does he just want a cool boardgame gang
to hang with.
The flash looks like he plays boardgames maybe he should move cities.
Clark manages to convince the henchmen that the puzzler has been cheating them by using
his x-ray vision Superman follows him up to the top of a bridge Ready to trot along to
a cell like a good little boy.
Man I miss sassy superman.
I like to imagine he still does things like this but super far away so no one can hear
him.
The puzzler decides he would rather die then be taken alive so yeah that’s what happens.
Taking the cowards way out eh.
Superman is ice cold and of course he manages to write the story up before lois which lois
calls the greatest puzzle of all.
Yet another villain not living up to their name.
Puzzler just why you had ample opportunity.
There was one puzzle but it was clearly there for padding.
But what really doesn’t work about the puzzler aside from his upsetting lack of costume is
who he is pitted against.
Clark’s not stupid contrary to popular belief but he’s also so strong that oft times a
battle of wits stops mattering.
He can fly through walls he can see though them too, he can survive almost anything so
really it doesn’t matter it’s an unequal matchup it’s bringing a checkers board to
a boxing match.
You can make superman have an extremely intelligent opponent look at lex but you can’t have
him go toe to toe with him like you would batman cause that’s not supermans’ thing.
You need a different kind of smart villain and clark looking to say unravel a giant plot
that has many obstacles thrown in his way but him playing checkers it’s not the best
use of your superman you could tell this story but you’d have to work a lot harder than
this did to pull it off.
Still I’m glad I met the puzzler I’m now more convinced than ever that I could live
up to the name.
There have been two puzzlers since this one but I could take em.
I’m Sasha and thanks so much for watching casually comics don’t forget to do all the
youtube things like share comment subscribe and stay tuned for more videos coming soon.
Bye