Jimmy Olsen's Monster Movie

Jimmy Olsen's Monster Movie

by Armand Vaquer

(Originally published in G-FAN #58 (Sept./Oct. 2002))

King Kong vs. Godzilla was released in the U.S. in the summer of 1963, and was a big hit.

A year later, National Periodical Publications (now known as DC Comics) released Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #84 (cover date April 1965) which contained the cover story, "Jimmy Olsen's Monster Movie," featuring Titano the super-ape (who had kryptonite vision) and the Flame Dragon from Krypton.

The story begins with Olsen screening a new monster movie by his movie producer friend Ron Wyck, and boasting that he can make a monster movie that would earn ten times the amount of money as Wyck's current feature. On a hunch, Wyck agrees to provide the financial backing for Jimmy to make a monster movie.

Jimmy uses a device called the Time-and-Space Warper (kind of sounds like the Dimension Tide from Godzilla x Megaguirus), invented by Professor Potter, to bring Titano and the Dragon to the movie's island location.

Fortunately, Jimmy includes Clark Kent in the cast, and when things start to go wrong (things usually go wrong with projects Jimmy is involved in), Superman is nearby.

In a twist, as Superman tries to intervene when one of the monsters gets out of control, Jimmy rescues Superman from Titano's kryptonite vision by using the Time-and-Space to send the monsters back where they came from.



Was "Jimmy Olsen's Monster Movie" inspired by King Kong vs. Godzilla or coincidence?