Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen was one of our best comics of 2019 honorees–and for good reason. It’s the perfect blend of hilarious, over-the-top slapstick humor and slice-of-life commentary that makes DC’s favorite Daily Planet photographer so lovable (and at times, uncomfortably relatable). 2019 may be over and done with, but that doesn’t mean Jimmy’s story is over. In fact, issue 7 is just around the corner.
In this issue, we dig into the many layers and incarnations of Jimmy’s bizarre publication history and start to peel them back to see if there’s a “real” Jimmy Olsen at the center of it all. Unsurprisingly for someone like him, the answer to that question might be a little more complicated than you’d think.
Take a look at the first pages of the issue below.
Some Jimmy Olsen fun facts for added context: those weird, wonderful, sort-of-kind-of grotesque versions of him appearing on the couch? They’re all real. Over the years, and especially in the Silver Age (a period of comics encompassing roughly the early ’50s to the mid ’60s), Jimmy Olsen stories were catalysts for some of the most bonkers DC stories around. His solo title even provided the launching point for the soon-to-be-live-action Jack Kirby masterpiece, the Fourth World, which gave the DCU its very own cosmic mythology. All that from a kid who got his start snapping photos and goofing off with Clark Kent–not bad, right? He’s been mutated, empowered, experimented on, remade, and then some, all in the name of being a supporting character to his A-lister friends.
Of course, that history obviously leaves its mark in some pretty interesting (and occasionally unwelcome) ways, as we can see here.
Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #7 hits shelves this Wednesday, January 1
