Chapter 47: Comic Promotion
2023-05-02 Author: Yue Shang Xintou
"Is that a bird? Is that a plane? That's Superman!"
On a weekend morning, the shouts of the newsboys echoed through every corner of New York's streets.
"Give me a copy of The Messenger Newspaper..."
Attracted by the newsboys' voices, a man reached out and stopped a newsboy hawking along the street, pulling out two cents to buy a copy of The Messenger Newspaper from him.
While waiting for his transfer, the man opened the newspaper and began to read it.
Serialized in the newspaper was the latest installment of the Superman comic.
The story continued: Luthor was discovered to be alive. After his evil plans were repeatedly thwarted by Superman, he decided to retaliate against Superman and implement his plans by helping corrupt economists. He used hypnotic gas to hypnotize people in government offices, aiming to plunge the nation's economy into depression, but Superman ultimately stopped him.
"Why isn't there a Superman-like figure in the real world to prevent the Great Depression from happening?"
The plot of this comic chapter deeply moved the man.
He couldn't help but exclaim, especially when he saw Superman descend from the sky, thwarting Luthor's plan to create the Great Depression.
If he had the choice, he would rather live in Metropolis, where Superman resided, than struggle in the current mire of the real world.
At least, in Metropolis, there was a Superman who could save them from the Great Depression.
But in the real world, they only had an incompetent president who stood by and watched the Great Depression unfold.
After offering a series of 'friendly' greetings to President Hoover in his mind and venting his dissatisfaction, the man continued flipping through the newspaper.
In the latter half of the comic, a new villain appeared.
He wore a suit and a bowler hat, calling himself Mr. Mxyzptlk.
Mr. Mxyzptlk's appearance was comical, but his powers were unexpectedly formidable. He claimed to be a sorcerer from the Fifth Dimension, possessing various powerful magical abilities. Due to sheer boredom, he had smuggled himself from Zriff, his home in the Fifth Dimension, to the Three-dimensional World where Superman resided.
Upon arriving in Metropolis, Mr. Mxyzptlk demonstrated immense destructive power.
With a soft snap of his fingers, he made a building in Metropolis disappear without a trace. To stop Mr. Mxyzptlk's destruction, Superman pursued him. However, in the comic, Mr. Mxyzptlk displayed faster flight speed than Superman, and while flying, he even engaged in a conversation with the readers beyond the newspaper.
"Hey, you must find it strange seeing this scene in the newspaper right now. Why would such a comical-looking character display powers even greater than Superman's..."
"But if you think about it from another perspective, it doesn't seem that difficult to understand. From an ant's perspective, a small step for a human is a massive journey for them. Applying that to myself, the same principle applies to me, coming from the Fifth Dimension."
Although Mr. Mxyzptlk in the story appeared incredibly powerful, he ultimately could not escape the principle that good triumphs over evil.
During his wager with Mr. Mxyzptlk, Superman demonstrated Super Brainpower, successfully tricking him into saying his name backward, thus forcing him to return to his own dimension. Furthermore, due to the time difference between the two dimensions, Mr. Mxyzptlk had to wait a full ninety days before he could re-enter the world where Superman resided.
"Mr. Mxyzptlk, I've never seen such an interesting comic character."
"He can actually talk through the newspaper..."
In this era, a character capable of breaking the fourth wall and conversing with readers was undoubtedly a highly novel design.
The man was clearly amazed by the content of the comic, continuously exclaiming in wonder.
While exclaiming, the man flipped to the last page of The Messenger Newspaper, his gaze suddenly stopping.
There, on the last page of the newspaper, was a notice in enlarged font: "This newspaper reports that the first issue of The Messenger Newspaper's namesake comic book – Messenger Comics – will officially go on sale starting Monday morning, March 21st. The comic collects all previously serialized Superman stories, re-colored and compiled. Each copy will be sold for 10 cents. Please enthusiastically visit newsstands to purchase."
"If you don't want to miss the latest colored Superman, don't hesitate!"
Messenger Comics?
Looking at the promotional report for Messenger Comics in the newspaper, a slight stir of emotion appeared on the man's face.
However, before he could make a decision, the waiting automobile for his transfer pulled up to the platform.
Taking one last look at the promotion in The Messenger Newspaper, the man, clutching the newspaper, hurriedly squeezed onto the automobile.
...
[Powers – Super Brainpower (Black Iron)]
[Powers Description: Superman possesses incredible intelligence and astonishing computational learning ability, allowing him to easily master difficult languages and skills and handle complex tasks.]
Less than a day remained until the release of Messenger Comics, and at the same time, Colin had unlocked a new power thanks to the latest serialized Superman comic.
Superman's [Super Brainpower].
However, compared to the comic, where Superman is omnipotent and capable of mastering foreign languages with just a few seconds of conversation, Colin, having only unlocked the Black Iron level of [Super Brainpower], clearly couldn't achieve that. Moreover, judging from the text's description, the initial effect of this power was merely to enhance his learning ability.
Of course, Colin had already anticipated this.
He had never harbored the extravagant hope of directly becoming a true Superman by unlocking the Black Iron level of [Super Brainpower] and instantly soaring into the sky.
The reason he chose to unlock this power within the comic's serialization was primarily due to the needs of the comic's plot, and to better adapt to another power he had previously unlocked – [Super Hearing].
That's right, Colin's true purpose in choosing to unlock [Super Brainpower] was actually to complement the use of the [Super Hearing] power.
Although the [Invulnerability] he had previously unlocked protected him from suffering too severe harm under the influence of [Super Hearing], the side effects of using this power still troubled Colin, preventing him from using it smoothly.
Therefore, to solve this problem, the first thing Colin thought of was [Super Brainpower].
Only by utilizing the powerful computational ability brought by [Super Brainpower] could he most effectively utilize [Super Hearing], rather than having to hold his breath and concentrate his will with every use, fearing interference from the sounds he heard, as he did before in the Anti-World.
Thanks to Fúsheng Baruo Meng for the 100 Qidian Coin tip.
(end of chapter)