Jimmy Olsen | |
![]() Jimmy Olsen. Art by Phil Noto, from 9-11: The World's Finest Comic Book Writers and Artists Tell Stories to Remember. |
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Publication information | |
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Publisher | DC Comics |
First appearance | Anonymous cameo: Action Comics #6 (November 1938) As Jimmy Olsen: Superman v1 #13 (November-December 1941) |
Created by | Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster |
In-story information | |
Full name | James Bartholomew "Jimmy" Olsen |
Team affiliations | Daily Planet Galaxy Broadcasting |
Supporting character of | Superman |
Notable aliases | Mr. Action Superman Superman's pal |
Abilities | He possesses a watch which emits a high pitched signal only Superman can hear. |
James Bartholomew "Jimmy" Olsen is a fictional character, a photojournalist who appears mainly in DC Comics’ Superman stories. An anonymous "copy boy" who resembles Olsen makes a brief appearance in Action Comics #6, but the character called Jimmy Olsen first appeared in the radio show, The Adventures of Superman, on April 15, 1940. The character moved from the radio show into the comics in 1941, first appearing in Superman v1 #13 (1941). Along with his appearances in current Superman titles (Superman and Action Comics), he was one of the main protagonists in DC Comics' weekly series Countdown. He has appeared in most media interpretations of Superman. He was portrayed by Jack Larson in the Adventures of Superman television show; Marc McClure in the Superman films of the 1970s and '80s, as well as the 1984 film Supergirl; Michael Landes in the first season of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Justin Whalin in the subsequent three seasons; Sam Huntington in the 2006 film Superman Returns; and Aaron Ashmore in the show Smallville.
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Jimmy is traditionally depicted as a bow tie-wearing, red-haired young man who works as a cub reporter and photographer for The Daily Planet, alongside Lois Lane and Clark Kent, whom he idolizes as career role models. In most depictions of the character, he also has a strong friendship with Superman. As Superman's friend, Jimmy has special access to the Man of Steel, thanks to Superman's gift to Jimmy of a "signal watch," a wristwatch which, with the press of a button, emits a special ultrasonic frequency signal that Superman can hear anywhere on Earth. (In Post-Crisis continuity Jimmy invented the watch himself, and Superman briefly considered confiscating it. In New Earth continuity, the watch was designed by Superman based on a larger signalling device Jimmy created.)
In many Silver Age comic books, Jimmy was often seen sharing adventures with Superman, who saved him from various predicaments ranging from dangerous to merely embarrassing. This was particularly pronounced in the series Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen (published from 1954 to 1974), which saw Olsen in a variety of slapstick adventures and strange transformations. Like most DC characters, modern portrayals of Olsen have been more serious in tone.
An important part of the Superman mythos, Jimmy Olsen has appeared in most other media adaptations of the character.
"Olsen" is a common Scandinavian name, especially Danish, indicating that the character is likely to be of a Danish American origin. However, other than the name there was never any indication of a Danish background about him.
During the Silver Age, Jimmy starred in his own comic book, Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, which featured his various adventures with and without Superman; it debuted in 1954. The stories in the title would often feature particularly outlandish situations, ranging from Jimmy being hurled back in time to Krypton before its destruction in issue #36 to dealing frequently with gorillas of all sorts.
This version of Jimmy Olsen even had his own fan club. In one adventure published in the 1960s, he implied that there were branches of it around the country and that he intended to lecture them about anti-crime techniques he had learned from Superman and Batman. [1]
Kirby began by introducing a secret "D.N.A. Project" to create Mutated Humans for Good, also adding "The Hairies" (a group of technology-equipped hippies) and superbeings from other planets (proto-New Gods) and Intergang and Morgan Edge... and reintroduced his 1940s Newsboy Legion characters.
About halfway through his run, Kirby also added vampires, the Loch Ness monster, and Victor Volcanum, the fire-eating archcriminal. Readership quickly dropped back to its pre-Jack-Kirby levels.
Jack's tenure on the series ended in 1974 with issue #163, when Jimmy's book was folded into the anthology title Superman Family. In that book, Olsen became a more serious character who battled criminals as an investigative reporter known as "Mr. Action" in urban crime stories that rarely involved Superman.
Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, the entire Superman mythos was rebooted from scratch in the limited series The Man of Steel. Despite recent modernization efforts on Superman and his supporting characters, Jimmy Olsen has not been significantly changed in the Modern Age. He is still a cub reporter working for The Daily Planet, and is still friends with Superman. His look was made over as he stopped wearing bowties, and started wearing casual clothing (though this trend started in 1970s comics). An interesting alteration to the relationship was that Jimmy designed the signal watch himself, leading to his first meeting with Superman.[2] Superman briefly considered confiscating the watch, but decided he trusted Jimmy to use it responsibly.
While Jimmy's transformations no longer occur as regularly as they did in the Silver Age, Jimmy did become Elastic Lad on contact with the Eradicator. He has also taken the identity of "Turtle Boy" in a series of pizza commercials, made when he was temporarily laid off from the Planet.
In the 1990s, Jimmy moved to Metropolis broadcaster Galaxy Broadcasting, where he became more brash and arrogant. This came to an end when he thought (wrongly) he had discovered Superman's secret identity and said he would announce it live on air. He reconsidered his actions, but lost his job for wasting the timeslot. He was again rehired by the Planet.
Jimmy later came under the angry hand of the Alpha Centurion, an alternate universe dictator with a deep-seated hatred for Superman and an eye toward Lois Lane. It was Jimmy who first uncovered his secret plot to control the world's finances through his company Aelius Industries, Inc.
June 2003 saw Jimmy Olsen as the focus of a twelve-part miniseries entitled Superman: Metropolis. Written by Chuck Austen and illustrated by Danijel Zezelj, the series focused on the futuristic technology unleashed in Metropolis by Brainiac in a previous storyline, and how it affected the everyday lives of Metropolis citizens.
Recently, Jimmy had taken a position as a regular star reporter for The Daily Planet, replacing the recently demoted Clark Kent. This caused a strain in the relationship between Clark and Jimmy. It appears, however, that following the One Year Later storyline jump, Clark has regained his original role as The Daily Planet's star reporter,[3][4] and Jimmy has returned to being a photographer, winning the Pulitzer Prize for his photographic efforts.
Jimmy's story in the 2007-08 weekly series Countdown to Final Crisis begins with an investigation into the death of Duela Dent. Tying into the Death of the New Gods storyline, Jimmy starts to develop a plethora of new superpowers, which he first discovers when he is attacked by Killer Croc while gathering information on Duela's death. As the story progresses he tries to uncover the origin of these powers and starts to discover their potential limitlessness in stories which mimic the Silver Age Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen adventures. Briefly operating as the superhero "Mr. Action", Jimmy is unable to command the respect of established superheroes in the JLA and Teen Titans, and gives up on this particular avenue. One of these powers allows Jimmy to realize the identities of some superheroes, such as the Robins and Superman, who requests that he take care of Krypto.
Jimmy is eventually tracked down by the New God Forager, with whom he begins a romantic relationship. Forager informs him that he has become a soulcatcher for the spirits of dying New Gods. The Monitor known as Solomon later tells him that his new powers are the consequence of Darkseid using Jimmy as a host for powers he wishes to use to recreate the universe in his image, knowing that "Superman's pal" is one of the world's most well-protected citizens. Later, as the events of Countdown begin to come to their close, Jimmy becomes a more confidently powerful character and is reunited with the series' other cast members on a mission to stop Karate Kid's disease from becoming a pandemic of apocalyptic proportions. Unfortunately, they fail, and the Morticoccus virus devastates an alternate Earth.
Upon return to their Earth, Jimmy is captured by Mary Marvel, who had been manipulated towards evil by Darkseid. When Superman comes to save Jimmy, Darkseid takes control of the powers within him, causing Jimmy to radiate Kryptonite radiation, until Ray Palmer manages to rewire Darkseid's control from inside of Jimmy. Jimmy then transforms into a giant turtlelike creature, and prepares to take on Darkseid himself. Darkseid overcomes Jimmy, and prepares to kill him. Ray Palmer then comes out of Jimmy with the New God soul battery, and destroys it, returning Jimmy to normal.
During Superman's fight with Atlas he witnessed a mysterious figure hovering over the fight. After some encouraging words from Clark Kent, he decides to take two weeks off to investigate this.
He tracked down a figure connected with the past of Jonathan Drew and was told the story of how Jonathan became Codename: Assassin. His informant is quickly executed by Codename: Assassin who then proceeded to try to kill Jimmy. Jimmy was able to hide from Codename: Assassin and was apparently shielded from Codename: Assassin's telepathy due to his many, many transformations over the years.
He goes to Project Cadmus and speaks to Dubbilex who tells him the story about the death of the original Guardian at the hands of Codename: Assassin and how cloning is such an imperfect science that the only viable clone alive went into hiding in the desert. Dubbilex promptly dies from injuries sustained in an earlier conflict with Codename: Assassin. Jimmy then heads south to the town of Warpath, AZ and avoids conflict with Codename: Assassin on the way.
When in Warpath he interviews the sheriff, Greg Saunders, who evades his questions. He follows him after dark and sees him working with the last Guardian clone. He then confronts the clone at his home and the two speak.
With his two weeks up, Jimmy returns to Metropolis horrified by what he has learned, a faction within the US military is actively plotting to kill Superman...
Jimmy possesses a watch which emits a high-pitched signal only Superman can hear.
Especially in the days of the Silver Age, Jimmy would often find himself temporarily transformed, for better or worse, or undergo a disguise for various purposes. The transformation tradition is still sometimes referenced in present-day comics, usually through homage or parody. The variety of transformations Jimmy received during the Silver Age is often homaged or parodied in later comics and adaptations featuring the character — for instance, in JLA: The Nail, Jimmy cites three of these transformations as his motivations behind backing Luthor's bill to outlaw metahumans and in Countdown, Jimmy is used as a spirit container for the deceased New Gods, causing him to exhibit strange powers, albeit uncrontrollably, with other stories simply make passing references.
Jack Kirby received a Shazam Award (for "Special Achievement By an Individual") for his work on Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen.
In JLA: The Nail, an alternate reality in which a nail punctured a tire on the Kent's car, preventing them from finding the spaceship containing a baby Superman, Jimmy Olsen is revealed as the one behind all the other superheroes' troubles. Jimmy had served as an aide to Lex Luthor following various short-lived attempts at heroism caused by temporary alteration of his DNA.
On the Superman radio series, Jack Kelk and Jack Grimes provided the voice of Jimmy Olsen.
Jimmy Olsen appeared in the animated Superman short film called Showdown, where he is portrayed by voice actor Jack Mercer.
Jimmy Olsen has appeared in every major filmed adaptation of Superman. The first actor to portray Jimmy Olsen in live-action was Tommy Bond in the serials starring Kirk Alyn.
In the four motion pictures starring Christopher Reeve beginning with Superman, Jimmy Olsen was portrayed by Marc McClure. McClure reprised his role as Jimmy Olsen in the 1984 spin-off movie Supergirl, making McClure the only actor and Olsen the only character to appear in all five Superman films of the 1978-87 era.
In Bryan Singer's 2006 movie Superman Returns, Jimmy Olsen is portrayed by Sam Huntington, an older and more confident, yet goofier portrayal of the character who finds it difficult to get a good shot or get any photos published. In a deleted scene (included in the DVD release) a slightly inebriated Olsen is seen to complain to Clark about the fact he hasn't had a photo printed in several months. Jack Larson, who played the original Jimmy, plays the bartender who talks to Clark and Jimmy in the film.
Jimmy appeared in Superman: Doomsday, played by voice actor Adam Wylie.
Jimmy appeared in Justice League: The New Frontier. He has no dialogue, therefore no voice actor. He is always shown with Lois, and is almost killed during the final battle. He also tries to take dangerous pictures during the battle.
Jimmy is played by in the television movie Superman: Brainiac Attacks by David Kaufman.
In Superman [NES, 2600, C64]: Jimmy appears in the daily building room and enjoys taking pictures of Clark Kent. Also, in that game, Jimmy's appearance is similar to his pre-crisis comic appearance.
Superman 64 [N64]: He is trapped, along with Lois Lane and Professor Emil Hamilton, by Lex Luthor. Superman has to save him and his friends in this game.
Superman: Shadow of Apokolips [Gamecube, PS2]: Jimmy makes some minor appearances and only seen in the story between game-play. He is also seen in the bibliography section of the game.
On the Adventures of Superman television series starring George Reeves, Jimmy Olsen was portrayed by Jack Larson. Larson also portrayed an unnaturally aged Jimmy Olsen in an episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
Jack Grimes reprised his role as Jimmy Olsen in The New Adventures of Superman.
In the Super Friends animated series, he appears in in the second episode of The World's Greatest Super Friends season, 'Lex Luthor Strikes Back', with Lois Lane.
Mark L. Taylor played Jimmy Olsen in the 1988 animated adaptation of Superman.
On the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Jimmy Olsen was portrayed by Michael Landes in the first season and Justin Whalin for the rest of the series' run. The reason cited behind the change is that Landes looked too much like Dean Cain as well as to emphasize Jimmy's youth.
In Superman: The Animated Series, Jimmy was again played by voice actor David Kaufman. One episode was called "Superman's Pal" as an homage to the classic comic series, and Superman gave Jimmy the signal watch by the end of the episode. Another allusion to the comics made in the show was seen in the second season episode "Mxyzpixilated," where Mr. Mxyzptlk turns all the emplyees of the Daily Planet into animals. Jimmy is turned into a turtle, possibly as an homage.
Jimmy has a cameo appearance at Superman's funeral in the Justice League two-part episode "Hereafter".
Jimmy had several cameo appearances in Justice League Unlimited, including one episode where Huntress tied him up, taped his mouth shut, and used the signal watch to attract Superman. In the episode "Chaos at the Earth's Core", several heroes battle a giant turtle that has a thatch of red hair. Bruce Timm has confirmed this is a reference to Jimmy's Giant Turtle Boy persona, "but it was more economical time-wise to have him revert to cute little turtle than naked, confused photographer." [12]
Jimmy appeared in the Season 5 premiere of The Batman played by voice actor Jack DeSena.
In Smallville Jimmy Olsen is first referenced, by first name only (as Chloe Sullivan's "first time"), in Season 4. He appears in person, played by Aaron Ashmore, in the season premiere of Season 6, now on staff at the Planet, and he prefers to be called "James". Jimmy and Chloe became a couple again after their reunion in the Season 6 premiere "Zod". At first Jimmy is jealous of Clark but their relationship becomes friendly after Clark reunites him with Chloe in the Season 6 episode "Trespass".
In Season 7, Jimmy is still at Daily Planet working as a budding photographer, his relationship with Chloe is going through a rough phase due to Chloe's newfound abilities caused by an amount of Kryptonite meteor in her blood stream. They broke up in a very emotional scene in the episode "Cure" since Chloe was unable to share her secret with him. Meanwhile Clark's newly arrived Kryptonian cousin Kara Zor-El (Laura Vandervoort) has developed a crush on Jimmy and they become friends. Jimmy is also smitten by her and teams up with her in episodes like "Cure" and "Lara". They are in a relationship briefly, but they break up and Jimmy is shown to be in a relationship again with Chloe in the episode "Sleeper". In the season finale, he proposed to her but she was arrested before she had the time to answer.
In the eighth season premiere "Odyssey", Jimmy is seen waiting for Chloe at the Talon. Chloe arrives and Jimmy tells her that he takes back his proposal saying it might risk what they have between them. But Chloe disagrees. She reveals that she loves Jimmy and says that she'll gladly be his wife. She kisses Jimmy passionatly afterwards. In "Committed," Jimmy admits to Chloe that he lied about his father being a Manhattan investment banker; Jimmy says his father was an alcoholic and a mechanic in Oklahoma City. He never met his mom. He apologises for lying but she hugs him. In "Bride," Jimmy marries Chloe in the Kent barn but the reception is interrupted by Doomsday, who nearly kills Jimmy and kidnaps Chloe. Jimmy's condition is so serious he must be taken to a hospital in Star City.
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