Jimmy Olsen (Post-Crisis)

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Real Name: James Bartholomew Olsen
Nicknames: Superman's Pal
Former Aliases: No known former aliases
Other Current Aliases: No other known current aliases

Status

Occupation: Journalist, photographer
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States With No Criminal Record
Identity: Public
Marital Status: Single
Group Affiliation: Daily Planet
Base of Operations: Metropolis

Origin

Place of Birth: Bakerline
Known Relatives: Jake Olsen (father, deceased), Sarah Olsen (mother)
First Appearance: Superman 13 (Volume 1, 1941)

History

James Bartholomew Olsen was born to Jake and Sarah Olsen in Bakerline, a borough of Metropolis. His father was in the military and was declared missing in Southeast Asia before Jimmy was born.

Jimmy was a very bright child, but sometime grew bored with his schoolwork. Sometimes he would cut classes to attend lectures at the University of Metropolis. He got a job as an intern at the Daily Planet while still a junior high school student.

When one of his friend's life was in jeopardy, Jimmy jury-rigged some spare electronic parts to produce a hypersonic sound and attract the attention of Superman. His plan was successful, and Superman arrived to save the day. The Man of Steel encouraged Jimmy to adapt his circuitry into a wristwratch and use it to contact him in emergencies. This became Jimmy's Signal Watch, and Jimmy became "Superman's Pal".

Jimmy's success grew at the Planet, rising up from a gopher to becoming a photographer and occasional reporter.

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. Because of these factors, the comic was regarded by some as a poorly written subsidiary title, although some readers still enjoy it for its camp value.

The major exception to this was in the early 1970s, when the singular writer/artist Jack Kirby took over the title and created his own distinctive stories as part of Jack Kirby's Fourth World, which introduced many additions to the DC Universe, including the supervillain Darkseid and Project Cadmus. The series revolved around Project Cadmus, and the genetic experiments held there, most notably cloning. 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 in urban crime stories that rarely involved Superman.

Despite recent modernization efforts, 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).

While weird 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 "Giant Turtle Boy" in a series of pizza commercials, made when he was temporarily laid off from the Planet.

In the late 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.

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 everday 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, and Jimmy has returned to being a photographer, winning the Pulitzer Prize for his photographic efforts.

Alternate Versions

In Frank Miller's 1986 graphic novel Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Jimmy Olsen is featured as the writer of a Daily Planet article entitled "Truth to Power."

In JLA: The Nail, an alternate reality in which a nail punctured the Kents' 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. Luthor grafted Kryptonian DNA onto Jimmy causing him to go insane and possess superpowers similar to Superman's. Jimmy played up the public's fear of superheroes via propaganda, hoping to have them imprisoned so he could use their DNA as well. When Jimmy attacked an Amish couple and their son during a battle with the JLA, the couple was killed, but the son was revealed to be Superman. In this alternate reality, the Amish couple had raised Superman, and brought him up as a pacifist, so he had never used his powers in conflict. Jimmy asked Superman to join him and when Superman refused, the two battled. During the battle, Jimmy's body started to refuse the Kryptonian DNA, causing him to disintegrate. The JLA then asked Superman to join them.

In Superman: Red Son, Jimmy is depicted as an agent of the CIA, eventually becoming the director, and soon joins Luthor in his Presidential bid and becomes Vice-President.

In Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman series, Jimmy shows up briefly in the Daily Planet offices in argyle socks; this Jimmy seems to be a refined version of the Silver Age vintage, with a signal watch halfway between McDonalds happy meal toy and haute couture. He's also shown with something that may be a jetpack. #4 of the series focuses on Jimmy and his adventures as the one-day director of the DNA P.R.O.J.E.C.T., a leftover from the Kirby-era Jimmy Olsen series.

Other Media

File:Jimmy olsen tv.gif

Jimmy as seen in Superman: The Animated Series

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.

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.

In the four motion pictures starring Christopher Reeve beginning with Superman: The Movie, Jimmy Olsen was portrayed by Marc McClure. McClure also played Jimmy Olsen in the 1984 spin-off movie Supergirl.

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 voiced by David Kaufman.

In the television series Smallville, the character of Chloe Sullivan mentioned losing her virginity to a Daily Planet staffer named Jimmy who was "cute, in a bowtie sort of way." an obvious reference to Jimmy Olsen. It has been revealed that actor Aaron Ashmore will be starring as Jimmy Olsen in Smallville and that he will be romantically linked with Chloe. He is probably the same Jimmy that had an interaction with Chloe

In Bryan Singer's 2006 movie Superman Returns, Jimmy Olsen is portrayed by Sam Huntington.

Characteristics

Height: 6'2"
Weight: 210 lbs (xxx kg)
Eyes: blue
Hair: red
Unusual Features: No unusual features

Powers

Known Powers: No known powers.
Known Abilities: No known abilities.
Strength Level: Strength level unknown

Miscellaneous

Equipment: Signal Watch.
Transportation: No known transportation.
Weapons: No known weapons.

Notes

No special notes.

Trivia

External Links

Jimmy Olsen at Wikipedia

References

Superman - The Man of Steel Sourcebook
The DC Comics Encyclopedia