Jimmy Olsen
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Jimmy Olsen is a supporting character in the Superman comic book series published by DC Comics. This fictional character's full name has been revealed as James Bartholomew Olsen.
Jimmy is usually depicted as a bow tie-wearing young red-haired man who works as a cub reporter and photographer for The Daily Planet, usually in conjunction with Lois Lane and Clark Kent, whom he idolizes as career role models. Jimmy has often been portrayed as somewhat naive, but also as clever and resourceful. In his recent comic incarnation, Jimmy has managed to win the Pulitzer Prize for his photographic efforts.
Jimmy is also known as "Superman's pal" and has privileged access to him with the aid of a special signal watch, which with the press of a button emits a special ultrasonic frequency signal that Superman can hear anywhere on Earth. He also goes by the nickname "Mr. Action" and in the Silver Age occasionally took a potion which gave him stretching powers as "Elastic Lad."
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Individual books
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 for Jimmy to find himself in (either through his own naive nature or by bad luck), and would range from being hurled back in time to Krypton before its destruction in issue #36 to dealing frequently with gorillas of all sorts, e.g., in issue #98. Because of these factors, the comic was regarded by some as a poorly written subsidiary title.
The major exception to this was in the early 1970s, when the singular 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 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.
June 2003 saw Jimmy Olsen as the focus of a twelve-part comic book called Superman: Metropolis. Written by Chuck Austen and illustrated by Danijel Zezelj, the series focused on the viral tech unleashed in Metropolis by Brainiac and how it affected the everday lives of Metropolis citizens.
In other media
- The character 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.
- In the four motion pictures starring Christopher Reeve, 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.
- 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." While this, of course, is not an explicit reference, the connection is obvious.
- In Bryan Singer's 2006 movie Superman Returns, Jimmy Olsen will be portrayed by Sam Huntington.
Cultural references
- The Spin Doctors had a minor hit with their song "Jimmy Olsen's Blues" on their album Pocket Full of Kryptonite, in which they portrayed Jimmy Olsen as infatuated with Lois Lane and jealous of Superman. In the time after the song became popular, at least one comic had Jimmy wearing a Spin Doctors T-shirt.
External links
- Supermanica: Jimmy Olsen Supermanica entry on the Pre-Crisis Jimmy Olsen
