Golden (Silver?) Age trivia questions

These are the kind of questions that have been bugging me for decades. Thanks to the internet, I have somewhere to ask them #1:In the old days, Superman had a giant key for the door to his Fortress. It was so big, it was disguised as an directional arrow for high flying aircraft. Is it my imagination, or was there a story in which someone gained entry to the Fortress by crawling through the keyhole? #2:Now and then Superman would be aided by a crew of Kryptonians who would exit the bottle city and aquire superpowers while maintaining their microscopic size. What was their supposed motivation for returning to the bottle having tasted superpower? Were they given a motive? #3:Also bottle city related: There were a few stories in which Superman and Jimmy would descend into the bottle and, for some reason, it was necessary for them to aquire secret identities (a third one for Supes!). I believe they took the names of Kryptonian birds. What were they? #4:Was it ever explained why the Kandorans wouldn't be super (ableit microscopic) were they to just leave the bottle? #5: What was the 'Superman Revenge Squad's' (or whatever it was called) main gripe against Supes? it puzzeled me why they just didn't expose his idenity. I remember there were a bunch of odd stories where the explaination for a charactor's behavior was that he or she was an imposter android sent by the Revenge Squad to harass Supes. God, I loved those old stories! Thanks,

Rich Tintera

These are the kind of questions that have been bugging me for decades. Thanks to the internet, I have somewhere to ask them #1:In the old days, Superman had a giant key for the door to his Fortress. It was so big, it was disguised as an directional arrow for high flying aircraft. Is it my imagination, or was there a story in which someone gained entry to the Fortress by crawling through the keyhole? #2:Now and then Superman would be aided by a crew of Kryptonians who would exit the bottle city and aquire superpowers while maintaining their microscopic size. What was their supposed motivation for returning to the bottle having tasted superpower? Were they given a motive? #3:Also bottle city related: There were a few stories in which Superman and Jimmy would descend into the bottle and, for some reason, it was necessary for them to aquire secret identities (a third one for Supes!). I believe they took the names of Kryptonian birds. What were they? #4:Was it ever explained why the Kandorans wouldn't be super (ableit microscopic) were they to just leave the bottle? #5: What was the 'Superman Revenge Squad's' (or whatever it was called) main gripe against Supes? it puzzeled me why they just didn't expose his idenity. I remember there were a bunch of odd stories where the explaination for a charactor's behavior was that he or she was an imposter android sent by the Revenge Squad to harass Supes. God, I loved those old stories! Thanks,

Rich Tintera

Well, Superman himself had to do it twice. Once when he lost his powers due to red K, and another time when he was a million years or so in the future and the sun had turned red.

The Supermen Emergency Squad. They showed up when Superman was too busy to get a robot, or when a 'human' was needed. They were all supposed to be the finest in both moral and physical ability in Kandor, so I suppose honor was pretty important to them.

Nightwing and Flamebird

They would be super, and tiny. And I always wondered that myself. When you are smaller than an ant, but can toss a car around, who is going to make fun of your height?

They were originally founded by the warriors of the planet Wexl (?) but eventually grew to include members of various worlds and races that Superboy and Superman (later) would defeat them in their quest for conquest and domination of various planets and peoples. They were ticked that they were not able to keep on killing, so they set out to destroy Superman.

Hope this helps. And I also love those old stories.

Batman manged to slip into the fortress in a similar fashion. Well, he hid within the key and once Superman used the key he snuck out to pull a birthday prank on the Man of Steel.

BTW, didn't the keyhole have some kind of defense system to keep people from just walking through it? I could be wrong but I seem to remember something like this.

These are the kind of questions that have been bugging me for decades. Thanks to the internet, I now have somewhere to ask them

#1:In the old days, Superman had a giant key for the door to his Fortress. It was so big, it was disguised as an directional arrow for high flying aircraft. Is it my imagination, or was there a story in which someone gained entry to the Fortress by crawling through the keyhole?

#2:Now and then Superman would be aided by a crew of Kryptonians who would exit the bottle city and aquire superpowers while maintaining their microscopic size. What was their supposed motivation for returning to the bottle having tasted superpower? Were they given a motive?

#3:Also bottle city related: There were a few stories in which Superman and Jimmy would descend into the bottle and, for some reason, it was necessary for them to aquire secret identities (a third one for Supes!). I believe they took the names of Kryptonian birds. What were they?

#4:Was it ever explained why the Kandorans wouldn't be super (albeit microscopic) were they to just leave the bottle?

#5: What was the 'Superman Revenge Squad's' (or whatever it was called) main gripe against Supes? it puzzeled me why they just didn't expose his idenity. I remember there were a bunch of odd stories where the explaination for a charactor's behavior was that he or she was an imposter android sent by the Revenge Squad to harass Supes. God, I loved those old stories! Thanks,

Rich Tintera my apologies if this posts more than once....

You're right. (I think big plates were supposed to slide across the inside of the keyhole.) In fact, in 'Captive of the Red Sun,' Superman's plan to gain entry to the Fortress (by crawling through the keyhole) relies on these systems breaking down over the course of a million years. They did, and he's relieved about it.

These are the kind of questions that have been bugging me for decades. Thanks to the internet, I now have somewhere to ask them

#1:In the old days, Superman had a giant key for the door to his Fortress. It was so big, it was disguised as an directional arrow for high flying aircraft. Is it my imagination, or was there a story in which someone gained entry to the Fortress by crawling through the keyhole?

#2:Now and then Superman would be aided by a crew of Kryptonians who would exit the bottle city and aquire superpowers while maintaining their microscopic size. What was their supposed motivation for returning to the bottle having tasted superpower? Were they given a motive?

#3:Also bottle city related: There were a few stories in which Superman and Jimmy would descend into the bottle and, for some reason, it was necessary for them to aquire secret identities (a third one for Supes!). I believe they took the names of Kryptonian birds. What were they?

#4:Was it ever explained why the Kandorans wouldn't be super (albeit microscopic) were they to just leave the bottle? They were Kryptonian after all weren't they?

#5: What was the 'Superman Revenge Squad's' (or whatever it was called) main gripe against Supes? it puzzeled me why they just didn't expose his idenity. I remember there were a bunch of odd stories where the explaination for a charactor's behavior was that he or she was an imposter android sent by the Revenge Squad to harass Supes. God, I loved those old stories! Thanks,

Rich Tintera my apologies if this posts more than once....

<< #1:In the old days, Superman had a giant key for the door to his Fortress. It was so big, it was disguised as an directional arrow for high flying aircraft. Is it my imagination, or was there a story in which someone gained entry to the Fortress by crawling through the keyhole?>>

I remember somebody TRYING anyway, and setting off some booby traps. Might have been a depowered Supes himself . . .

<< #2:Now and then Superman would be aided by a crew of Kryptonians who would exit the bottle city and aquire superpowers while maintaining their microscopic size. What was their supposed motivation for returning to the bottle having tasted superpower? Were they given a motive?>>

The were Silver Age friends of Supes, good and pure and true. Also, they didn't wanna be tiny, they'd rather be depowered and normal sized with their friends (although, if I were tiny, I'd rather be all powerful too. Just break the bottle and let the little guys bask in the sunlight)

<< #3:Also bottle city related: There were a few stories in which Superman and Jimmy would descend into the bottle and, for some reason, it was necessary for them to aquire secret identities (a third one for Supes!). I believe they took the names of Kryptonian birds. What were they?>>

Nightwing and Flamebird

<< #4:Was it ever explained why the Kandorans wouldn't be super (albeit microscopic) were they to just leave the bottle? They were Kryptonian after all weren't they?>>

They were! See your question #2. The bottle provided the normal Kryptonian biosphere that kept them unpowered.

Good times, good times . . . .

************************************************* Less than 11 months to the 21st Century & the new Millennium!

Remember, there is no year zero in the Gregorian calendar; the 21st Century and the Third Millennium start in 2001, not 2000.

During Superman's Exile in Space, one of the covers was obviously an homage to that one.

Because they were Kandorians