That Time That The Homeless Beat Up Superman: Part 1 The Adventures of Stewpot and Gemmi

It’s 1973, and Superman has never been taken so low. A paper demon, inhabited by a creature from another dimension, has taken his powers. It drags him to a junkyard, where it starts throwing him around. Two homeless men, Stewpot and Gemmi, see the giant creature hurting Superman, who seems unable to fight back.

Stewpot sees his chance, and, instead of doing the sensible thing of running away from a monster that’s smacking Superman around, punches Superman in the jaw. Gemmi notices that Stewpot’s knuckles aren’t broken, and he decides that he wants to punch Superman, too. In the words of writer Dennis O’Neil, “Brutally, mercilessly, the two thugs take turns beating the helpless hero – until, finally, the desire for violence is satisfied! And Superman lies, unmoving, on a scrap heap.” Yes, the homeless beat Superman nearly to death. This isn’t the standard comic book beating. Superman has no fight in him whatsoever. He doesn’t know who he was, where he was, who was hitting him, or why they were hitting him. They just pin his arms behind him and tee off on him.

I found this story in a Blue-Ribbon Digest that I found in a discount store. To put it mildly, I was traumatized reading this story. This wasn’t a hero being beaten up by a supervillain with a goal. This was my hero, the character who made me feel okay when everything else in the world was wrong, and he was being beaten up by two guys who just wanted to hurt him because they finally could. Superman had his hands pinned behind his back by one of them, while the other hit him. And when they were done hitting him, they just left him to die in the junkyard. Then they left with the demon to do things that I was sure were really, really bad.

As an adult, I reread Superman #242 in the Kryptonite Nevermore hardcover. Instead of feeling broken, I just had questions. Why did the demon forget to beat up Superman when the homeless started beating him up? Why did Stewpot just walk over while a giant monster was tossing Superman around? Why did the homeless live in the junkyard? Most of all, why did the homeless beat up Superman?

All these questions have the same answer; “I don’t know”. Let’s get to the big one; why do they beat up Superman? Stewpot and Gemmi just happen upon Superman when he's powerless. Superman just happens to be thrown into their home, the junkyard. When they see him hurt, they just feel a need to beat him. They then manage to coopt the demon into following their bidding, which consists entirely of going to the hospital where doctors have just operated on Superman because they decide that he’s going to stop them from doing whatever they have planned. There’s no evidence that they have any real plans. They haven’t used the demon to rob banks or do anything to benefit themselves. They have no other purpose in the story other than to kill Superman.

Somewhere along the way, the Demon figures out that he’s the one with the power in this relationship. His mission in life is to destroy, and he’s all powerful, so why’s he listening to these two guys who still haven’t bothered to get new clothes after taking out the most powerful man in the world? He kills them, and in the end, O’Neil ends the story of Stewpot and Gemmi with this phrase from Ecclesiastes, “Neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.”

That’s it. That’s their motive. Stewpot and Gemmi are just wicked. They didn’t lose their hair and suddenly turn against Superman. They just hate him because he’s a good guy, I guess. Dennis O’Neil is the opposite of a hack writer, and he never was a social reactionary. His Green Lantern/ Green Arrow defined social relevance in comics in its time. He dealt with poverty. He questioned whether superheroes were enforcing a status quo that actually hurt people.

So, when we see the two worst people ever to show up in his Superman comic, they just happen to be homeless. This is shocking, given the writer. Even worse, they’re a parody of the homeless. They don’t just have no home. They live in a junkyard, just waiting around for things to happen. Most of all, they’re bad. They aren’t like anyone else. When Superman shows up, and they have a chance to do something evil to him, they take it. Superman saved the world multiple times, but despite that, no matter what a symbol he was for the world at the time, someone had to dislike him. Stewpot and Gemmi could be two of those guys, but given what they do to Superman, knowing why they don’t like him matters. Without this, they are stereotypical evil guys. Worse, they are stereotypical evil homeless guys who just exist on the fringe of society, waiting to hurt us. All they need is the power to hurt us. This is not the only time we’ll see the homeless portrayed this way.

Next week: The homeless massacre Gotham City.