CHIEF PARKER

Real Name: Douglas Parker

Class: Human

Occupation: Police chief

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: Marie Elkins (foster daughter), Chris Parker Hunt (grandson), Leah Parker (wife)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Smallville, Earth-One

First Appearance: Superboy I #88 (April, 1961)

Powers: Chief Parker was an accomplished police officer.

History

(Adventure Comics I #306) -In the 5th Dimension Master Mxyzptlk and his rival Ququrlz were competing for top grades in practical joking, and were assigned to perform a joke outside of school as their final. Mxyzptlk knew he could play the best jokes on Earth, but that Superboy would try to foil him, so he went to Smallville and used his magic to make sure anyone saying their name backward would send them to the 5th Dimension for 90 days, not just him. Smallville celebrated the anniversary of Superboy’s first appearance in town with a giant birthday cake, and Mxy rearranged the letters to spell Yobrepus, but two naughty children ate the “S” so Superboy didn’t end up saying his name backwards, and he immediately suspected Mxy. Lana Lang questioned Superboy about why Clark Kent wasn’t at the celebration, so Superboy rushed home, changed into Clark, and told Lana he’d been kept busy with chores from the Kents. Lana decided to secretly follow him some more to prove he was Superboy. Mxy gave every machine in Smallville an electric brain and made them rebel against the public, causing belligerent cars and elevators to cause panic. Chief Parker was infuriated when his police car refused to let him get in and defiantly stated it wasn’t taking him anywhere.  Superboy flew to a mountaintop, and shouted his name backwards, causing Mxy to show up, but the imp was disappointed that his magic didn’t work, because Superboy hadn’t spoken his real name Kal-El backwards. Lana’d lost track of Clark a while back but caught up to Superboy on the mountain, and Mxy tricked her into saying her name backwards, telling Superboy he’d have to go to the 5th Dimension to save her. Krypto returned from a space jaunt, and Superboy feigned worrying that Mxy would give Krypto the power to speak and ruin his plan to save Lana. Mxy fell for the trick, and Superboy told Krypto to keep Smallville safe while Superboy traveled to the 5th Dimension. Before saying his name backwards Superboy told Krypto to do the same if Mxy came up with anything he couldn’t handle. In the 5th Dimension an adult told Superboy and Lana that because they were new to the dimension and minors they’d be assigned foster parents and have to start attending high school. Superboy used his powers to simulate magic, wowing the teachers with his practical jokes, while Lana kept getting sent to younger and younger classes because she possessed neither magic abilities nor superpowers, and Superboy hoped she’d learn a humbling lesson and stop snooping on him. Superboy got top grades in the school, surpassing Mxy and Ququrlz by carving a mountain into a replica of the school, making the teachers think school had been petrified. In Smallville Mxy gave everyone a Superboy costume and the delusion that they were Superboy, so Krypto knew it was time for Superboy to act. After hearing Krypto’s plea, Superboy fashioned a Mxy robot and had a teacher observe it playing hooky. The teacher activated the robotic dimensional truant officer to bring in Mxy, so it traveled to Smallville and brought him back. Superboy announced that trick as his final project, and was awarded top practical joking honors, infuriating Mxy, who happily sent him, Krypto and Lana back to Smallville. Superboy asked Lana if she’d learned her lesson, and she promised to stop hounding him, but kept her fingers crossed.

(Adventure Comics I #307) - The Langs went away on a trip, but couldn’t take Lana with them, so they arranged to have her live with the Kents until they returned. Clark reminded Lana of how foolish she looked the last time she tried to prove he was Superboy, causing her to instantly break her recent promise to stop hounding him, and making her more determined than ever to expose him as Superboy. Lana exposed Clark to red kryptonite, and she soon realized Superboy had lost his voice. Clark fooled her into thinking he could still talk until the red-k wore off by using a telepathic helmet gifted to him as a trophy by the aliens of planet Yhalla. Clark thought she’d gone to far by exposing him to kryptonite, and decided to teach her a lesson. Clark stumbled into the police station and told Chief Parker he’d lost his memory. Parker called Lana to pick him up, and for a second she wondered if the red-k gave him amnesia. At the mention of Superboy he confessed to being the hero, proving his powers by shooting himself with a gun at the police station and lifting a safe. The gun and safe turned out to be props from a recent police show, so Lana was now convinced Clark wasn’t Superboy, but was a danger to himself. YHe jumped off a building, dressed as Superboy to show he could fly, but used his super-breathe to fly a clay figure of Superboy under him, catching him and dropping him off at another rooftop. Clark pretended to regain his senses, and Lana reasoned he’d temporarily snapped due to stress from too much school work, and made him promise her not to get the foolish idea that he was Superboy in his head ever again.

(Adventure Comics I #308) - Lex Luthor was given permission to build a prison radio station to broadcast music to Smallville, and on a day pass he visited Pa Kent’s general store for some radio parts. He assured Pa he had no hard feelings even though Pa was on the board that turned down his parole. An oil field was built outside Smallville, and when the oil driller hit a gusher it kicked a boulder into the air. Superboy smashed the boulder, preventing it from hitting a plane flying overhead. The rock turned out to be red kryptonite, and Lana Lang and Pete Ross collected the fragments and handed them over to Chief Parker so the kryptonite couldn’t harm Superboy. The Kents listened to Lex’s first broadcast on WPEN, and he dedicated a song to Chief Parker, who Lex said was a big man. Chief Parker grew to an enormous size, bursting through his police car. He soon shrank back to normal size, and asked Superboy if the red-k affected him, which puzzled Superboy, since red-k usually only affected Kryptonians. Luthor dedicated “Smoke Gets in Your eyes” to Pete Ross who started breathing fire in chemistry class, and “Reaching for the Moon” to Lana Lang who gained temporary super-stretching powers. Clark told the Kents he suspected Lex of being behind the red kryptonite virus spreading through town, but they thought he was jumping to conclusions. Luthor dedicated “It’s a Small World” to the Kents, who shrunk down to the size of dolls for a time, and “There’ll be some Changes Made” to Clark who showed up to school to find a Bizarro Clark Kent had taken his place in class. Superboy visited Lex who said he had nothing to do with the virus, his songs just predicted the red-k’s effects and said the song he picked for Superboy “Yoiu Leave Me Breathless” predicted that red-k radiation from Superboy’s body would destroy all of Earth’s oxygen. Lex said his one hope was to find a rare undersea plant that would eliminate the red-k virus, and gave Superboy undersea coordinated. Lex was actually working with the renegade Atlantean Kronn, who’d given Lex a mass hallucination transmitter that he used in WPEN’s broadcasts to simulate the red-k plague, even the red-k kicked up from the oil rig was an illusion. Superboy suspected the truth since a Bizarro Kent had turned up at his school instead of him being transformed into a Bizarro. He used his x-ray vision on Lex’s headset and discovered the transmitter. Superboy copied the transmitter, creating an illusion of Superboy discovering the undersea plant, ands Kronn sprung his trap, having placed clamshells filled with green kryptonite around the plant. Kronn saw the illusory Superboy die and sent a telepathic message to Lex, telling him he was safe to break out of prison. Superboy turned Kronn over to the Atlantean police, and returned to Smallville. Superboy and Chief Parker caught Lex escaping prison, and sent him right back to his cell.

Comments: Created by Robert Bernstein & George Papp.

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