Religion of Butch Matson; first-ever named Superman villain

Religion: manifestly non-religious

Name: Butch Matson

Classification: villain

Publisher(s):

First Appearance: Action Comics (vol. 1) #1 (June 1938): "Superman, Champion of the Oppressed!"

Creators: Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster

Number of Appearances: 1

Enemy of: Superman, Lois Lane

Occupation: gangster

Gender: male

Note: first-ever named Superman villain

Butch Matson has an interesting place in history as the first-ever named Superman villain.

Butch Matson appeared in the first-ever Superman story that appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). Prior to his appearance in this story, Superman apprehended an unnamed murderess and thrashed an unnamed wife beater. So there were two villains who appeared before Butch Matson, but their names were not revealed. (The murderess was later named as "Bea Carroll" and depicted in more detail in Superman #1, but in this first published appearance her name was as yet unknown.)

Butch Matson was first seen with his two equally well-dressed henchmen sitting at a table in a nice nightclub restaurant where Clark Kent had brought Lois Lane on their first date. Despite their dapper attire - typical of most men in Superman's world - Butch and his two associates were base thugs. They talked in a low-class brutish manner and expressed brutish ideas.

Butch Matson approached Clark Kent and Lois Lane on the dance floor and demanded that Lois dance with him. Clark, the narration tells us, "reluctantly adheres to his role of a weakling." Lois had no interest in dancing with an obvious thug (although, at this point, she wasn't too impressed with Clark either). Lois announced that she was leaving.

Butch Matson was not about to be thwarted. "Yeah?" he argued with Lois, "You'll dance with me and like it!"

Lois instantly slapped Butch. Clark was secretly impressed with her spunk, but he wanted to keep up his wimpy facade. He tried to get tell Lois to stop, but his demeanor only diminished him further in Butch Matson's eyes. Matson pushed Clark's face (literally "pushing his face in") and said, "Fight . . . you weak-livered pole-cat!"

Lois stormed away and got into a cab. Her parting words to a pleading Clark Kent revealed her disgust.

Still inside the club, Butch was not yet through with Lois! He grabbed his buddies, telling them: "Let's get out of here! I'll show that skirt she can't make a fool out of Butch Matson!"

The next panel shows Clark, now dressed as Superman, standing on a nearby roof watching as Butch and his friends drive away from the club to catch up to Lois. The narration tells us: "A hidden figure observes Butch and his fellow hoodlums leave the road-house."

Butch now reveals that he is something far worse than simply a dance-floor bully. He actually rams into Lois Lane's taxi and forces it into a ditch. This is an extremely dangerous stunt that could have killed somebody. Butch then compounds his already criminal activity by kidnapping Lois. He and his two "hoodlum" pals force Lois into the back of Butch's car. Exactly what they planned at this point is not spelled out. Certainly Buch must be aware that he is not winning Lois Lane's affections this way. The only reasonable conclusion is that Butch and his friends want to either beat Lois Lane up, rape her, murder her, or do some combination of these.

Little is known about Butch, such as his beliefs, his upbringing, or how he identifies himself. But the way that Butch and his two vile associates do nothing but act on base impulses means they can be classified as manifestly non-religious.

Butch sees Superman standing in the road in front of him. Butch speeds up, heading straight for the man. Butch tries to run the colorfully-garbed hero over. Keep in mind that Superman is not publically known at this early point in his career. As far as Butch knew, he was a regular man who would be killed by the car if he didn't get out of the way in time.

Of course, Superman is no ordinary mortal. Superman leaps over the approaching car and runs after it with super-speed. Butch suddenly realizes that he is not dealing with a regular human being.

Butch Matson shows great fear on his face while he exclaims, "It's the Devil himself!" This is the only hint of anything religious uttered by Butch Matson. Possibly Butch believes in the Devil. Possibly he was raised in a home with some sort of Judeo-Christian influence, the values and ethics of which he is now clearly ignoring. Or possibly "the devil himself" is just a linguistic expression for him.

Superman grabs Butch Matson's car and easily lifts it over his head. He shakes its occupants out the windows, catching Lois Lane gently as she falls.

Butch Matson and his cohorts start to run away. Butch Matson is seen running toward the foreground. The third panel on page 9 is reproduced almost identically on the famous cover of Action Comics #1. Butch Matson is the man running away from Superman (with car held aloft) on the lower left-hand corner of the cover.

Superman isn't about the let Butch Matson get away. Superman has already totaled Butch's car, having "smashed [it] to bits", but Butch has more coming to him. Superman "overtakes Butch in one spring." Superman leaps with Butch in his arms onto a high electrical line pole or telephone pole. Superman leaves the hapless thug hanging from a pole dozens of feet in the air. That is the last that is seen of Butch Matson in this story.

Some descriptions of this story describe Butch Matson as a "gangster," which seems an accurate way to interpret his portrayal, both in his actions as well as his particular gangster-like vernacular and accent.

This character is in the following story which has been indexed by this website:

Action Comics (vol. 1) #1 (June 1938): "Superman, Champion of the Oppressed!"

All characters, images, comics and source material © by their respective copyright holders. This page (including original commentary, organization, lists, markup, page layout, etc.) © 2024 by ComicBookReligion.com. All rights reserved. Website built by Database-Genius.com, Database-Design.org. Login...

The Religious Affiliation of Butch Matson

The Religious Affiliation of
Butch Matson