This is somewhat akin to the "Ending with Iris" bit in the Flash, and the "Bah!" responses from the Joker; a way of letting us know the story is over.
Update: Kirk House points out in the comments that the practice of ending the story with a wink from Clark may have originated with the Superman cartoons of the early 1940s from the Fleischer studios. Here's the first one in that series, which does indeed end that way:
4 comments:
I think that this "wink" routine goes back to the Fleischer cartoons. At least it was often used there... at the very end, when Clark shared with the audience the fact that he was Superman.
The "wink routine" also appeared at the end of View Master's "Superman vs. Computer Crook" reel in the late 1960's.
IIRC, it also was a convention in Filmation's Superman and Superboy TV cartoons (1966-70).
I remember a letter that appeared in the "Smallville Mailsack," in which a reader pointed out how often Clark or Superboy is shown with one eye shut and wondered if something was wrong with his eye. "Don't you have a sense of humor?" Weisinger replied (somewhat snidely), before explaining that Clark was winking to share a joke with the reader.
I'm sure you could find just as many "wink" panels from this period with Superman and Supergirl.
Jim
As someone else posted, it was often used by Clark in the New Adventures of Superman/Superboy and in the later versions of that series too (remember Aqualad winking and saying something like "Amen! Eh man?"). George Reeves also did it in the Adventures of Superman episode "The Riddle of the Chinese Jade".
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