Considering the character kickstarted the comic-book superhero genre (asterisk, asterisk) Superman has always been the comic book character least beholden to that medium. In 2025, while it is accurate to call Superman a “comic book character”, it’s also incredibly reductive. Superman is more like Santa Claus. He doesn’t belong to one medium, he simply is. And, unlike almost every other comic book character, I would argue that virtually all of his most important and iconic stories took place outside of the medium of comics. Very early on, Superman expanded beyond the panels of the comic book page and appeared in radio dramas, newspaper strips, novels, cartoons, movie serials and TV shows, to the point that a vast majority of Superman fans aren’t even regular comic book readers.

Consider this: The years between the end of the second world war and the start of the sixties was marked by the near collapse of the superhero genre in comics. And yet Superman not only survived the implosion of the genre he’d birthed, in the fifties he was bigger than he’d ever been, as The Adventures of Superman became one of the first major hits of the television era. But we’re not there yet.

Before he get to George Reeves, we must see out the Kirk Alyn era in style. I won’t lie, I was a little apprehensive approaching 1950’s Atom Man versus Superman. Superman 1948 was a very pleasant surprise but crappy sequels aren’t a recent Hollywood invention and the very few reviews I was able to find (this is, almost certainly, the most obscure Superman movie to ever be put on the big screen) agreed that it was inferior to the first one. There was also the fact that serials from the fifties, the last dying gasp of the medium, are notoriously cheap and ropy.

So colour me shocked that I actually prefer Atom Man versus Superman to its predecessor.

Like, by a lot.

Without a doubt the most significant contribution made by this serial is that we get the first live action appearance of Superman’s arch-enemy Lex Luthor. Or rather “Luthor”.

Yeah, believe it or not, despite appearing way back in 1940, the character did not get the first name “Lex” until two decades later in 1960. Which is so weird to me. I always think of him as “Lex” rather than “Luthor”. But yeah, in this serial he is simply “Luthor”.

Luthor is a fascinating character because he was created in this weird transitional period where we’ve more or less nailed down what a “superhero” is but the tropes of what makes a “supervillain” had not yet been codified. With no powers, no secret identity and no gimmick, Luthor was much more like the kind of pulp villain that would have menaced Doc Savage or the Shadow. And yet, despite being clearly out of his weight class, he’s stuck around as Superman’s capital A Arch Enemy for over eighty years. There’s something perversely admirable about this ordinary human being who can, through brains and sheer pettiness, hold his own against a literal god.

Luthor is played by Lyle Talbot who you may remember as Commissioner Gordon in Batman and Robin. Talbot was very much a journeyman actor and he’s basically fine. But I actually think this is a great take on Luthor and that comes primarily down to the writing.

If you’ve seen any of these forties superhero serials you know what to expect. A mad scientist with a new secret weapon, lots of car chases, lots of abductions and a city brought to its knees by the scourge of White Guys in Fedoras. Atom Man has all of those but it also brings a lot of narrative invention to the table and this is probably the one serial I’ve seen that has the least jogging in place. There is a lot of twists and turns with this story and I was genuinely invested.

The serial starts in medias res with Luthor’s gang wreaking havoc on Metropolis. Perry White believes it can’t be Luthor because he thinks Superman scared the big baldie out of town. But, Luthor hijacks a radio frequency and announces that, yes, he is behind all this and that if the city doesn’t fork over one meelion dollars he’ll destroy the Metropolis Bridge with his death ray.

Superman of course arrives and saves the bridge and then tracks the beam to Luthor’s lair and arrests him. Which, I gotta say, considering we have 14 more chapters to go took me a bit by surprise.

We then flash forward a year and Metropolis is being menaced by a new villain, the mysterious, masked Atom Man.

Actually no. You see, the Atom Man is really Luthor. He’s perfected a teleportation device that allows him to leave prison whenever he wants, commit crimes as the Atom Man and then return to his cell with the perfect alibi. Which is…such a perfect Luthor scheme and I love it. While establishing his cast iron alibi, Luthor is also lobbying the US government for early parole in exchange for turning over some of his technological discoveries. Before you can say “Operation Paperclip” they agree and Luthor is now free to pursue his most nefarious scheme yet: setting up a TV news station.

That’s hilarious for a number of reasons. Firstly, this version of Luthor, a suit and tie wearing media mogul, is a lot closer to how Lex would be portrayed in the comics from the eighties onwards.

It’s also hilarious because, duh, no shit a movie serial is going to portray television as the tool of a sick and deranged madman (Superman himself would leave the cinema to appear on TV a mere two years after this serial screened). Atom Man also, whether intentionally or unintentionally, manages to make television look like the most vapid, mind-numbing pap imaginable. At one point Lois gets fake-fired from the Daily Planet and gets a job with Luthor’s news outfit and spends her time on the street asking random citizens the most banal fucking questions before tossing to the talking clock. Well, it was 1950.

What I love about this serial is that it portrays the battle between Luthor and Superman as a genuine contest of intellects. Neither is just reacting to what the other does and are constantly planning move and counter-move. Hell, at one point Superman fakes a meteor strike complete with phoney news coverage to lure Luthor into stealing a fake piece of kryptonite so that he can trace him to his lair. It’s great!

The serial also devotes time to fleshing out some of the bit players, even the White Guys with Fedoras. Superman did this a little too, of course, showing the internal politics and backbiting of the Spider Lady Men.

Here though, we get the sublime tragedy of Bear and Carl, two of Luthor’s goons, who fail him. Luthor threatens to put them both in “The Empty Doom”, a dimensional void that predates The Phantom Zone but probably inspired it. When they beg for mercy, Luthor says that he’ll only banish one of them and then, I shit you not, Bear and Carl look longingly at each other and Bear whispers “I’ll go”.

And then Luthor commends Bear for his bravery and zaps Carl instead while Bear has to watch!

My God! What drama! What tragedy!

I mean, fine, Luthor brings Carl back immediately and tells him he was only fooling but, still, this serial made me care about these White Guys in Fedoras in a way I never have before.

Speaking of the Empty Zone, Superman gets banished there which leads to all kinds of fascinating revelations. With Clark Kent also vanished, Perry White puts two and two together and decides to run a story outing him as Superman. Lois and Jimmy realise that they’ve both long suspected that Clark is Superman and work together to make it seem like Clark is still around, blowing up the story. It’s a lovely bit of character development for Lois when she realises that, even if Clark is Superman, it’s not her secret to reveal and that he’s more important than getting the story. Love it.

Of course, everything I say has to be taken with the caveat of “it’s still a cheap serial from the fifties”. Whether you enjoy it will very much depend on uour tolerance for deliriously hokey special effects and stiff performances. And the budget woes are very much apparent, especially in one episode where we basically have a clip show with Luthor recounting Superman’s origin with copious footage from the first serial. How does Luthor know all this? Well, it turns out that Jor-El broadcast a message to Earth which only Luthor has been able to decipher.

Anyway, the battle between Superman and Luthor escalates to the point that Luthor says “fuck this noise” and plans to leave the Earth on a space ship, taking Lois as breeding stock and raining revenge on his “earthly enemies”. Which is an odd way to phrase it, to be sure.

Superman flies up, bursts into the rocket ship while it leaves the atmosphere, and grabs Luthor and Lois and takes them to safety before the rocket explodes. And the serial makes it very, very clear that he left two of Luthor’s henchmen up there to die.

Which I wouldn’t mind, but the whole thing with Bear and Carl humanised the White Guys in Fedoras and now I kinda feel bad for them.

And the movie ends with Lois springing a piece of Luthor’s fake Kryptonite on Clark only for him to remind her that even if he was Superman it wouldn’t work and she already knows that and it’s very clear they’re just flirting now.

***

The Man of Tomorrow

Kirk Alyn continues to play Superman with a delightful, boyish enthusiasm. But this time around we get to see a Clark who’s also a canny strategic thinker able to match Luthor move for move.

Ace Reporter of the Daily Planet

In the first few episodes I was worried Noel Neill’s Lois had lost her bite as she’s very much in breathy “Golly Superman!” mode early on. But she gets a chance to show off her steel soon enough. There’s a scene where she’s being held hostage by the Atom Man and forced to read a note warning Superman not to try and rescue her. She gets to the part where the Atom Man refers to himself as “my charming captor” and clearly just thinks “fuck this guy” and immediately goes off script and yells for Superman to come and and kick his ass no matter what happens to her. Perfect. Peak Lois Lane.

A Great Metropolitan Newspaper

I’m not quite sure how to feel about Perry White in this one. He refuses to believe Luthor is behind the initial crime wave and then insists that Luthor has reformed which makes him seem oblivious at best and a schill at worst. Then there’s the fact that he was perfectly willing to sell Clark out once he suspected he was Superman. But then we get a scene close to the end where Luthor launches a missile at Metropolis and Perry White stays in the Daily Planet to film the whole thing because it’s news, dammit! which redeems him somewhat. Jimmy Olsen is back, still played by Tommy Bond and apparently he too has super powers, as he is able to do a flawless impersonation of Clark Kent over the phone to throw Perry White off the scent.

Kindly Couple

The Kents are still dead in this continuity and not so much as mentioned.

Desperate Scientists

We get an extended flashback to Krypton but it’s just reused footage from the first serial.

Greatest Criminal Mind of the Century!

Purely on the writing level this is actually a great Lex Luthor. Cunning, brilliant and ruthless. It’s just that Talbot’s performance is so damn perfunctory that prevents this from being one of the all time great Luthors.

Oh, fun fact. Both Kirk Alyn and Lyle Talbot loved cooking and spent their time between takes chatting and swapping recipes. That’s just adorable.

“With powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men!”

Superman gets a major power boost between this movie and the last. He still visibly struggles to lift ordinary hoods off the ground, but now he can steady an entire bridge and hold up a collapsing building. That would still put him on the wimpier end of the super spectrum were it not for one scene that reveals that Superman was able to escape from a trap of Luthor’s by moving so quickly he seemed to vanish into thin air.

That’s…that’s Metro Man fast. Forget faster than a speeding bullet, that’s approaching the speed of light.

He also demonstrates flight, invulnerability, X-ray vision, telescopic vision, super-hearing and super…shouting.

And lastly, he demonstrates super-breath in an adorable scene where Lois tries to blow out all the candles on her birthday cake and Clark surreptitiously blows the final one out so she’ll get her birthday wish.

FINAL SCORE OUT OF TEN:

NEXT UPDATE: 22 January 2026

NEXT TIME: Just remember, however long I made you wait for this review, it’s not as long they’ve made you wait for Beyond the Spider-Verse.