Originally written July 25, 2018

In the 1940s, superheroes were starting to be be given live-action adaptations on the big screen. However, they were being adapted in the form of serials, an archaic form of entertainment. This makes it a bit harder to access for modern audiences, and so I think that’s why many people don’t go back and watch the origins of these characters’ first appearances on-screen. While characters like Captain Marvel, Batman, and Captain America had their debut earlier on in the 40s, it took a while for Superman to be adapted because of limitations to special effects at the time. So, it’s interesting to go back and watch Superman’s first live-action appearance because it really shows how far we’ve come.

As a serial, the story of Superman is told over the course of 15 chapters here (each chapter being about 15-20 minutes). The first few chapters are interesting because they adapt the “traditional” story of Superman to the screen for the first time. They show Krypton’s destruction, Clark Kent being sent to earth, raised by the Kent family, and joining the Daily Planet when he’s older. I liked getting to see this adapted because it broke the formulaic structure of serials. However, after the first few chapters it sinks back into following that typical structure. Every chapter after that is basically showing Superman foiling the next plan of the villain, and ending in a cliffhanger that’s resolved at the beginning of the next episode. In this particular serial, Superman is up against a villain named the Spider Lady, who is trying to obtain a device called the reducer ray. I hate this structure because it makes things drawn out and repetitive, but I recognize that my problems here are more just problems that I have with serials in general rather than this particular serial.

That’s basically where I’m at with this serial. I don’t enjoy watching serials, so I’m never able to fully get into them. There’s just something about an old, black and white serial running longer than 4 hours that causes me to zone out every now and then. However, I want to see the earliest adaptations of these characters, so I try to just bear through it. I point this out because I want it to be clear that while I generally just don’t like serials, I think that this Superman serial is one of the better ones. Part of it might be because it features a character that I recognize so well, but I do think it varies itself more than a lot of other serials do.

While this serial isn’t extremely different from all of the other ones, there are a few things I want to discuss about this particular one. For starters, I think it has a good sense of humor to it. While I wasn’t always fully into it, there were times where I thought the serial had fun with itself, so it helped me stay as invested as I could be. Another thing that helped with this is the acting. Kirk Alyn plays Superman/Clark Kent here, and I think he embodies the role extremely well considering he had no precedent to live up to. He has a certain charisma to him that I think adds some charm to the role. I also think Lois Lane is a notable character here, with a solid performance being given to the character. However, my one big problem with her is that she’s a huge bitch in this serial. There are times where she does some really mean things to sabotage Clark. They’re pretty extreme things, too, such as convincing Clark that his car has a flat tire so that he gets out of it and she can drive off with it. Or there was another moment where she gives Clark her car keys to let him have a ride to somewhere, and then reports her car as stolen so that Clark will be arrested. I just think they took her character a bit too far, which made her unlikeable most of the time.

The only other big thing that I need to mention is the “special effects.” The serial had a low budget to begin with, but even outside of that special effects technology was very limited in the 40s, so this made a live action adaptation of a superhero with as many powers as Superman very difficult for the time. Because of this, rather than attempting live-action effects, the serial features animation, something that I don’t think I’ve seen in any other serial. So, if Superman is about to fly through the air, you see his live-action actor jumping into the air, and then he turns into an animated drawing that flies through the air. Some people have harshly criticized the serial for this, but I think it’s really entertaining and adds some real charm and personality to it.

All right, so in the end, the point of a review is to tell you whether something is worth seeing, right? Well, I can’t in good faith recommend old serials like this to many people. They are extremely hard to get through, and they don’t hold up well at all in comparison to our advanced methods of storytelling that we have nowadays. The only way I’m going to recommend this Superman serial to someone is if you’re really interested in seeing the first live-action adaptation of the character. It’s really neat to see the character’s origins on-screen, but if you don’t care about that kind of thing at all then you definitely don’t need to see this. The only other way I’d recommend this is if you actually enjoy watching serials to begin with, as I think this is definitely one of the better ones I’ve seen.

4/5