May 12, 2020 · In the opening theme of the 1950s Adventures of Superman TV series among Superman's abilities like being faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, bend steel in his bare hands was the ability to change the course of mighty rivers. All the other abilities were shown at one time or another on the TV …
Superman can change the course of mighty rivers and bend steel in his bare hands. He can turn back time to save Lois from dying. He can tolerate Batman's sour moods without bashing him against the wall. So, why super-walk (basically, just walking) across the U.S.?
Turns out, Superman is a manipulative cad. In addition to his powers of telepathic control and super-hypnosis, he can cause amnesia through his super-kissing. Man, if Lois remembered all the times Superman kissed her ...
Second, he needed to get out of his cell so he could impersonate the aliens and return to his own dimension to destroy the machine. Third...he's Superman.
The man is a living solar battery as well as a warm-blooded human. Therefore, his breath should be warm and, being Superman, should smell like lavender. However, he can perform an exhalation of super breath that freezes people and objects?
Many remember Christopher Reeve's Superman kissing Margot Kidder's Lois Lane at the end of Superman II . Though he didn't want to, Superman kissed her so she would forget who he was after she found out. Wait — yes, that sounds right. But it wasn't the first time the brute did this. He gave the comic book Lois a similar smooch to activate her amnesia during the Silver Age. Today, she doesn't remember much before the Bronze Age.
Feeling he had distanced himself from the people he was supposed to protect, he walks through a number of towns and cities. Along the way, he plays basketball, saves a woman from suicide, and rescues a mother and child from an abusive relationship. You know, all of this could have been solved by a combination of super-telepathy and super-hypnosis.
Rich Keller is a 30-year freelance veteran. He began his career as a stringer, covering school board meetings for a local paper. Since then, Rich has written millions of words for both online and print publications. He is the author of "Coffee Cup Tales" and "Thinking Outside My Box." Rich was also a podcaster, hosting "The Daily Author" for nearly 300 episodes. Rich is an avid comic book fan who once braved the world of San Diego Comic-Con.
Perhaps the incarnation that has the best chance in beating Superman would be the World Breaker Hulk, whose anger gave him the power to almost literally break the planet in half. Other than this, most other versions would fall to the Man of Steel.
Aside from kryptonite and the forces of magic, Superman is susceptible to mind control by telepaths. Such was the case when Maxwell Lord took control of him, causing Wonder Woman to fight him and forcing her to kill Lord to relinquish his control over Krypton’s Last Son.
In terms of Marvel characters who can stand up to the Man of Steel, the Incredible Hulk is usually at the top of everyone’s list. Touted as “the strongest one there is,” the Hulk has met Superman in battle several times, with the Man of Steel ultimately coming out on top in every encounter.
The first intercompany crossover between DC and Marvel featured Superman and Spider-Man. While they paired up for most of the comic, their initial meeting involved a fight. During this time, readers learned a little about who would win a knock-down fight between the two.
Despite his adamantium skeleton and healing factor, Logan would go down not long after he goaded Superman to fight. Actually, his ability to quickly heal wouldn't help him too much in this battle. Kal tends to pull his punches when he battles street-level fighters.
However, can he manipulate time and space at will? Well, technically he can do the time thing. However, he can't do it with magic.
Without even a small amount of this crucial substance and facing Superman in any other suit, Iron Man would be soundly defeated by Superman’s superior strength, speed and heat vision.
Superman's first and most famous supporting character is Lois Lane, introduced in Action Comics #1. She is a fellow journalist at the Daily Planet. As Jerry Siegel conceived her, Lois considers Clark Kent to be a wimp, but she is infatuated with the bold and mighty Superman, not knowing that Kent and Superman are the same person. Siegel objected to any proposal that Lois discover that Clark is Superman because he felt that, as implausible as Clark's disguise is, the love triangle was too important to the book's appeal. However, Siegel wrote stories in which Lois suspects Clark is Superman and tries to prove it, with Superman always duping her in the end; the first such story was in Superman #17 (July–August 1942). This was a common plot in comic book stories prior to the 1970s. In a story in Action Comics #484 (June 1978), Clark Kent admits to Lois that he is Superman, and they marry. This was the first story in which Superman and Lois marry that wasn't an "imaginary tale." Many Superman stories since then have depicted Superman and Lois as a married couple, but about as many depict them in the classic love triangle.
A number of other shorter-lived Superman periodicals have been published over the years. Superman is part of the DC Universe, which is a shared universe of superhero characters owned by DC Comics, and consequently he frequently appears in stories alongside the likes of Batman, Wonder Woman, and others.
Douglas Fairbanks (left) and Harold Lloyd (right) influenced the look of Superman and Clark Kent, respectively. Clark Kent's harmless facade and dual identity were inspired by the protagonists of such movies as Don Diego de la Vega in The Mark of Zorro and Sir Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel.
The cover of Superman #6 (Sept. 1940) by Joe Shuster, the original artist and co-creator. Since 1938, Superman stories have been regularly published in periodical comic books published by DC Comics. The first and oldest of these is Action Comics, which began in April 1938.
After Shuster left National, Wayne Boring succeeded him as the principal artist on Superman comic books. He redrew Superman taller and more detailed. Around 1955, Curt Swan in turn succeeded Boring. The 1980s saw a boom in the diversity of comic book art and now there is no single "house style" in Superman comics.
It's a Plane... It's Superman featured music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams and book by David Newman and Robert Benton. Actor Bob Holiday performed as Clark Kent/Superman and actress Patricia Marand performed as Lois Lane.
Actor George Reeves portraying Superman in Stamp Day for Superman. After appearing in film, he would be the first actor to star as Superman in television. Adventures of Superman, which aired from 1952 to 1958, was the first television series based on a superhero. It starred George Reeves as Superman.
The opening theme is known as The Superman March. In 1987, selected episodes of the show were released on VHS. In 2006, the series became available in its entirety on DVD to coincide with the DVD release of Superman Returns, the first Superman feature film to emerge after almost two decades without such a movie.
In the episode, Reeves appears as himself playing TV's Superman, though no mention of George Reeves is ever made until the credits roll. The announcement "Our guest star tonight was George Reeves, star of the Superman series" was deleted from the episode after its first network broadcast.
Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane in the first season, with Noel Neill stepping into the role in the later seasons. Superman battles crooks, gangsters, and other villains in the fictional city of Metropolis while masquerading "off duty" as Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent.
Reeves's red, blue, and yellow Superman costume was originally brown, gray, and white so that it would come through in appropriate gray tones on black-and-white film. After two seasons, the producers began filming the show in color, a rarity for the time. Filming of the color episodes began in late 1954.
Whitney Ellsworth, already working on Adventures of Superman as an uncredited associate producer and story editor during the initial season, became the show's executive producer in 1953 and would remain so for the duration of the series.
Adventures of Superman began filming at the RKO-Pathé studios (later Desilu Studios) in Culver City, California, in August–September 1951. A low-budget program by the standards of its day, episodes cost roughly $15,000 apiece. In 1953–54, the show was filmed at California Studios and, in 1955, at Chaplin Studios. In 1956–57, the show was filmed at Ziv Studios .
The onscreen title of the show is Adventures of Superman, with no article preceding "Adventures". Bill Kennedy, framed by the show's theme music, voiced the opening narration of the show, expanded from that of the 1940s radio show and the 1940s Superman cartoons.