Click here to watch Mystery in Wax from the 1950s Adventure of Superman.

 Andrea and I have the first Season of the Adventures of Superman at home and I watched this one last weekend and I knew it was an episode of the week.

The plot is one of the creepier stories you’ll see. A sculptrist claims to hear voices that tell her to make wax figures of people and that within six months, they’re dead. The mystery is fairly intriguing, and the villain, while lacking the punch of Superman’s latter day rivals is one of the more distinct villains in the 1950s TV series, which was populated by generic “Thugs of the Week.”

This is a fun story with a satisfactory conclusion. I trust you’ll enjoy “Mystery in Wax”

Click here to watch Mystery in Wax from the 1950s Adventure of Superman

Click here to watch “The Magnetic Telescope” from the 1940s Superman Cartoons.

Superman battling a comet? Does it get any better than this? Of course not. Beats all the gangsters Superman takes on in the 1940s radio show and 1950s TV show. This is one time when there’s no doubt. “This is a job for Superman”

Superman v. the Flash in a race around the World. Does it get any better than that? How about throwing in the Weather Wizard for good measure.

This Superman episode is the first of many on Superman: The Animated Series to feature guest stars. Among the heroes to grace Superman were the Spirit, the Green Lantern, Aquaman, and of course Batman.

Click here to enjoy this superb adventure.

There is nothing quite like Superman in Animation. The classic Max Fleischer cartoons feature the same voice actors as from The Adventures of Superman radio show, but the movie far exceeds the radio show in excitement.

In animation, Superman can be bigger than life and if drawn well, we can buy it. Radio, it can be hard to imagine the man of Steel’s powers especially if you’ve never seen them before. And with live action, you have to avoid the corny look which nearly every live action incarnation of Superman seems to fall into. The animation here is action packed and incredibly fun.

Click here to watch the first Superman Cartoon.

“Superman: The Animated Series” was the most thorougly sci-fi versiion of Supmerman until Smallville. Battles happened quite frequently on other planets. Aliens on earth frequently came up. Rather than the petty thugs of the 1940 radio version and 1950 TV Version, Superman was given enemies that were in challenge. In later seasons, this included Darkseid, the ruler of Apokolips.Bruce Timm and the folks at Warner showed how different there show would be with the maiden episode, “The Last Son of Krypton, Part One.” In early Superman shows, the destruction of Krypton was done with cheesy melodrama. (Both the 1940s radio show and the 1950s TV show were guilty of it) or ignored. This often made sense as for obvious reason, you’d never see the actors again.However, Superman: TAS brings Krypton to life, along with Jorel and Lara before blowing up. They also managed to introduce a new origin story for one of Superman’s most dangerous enemies, Brainiac.

Okay, not every episode we’ll feature will be from Lois and Clark but the first season in particular was full of so many fascinating shows. This one has three great features to command your attention:

1) A fascinating plot: Lex Luthor tests the limits of Superman’s Powers leading to the use of:
2) Famous phrases to describe Superman’s powers delivered with punchy dialogue
3) A great Superman-Luthor encounter.
4) A strong Lois-Clark rivalry thread.

Other than popcorn, who could ask for more?

Thoughts: This was the First episode of the Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, the 1990s TV show. Taking a story like the origin of Superman and retelling it in a fresh and interesting way is a challenge, but the folks at ABC were hugely successful. I like how this epiosde really showed Clark Kent as a writer and reporter. In early incarnations, the fact that an inexperienced hayseed ends up working for one of the greatest newspapers in the world is often an overlooked issue. Here, it’s treated intelligent.

The great chemistry between Dean Cain (Clark/Superman) and Teri Hatcher (Lois Lane) is already present. The one thing families with children may not like is the Presence of Cat Grant, a Daily Planet Gossip Columnist who makes the seduction of Clark Kent a goal. The character is actually tame by 21st Century standards, but was written out by ABC in Season 2 due to concerns about the show airing in the family hour. Given that the character is almost completely unenjoyable and flat, her inclusion may have been the biggest mistake in a very good first season.