Superman@70: Showbiz Drops the Ball

Although recent years have seen some fantastic and surprisingly accurate translations of comic books into movies, adapting comic book superheroes into other media has traditionally been a pretty rocky road.  Dating all the way back to the Adventures of Superman radio show, the entertainment industry has often taken liberties with or flat-out ignored certain aspects of a superhero's backstory and substituted their own harebrained ideas.

There's no better example of this maddening tendency than right at the very beginning with the radio version of Superman's origin. As you'd expect, the first episode began on Krypton (which was said to be located on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth), then gets into a nicely done drama leading up to the planet's destruction.

Looks like we're in good hands, right? Wrong!

Following Krypton's explosion, the narrative takes a neck-wrenching turn by completely (an inexplicably) ignoring Kal-El's life with Ma and Pa Kent, which had been established the year before in Superman #1 (in an abbreviated and sketchy form, but established nonetheless). Here, listen to the audio clip below for the bizarre alternate take on the Kent-free early life of Superman (from the episode "Clark Kent, Mild-Mannered Reporter" originally broadcast on February 14^th, 1940):

Supes_origin_01

 As Superman (the man with no childhood) explored the strange new world he found himself on, he came across a train accident and saved a professor and his boy Jimmy (not to be confused with Jimmy Olsen, who'd come along in later episodes). Conversing with the grateful man and his son, Superman wondered how he could learn more about the customs and people of Earth, to know "which to help and when help is needed". Click on the audio clip below to hear the advice of the Professor and Jimmy:

Kent_clip_01

So there you have it...the name "Clark Kent" came not from the legacy of a kindly Midwestern couple, but from the casual suggestion of some guy and his excitable kid.

Not the best way to start off the relationship between comics and the entertainment biz, was it? 

Sure, the radio show ended up contributing alot of stuff to the Superman mythos on its own (chief among them Kryptonite, Perry White, and Jimmy Olsen), but...man...that origin story is tough to swallow, isn't it? You can almost imagine the young fans at the time slapping their foreheads and exclaiming "What the (insert era-appropriate curse)?" ...much like fan reaction to all the botched adaptations ever since.

Comments

[Pat Curley]

Yeah, that second part of the origin always seemed a little silly to me. On the bright side, Perry White and Jimmy Olsen both got their start on the radio show, as did Kryptonite and Superman/Batman teamups.

A few years later, the radio show redid the origin, this time correctly having Clark brought up by the Kents. Unfortunately, it was Eben (short for Ebeneezer I assume) and Martha Kent. I seem to recall that the TV show kept that name for Pa Kent as well.

Unfortunately, the radio show never paid any attention to the comics after the show started, so there are no Luthor stories, no Mr Mxyztplk, no Prankster or Toyman or Wolfingham tales. In fact, no character who was first introduced in the comics after the radio show started was ever included in a Superman radio show, with one notable exception. Care to guess?

[Mark Engblom]

The Galactic Golem?

Just kidding. I have no idea...so don't leave us in suspense!

That's astonishing to me that Luthor was never included in a radio story. So many of the evil genius/masterminds Superman went up against on the radio show fit Luthor's M.O. perfectly....so go figure.

Good to hear they got the origin right a few years later. Having never heard the episode featuring the Kents, I'm guessing they probably used the standard "cornpone dialect" so many creators attach to the Kents (even today). Exclamations like "Jumpin' Jehosephat" or "Land 'O Goshen" might sound right to "city slickers", but most midwesterners haven't spoken like that since the late 1800's.

[phillyradiogeek]

Same goes for the TV show as well--not a comic book supervillain to be found. I think one of the movie serials may have featured Luthor, but I'm not certain, as I've never seen them.

[Mark Engblom]

"Same goes for the TV show as well--not a comic book supervillain to be found. I think one of the movie serials may have featured Luthor, but I'm not certain, as I've never seen them."

See, that's another thing that boggles my mind. All those Superman TV episodes and not a SINGLE comic book supervillain. I mean, at the time, they were all essentially guys wearing regular suits (Luthor, Prankster, Toyman)...so it's not like outfitting them would have busted their $1.50 special effects budget. Even stranger was the apparent involvement of several DC Comics officials, who you'd think would have had a keen interest in featuring few of their villains on the TV show.

It's stuff like this that you realize the vast gulf between today and fifty-five years ago when it comes to marketing and promotion.

Yes, you're correct...the "Superman vs. Atom Man" movie serial featured Luthor as the villain...a guy who really looked the part of that era's older and somewhat chubby Luthor.

[Pat Curley]

Probably the closest they came to "Luthor" was the "Yellow Mask" who appeared in several Superman stories and was even mentioned in advertising for the radio show that appeared in the comics.

I don't know if the Kents were portrayed as rubes in the revised origin tale; that episode is known of but I don't think a recording exists (a lot of the shows broadcast during World War II are missing, unfortunately).

The only character who appeared first in the comics after the beginning of the radio show who made it on the air? Alfred, Bruce Wayne's loyal butler. (Robin was close). Batman and Robin subbed for Superman to give Bud Collyer an occasional vacation in the postwar episodes and Alfred often appeared in those stories.

BTW, if you get a chance look around for the episodes from the immediate postwar era. Superman started taking on hatred and prejudice in stories like "Clan of the Fiery Cross" that were way ahead of their time. This is also where Superman began fighting his neverending battle for "Truth, justice and the American Way." Originally he fought for "Truth and justice". Many people assume that the American Way bit was a bit of anti-communist jingoism (Michael Chabon said it in so many words on a history channel special on superheroes), but actually it's a quite noble sentiment that Supes explained meant that all of us, white, black, yellow or red, we are all Americans. Which may explain why Norman Lear, not exactly known for his jingoism, chose People for the American Way as the name of his political group.

It was a terrific and influential series of radio broadcasts, although not surprisingly, they overdid it by repetition, with Superman also facing the "Knights of the White Carnation" and the "Hate-Mongers Organization". But it was definitely a moment in time when Superman was far ahead of the rest of pop culture in tackling a major social illness.

[ShadowWing Tronix]

Except for the movies, no live action version of Superman ever used the classic rouges gallery (except for Smallville, and that show's wasted potential) except for Luthor, Metallo, and a poor imitation of Mxyzpytlik. And Metallo costumes were always terrible, much like the character itself. Now Animated Metallo brought the pain. He's become my standard when it comes to comic to live/toon transition. (Granted I know little about comic Metallo.)

And except for Superboy and Smallville, Supes seldom fought anyone worth sicking Superman on. Wedding Destroyer, anyone? Two-bit gangsters? Phah. I caught some of the radio show online once, and it lost me in about two minutes. Maybe I just found the wrong ep or something.