March 1950: Superman Proves Invulnerable

Superhero comic books were on the decline in 1950, but Superman was not, thanks to a multi-media presence established early on.

The Superman newspaper comic strip was in its 11th year, at one point appearing in 300 daily newspapers and 90 Sunday papers. Superman’s print career even extended to a hardcover book by George Lowther, published in 1942 and marking the first novelization of a comic book character.

The Adventures of Superman radio show had been on the air for a decade, and was then being broadcast on ABC. 

Just as Superman's true identity remained a secret, the identity of radio actor Collyer was also kept quiet from 1940 until 1946. That’s when Bud Collyer did a Time magazine interview about Superman’s crusade for racial and religious tolerance.

Superman’s impressive Paramount movie cartoons had run their course, with the last, Secret Agent, having been released in 1943.  But Columbia’s second Superman movie serial, Atom Man vs. Superman, would be released on July 20, 1950 (with veteran actor Lyle Talbot playing the screen’s first Luthor).

Superman and the Mole Men, the first feature film based on any DC Comics character, would be released Nov. 23, 1951, becoming a springboard for the popular syndicated Adventures of Superman TV series.

The disappearance of the innumerable other superhero comic book characters he’d inspired undoubtedly helped shift the spotlight back to the original. Batman — who’d crossed over into all the same media with the exception of movie cartoons and hardcover novels — also chugged along through the superhero desert of the 1950s.

Meanwhile, back in the comics, boy-who-cried-wolf Orson Welles has trouble getting anybody to believe that he’s actually been kidnapped by Martians (Superman 62) and Luthor kidnaps Lois Lane to lure Superman into a synthetic kryptonite trap (Action Comics 141). 

To loosen Luthor’s tongue about Lois’ whereabouts, the Man of Steel hurls him straight at the propeller of an airliner in flight.

Obviously, Superman’s many powers included the power of persuasion.