Reign of the Supermen #270: George Reeves

Source: The Adventures of Superman (1952-1958)
Type: TVI admit it. I haven't seen very many episodes of the 50s television series, and really, none beyond the first, noir and white season. What HAS struck about those early episodes though is how hardcore Clark/Superman is. This is a Superman that, when thanked by a dangerous rioter for saving his life, answers "It's more than you deserve", shrugging off an attempted handshake. This is a Superman that leaves a couple of thieves on top of a mountain (from which they fall to their deaths) after they discover his secret identity. And speaking of secret identity, Clark Kent is just as much the hard man. He's a gutsy investigator who makes threats and punches criminals. The only reason Phyllis Coates' Lois Lane thinks he's "mild-mannered" is because he keeps disappearing in moments of crisis, although maybe her standard is herself. This is one feisty Lois Lane, kicking and slapping and believably able to get out of trouble herself (unlike photog in distress, Jimmy Olsen). No, Clark Kent isn't much of a milquetoast. Though it's not the personality profile I think of when I think of Superman, George Reeves' performance as a thoroughly impatient man (in both identities) is a complete hoot. I love it.

It's probably difficult for people who didn't grow up with it to realize how important the series was to the Superman mythos. The first time I heard the opening narration, I already knew every word. Sure, most of the speech was used to preface the radio show, but that hasn't had the same kind of longevity, nor have I eve heard an episode of it. No, it's the ubiquitous television medium, running and re-running the Adventures of Superman for decades, that has cemented words like "Faster than a speeding bullet..." and "It's a bird! It's a plane!" into the shared modern mythology of the 20th and 21st centuries. How much of Perry White's comic book portrayal is owed to John Hamilton's role on the show? "Don't call me Chief!" and "Great Caesar's Ghost!" are both there and indivisible from the character. It even allowed Inspector Henderson to cross over from radio and eventually (1974) into the comics. Had there not been a Superman tv show in the 50s, how much of that would still be associated with the character? How much might he have migrated away from his original concept? Batman escaped the camp of his television series, perhaps because it was so tonally dissonant from what Batman was really about. With Superman, they hit much nearer the mark and so the collectively remembered Superman is Reeves'. The way the show was written, made (here, allow me to say how surprisingly good the effects were) and acted put its stamp on the franchise in a way that has affected every film/television portrayal since, not to mention kept the comics in a kind of mythological equilibrium. Creators can never get too far from what the tv show did.