I’ve really enjoyed going back to yesteryear and listening to old radio episodes of The Adven-chores of Superman” (said in the deep, radio announcer voice). I’m a little sad to have finished the series, but a little relieved to come back to the 21st century as well. Here I’ll be collecting my thoughts on the last four episodes in Radio Spirits’ Superman Last Son of Krypton (still in adult marketing mode, but now just a weekly show).
One Minute to Death (November 19, 1949) is an interesting episode because it relies very little on Superman and has a very noir feel. In the first couple of minutes Johnny Weber is arrested on the way to pick up his fiancee to elope. He is wrongly accused of theft and murder. Clearly defining the difference between 1949 and 2011, there is 11 weeks from arrest to electric chair. Clark Kent covered the trial for The Daily Planet and believes Johnny is innocent, as does his fiancee, Laura Williams. I love that the audience knows the culprit immediately but the characters have to find their way to the criminal, and also get the appropriate evidence to not only convict the cookie-cutter Italian thug but also exonerate Johnny in a limited amount of time. While Clark is integral to resolving the case, Superman appears only at the end. Fighting the clock to save Johnny, Superman does the right and noble thing: he completely destroys state property and leaves a prison without power. Funny how Superman can just get away with that, whereas Spider-Man doing the same thing would create a witch hunt. This is an excellent episode with a great pulp feel.
Puzzle of the Poison Pomegranate (November 26, 1949) is another interesting episode that plays on a classic storytelling trope. This time it’s a locked door murder mystery and once again Clark Kent plays a more prominent role than Superman. Locked door murders have always been fascinating to me and I’ve played more than a few games of Conundrums that featured Superman in some form or another. Unfortunately this particular example was a little weak. I’m not sure if the mystery was deliberately easy to solve, or if Americans in 1949 were just horribly stupid. Superman did appear momentarily, but “off-screen” instead of prominently saving the day. Instead, Clark puts on his Encyclopedia Brown hat to prove that not only is the actual killer innocent, but a separate culprit that didn’t really commit the murder is. Certainly a fun twist but definitely not my favorite episode in the collection.
Death Rides a Roller Coaster (December 3, 1949) finally brings Superman more to the front instead of Clark. Lois’ friend Nancy owns an amusement park that’s building a five mile super roller coaster, putting her $40 thousand dollars in debt. Midway Martin, owner of a competing park, is bullying Nancy into selling out to him. When Martin gets a fake story into a rival newspaper about the new coaster being unsafe, Nancy turns to Lois. Clark promises Nancy that Superman will be on the first run to get some media momentum behind the ride. The story moves very predictably and eventually highlights again the difference between the Superman of then and now. The Man of Steel has to use “every ounce of his superhuman strength” to stop the coaster train from jumping the track where it had been sabotaged by Martin. Modern Superman could have done it by blowing forward to create wind resistance while juggling 13 elephants and stopping an alien invasion with his heat vision. From there, Clark proceeds to play Columbo again as he tricks Martin into confessing his guilt. The episode is relatively forgettable but for one moment which surprised me. Despite the excellent voice acting, this episode broke my immersion with the worst audio clip in the set. While on the roller coaster, Lois and Nancy are screaming, supposedly in delight. But it seems a little TOO delightful, if you know what I mean. It’s not so much roller coaster scream as it is orgasm scream. Meg Ryan could take lessons.
The final episode is The Diamond of Death (December 17, 1949). I was expecting a baseball theme. I was hoping for kryptonite. I got neither. Instead it’s just a whodunit and how inspired by greed and jealousy. This episode was so weak that I didn’t even write any notes from the story as it went along. It came down to Clark Kent once again taking the role of Encyclopedia Brown, noticing completely bizarre details that somehow solve the crime. Highlighting the stupidity of every other character, Clark shows up to a costume party dressed as Superman, and even lets a few bullets bounce off his chest but no one’s the wiser. The one redeeming point in this episode is Lois. Her brashness and determination to get the scoop finally gets to shine. This is the bold, brassy Lois that I love, as opposed to “girl reporter” Lois that I’ve been hearing the last few weeks.
Ultimately, despite taking a more adult theme, the series ends on a low note. It still has its good qualities and I don’t regret listening to even the weakest episodes. I’ll leave it there for now but check back next week as I recap my thoughts on the whole collection and decide if I want to track down more of them.