Consume All Media! Atom Man vs. Superman: "Chapter Nine: Superman Crashes Through!"

Joe Heath is a big fan of comic books and watching things in order. So they made this spreadsheet containing every serial, short, film, television episode, commercial, motion comic, and web series based on a comic book. Now they're watching them all. Previously, Joe watched the eighth chapter of Atom Man vs. Superman. This time, they continue with the ninth chapter.

Atom Man vs. Superman: “Chapter Nine: Superman Crashes Through!” - 16:51 (Available on Amazon)

The machine shorts out and knocks Jimmy and Lois unconscious. Luthor starts packing everything up so they can all teleport out of there. The henchmen drop Jimmy and Lois outside. After a brief fight with some people who came to investigate the power surge, the henchmen get away.

Later, Superman types another message to Lois. Lois takes it to Perry and he says they're going to run stories saying that Superman has returned and will be making an appearance on television later that night.

Hey, I've seen that movie!

Luthor tunes into the television broadcast. It's footage from the first serial of... you guessed it... Superman grabbing a car.

There's a little bit of new footage when he talks to the camera at the end. We then discover that Jimmy and Lois have put together newsreel footage to fake this segment. So it is recycled footage! That's kinda meta.

Luthor sends one of his henchmen out into the Empty Doom to check and see if Superman is there.

Even though we've seen Superman wandering around on Earth, now he's just kind of hanging out in space.

After a brief chase, Superman grabs the henchman and throws him into the air.

After grabbing cars, tossing henchmen into the air is Superman's second favorite pastime.

Since the doorway back to reality has been left open, Superman flies down and out of the machine. But the Atom Man is waiting with a box of his synthetic kryptonite. Superman passes out.

But he was faking! Apparently the synthetic kryptonite's potency has worn off. So Superman jumps up and knocks the Atom Man's head off.

This doesn't go on a kill count, because it's just a robot head. And robots don't have souls. Probably.

Later, back at the Planet, Perry accuses Lois of libel. She angrily quits and goes to work for Luthor as a television reporter. Her new job mostly involves asking people on the street random questions. While she does this, Luthor's henchmen use the distraction to rob places.

Jimmy and Clark notice the henchmen doing a robbery and chase them, though Clark ducks out to become Superman. Lois also gets involved in the chase, but the henchmen shoot out the tires on her car and she begins to swerve all over the road. Superman does not hesitate to grab the car.

After being intangible for so long, he can finally return to his true love.

Meanwhile, Jimmy gets his foot stuck in some railroad tracks as a train comes barreling towards him.

Should you watch it, though? While there is an extended sequence of recycled footage from the first serial, they at least do something kind of clever with it. Plus all of the scenes in the Empty Doom are delightfully odd. The Empty Doom concept is really the peak of the serial. So it's a shame this is the end of it, considering we still have six chapters left.

Tune in next time for Atom Man vs. Superman: "Chapter Ten: Atom Man's Heat Ray" (Available on Amazon.)

A version of this article was previously published on The Dipp.

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