Superman meets another fancy sci-fi concept.
We get a standard opening and then we’re into it. A scientist is using his magic observatory to pluck comets from the sky and pull them closer to Earth for study (it is, of course, ridiculous that the Magnetic Telescope would be able to pull comets from so far away to Earth in a matter of seconds, but what’re ya gonna do?). It goes wrong and the first comet crashes into the city, so the scientist is told to knock it off. Knock it off, he does not. To this scientist, the benefits of his experiments are more important than any potential risks, including any human lives lost. He’s a rogue scientist with a comet addiction and they can’t stop him. In fact, the cops don’t much help the situation, smashing up the machinery so the scientist loses control and now the comet is heading straight for the city.
Lois calls in the story and Clark goes to help (taking the opportunity to change in a cab this time) and before we know it, Superman is trying to bash that comet away. But Superman fails. Twice. A lot of destructing rains down on Metropolis in this one and if we pretend they were going for any kind of realism, people would have died here. It’s only when Clark gives up on the brute force that he wins, by getting the Magnetic Telescope working again that he and Lois are able to send that hunk of evil outer space back where it belongs. Lois accidentally kisses Clark, thinking he’s Superman and we’re out.
Lasers, robots, T-Rexes, and fancy cars, and now this magnetic telescope. The threats Superman face in these cartoons are right on the cutting edge of sci-fi technologies. A common complaint I’ve seen about Golden Age Superman comics is that they focus too much on gangsters and not enough on more fantastical stuff. Well these shorts have been consistently science fiction and I like it. We have some exceptions I recall coming up, but at this point the groundwork is laid that Superman is a sci-fi guy.
The image of Superman flying up into the sky to stop a threat coming down and failing is one that will recur throughout time. Most notably in Panic In The Sky, an episode of the 50s show that has been essentially remade multiple times in later shows and which, PDR thinks, deserves a Wikipedia page of its own instead of just a redirect to the list of episodes of Adventures of Superman. But whatever. We’re just lucky that Superman here was able to get back up and deal with the comet instead of getting amnesia or anything.
A bald scientist who thinks he knows better than the authorities and will put the world at risk to get his own way is also a thing that would recur in Superman, but this unnamed guy is a professor and Lex would never bother with that.
