Superman recap: the story so far

No. 01 · 1951 · Film · optional

Superman and the Mole Men recap

Clark Kent and Lois Lane travel to the small town of Silsby to report on the world's deepest oil well. That night, two small, furry creatures climb out of the shaft and scare an old night watchman to death. The foreman, Bill Corrigan, admits the well was shut because the drill hit radium, not oil, and that something may be living far below. When the Mole Men wander into town, the residents panic at their glowing touch, and a local bully, Luke Benson, leads a mob to kill them. One creature is shot and falls from a dam, and Clark, now Superman, catches it and takes it to hospital, where he helps the doctor remove the bullet. Benson's mob comes to the hospital demanding the creature, and Superman disarms them on his own.

How Superman and the Mole Men ends

Three more Mole Men come up the shaft with an energy weapon and head for the hospital. When they fire at Benson, Superman steps into the beam and saves him. Superman carries the wounded creature back to the well, and the Mole Men return underground and destroy the shaft so no one can come up or go down again. The film served as the pilot for the TV series.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 02 · 1952 · Series

Adventures of Superman recap

George Reeves plays Clark Kent, a mild-mannered reporter at Metropolis's Daily Planet, and Superman, who fights crooks and rescues his colleagues: reporter Lois Lane, cub photographer Jimmy Olsen and editor Perry White, with Inspector Henderson of the police. There is no running storyline; each episode is a self-contained adventure. Seasons 1 and 2, shot in black and white in 1952 and 1953, are tough crime stories with a film noir feel, where gangsters often die and Superman is a mysterious figure. Phyllis Coates plays Lois in season 1 and Noel Neill takes over from season 2. From season 3, the show is filmed in colour and becomes much lighter, aimed at children, with comic villains, little violence and a running formula of Lois and Jimmy being captured and saved at the last minute. Season 6 brings back some science-fiction stories, including a kryptonite-powered robot. Throughout, Clark's colleagues never work out his secret, though Lois often comes close.

How Adventures of Superman ends

The show has no finale: the last episodes aired in 1958, and plans for more seasons were cut short when actor John Hamilton, who played Perry White, died, and then George Reeves died in June 1959. Proposals to carry on with a Jimmy Olsen spin-off came to nothing, and the series ends with the team still at the Daily Planet.

No. 03 · 1978 · Film

Superman recap

On the planet Krypton, the scientist Jor-El sentences the rebel General Zod to the Phantom Zone, then warns that the planet is about to explode. No one believes him, so he sends his baby son Kal-El to Earth in a small ship. The baby lands near Smallville, Kansas, and is raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who name him Clark. As a teenager, Clark hides his strength, and after Jonathan dies, a glowing crystal leads him north, where he builds the Fortress of Solitude and learns his history from recordings of his father. Years later, Clark joins the Daily Planet in Metropolis and falls for reporter Lois Lane. He saves her from a helicopter crash as Superman, and gives her an interview and a flight over the city. Lex Luthor plans to fire stolen nuclear missiles into the San Andreas fault to sink California and make his desert land valuable.

How Superman ends

Lex traps Superman with kryptonite, but his assistant Eve frees him after he promises to stop the missile heading for her mother's town first. The second missile triggers an earthquake, and Superman saves much of California, but Lois dies when her car is buried. In grief, Superman flies around the Earth so fast he turns back time and saves her. He delivers Lex and Otis to prison.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 04 · 1980 · Film

Superman II recap

Superman throws a terrorist hydrogen bomb from the Eiffel Tower into space, and the blast frees General Zod, Ursa and Non from the Phantom Zone. With the powers of Earth's yellow sun, they head for Earth. Meanwhile, Lois becomes suspicious of Clark on an assignment at Niagara Falls and proves he is Superman when he falls into a fire unhurt. Clark takes her to the Fortress of Solitude and, to be with her as an ordinary man, gives up his powers in a crystal chamber. On the way back, he is beaten up by a bully in a diner, and learns that Zod has taken over the White House and the world. Lex Luthor, out of prison, offers to lead Zod to Superman. Clark goes back to the Fortress and finds a way to restore his powers, then fights Zod's group across Metropolis.

How Superman II ends

Superman lures Zod, Ursa and Non to the Fortress, where Lex betrays him by telling them about the chamber. Superman secretly reverses it so that it strips their powers instead of his, and defeats them. Knowing Lois cannot carry the secret, he kisses her and wipes her memory of it. He then goes back to the diner to settle the score and returns the flag to the White House.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 05 · 1983 · Film

Superman III recap

Gus Gorman, an unemployed man who turns out to be a computer genius, starts work at a company run by the greedy businessman Ross Webster and steals from its payroll. Webster sees his talent and uses him for bigger schemes, including controlling a weather satellite to wipe out Colombia's coffee crop. Meanwhile, Clark goes back to Smallville for a high school reunion and reconnects with his old crush Lana Lang. Superman stops the weather attack, so Webster has Gus make synthetic kryptonite. It is flawed and does not kill Superman but slowly turns him selfish and cruel: he straightens the Leaning Tower of Pisa and causes an oil spill. The good Clark and the evil Superman split and fight it out in a scrapyard, and Clark wins. Webster has Gus build a supercomputer in a canyon to control the world's oil.

How Superman III ends

The supercomputer becomes self-aware and fights back against Superman with weapons and kryptonite rays, and turns Webster's sister Vera into a cyborg. Gus, horrified, helps Superman, and Superman destroys the computer with acid. Superman drops Gus off at a job with a mining company, puts the Tower of Pisa back at its lean, and settles into a new relationship with Lana.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 06 · 1984 · Film · optional

Supergirl recap

Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin, lives in Argo City, a Kryptonian community that survived in a pocket of another dimension. The inventor Zaltar shows her the Omegahedron, the power source that keeps the city alive, which he has borrowed without permission, and an accident sends it flying out into space. Kara follows it to Earth, where she becomes Supergirl. The Omegahedron lands in the hands of Selena, a witch who wants to rule the world. Kara takes the identity Linda Lee and enrolls at a girls' school, where she befriends Lucy Lane and falls for Ethan, the groundskeeper. Selena gives Ethan a love potion so he will fall for her, but he falls for Supergirl instead. Selena uses the Omegahedron to banish Supergirl to the Phantom Zone, where she loses her powers.

How Supergirl ends

Zaltar, exiled in the Phantom Zone, gives his life so Kara can escape through a mirror. Supergirl regains her powers and confronts Selena at her mountain fortress, turning Selena's shadow demon back against her, and Selena and her accomplice are pulled into the mirror and trapped. Ethan, freed from the spell, realises Linda is Supergirl. Kara says goodbye and returns the Omegahedron to Argo City, whose lights come back on.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 07 · 1987 · Film

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace recap

A schoolboy writes to Superman asking him to rid the world of nuclear weapons, and after hesitating, Superman announces at the United Nations that he will, and throws the world's missiles into the sun. Lex Luthor escapes prison with his nephew Lenny, steals a strand of Superman's hair from a museum and uses it to create Nuclear Man, a solar-powered being as strong as Superman, by attaching it to a missile that Superman throws into the sun. Meanwhile, a tabloid tycoon buys the Daily Planet and his daughter Lacy chases Clark. Nuclear Man wrecks the Great Wall of China and nearly kills Superman with radioactive scratches in their first fight, and Superman, weakened, uses his last Kryptonian crystal to recover. Nuclear Man falls for Lacy and kidnaps her into space.

How Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ends

Superman realises Nuclear Man loses his power without sunlight, so he traps him in an elevator, moves the Moon to block out the Sun, and drops him into a nuclear reactor. He returns Lex to prison and Lenny to a boys' home. Perry White takes back control of the Daily Planet, and Superman tells the world that peace will come when people want it.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 08 · 1993 · Series

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman recap

In season 1, Clark Kent arrives in Metropolis and joins the Daily Planet, where he is paired with the ambitious Lois Lane, who loves Superman but dismisses Clark. Billionaire Lex Luthor courts Lois while running criminal schemes Superman cannot prove. Lois agrees to marry Lex, but at the wedding his crimes are exposed and she walks out, and Lex leaps from his building to escape arrest. In season 2, a rotating set of villains, many tied to the crime group Intergang, take Lex's place, the time-travelling villain Tempus and the writer H.G. Wells appear, and Lois grows close to Clark. Clark proposes in the finale. In season 3, Lois works out that Clark is Superman, and after a crisis of trust she accepts. Lex returns and has Lois replaced with a clone, whom Clark nearly marries. After the real Lois is rescued, Kryptonian survivors arrive claiming Clark is betrothed to one of them, and he leaves Earth to lead New Krypton through a war. In season 4, he returns, and Lois and Clark finally marry and try to start a family.

How Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman ends

The last episode ends on a cliffhanger: Lois and Clark find a baby in Clark's old crib with a note saying the child is theirs. The show was cancelled before the mystery could be explained, so the series ends with the newly married couple holding a child they did not expect. The writers had planned to reveal that the baby was Kryptonian royalty, hidden with them to keep it safe from assassins.

No. 09 · 2001 · Series

Smallville recap

In season 1, teenage Clark Kent, whose ship arrived in a 1989 meteor shower that also killed Lana Lang's parents, hides his growing powers in Smallville with his best friends Chloe and Pete. He saves young billionaire Lex Luthor from a car crash, and they become friends, while the meteor rocks, kryptonite, give townspeople strange powers. Over seasons 2 and 3, Clark learns about Krypton from his ship and the voice of his father Jor-El, Lex fights his scheming father Lionel, and Chloe vanishes in the season 3 finale. In season 4, Lois Lane arrives looking for her cousin Chloe, who is alive, and Clark hunts three Kryptonian stones that create the Fortress of Solitude. In season 5, Clark's father Jonathan dies of a heart attack, and the alien Brainiac puts General Zod's spirit into Lex. In season 6, Clark hunts escaped Phantom Zone prisoners, meets Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, and Lex marries Lana. In season 7, Clark's cousin Kara arrives, Lana leaves, and Lex kills Lionel and turns fully against Clark. In season 8, Clark works at the Daily Planet with Lois, Tess Mercer runs LuthorCorp in place of the missing Lex, and Clark faces Doomsday, who kills Jimmy Olsen. In season 9, Clark, working in secret as a hero called the Blur, fights Zod and Kryptonians brought back to life. In season 10, Lois knows his secret and they grow closer as Darkseid comes for Earth, and Lex returns.

How Smallville ends

In the finale, Lex comes back and kills Tess, who erases his memories as she dies. Clark finally flies, and he pushes Darkseid's planet Apokolips away from Earth. Lois and Clark do not quite make it to their wedding. Seven years later, Clark is Superman, working at the Daily Planet with Lois, Lex is president, and the series ends with Clark pulling open his shirt to reveal the S.

No. 10 · 2006 · Film

Superman Returns recap

This film follows Superman and Superman II and ignores the later sequels. After astronomers find what may be the remains of Krypton, Superman leaves Earth for five years to look. He finds only ruins and comes back to the Kent farm, then returns to the Daily Planet as Clark. Lois Lane has moved on: she has a young son, Jason, lives with Perry White's nephew Richard, and won a Pulitzer Prize for an article called Why the World Doesn't Need Superman. Superman saves Lois on a falling plane, and his return is front-page news. Lex Luthor, freed on a technicality, robs the Fortress of Solitude and uses Kryptonian crystals to grow a new continent in the Atlantic, laced with kryptonite, which will flood much of the world. Lois tracks him down and is captured with Jason, who shows unusual strength.

How Superman Returns ends

Lex stabs Superman with a shard of kryptonite and leaves him to drown, but Lois and Richard save him. Superman lifts the entire continent into space, then falls back to Earth and lies in a coma. Lois whispers something to him, and he recovers and visits Jason as he sleeps, confirming the boy is his son. Lex and his girlfriend Kitty are left stranded on a desert island.

Post-credits scenes

No. There is no post-credits scene.

No. 11 · 2021 · Series

Superman & Lois recap

In season 1, Clark and Lois move from Metropolis to Smallville with their teenage twins, Jonathan and Jordan, after Martha Kent's death. Jordan starts to develop powers. Lois investigates billionaire Morgan Edge, who is secretly Tal-Rho, Clark's Kryptonian half-brother, trying to put Kryptonian minds into human bodies, and a stranger from another world, John Henry Irons, arrives hunting Superman. In season 2, Superman's visions lead him to Bizarro from an inverse world, and Lois fights a cult leader, Ally Allston, who has drawn in her sister Lucy and wants to merge the two worlds. In season 3, Superman faces the crime boss Bruno Mannheim, and Lois is diagnosed with breast cancer and goes through treatment. Lex Luthor, freed after evidence clears him of a murder, plans revenge on Lois and turns Bizarro into the monster Doomsday. In season 4, Doomsday kills Superman and delivers his heart to Lex. Clark is brought back with Sam Lane's heart but slowly loses his powers, while Lex settles in Smallville to torment the family and Jonathan's own powers appear.

How Superman & Lois ends

In the finale, Superman flies Doomsday towards the Sun and defeats him, and then beats Lex on camera, sending him to prison for life. The twins help their father. An epilogue jumps forward through the years: John Henry and Lana marry, the twins grow up to work beside Superman and have families, Lois's cancer returns and she dies, and an old Clark dies surrounded by loved ones and reunites with Lois.