It’s hard to believe, but it’s true, we are now heading into the home stretch of analyzing Mario Puzo’s first draft script for Superman. There’s not much more to go, but yet there’s lots to cover, so let’s get started!

Picking up with page 161, we find our team back in Metropolis, as Morgan (Martin) Edge gives Clark Kent the story of a lifetime: go to an Army reservation in Nevada and cover the development of their latest hydrogen bomb. He gives Clark complete freedom to cover the story but also advises him that he will be cut off from civilization for five days with no contact to the outside world. This, of course, is a dilemma for Clark, since he has five days to go before the loss of his Kryptonian powers is permanent. So off he goes, with Lois, Jimmy Olsen, and Steve Lombard in tow.

But someone else has an interest in the hydrogen bomb: Luthor Lux, who has infiltrated the Army reservation along with his moll Eve in complete disguise as Army officers.

Luthor and Eve then kill a couple of Army soldiers, put on nuclear reactor suits, and make their way into the reactor chamber, where they steal several nuclear rods. Then they carry the nuclear rods to another chamber, where they arm a pair of explosive devices and cause the chamber to explode, causing radiation to pour out onto the Army reservation.

Clark then joins several Army medical aides in rescuing as many survivors from the explosion. One of the survivors is severely injured and affected by the nuclear radiation. Clark then takes it upon himself to run into the nuclear reactor chamber and finds Luthor and Eve. Clark attempts to attack Luthor, but Luthor uses a shovel to attack Clark, exposing him to the nuclear radiation. Luthor and Eve soon escape from the Army reservation, while medical crews pull an injured Clark to safety.

That night, doctors give Lois, Jimmy, and Steve the grave news that Clark’s exposure to the nuclear radiation is severe and that he has at most two weeks to live.

Somehow, in his weakened state, Clark tells Lois, “Get me to the Fortress.” She, Jimmy, and Steve soon move Clark out of the hospital and into an ambulance, and the three soon take him to a nearby airport, and together they fly north to the Fortress of Solitude. Once they arrive, they immediately transfer Clark’s unconscious body into the Kryptonian chamber and use it to heal him of the nuclear radiation and transform him back into Superman. It’s then that Jimmy and Steve soon realize that Clark Kent is secretly Superman.

Now fully rejuvenated, and with his Kryptonian powers restored, Superman must do the unthinkable: he must erase the memories from Lois, Jimmy, and Steve so they cannot remember any of what they have witnessed. (No super kisses here.) He laces their champagne with a chemical that causes them to fall unconscious so that they will wake up with no memory of what has happened at the Fortress, and no memory of his dual identity. Clark then calls in the story to Galaxy Communications.

Afterwards, Lois later wakes up and makes her way to Superman’s Kryptonian chamber, intending to use it to gain powers equal to Superman’s so she can be with him. We then enter into a weird fantasy sequence where Lois dreams that she is now a Superwoman with all the powers and abilities as Superman. Puzo made a note at the bottom of page 176 that reads, “This will be photographed with all the weird lighting of fantasy and its sets and costumes so that the audience will know it’s fantasy.”

Over the next two pages we see Superman and Lois flying in the air together to a cheering crowd and landing at a nearby fairgrounds, where Luthor, dressed as a circus strongman, declares his love for Lois and challenges Superman to a fight. Lois then steps up and beats Luthor to a pulp, then she and Superman fly to her apartment and make love. There is a handwritten note scrawled across the bottom of page 178 that reads, “End of fantasy.”

Superman soon finds Lois in the Kryptonian chamber and sadly tells her that the machine doesn’t work on humans. He then gives her the same chemical-laced champagne that Jimmy and Steve drank so that she, too, must forget everything.

Later, we find Luthor, Eve, and Luthor’s henchmen watching Jimmy Olsen deliver a news report about the stolen nuclear bomb and how the President has declared martial law in Nevada, Arizona, and California until the bomb has been safely recovered. Luthor then has Eve read a letter he has written to the President indicating that he is in possession of the nuclear bomb and intends to detonate it over New York unless his demands are met: $100 million in gold bullion, $10 million in free advertising on the Galaxy Communications Network, and the release of certain colleagues from imprisonment with full pardons.

Luthor then shows the bomb to his group, but one of the henchmen decides to go into business for himself and blow up the nuclear bomb. Luthor encourages him to go ahead, but he finds out that it’s all a hologram, a trick devised by Luthor, and that the real nuclear bomb is safely hidden away at an undisclosed location.

Two notes to make here: first, Luthor’s message that he will destroy the city with a deadly device is a plot point that will survive into the final version of Superman: The Movie, albeit in rewritten form. Second, the reference to holographic trickery is a thread that will carry over into the final version of Superman II.

A short time later we see the President on television issuing a statement that he will not give in to Luthor Lux’s demands. Luthor then informs Eve and his remaining loyal henchmen that he intends to arm the nuclear bomb.

But there’s someone else who’s been watching the President’s statement. Someone who knows that it’s all from the criminal mastermind of Luthor Lux. And this someone has the strength and great speed to stop Luthor from going through with his plan.

The only question is, can Superman get there in time to save Metropolis and all of New York from certain nuclear disaster? We’ll find out next time!

(Some of the screenshots presented in the blog are courtesy of CapedWonder.com.)