The short’s prologue sums up the origins of Superman, and are as follows:

“In the endless reaches of the universe, there once existed a planet known as Krypton, a planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens. There, civilization was far advanced, and it brought forth a race of supermen, whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of human perfection. But there came a day when giant quakes threatened to destroy Krypton forever. One of the planet’s leading scientists, sensing the approach of doom, placed his infant son in a small rocket ship and sent it hurtling in the direction of Earth, just as Krypton exploded. The rocket sped through star-studded space, landing safely on Earth with its precious burden: Krypton’s sole survivor. A passing motorist found the uninjured child and took it to an orphanage. As the years went by and the child grew to maturity, he found himself possessed of amazing physical powers. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, the infant of Krypton is now the Man of Steel: SUPERMAN! To best be in a position to use his powers in a never-ending battle for truth and justice, Superman has assumed the disguise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper.”

The story cuts to the Daily Planet, where editor Perry White reveals to his two best field reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane that an anonymous figure has been mailing death threats to the Planet, should he not be paid in one million dollars to stop his rampage. About the only clue given is the alias The Mad Scientist (voiced by Jack Mercer ,who also voiced Popeye). He may be an early precursor to Lex Luthor or a reference to the Ultra-Humanite, whose original form he resembles, without the crippled legs. White assigns Kent to handle the story, but Lois, portrayed here as a strong-willed woman, insists that she investigate as well, much to the supposed chagrin of Kent.

Lois takes off in a private plane to an undisclosed location up at the mountain, where the main villain’s secluded lair/laboratory is located. He is preparing to fire his futuristic weapon (perhaps a particle beam or death ray), until he spots her aircraft in the process. Upon her arrival, Lois finds herself kidnapped, bound, and gagged, as the scientist boasts to her about the success of his plan, and then demonstrates the beam weapon by aiming it at a bridge. While listening to the radio, Clark and the other journalists learn of the coming disaster by the military, who warns everyone to stay inside. Instinctively, Clark steps into a storage room and changes into Superman before flying away.

The Mad Scientist then has the beam weapon weaken the foundations of the Daily Planet skyscraper, causing it to tip over. Fortunately, Superman arrives in time and prevents the structure from crashing into neighboring buildings or falling to the ground, successfully restoring the skyscraper to its upright orientation.

Superman then pushes the laser beam away from the base of the skyscraper, but shortly afterward gets struck down as the scientists turns up the weapon’s power to its full force. Superman remains determined to fight it and soon perseveres against the beam by punching it repeatedly, gradually pounding the beam back to its source. Seeing that the beam has been overpowered, the horrified Mad Scientist increases power, but Superman uses that against him by twisting the weapon into a knot, preventing the beam energy from escaping, and the buildup of pressure causes the machine to overheat and explode. As the scientist’s lab disintegrates with the weapon’s demise, Superman arrives to rescue Lois, while also capturing the scientist as he attempts to escape, flying them to safety.

The scene dissolves back to the Daily Planet where Clark Kent and Lois report back to Perry White. She has gotten a scoop on the story of the Mad Scientist, who is now in prison, and Perry commends her on doing it. Seeing she hasn’t suspected a thing, Clark looks at the camera, winks, and nods to the audience, and the story ends.

Director Corman was clearly influenced by Kurt Neumann’s 1958 film The Fly. The Wasp Woman has the head and hands of a wasp but the body of a woman—exactly the opposite of the creature shown in the film’s poster. In Jack Hill’s prologue, we see a slightly mad Dr. Zinthrop fired from his job at a honey farm for experimenting with wasps.

A group of aliens from another planet head for Earth with the intentions of conquering it. Their first ship is destroyed in transit by the giant flying turtle Gamera. A second ship makes it to Earth and captures two Boy Scouts and holds them captive so that Gamera will not attack them. The aliens then implant a remote control device into the monster’s neck and use the great turtle to attack Tokyo. The boys then come up with a plan to foul up the remote control device to the point where Gamera does the opposite of what he is ordered to. As a result Gamera destroys the aliens ship, but then has to contend with their giant squid like leader Viras.

One of the first people to be so taken is the local vixen, Liz Walker, played by Yvette Vickers. After a couple of gratuitous displays of flesh (Yvette appeared as the centerfold in the July 1959 issue of Playboy), and some running around on her husband (Bruno VeSota), Liz finds herself a prisoner of the leeches along with her current paramour. Game warden Steve Benton (Ken Clark) sets out to investigate their disappearance. Aided by his girlfriend Nan Grayson (Jan Sheppard) and her father, Doc Grayson, he discovers the cavern.

The giant leeches are unrealistically portrayed by men in rubber suits, but they do provide suitably disgusting scenes when attacking their victims. The monsters are finally destroyed when Steve, Doc, and some state troopers blow up the cavern with dynamite.

Atomic scientist/pilot Doug Martin is missing after his plane crashes on an reconnaissance mission after a nuclear test. Miraculously appearing unhurt at the base later, he is given sodium amethol, but authorities are skeptical of his story that he was captured by aliens determined to conquer the Earth with giant monsters and insects. Martin vows to use existing technology to destroy them.

More:

• Wikipedia
• IMDB

In the 21st century Ray Peterson, reporter for the Interplanetary News, is assigned to write a story aboard a space station. Tension mounts between Peterson and the station commander, who believes he is in the way, but has orders to leave him alone. Errant spaceship Alpha Two enters the solar system and its photon generators are radiating enough heat to destroy Earth as it approaches. It falls to Peterson to try to figure out a way to enter the spaceship, disarm the generators, and escape before suffocating.

Cast:

More:

• Wikipedia
• IMDB