The first Superman piece of live-action media was this 1948 serial by Columbia and the first ever villain in live-action Superman was a female one. Yes, even in the boy's club that is genre cinema of the forties and fifties there was still room for an evil lady to battle against a hero.
The villainess in question is the dreaded Spider Lady, a mysterious crime boss who controls the underworld of metropolis. She is played by Carol Forman, her career is interesting because she specialized in female villains when it came to serials, as she played an antagonistic role in more Republic and Columbia series: Brick Bradford (1947), The Black Widow (1947), Federal Agents vs. Underworld, Inc (1948) and The Miraculous Blackhawk: Freedom's Champion (1952). Surely one of the icons in action girl media from her time.
This cunning and menacing underworld boss is a beautiful and stylish woman who commands her goons to do her dirty work. The Spider Lady is first seen set against a spiderweb backdrop, one that she uses to electrocute and harm her victims. Usually seen in the dark, she keeps her hideout a secret and builds an intimidating appearance with her shadowy figure ordering her men and questioning her prey before torturing them.
It's obvious that a human couldn't stand against Superman in a fight but her seedy plans manage to test the hero, pushing the superguy to his limits. The constant array of crimes and destruction she causes really keeps the show going before elevating things to an exciting ending. A pro at outsmarting her foes and causing havoc. She isn't the queen of the underworld for nothing. She even hurts Lois Lane at one point, she was close to killing her but she needed the reporter in order to continue her plans.
Throughout the show, she wants to get a scientist to help her get a weapon known as the reducer ray in order to destroy the Daily Planet building and harm Superman. She also gets kryptonite and challenges Superman to stop her. Armed with these devices, Spider Lady confronts the hero, but Superman outsmarts her: he wears a lead-lined costume that prevents him from being affected by the kryptonite. The Spider Lady panics and orders the scientist to turn on the ray but she is hit by the beam and stumbles upon her deadly web, destroying her.
A brutal ending but considering her evilness, maybe it couldn't be any more fitting.
Spider Lady would then come back in DC's Batman/Superman #16, part of the Infinite Frontier event. This time, Lois Lane is the villaness! Yeah, in this story of alternate realities Lois becomes the queen of the criminal underworld.
Batman and Robin try to catch her but the real Lois Lane slips through time and space, ending up in Spider Lady's timeline and meeting Batman. She then helps the dynamic duo catch her evil version. Turns out, Lois turned evil because Superman wasn't there to save her friends and partners when the Daily Planet was attacked. So she became a crime boss and used her forces to fight against Dr. Atom, the real villain.
It's a cool storyline that I would recommend if you wanna read more about her. Very interesting plot with surprising moments and really solid paneling and artwork, good comic storytelling.
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