Superman TAS

Screen Shots

Synopsis

Previously in “The Last Son of Krypton”:

• Krypton, a technologically advanced world destroyed before its time by an nuclear chain reaction within its core. The scientist Jor-El had predicted the explosion, but Brainiac, Krypton’s sentient worldwide computer network, defeated his attempts to save the human population. Brainiac saved itself by transmitting its program to a space probe. At the last moment Jor-El was able to save his infant son, Kal-El, by sending him into space in a small rocketship (“The Last Son of Krypton Part One“).
• Kal-El’s rocketship carried him to Earth where he was found by the Kansas farming couple of Jonathan and Martha Kent. The Kents adopted the foundling as their own son and named him Clark Kent. Clark started to display amazing abilities as he aged. It was only in High School that he learnt the truth about his origin and the circumstances of his adoption.
• As an adult Kal-El/Clark created two disguises – a public bright-red/blue costumed heroic identity and a secret identity as a mild-mannered glasses-wearing Clark Kent. Shortly after Clark had begun working as a journalist for the Metropolis Daily Planet he used his costumed alter-ego to save his colleague, Lois Lane, during a terrorist attack on  a Lexcorp publicity event. The terrorists stolen a prototype battle suit. The costumed Clark pursued the thieves until one of their errant missiles connected with a passing airliner (“The Last Son of Krypton Part Two“).

The rogue missile connects with the left wing of a passing airliner and the massive plane starts plunging towards Metropolis. Clark tries to slow its descent by holding on to its tail, but the weight of the rest of plane causes the it to come off in his hands. He alters his tactics and accelerates around to the plane’s nose.  to use. Using his flight and super-strength, Clark wrestles the plane into a controlled glide between Metropolis’s skyscrapers. The plane ploughs a long furrow through the trees and lakes of Metropolis’s central park until it comes to rest at the entrance to the city’s zoo. Clark’s intervention not only saved the people on the plane, but he also gave bystanders time to sprint out of the path of the crash zone.

Footage of the new flying hero causes consternation and debate throughout the city. It’s Lois who gives the flying stranger a name. Her comment (“Nice S”) about his Kryptonian chest insignia leads her to call him a “superman”. Perry White, her editor, makes the name stick (“Superman [...] the kind of name that looks great splashed across three columns”). He then challenges his staff to get the full story on this strange visitor before the city panics. Clark returns home to discuss the new appearance of “Superman” with his adoptive parents. He decides that Metropolis needs to know more about its new guardian. As Superman, he picks up Lois Lane’s car from the highway and flies her to a look out spot outside of Metropolis. Superman tells Lois that he is the last survivor of the planet Krypton and that he has come to Earth to help people, not scare them.

Lois’s interview with Superman appears in the next edition of the Daily Planet. Lois and Clark then visit Lex Luthor, the leading industrialist and power broker in Metropolis, to get his reaction. Lex bemoans the loss of a billion dollar battle suit, but Clark rattles him by noting that the theft might actually work in Lex’s favour – he reasons that the Pentagon will want a new version that is more powerful that than the stolen one. Clark’s ability to get under Lex’s skin impresses Lois. He surprises her again by suggesting that Lex actually gave the suit away. Clark shows Lois a recent picture of Lex Luthor and the Regent of Kasnia taken at a trade show. An arms embargo makes it illegal for Luthor to sell the Regent a battle suit. The Regent is known to use an elite band of high tech terrorists as his personal enforcers. It’s Clark’s theory that Luthor deliberately let those terrorists steal the prototype battle suit in exchange for a secret payment. Without evidence, however,  it’s only a theory.

Lois believes Clark’s theory and sets out to find the evidence on her own. She talks to her informant at the docks, a pugnacious fellow called Bibbo, about a Kasnian registered tanker that been in port for a week and hasn’t moved a single piece of cargo. Bibbo tells Lois that the tanker is leaving port tonight. She gives Bibbo some coins and asks him to telephone Clark Kent at the Planet and Henderson at the Police Department if she doesn’t return in twenty minutes. Lois walks straight-up the gang plank and brazenly asks for an interview. At first she’s rebuffed by the security guard, but she catches the eye of man who introduces himself as “John Corben, Special Attache to the Regent.” He tries spinning her interview request into a lunch date, but pulls a gun on her when she spots the battle suit in the cargo bay. Corben is the leader of the terrorists who stole the suit. Unfortunately for Lois, Bibbo spends her money on a soda instead of telephoning either Clark or Henderson

Meanwhile Clark is trawling through the Daily Planet’s database looking for further connections between Lex Luthor and the Kasnian Regent. Jimmy Olsen is trying to show him with his latest photographs. Serendipitously one of those photographs is from Lois’s gun smuggling expose and shows the Kasnian registered ship in the background. Clark spots the tiny Kasnia flag with his super vision and slips away to become Superman. By now, however, the Kasnian tanker is clear of port and Corben has decided it is time to eliminate the nosey reporter. Superman shocks the terrorist by bursting into the hold and placing himself between Lois and her executioner. He frees Lois, but the terrorists keep him occupied while Corben to climb into the battle suit. Lois isn’t helpless herself and knocks out a thug who had a rocket launcher pointed at Superman’s back.

Corben turns the battle suit’s chain-gun on Superman, knocking him to the ground. The suit then turns towards Lois, but Superman whisks her out of harms way and back to shore at super speed. He asks her to warn the police, but Corben has already caught up with them using the battle suit’s rocket assisted jump mode. Superman is able to match the suit’s strength, but its electrified exterior and cannons repulse his attacks. Their fight carries through a warehouse and into a construction site. Superman uses a concrete truck to shield himself from the suit’s chain-gun and then throws it at Corben. He retaliates by crushing Superman inside an abandoned police car and then buries him under the half-finished building.

Corben laughs, thinking that he’s finally killed his enemy, but Superman surprises him from beneath the rubble. The Man of Steel gets under the feet of the battle suit and punts it skyward. The suit crashes down on  top of a neighbouring building and starts sparking as its electrics start failing. The electrical feedback inside the suit’s cabin gets worse and worse as Superman rips off both its arms and a leg. The suit tetters on its remaining leg until Superman blows it off the edge of the roof. The battle suits crashes on to the street below. Corben is protected from the fall by the suit, but he is racked with pain as electrical sparks fill the suit’s cabin. Superman rips Corben from the now useless battle suit and asks him “Shall we go a few rounds without the suit?” But the thief is no condition to reply.

Later, the Regent’s attorney complains to Lex Luthor that the merchandise never reached Kasnia. Luthor is indignant, he kept up his part of the bargain by allowing Corben to steal the suit, and he refuses to refund the Regent’s billion dollar fee. However, their argument is cut short by the arrival of Superman. He just floats outside of Luthor’s penthouse office glowering at the billionaire. Luthor tells Superman that he can’t prove anything and then remarks,

You see, err.. `super-man’, I own Metropolis. My technology built it, my will keeps it going, and two thirds of its people work for me whether they know it or not. Even you have to admit that it’s a model of efficiency.

When Superman doesn’t reply Luthor offers him a place in his organisation, but Superman just keeps staring. Luthor, finally unnerved, shouts “Say something” and hurls a model of the battle suit at Superman. The Man of Steel crushes it and warns “I’ll be watching you Luthor.”  He flies away over Metropolis leaving the fuming billionaire to rant to empty air.

Epilogue: Somewhere in deep space, an inquisitive alien space craft discovers Brainiac’s space probe. Tentacles burst out of the probe and slaughter the crew. It then plugs itself into the ship’s computer and Brainiac’s main program comes back on-line.

Commentary

Lex Luthor has been Superman’s principal nemesis since the 1940s. He first appeared in Action Comics #23 (April 1940) as a mad scientist (with a full head of red hair) who is trying to provoke war in Europe, but the character actually dates to an earlier and radically different draft of Superman’s adventures. In their original concept Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had made him Luthor a scientist who gives Superman (an amoral Superman at that) his superpowers. Luthor lost his hair after a couple of appearances – possibly as an artistic error – and has remained bald ever since. A personal connection between Superman and Lex Luthor was created in the 1950s when it was explained that Luthor had lost his hair whilst trying to create a cure for Kryptonite poisoning. They had been friends, but Luthor convinced himself that the young Superman had sabotagued the experiment because he couldn’t bare Luthor succeeding where he had failed.

The Lex Luthor in Superman the Animated Series is the Luthor introduced by John Byrne and Marv Wolfman in 1986. Before their Man of Steel reboot of the Superman franchise Lex Luthor had been a career criminal, a genius scientist who had dedicated his life to destroying Superman. Byrne and Wolfman reinvented Lex Luthor as a billionaire business man who hid his arms smuggling and illegal activities behind a façade of philanthropy and civic works. The cartoon copied that version pretty much to the letter, but played down Luthor’s intelligence. The comic book corporate Lex Luthor eventually became the President of the United States. The comic book story of his fall from power was adapted for the straight to DVD feature Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. The DCAU Luthor remains as a businessman for the entire run of Superman and doesn’t become a public villain until his a appearances in Justice League. However, there are references to Luthor’s Presidential bid in Justice League Unlimited.

Lex Luthor, the look of Telly Savalas

Producer Bruce Timm likened their version of Lex Luthor to Telly Savalas‘s version of Ernst Stavro Blofeld from the James Bond films,

He [Savalas] was basically like this bruiser who wanted to be taken seriously and wanted to be […] treated like a baron and I thought that was like a good way to treat Luthor. [Luthor] is rich and powerful and kind of elegant, but at the same time—just barely beneath the surface—he’s a brute.

The way that Lex Luthor is drawn – fuller lips, shaven head, a bit like this:

-  is of course another allusion to Telly Savalas, however that, and the slightly darker skin tone they use for him has led some people to assume that he is African-American. This was not the intention of the producers.

At the end of this episode Luthor talks to an attorney representing the Regent of Kasnia. That attorney is voiced by Nicholas Savalas, the son of Telly Savalas – the actor this version of Lex Luthor is based upon.

There had been plans for Telly Savalas to cameo in Superman: The Movie as himself – from behind Superman would have mistaken him for Lex Luthor and the truth would be revealed as Savalas spun around and quipped “Who love’s ya baby?”

Clancy Brown, the voice of Lex Luthor

Clancy Brown, a prolific actor and voice over artist, was cast as Lex Luthor. He is prehaps best known to genre fans as Kurgen, the barbarian immortal from the original Highlander film, and as Sergt Zim, the drill sergeant from Starship Troopers. More recently, he has voiced  Mr Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants. His “deep, resonant voice” does lend itself well to threatening or sinister characters so it’s not terribly surprising that he’s become type cast as a villain.

He has been quoted as saying “All the movies where I play nice guys don’t seem to do very well.” Nevertheless, Brown originally auditioned for the role of Clark Kent in Superman.

Warner Bros. had been doing Batman [the Animated Series] and it was very successful, so they were gearing up this new iteration of Superman. They decided to sort of go outside the box as far as talent was concerned, and I had made it known that I wanted to do more voice work. I wasn’t very good at it, but I wanted to get better. I enjoy cartoons and animation, and comic books were part of my life growing up. So they said “Come on in, We’re trying to cast Superman.” So I went in and just blew them all away with my Superman. And then they said “Here’s an idea (he laughs) nobody has ever thought of: What if Clancy played the bad guy?” (he laughs harder) So I rolled my eyes and said, “Can I, just one time, play the good guy?” And Andrea [Romano, Superman Voice Director] said, “No, you can play Lex.” So I said, “Fine, I’ll play Lex.” Honestly, Lex is fun. I’m very happy to be Lex. It’s a lot more interesting than Superman to me.

[...]

The vision was so clear in the original comic books and throughout the ’40s and ’50s and ’60s, as you saw him develop and become what is frightening about all the things that we want, and the sins that we have to commit in order to achieve that money and power. Of course, Lex has no problem with any of those sins – he’s quite at ease with running a corporation that has no conscience. What is seductive about Lex is that he is unremorseful. He is simply doing what he thinks is best. Does he think he’s a bad guy? No, of course not. But he doesn’t pretend to be a good guy. To him, it’s an immoral world anyway, and that people try to lay morality and ethics over the human action is just foolish. You can’t accomplish anything that way. The only way you accomplish something is to jettison all of that spirituality, all of those morals and ethics, and get on with business.

Brown has also played Lex Luthor in Justice League, The Batman, the DVD Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, and the video game Superman: Shadows of Apokolips.

John Corben (Metallo)

The leader of the terrorists is called John Corben and is voiced by Malcolm McDowell. (I also think that this Corben looks a bit like McDowell, but that may just be me). McDowell is an impressive name to get for a cartoon. He’ll be best known to genre fans as Soren from Star Trek: Generations and Daniel Linderman from Heroes.

John Corben is the alter ego of the supervillain Metallo – a petty thug whose brain was transplaneted into a robot body to save his life. The kicker is that his new body is powered by a sample of Kryptonite and that obviously makes him dangerous to Superman. McDowell returns as Corben for the episode “The Way of All Flesh” where Luthor makes sure he finally becomes Metallo. He also reprises the role for the Justice League episode “Chaos at the Earth’s Core” and the video game Superman: Shadow of Apokolips. McDowell also voices the Mad Mod in the Teen Titans cartoons.

Bibbo

Bibbo has been an on-and-off background character in the Superman comics for a while and has appeared in several episodes of the Superman cartoon series. He’s a longshore-man turned bar-owner who considers Superman his “fav’rit” person. He is the Man of Steel’s guide to Metropolis rougher inhabitants.

He also bears more than a passing resemblance to Popeye the Sailor-man, which is probably deliberate. Popeye first appeared in the Thimble Theatre comic strip in 1929 (nine years before Superman’s first appearance). His adventures remain famous to us because of a series of cartoons produced from 1933 onwards by the Fleischer Studios team. Fleischer Studios also produced the 1940s Superman cartoons which were a partial inspiration for the look and feel of Batman The Animated Series.

Kasnia

Kasnia, the fictious country of choice for international problems in the DCAU. It’s site isn’t that well defined, but it seems to be an Eastern European country somewhere in the Balkan area. Several Justice League stories taken place in Kasnia including when Vandal Savage tries to over throwing the King, a later civil war was manipulated by Ares for his own advantage.

The Regent has been using an elite band of high tech terrorists to eliminate his opponents. The US State Department didn’t approve so they cut off diplomatic relations and imposed an arms embargo.

Misc.

• A lot of footage from this episode made its way into the title sequence. There wasn’t time to create a separately animated title sequence so the producers fell back on one showing moments from first season. During the save of the airliner, if you listen to the sound track, you can hear the Superman theme creating a musical link with the title sequence. Also included in the titles are scenes from Superman’s fight with the Lexosuit and the reveal of Lois talking to Bibbo.
• At one stage Lois comments that, “He’s strong, he flies, he’s the Nietzschean ideal wrapped in a red cape.” Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was an influential German philosopher. He predicted a rapid moral decline in a post religious society and postulated the existence of a moral Overman (German: Ubermensch) who would be able to create his own morality through willpower alone. Superman, particularly in the early 1930s/40s stories, is a close match for the Nietzchean Overman. Nietzche’s work inspired “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (sometimes called Fanfare For the Common Man), the music used for the opening of 2001AD A Space Odyssey.
• The Ma Kent’s Scrapbook is a fixture from the comic books. In one version, it was stolen by a burglar and eventually made its way into Batman’s hands. From it he first deduced Superman’s secret identity.
• Almost uniquely, this cartoon series shows Clark Kent driving – it’s not an ability he’s ever needed in the comics or elsewhere as he normally flies.
• Lois name checks a police man called Henderson. This was the name of a police detective  in the 1940s Superman radio show and in the 1950s The Adventures of Superman TV series. He is Superman’s principal contact within the normal police force.
• When BBC Radio producer Dirk Maggs created an adaptation of the Man of Steel mini-series in the early 1990s he made several creative decisions that parallel what Alan Burnett and Paul Dini have done with this story. In one of the Man of Steel issues there is a scene where Superman bursts into Lex Luthor’s Hong Kong office after fighting one of his battle suited agents (it’s the same scene that contains Luthor’s speech to Superman about owning Metropolis). That fight took place off screen, but both Burnett/Dini and Maggs bring it on screen and use it as the action packed finale for their own stories. Another change they both made was to name the man inside the battle suit John Corben thus setting up his eventual change into Metallo.
• The imagined Superman III reference: Superman getting crushed inside a car is a bit like getting crushed in the car crusher in the junk yard in Superman III.

Opinion

Highlights

Superman’s fight with the Lexosuit.

Oddities

The Lexosuit has a keyless fob like a normal family car.

My Thoughts

A great end of the first Superman story. The aeroplane save is great sequence and the animation on the Lexosuit is brilliant, but where this episode really shines is in the character moments. Lois Lane’s first meeting with Superman and Superman’s final silent confrontation with Lex Luthor are particularly impressive.

It’s been said before, but a clear and deliberate effort has been made to moderate Superman’s power levels down to a state where its easier for the writers to create danger for him. It works quite well, but it does feel a little uneven at times. For example, Superman goes round after round with the Lexosuit with a lot of difficulty and then total outclasses it at the last moment.

3.0