Superman TAS

Screen Shots

Synopsis

Previously in Part One of “The Last Son of Krypton”: Earthquakes shake the planet Krypton as it shudders towards it doom. The quakes are dismissed by all save the scientist Jor-El and the Brainiac computer system, an artificial intelligence that maintains and guards Krypton’s computer networks. Jor-El tries to alert the ruling Council, but his efforts are frustrated by Brainiac who knows that its own survival would be endangered if the Council diverted its processors to calculate an evacuation plan. Brainiac secretly downloads its intelligence, including Krypton’s cultural history and science, into a space probe and then leaves Krypton to its fate. Jor-El only has time to save his infant son, Kal-El, in a prototype rocket ship before Krypton explodes. Kal-El’s safely arrives on Earth where, as an adult, he becomes the superhero called Superman.

A group of Lexcorp scientists gather on a remote mesa mountain top during a lightning storm. They are tracking an approaching object while their engineers scramble to have generators and lighting equipment set up in time for its arrival. Unnoticed amid the chaos, the Daily Planet reporters Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen have sneaked into the site disguised as engineers. Lex Luthor arrives in his private helicopter minutes before a UFO, a gigantic alien space craft, materializes above them. A holographic figure appears before them and Lex Luthor introduces himself as Earth’s spokesman. Luther had intercepted a transmission from the alien and is seeking a partnership with it/him. It identifies itself as Brainiac and invites Luthor inside its ship.

Meanwhile, Superman is running tests in deep space on the rocket ship that had brought him from Krypton (Professor Hamilton had modified it operate as a one man space craft). Upon returning to Earth’s solar system Superman is told that the Pentagon would like to talk to him about Luthor’s activities. Lois Lane’s story about Luthor’s contact with Brainiac has drawn anger from the Pentagon. At a tense meeting they accuse Luthor of threatening national security, but he retorts that free enterprise trumps their concerns. Lex explains that Brainiac is a collector of information and that he is willing to trade for information about the Earth. Luthor then suggests they let Superman talk to Brainiac “alien to alien.” and then adds that Brainiac is, apparently, quite anxious to meet their Man of Steel.

Superman flies out to the Mesa and thinks he’s alone until Brainiac’s ship uncloaks again. He isn’t met inside and starts exploring. Superman has just discovered Kryptonian text on part of the ship when he is attacked by a flock of levitating robots. They outnumber the Man of Steel and have the better of him until he rips one of their arms off and uses as a club to batter the others. He takes out several of his attackers before the rest withdrawal. It has been a test. Brainiac appears and tells him  “Most impressive. Your powers exceed Luthor’s description.”  He surprises Superman by calling him “Kal-El”, his Kryptonian name. Superman then asks Brainiac if he has been to Krypton and is told “I am Krypton! We are both orphans of the same planet. While you’ve been living here on Earth I have roamed the universe. ”

Brainiac shows Superman a room full of glowing orbs, each one containing  information from an entire world that he has visited. One of the Orbs contains the knowledge of Krypton and Brainiac lets Superman touch hold it. For a moment Superman sees flashes of his home world and the face of his father, Jor-El. Superman deduces that Brainiac is an artificial life form and that the Orbs are a memory bank. Brainaic then offers Superman a partnership and asks him to join him exploring the galaxies as the twin sons of Krypton. In exchange for giving up Earth, Brainiac would give Superman memories of his home world.

Superman returns to Metropolis to consider Brainiac’s offer, but his sleep is disturbed by a dream where he sees events from “Last Son of Krypton Part One”, of Brainiac’s betrayal of Jor-El and the destruction of Krypton. Lexcorp engineers are preparing to receive Brainiac’s transmission when Superman arrives to voice his reservations about the machine to Luthor. He tells Luthor about the Orbs and his dream, but Luthor reveals that he never full trusted Brainiac. Since he has arrived Luthor has had Brainiac targeted with powerful missiles.

Superman returns to Brainiac’s ship with more questions, but Brainiac excuses himself while he prepares for uplink to Lexcorp’s computers. His body splits apart as cables snake out of it and plug themselves into his ship’s systems. Superman returns to the Orb Room while Brainiac is occupied. He touch a random orb and sees images of a peaceful world being destroyed by Brainiac’s ship. He then tries another Orb and sees Brainiac destroy another world. Each of the Orbs represents an alien planet that Brainiac has looted and destroyed. Superman sinks to the floor with horror and then anger at when he has seen.

Superman challenges Brainiac over the alien Orbs, but he is told that knowledge becomes more precious the fewer people have access to it. By destroying those worlds Brainiac has made himself the last repository of their knowledge, just as he had been for Krypton. Shackles shoot out of the walls binding Superman, but he breaks free and flies at Brainiac. The machine fires an energy beam that and pushes Superman away, but he fights it all the way back to Brainiac. Superman then severs the cables connecting Brainiac to his ship. This cuts his link to Lexcorp’s computers and restores Luthor’s control of his missiles (which Brainiac had blocked).

Dozens of missiles fire at the Brainiac’s ship, but they are destroyed when Brainiac reestablish control of his defences. Superman punches through Brainiac’s metallic body distracting him while the second and third wave of missiles hit the ship. It starts exploding and Brainiac cries out for the Orbs. By the time that Superman reaches the Orb Room many of the Orbs have exploded, but he manges to grasp Krypton’s Orb and escapes the ship moments before it crashes and explodes. Afterwards, Luthor orders his staff to rebuild his own computer systems, but he ignores a strange bit of alien computer code that Brainiac had uploaded into them.  Superman leaves the Kryptonian Orb in a hidden ice cave near the North Pole. It will be safe there from curious visitors.

Commentary

Brainiac

Brainiac is one of the big Superman villains. He first appeared in Action Comics #242 (July 1958) as a green-skinned alien scientist, an alien Lex Luthor, who was kidnapping entire cities to repopulate his dead home world. He used a special ray to shrink each city and then kept them in oversized bell-jars. He attacked Earth cities and was defeated, but Superman discovered that one of the cities in Brainiac’s possession had actually come from Krypton. Superman was unable to re-enlarge that city (Kandor) and kept it safe in the Fortress of Solitude. The Bottle City of Kandor became an iconic part of the Superman mythology. Those cities are represented in this episode by the Orbs aboard Brainiac’s ship and Kandor is represented by the Kryptonian Orb that Superman saves.

The comic-book Brainiac was later revealed to be an android, a synthetic life form, from the planet of Colu. He was the last of a group of Computer Tyrants that had enslaved the native green-skinned Coluians. This season keeps the idea of Brainiac as a computerised tyrant, but it shifts his home world so that it is the same as Superman’s home. The comic book Brainiac became radically less human looking when he was reinvented in the early 1980s as a Terminator like android that flew around in a massive skull-shaped space ship. His visual look has since reverted to the green-skinned version, but that iconic skull-ship has endured.

Brainiac is voiced by Corey Burton who also voiced him in “Last Son of Krypton” Part One and will continue to voice the character throughout his appearances in Superman, Static Shock, Justice League, and Legion of Superheroes. His other DC roles include Dr Blizzard (in JL “Legends”), Abin Sur in Justice League: New Frontier, and Doc Magnus in Brave and the Bold. Burton is no stranger to working around robotic characters as he voiced Spike Witwicky in the original Transformers cartoon, Megatron in the Transformers: Animated series, and Count Dooku (head of the Droid army) in Star Wars: Clone Wars.

The Fortress of Solitude

The idea of a Fortress of Solitude pre-dates Superman and was one of many ideas that were “borrowed” from the Doc Savage stories. Superman’s first Fortress was little more that a hidden cave in a mountain overlooking Metropolis, but the approach of the 1960s real crystallised Superman’s headquarters. The classic Fortress was a vast science-fiction wonderland hidden inside a  mountain in the Arctic. It’s huge door could only be opened with a giant-sized key that was disguised as a navigational marker. Only somebody with Superman’s unique strength could lift the key and only somebody that could fly could move between the Fortress’s different floors (no stairs!).

The most iconic Fortress of Solitude is probably the one from the 1970s Superman movie. It’s gleaming crystalline design has influenced almost every iteration of the Fortress that has appeared since. The animated Fortress doesn’t really get an origin beyond being a remove ice cave that Superman uses to store stuff. The Orb from Brainiac’s spaceship is the first trophy, but it’s soon joined by the alien space zoo from “The Main Man.”

Producers Commentary

The DVD release of this episode includes a commentary by Bruce Timm, Curt Geda, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, and Glen Murakami.

• The Lexcorp truck at the beginning is an in joke – it’s the Batman: The Animated Series Batmobile extrapolated into a large truck..
• The producers compared Brainiac’s motivations to that of a collector, somebody who measures his success or standing by the prestige of unique or rate items that his fellow collectors don’t own.
• When Corey Burton first auditioned for the role as Brainiac he used a voice that was based on the “Control Voice” Vic Perrin used for the opening monologue in the original The Outer Limits (“There is nothing wrong with your television set.  Do not attempt to adjust the picture…”). Bruce Timm was a massive fan of the Outer Limits and was impressed by Burton’s choice.  Under SAG rules a voice artist can play up to three voices in an episode before their fee needs to be increased. Burton also played the lead General’s at the Pentagon. The female General that speaks is Dana Delany pitched down.
• When Brainiac’s hologram winks out there is a one or two frame shot of Krypton used as a pop effect. It’s a type of editing trick where a couple of frames of white or differing contrast are added to the film to simulate the flash from an explosion.
• Superman fighting a group of robots gets a reference to the Fleischer Superman cartoons.
• Brainiac’s floating sledge was the result of an early meeting with a toy company who came up the design as an accessory that they could market.  The Skull Ship was considered, but ultimately left for a later story.
• This was one of the first episodes that Curt Geda directed. He oversaw the creation of the story boards in the USA before they were sent overseas to be animated. However, the footage that was returned to them was disappointing (the word “rough” was used several times). Bruce Timm recalled that the final fright scene between Superman and Brainiac was very slow and the punches didn’t have any impact. They removed a lot of the part where Superman punches the beam and cut in explosions from other episodes to beef up the explosions of the missiles. The change between the raw animated show and the version after editing was described as “miraculous”.
• Being a robot, even a robot with a personality, means that the gloves are off as far as standards and practices are concerned – the animators have full licences to be as violent to Brainiac as they like.

Notes

• The scientists scrambling around as they wait for a UFO parallels Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
• The Pentagon scene includes the prerequisite Doctor Strangelove style situation room.

Highlights

The Orb Room on Brainiac’s Ship.

Oddities

Levitating Generals in the Strangelove suite.

My thoughts

Brainiac is one of the rare villains in Superman’s rogue’s gallery who is a genuine threat. Most of the Toymen, Pranksters, and assorted mercenary thugs are just annoyances, but Brainiac’s alien science makes a very credible villain. The comic book Brainiac always tended to be rather flamboyant for a character that was meant to be a computer intelligence, but the animated version picks up a great H.A.L. vibe in “The Last Son of Krypton” and that gets carried over into his later appearances. The animated Luthor may be played as a thug pretending to be a cultured man, but Brainiac is the real deal – an old school aristocrat – calm, arrogant, and utterly convinced of his superiority. Corey Burton’s measured, but not overly monotonic delivery pitches the character perfectly.

The episode makes good use of Brainiac’s origin story. There is just enough left for it to be recognisable to comic book fans, but not so much that the sheer 1950s comic-bookishness (flying saucers, shrinking rays, cities in bell jars, comedy albino monkey sidekick, etc) puts off casual viewers. What didn’t work for me was the lounge chair Brainiac hovers around in (it looked a bit too much like it was from the toyline). Where I think this episode does excel is the sound track. The producers talk about having to heavily edit the animation after it came back from overseas animators, it is noticable in a couple of places, but dramatic and powerful soundtrack carries you through.

Superman’s shock at Brainiac’s crimes is played well and their magnitude easily sets up Brainiac as, not only a reoccurring Superman villain, but also as a reoccurring Justice League villain.

4.0