The planet Krypton was home to a scientifically advanced, human-like civilisation, but it was threatened a series of increasingly strong tremors which were shaking the entire world. Krypton was governed by a central Planetary Council, but most of its day-to-day administration was left to an intelligent computer network called Brainiac. It attributes the quakes to a polar shift in Krypton’s orbit, but the independent scientist Jor-El thinks otherwise. Jor-El conducts a five month study into Krypton’s geology and seismic activity. The last survey point is a deep shaft cut into the Krypton’s northern ice fields. He is so intent upon studying the data that he doesn’t notice an approaching ice creature, a 30-foot long semi-transparent amoeba like creature that had been awoken by a recent quake, until it snares him from behind. Jor-El manages to wrestle free from the creature and escapes in his personal flier.

Brainiac contacts Jor-El as soon as he returns to his mobile research base. The scientist is not comfortable that Brainiac is monitoring him so closely, but it protests that the Planetary Council has commanded it to analyse his data as soon as possible. It cuts off their conversation the moment the data is transmitted. Jor-El’s mood improves when his infant son, Kal-El, toddles into the laboratory. The sudden movement of the research base signals that their five month research trip is ending, but Jor-El’s wife, Lara, has mixed feelings. They’ll be back in capital city, but she knows that it means Jor-El will probably spend all his time analysing the data that they’ve collected.

Jor-El believes that the tremors are caused by a chain reaction in Krypton’s core that will eventually destroy the planet. His theories, however, are not widely supported. Lara’s father, Sul-van, is a member of the Planetary Council. He warns her that Jor-El’s predictions of “the end of the world” risks his scientific and political career. Their argument is interrupted by a strong tremor that causes extensive damage across the capital city. Later, in a tense and rowdy session, Jor-El delivers his report to the Planetary Council. They refuse to believe his evidence and blindly trust Brainiac’s conclusion. Jor-El argues that Brainiac is wrong and they must act now to place everybody in the Phantom Zone, but his proposals horrify the Council and they refuse to listen further. Even Sul-van agrees with his fellow Council members.

Jor-El is convinced that Brainiac lied to the Council, yet even Lara warns him that “your theories are more destructive than you can imagine.” Later that night, Jor-El goes to Brainiac Operations. He verbally spars with the artificial intelligence, but something isn’t right. Jor-El is locked out of the satellite network and Brainiac shuts down his terminal when he tries over riding it. Jor-El breaks into Brainiac’s central processing core and discovers that it is downloading, transmitting its core memory to a satellite. It finally acknowledges that Jor-El is correct and that Krypton has mere hours left. Diverting its processing power to calculate an evacuation plan would just jeopardise its own survival. Brainiac claims that, as it is the repository of all Kryptonian knowledge, it should be saved above and before all others.

Brainiac cannot allow Jor-El to interfere with its own survival. It alerts the police to his presence and declares him an outlaw. Jor-El evades the security at Brainiac Operations and jumps through a smashed window. He slides down the inclined side of the building and then hobbles away on foot. Back at the El home, Sul-van has finally had chance to study Jor-El’s research and he reluctantly concludes that his son-in-law has made a compelling case. Lara and Sul-van are shocked when Jor-El staggers in and tells them that it’s all too late. He then tells Sul-van that they are going to send Kal-El to another world. Jor-El’s original plan had been to place everybody in the Phantom Zone. He would then travel to Earth in a small one-man space craft and release everybody. Now that small space craft “is only good for a life boat.”

Jor-El and Lara’s desperate preparations are interrupted by the arrival of the police. Jor-El hopes that leading them away will buy Lara enough time to launch Kal-El’s rocket. Sul-van pleads with Lara “to be reasonable”, but her resolve causes him to volunteer to lead the police away. A tearful Lara places the sedated Kal-El into the rocket ship as Jor-El programs in with Earth’s coordinates. He tells that might be able squeeze her into the rocket, but she refuses to further risk Kal-El’s life by altering the course computations.

When the police report that Jor-El has escaped Brainiac tells them “It’s doesn’t matter any more. Farewell Krypton.” He then transmits the last part of his program to his satellite and leaves for deep space. Moments later quakes start to tear through the city and Jor-El pushes the button to launch Kal-El’s rocket ship into space. This time the quakes don’t subside. Vast fissures open in the ground, public statues topple, and explosions rip through the planet’s crust like atom bombs. Within minutes the surface of Krypton it turned into a churning emerald sea of lava. Krypton is torn asunder by a massive explosion as Kal-El’s ship warps to safety. Some of the debris from Krypton falls through Kal-El’s space warp, but he is safe and on his way to Earth.

Superman and the Fleischer Brothers

Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two young sci-fi geeks from Cleveland. They synthesised the prevailing genre fashions of the day to create the first true superhero. Where Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze, had pushed human capacity to its limits, this new character, a Man of Steel, would surpass human limits and have true superpowers. Jerry and Joe’s dreams of prestigious newspaper strip went unrealised and they were eventually forced to sell their Superman to the only people who would buy it, a comic book company (the forerunner of DC Comics) who were desperate to fill space in the first issue of a new comic book called Action Comics.

Superman was a massive success and was soon appearing in multiple media including cartoons, a radio show, the comics, and even a newspaper strip. By the standards of the day Jerry and Joe were well paid, but their pay paled with comparison to the huge amount of money that DC Comics were making off of their character. Their legal proceedings against DC started a succession of court cases that are still rumbling on seventy years later. Each new adaptation has brought new ideas and innovations into Superman’s world. The radio show introduced the character of Jimmy Olsen and famously the concept of Kryptonite – a radioactive rock that weakened Superman enough for the Superman actor to go on holiday for a week and let his supporting cast carry the show. Flight, however, would have to wait until he got properly animated.

The problem with superheroes is that they’re very expensive to do as live action and it wasn’t really until Superman: The Movie that audiences really “believed a man could fly.” Cartoons don’t quite suffer from that draw back so its logical that the first major screen adaptation of Superman would be as a cartoon. Fleischer Studios had had early success with their Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons. Paramount Pictures approached them with the idea of making a Superman cartoon, however, Max Fleischer wasn’t too interested and named what he thought was a prohibitively large production cost (100,000 dollars for the first short film). Paramount called his bluff and offered 50,0000 dollars. The result was one of the most expensive and highly regarded action/adventure cartoons of all time. A paperwork oversight now means that the cartoons are in the public domain and can be found quite legally on Internet media sites like archive.org and youtube.

The dark, pulpy look of the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons was an inspiration for the look of Batman: The Animated Series. Launched in the wake of Tim Burton’s Batman: The Movie, BatmanTAS married Burton’s retro-1940s art deco Gotham, with the rich Fleischer look, and Bruce Timm’s signature character designs.

Bruce Timm and the look of Superman

When Jon Peters moved from Sony to Warner Brothers in 1994 he began the epic development cycle for Superman V. That’s the one that took over a decade, burned through Kevin Smith, Tim Burton, Nick Cage, and eventually ended up with Brian Singer making Superman Returns. Someone, somewhere thought that it would be a great idea of get a Superman cartoon going to support the Superman film that everybody thought was about to appear. At the time Bruce Timm was just finishing Freakazoid and was looking for something else to occupy his time.

There was interest in doing an animated Superman, because there was a lot of talk about doing a movie – I think that’s what got the ball rolling. So, just casually, [Executive Producer] Jean MacCurdy mentioned to me one day, “Do you want to do a Superman cartoon?” And I went, “Yes, Let’s do it.”

(ref: Modern Masters Vol 3: Bruce Timm, pg 52)

However, adapting Superman wasn’t as easy a transition as Batman had been.

I knew immediately what to do with Batman, whereas with Superman I wasn’t quite sure what to do with him. I don’t think he’s as interesting a character on the face of him. With Batman, you look at him and you get it. With Superman, you get the concept, but if he’s done badly, it could be bad.

(ref: Modern Masters Vol 3: Bruce Timm, pg 53)

An early idea including a series of rotating guest stars – a forerunner to the Justice League concept – but DC nixed the idea and recommend that they stick with a pure Superman show.

We went back to the drawing board and came up with a visual look that was a little more unique to itself. It was still retro in a way – we still had art deco on the brain – but instead of doing the sharp, angular, moody art deco we had done in Batman, we went with the bright, futuristic, optimistic, ocean liner art deco – which was more in line with Superman’s character.

We knew we were going to use Darkseid and kind of melded the Superman mythos with the Fourth World mythos in the comics [...]. So that gave us a visual for the futuristic elements in the show – all the super sci-fi machinery. We thought rather than make it deco, we’ll make it Kirby. That was another mix in the new and things started gelling at that point.

(ref: Modern Masters Vol 3: Bruce Timm, pg 54)

Parallels/References to other Superman adaptations

“The Last Son of Krypton” is Superman: The Animated Series‘s version of Superman’s origin. There have been multiple versions of Superman’s origin over the years and this version is a synthesis of several of them. It is  a three-part story and mirrors the three act structure of Richard Donner’s Superman: The Movie. The first act is Krypton, the second act is Smallville, and the third act is Metropolis. The animated Krypton doesn’t follow the brilliant white, crystalline designs of Donner’s Krypton, but the decision to open with the Northern Ice fields could be a nod to that look.

This first-part superficially follows the canonical Silver Age origin by showing Jor-El presenting his evidence to an supportive ruling Council and then launching his infant son into space at the very last moment. There are additions from John Byrne’s Man of Steel mini-series, a 1980s re-imagining and updating of the Superman origin. It was the canonical version of Superman’s comic book origin at the time that this cartoon made. Man of Steel #1 also follows Superman: The Movie‘s three act/location structure. The survey of Krypton is from Man of Steel #1, as is the look of the coloured tabard worn over black bodysuit. Jor-El wears a head band that suggests his Silver Age headband.

Superman, the title character of this series, does not appear in his own first episode. The character design of Jor-El is close to that used for the adult version of his son. The baby, Kal-El, is of course the future Superman. Lara has the same S-curl as Superman. The little white puppy seen in the El home is Krypto. In the Silver Age comics Jor-El used Krypto as a test passenger for a prototype of Kal-El’s rocketship. He was discovered by a teenage Clark Kent and brought to Earth where he also gained superpowers. In 2005 Krypto got his own cartoon series, Krypto the Superdog, which was aimed at younger children.

Brainiac Operations does look rather like the computer core from Superman III. It’s never called as much, but the supercomputer they build in Superman III is Brainiac – or at least what remains of it from an earlier draft of the script. See the note below about Jack Kirby’s 2001 adaptation.

DVD Commentary

The DVD of this episode includes a commentary by producer Bruce Timm, director Dan Riba, writers Alan Burnett and Paul Dini, and art director Glen Murakami. Details revealed include:

• The producers had originally intended to have a specially animated title sequence, but ran out of time and had to use a clip sequence instead.
• Alan Burnett wanted to do Brainiac as coming from Krypton, but Bruce Timm resisted until he saw how Brainiac could work as “the Kryptonian version of the Internet.”
• Timm’s concern at the start was how to make Superman:TAS different from what they had done on Batman: TAS. Having the first episode as a science fiction story set entirely on another world helped set up that difference. They also tried to make Krypton a little different than the other Krypton’s people had seen before.
• Murakami, the art director, wasn’t on this show at the very start and they had already plotted and designed many elements by the time he came aboard.
• They deliberately wanted to avoid the look of Krypton from the movie. Bruce Timm noted that the movie world was so cold and emotionless that “you really have no reason to mourn Krypton’s passing.” In response Alan Burnett made the Animated Jor-El and Lara very warm and loving characters and turned Jor-El in an action hero in his own right.
• Brainiac’s computer core was inspired by Jack Kirby’s comic book adaptation of 2001 A Space Odyssey, specifically the red and black vertical shapes.
• Kal-El’s space craft is based on a collection of Anime vehicles.
• Standards and Practices kept an eye on Krypton’s destruction as they didn’t want it to be too horrific.
• Glen Murakami wanted the ripple glass effect over Krypton and fought Bruce Timm to get it included.

Jor-El and Lara

Jor-El and Lara are Superman’s biological parents. They’re only mentioned in Action Comics #1 as an unnamed Kryptonian scientist and his wife, but they weren’t named until the story was retold in the Superman newspaper strip. It’s a cornerstone of the Superman mythology that Jor-El was the scientist who discovered that Krypton was about to explode, but was unable to convince his fellow Kryptonians. The most famous couple to play Jor-El and Lara where Marlon Brando and Susannah York in Superman: The Movie. The action/adventurous Jor-El shown in this episode is a reaction against Brando’s stern, Old Testament patriarch version of Jor-El.

In this show Jor-El is played by Christopher McDonald who will be known to genre fans as Lt Castillo, Tasha Yar’s love interest from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” – the one with the altered timeline and the Enterprise C. He would also go on to voice Superman in “The Call”, the two-part Batman Beyond episode that served as a pilot for the Justice League. He reprised the role of Jor-El for the Superman episode “Stolen Memories” and the Justice League Unlimited episode “For The Man Who Has Everything”. Lara was played by Finola Hughes. She’s been in various soap opera, but will be known to genre fans as Emma Frost from Generation X and Patty Halliwell, the mother of one of the witches in Charmed.

Sul-Van

Lara’s father is called Sul-Van in this show, a play on the surname of Vince Sullivan, the editor who originally purchased the Superman strip for DC Comics. This is the same Sullivan for whom Smallville‘s Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) is named. In the comics Lara’s father is named Lor-Van, her maiden name being Lara Lor-Van. Sul-Van is voiced by Tony Jay, a distinguish British actor with a very distinctive voice. He often played villainous or dark roles including Megabyte from ReBoot, the tiger Shere Khan in various Disney TV shows, as well as an assortment of eldar gods, narrators, and deities from various computer games and cartoons. A couple years earlier, he’d played Nigel St John, Lex Luthor’s assistant and confidant on Lois and Clark.

Highlights

Jor-El’s confrontation with Brainiac in Brainiac Operations. Watch how the lights go out around Jor-El as Brainiac downloads parts of himself from the Kryptonian databanks.

Oddities

Sul-Van’s crash bags – no wonder he’s smiling when the police catch up with him.

My Thoughts

It is a very bold move to open a new series without the main star or even his usual supporting cast appearing, but that’s how Superman TAS starts. This is because the WB DC movies, except for the direct-to-DVD features, are made as three episodes shown back-to-back. So Episode One is really act one of the movie, just as Marlon Brando’s Jor-El takes up the entire first act of Superman: The Movie. This Jor-El as reimagined by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini is a younger, more passionate man than Brando’s patriarch. It’s really refreshing to see Jor-El do something other than just predict Krypton’s doom and then die. This one is an action hero in his own right. Lara, the other parent, is too often left as a cipher, but this Lara at least has flashes of character through her anger at Jor-El’s obsession and her interactions with Sul-Van. This is a great first episode that really set the bar high for the entire series to follow.

The Verdict