Plot summary: A young Clark Kent begins to develop fantastical superpowers, forcing his parents to reveal the truth about his origins.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 2 (S1.E2)
Original Air Date: September 6th, 1996
Directed: Scott Jeralds (1) & Curt Geda (1)
Written: Alan Burnett (2) & Paul Dini (2)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (2)
Music: Michael McCuistion (1)
Martha’s baby name suggestions are Christopher, Kevin and Kirk. These are in tribute to Christopher Reeve, Kevin Conroy and Kirk Alyn, the first actor to play Superman in live action.
The art team went through many different designs for Superman, but Bruce Timm consistently put his foot down about Superman having a mullet, his hair style in most comics at the time the show was produced. Good call!
Recap
Kal-El’s rocket lands in Smallville, Kansas, where the infant is discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent. While Jonathan has some reservations, Martha is determined to take the child home, naming him Clark.
Years later, a teenage Clark begins to manifest incredible powers, including super-hearing, X-Ray vision, and superhuman speed and strength. He uses these to save a family from an explosion at a gas station, which he walks away from completely unharmed.
The Kents at last reveal the truth of Clark’s origins, with an assist from a message beamed directly into his mind by Jor-El and Lara, who explain he draws power from Earth’s yellow sun.
Distressed, Clark runs away from the farm at great speed, accidentally discovering he can fly too, which he finds so fun he forgets about being upset.
A few years later, amidst headlines of an alleged ‘guardian angel’ saving people in Metropolis, Clark Kent is hired at the Daily Planet, much to the chagrin of Lois Lane.
Lois tries to dump Clark with Jimmy Olsen, but he somehow beats her to a military weapons event hosted by Lex Luthor, where he impresses her with his journalistic instincts.
The event is crashed by a group of mercenaries who steal an advanced mech suit from Luthor, causing Superman to leap into action, first saving Lois and then giving chase to the thieves.
Supes easily takes down two of the mercs, but after dodging a missile from their leader, he inadvertently causes a passenger plane to be struck instead!
To be continued…
Best Performance
Jason Marsden makes for a pretty solid teenage Clark. It’s a difficult role to play, trying to establish this iteration of the character in a short span of time and hurtling straight into discovering both his powers and his true origins, all while trying to play up his youth while remaining likeable.
But Dana Delany is so effortlessly charming so quickly it’s not even fair. The way she slips between giving Perry shit for his editorial choices into office gossip about boys and then back to razzing Clark is sublime. This back and forth continues throughout the episode, and if she can pull it off consistently I suspect this is going to be her category to lose most episodes. BTAS got her for Mask of the Phantasm as Andrea Beaumont, but STAS landing her as a series regular is the real win.
Mike Farrell is great at Jonathan Kent’s lines about Kal being a sputnik baby, or “maybe one of ours.” Classic TV dad stuff. Tim Daly, Clancy Brown and Malcolm McDowell don’t really get enough time to make their cases. Kelly Schmidt makes for a spunky Lana Lang, but again, not enough lines.
Episode Ranking
James Tucker said that they really liked the idea of a three-act structure for the opener, set on Krypton, Smallville and Metropolis. I can’t help but wonder if it would have been better to devote this entire second episode to the Smallville era to give it more time to breathe. The scenes that do take place there are good, but it’s just so rushed, with teenage Clark’s first lines in the show being about dealing with his new powers rather than just establishing him as a good kid. This in turn means many of his fantastical abilities are brushed off a little too casually. I could have gone for more of teen Clark and his friendships with Lana and Pete, and perhaps even some material with him at an even younger age to supplement everything else. That’s before we even get into things like him crafting the suit/persona and deciding to move to Metropolis.
I do understand why they felt the need to get to Superman faster after doing an entire episode without him though. Lois Lane and the setting of the Daily Planet are immediate successes, including Perry White and Jimmy Olsen, who are established as ostensible series regulars. In fact all the strength of this episode lies in Clark’s relationships, from Lana and Ma & Pa Kent, to Lois and Jimmy. There’s a lot of charm in the voice cast, which does the heavy lifting. Kind of the inverse of the first episode which has incredible art design and plenty of time for set-up, but some very blah voice work.
The biggest problem with shifting to Metropolis so late in this episode is the cliffhanger feels ridiculously unsatisfying. Superman finally making his triumphant debut and saving Lois is a heck of a meet cute, but without the villains properly established, the ending falls really flat. It’s strange for Lex freakin’ Luthor to get so little exposition or dialogue in his debut appearance too.
Again, I was somewhat charmed by the first two-thirds, but I just wish it were taken further. When we start comparing future episodes to the opening 3-parter, this part will drag down the overall. So the pressure is on Part III to raise it back up.
- The Last Son of Krypton
Rogues Roundup
Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown) (first appearance)
I considered not even listing any villains for this episode as they barely even do anything, but given Luthor in particular is one of the most famous villains in all of fiction, it feels wrong to ignore him. He’s here, he’s bald, he’s shopping dangerous weapons to the military. Boo!
John Corben (Malcolm McDowell) (first appearance)
For now he’s just a mercenary stealing dangerous tech from Lex Luthor. Most of his face is covered by a pilot helmet, and he really doesn’t say or do anything interesting. But it’s Malcolm freakin’ McDowall, and if you know, you know.
- Brainiac
- Lex Luthor (NEW ENTRY)
- John Corben (NEW ENTRY)
The Matt Signal 
Leave a comment