Plot summary: Lex Luthor discovers that a meteor rock at his museum greatly weakens Superman, so naturally begins brainstorming ways to use it to kill him.

1. Notes and Trivia
2. Recap
3. Best Performance
4. Episode Ranking
5. Rogues Roundup

Notes and Trivia

Episode: 5 (S1.E5)

Original Air Date: September 14th, 1996

Directed: Toshihiko Masuda (1)

Written: Hiliary J. Bader (1)

Animation: TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation (2)

Music: Kristopher Carter (2)

There was a plan for Superman to donate the T-Rex to Batman, given The Dark Knight generally has one in the Batcave in most continuities.

In the live-action Superboy TV show Kryptonite was discovered by a Professor Peterson, so this episode was almost certainly a direct homage.

The first appearance of Mercy Graves in anything ever. Much like Harley Quinn, her popularity here would see her made canon in comics and Lex Luthor is rarely seen without her these days.

Recap

Lex Luthor invites the press to the impending opening of his new natural history museum that he claims has unassailable security… which is immediately put to the test when a pair of thieves break in.

Superman swoops into action but begins to feel faint, allowing them to escape. Luthor later examines the security footage later and notes the collapse happened when Supes came near some mineral samples…

Ordering immediate analysis of the glowing rocks, Luthor sees an opportunity to take down Superman, hiring some outside muscle to pull off a robbery in Metropolis, assuring him the Man of Steel won’t cause a problem.

One of his scientists doesn’t agree so sneaks a small piece of the meteor rock out and gives it to Lois Lane, believing it’s an important discovery that could be beneficial to mankind. After showing it to Clark (who struggles to hide the negative effects) she takes it for further testing at STAR Labs.

Luthor’s mercenary, Joey, strikes during a transfer of treasury plates, holding the city officials up with flamethrowers and escaping the scene with a jetpack.

Superman pursues, unaware he’s being led into a meteor rock trap. Sure enough, Supes is weakened, allowing Joey to kick his ass… until he strays too far from the middle of the room, giving Clark enough strength to fly them away and capture him.

Heading to STAR Labs, Superman learns from Professor Hamilton that the rocks are likely pieces of Krypton rendered radioactive by its destruction. He also discovers the radiation can be blocked completely by lead.

The scientist who gave Lois the sample calls again, asking her to meet him… but it’s of course a trap, with Lex pulling the strings after discovering the betrayal.

Superman and Lois arrive at the museum, where they’re locked in as a model T-Rex comes to life and attacks, remotely controlled by Lex. All while ‘Kryptonite’ renders Superman too weak to fight back.

Lois grabs the Kryptonite and shoots it like a basketball into a lead goblet, letting Supes get back in the game, ripping the dino apart. He hurls the lead-covered Kryptonite into space, but elsewhere in the world a Lexcorp excavation team dig up more…

Best Performance

Dana Delany did an excellent job with Lois’ elaborate lunch order. She’s never not fun when she’s trying to roast Lex and gossip, and she’s pretty fun jabbing at Clark, this time for being sick. I also enjoyed her commentary over her faux basketball antics. It almost made actual basketball sense too! In fact it being ever so slightly off made the whole thing feel more human.

Clancy Brown was in his element as well, with more of the same switching between arrogance and rage that makes Lex such an enjoyable character. The merc was a suitably sleazy dirtbag, while Lisa Edelstein probably had fun rebuffing him as Mercy.

Episode Ranking

This is a great example of what good screenwriting can add to an otherwise limited idea. The story here isn’t terribly exciting, simply introducing Kryptonite to the mythos, which is overcome relatively easy. Likewise it’s nothing special to look at, with the aerial chase scene and T-Rex battles both decent but not elaborate enough to be memorable.

However Hamilton’s explanation of Kryptonite was well written, doing a decent job of sounding well thought out and scientific, at least to a non-scientist such as myself. Sorry if that’s shattered any preconceptions you had about me. The idea that Superman absorbs the radiation so easily compared to humans, meaning he and the rocks have a common point of origin, tracks logically.

Secondly, I’m a huge fan of how the ending paid off two separate quirks they set up earlier in the episode. Firstly, Lex bragged about his museum having such advanced security that all the exhibits are in open cases protected with electricity when a human tries to touch anything. That stops Lois from simply grabbing the lead cup to bring to the Kryptonite, which she gets around by throwing the green rock across the room, paying off her habit of shooting balled up paper into a trash can to help her think. It’s baffling how infrequently writers use these kinds of set-it-up and pay-it-off tricks.

Still, even with this great writing, it’s fundamentally a run of the mill episode. I had fun with it, , but for now it slots in third.

Tiny thing that doesn’t impact the quality of the episode: I don’t love Clark allowing museum artefacts to be broken over his head by the thieves. Superman respects antiquities!

1. Fun and Games
2. The Last Son of Krypton
3. A Little Piece of Home (NEW ENTRY)

Rogues Roundup

Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown (third appearance)

While the headline here is Lex discovers Kryptonite and tries to use it against Superman, I actually really enjoyed the backdrop of him opening a natural history museum as a vanity project and tax haven. It’s the kind of thing real evil billionaires do all the time. Claiming the museum has infallible security while it’s literally being robbed was funny. Ditto scolding his bitter enemy for failing to prevent the theft. Just good stuff.

The robotic T-Rex was good old dumb comic book fun, and I like that they chose to have Lex directly controlling it rather than just setting it loose. He desperately wants to be able to fight Superman. See also his second attempt to bribe Kal while lording his power over him. Seriously guys, why don’t you just kiss already?

Mercy Graves (Lisa Edelstein) (first appearance)

Mercy isn’t quite Harley, but it is funny that this same creative team is responsible for inventing two popular female sidekicks for two of comics’ most famous villains.

She doesn’t do a whole lot in her debut, with the highlight being utter disinterest in Joey the meathead merc, and then kicking a speedbag off the chain and across the room. Lex seemingly doesn’t tolerate anyone… but he’s chill towards Mercy, so that’s an interesting seed to sew.

1. Toyman
2. Lex Luthor (-)
3. Brainiac
4. John Corben
5. Mercy Graves (NEW ENTRY)
6. Bruno Mannheim