Plot summary: When John Corben contracts a fatal disease he accepts an offer from Lex Luthor that saves his life, but also transforms him into the deadly Metallo.

Production vs Air Date

We have reached our first divergence between the order the episodes were produced in and the order the network aired them.

BTAS was somewhat famous for these two orders being wildly out of sync. Most people, including me, follow the production order because the airdates did ridiculous things like split up two-parters and move the second appearance of a character or concept to before their introduction.

Things aren’t as simple with STAS however, as it seems this time the airdate order makes more sense 90% of the time. Therefore unless it seems hugely impactful to the continuity I’m going to be following the airdate order.

Notes and Trivia

Episode: 7 (S1.E7)

Original Air Date: October 19^th, 1996

Directed: Kenji Hachizaki (1)

Written: Stan Berkowitz (1)

Animation: TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation (3)

Music: Lolita Ritmanis (2)

Superman received an anti-Kryptonite suit in the previous episode which was produced after this one. Their get-out clause is he didn’t necessarily know he’d need it, so I don’t consider that so egregious they need switching. See above.

Dr. Vale is named for Dr. Emmett Vale who created Metallo in the comics.

Orozco’s Retrovirus is of course 100% made up. It may be named for Mexican artist José Clemente Orozco.

Recap

John Corben (remember him?) enjoys an unusually lavish time in prison thanks to his connection to Lex Luthor. Unfortunately, his wealth can’t save him from a viral infection with a terminal diagnosis.

While enjoying a bike ride, Clark witnesses missiles breach the walls of Stryker’s Island so swoops into action to round up the handful of prisoners that tried to swim for it, but naturally Corben made a clean break.

Lex Luthor thanks Corben for his service in the previous episode and offers him a radical treatment, transforming him into Metallo, the Kryptonite-powered cyborg!

Corben is pleased with his superhuman strength and durability, but laments his loss of humanity, being completely unable to feel. Lex brushes it off and sets him to work murdering Superman.

Attracting our hero with train-based mayhem, Metallo is easily able to withstand Supes’ assault and then exposes his Kryptonite core, weakening Kal enough to beat his ass.

Lois Lane arrives to try and save Superman and is rewarded with minor sexual assault. She slaps Corben, but he’s far more bothered by feeling nothing from kissing a woman. Clark sends Corben packing.

Corben demands Luthor’s team recalibrate his body but learns he’ll never feel again and the change is permanent, so rips a bunch of his skin off, which apparently helps him embrace his new identity.

Clark & Lois visit Styker’s to speak with Dr. Vale, who has mysteriously vanished. Clark is particularly intrigued by a vial from the biohazard disposal, while Lois finds a link between Vale and Lexcorp.

Luthor tries to get his fuck on aboard his private yacht, but Metallo arrives to cockblock him in about the most effective manner possible: Tossing his date overboard. Well played.

Lex is unbothered by Corben’s tantrum, insisting he will be able to fix him one day. Taking the yacht out to sea, he is thrilled when Superman comes aboard for another beatdown from Metallo.

They brawl below deck where Superman reveals Luthor had Corben injected with the virus in the first place, turning monster against maker. Corben tries to infect Luthor, but Superman blows the whole freakin’ yacht up.

For all his power, Metallo is too heavy to float and Corben apparently can’t swim despite being an international mercenary. Superman saves Luthor from a shark, and Metallo is later revealed to still be alive on the ocean floor.

Best Performance

I’ve previously expressed by surprise they were able to get Malcolm McDowell for multiple appearances. Perhaps that can be explained by him completely phoning it in this time around. He’s still better than a lot of actors even when sleepwalking, but this was an uninspiring performance even with something dramatic to work with. I assume he simply couldn’t connect emotionally with a character that turns into a space rock-powered-Terminator.

Luckily, Clancy Brown is always around to save this segment in times of crisis (because Daly & Delany weren’t anything to write home about either.) Lex doesn’t have a tremendous number of lines, but Brown nails every one of them, starting out with his faux gratitude to Corben, then his manipulative promises of cures, and then his smugness towards Superman. Lex’s ever-present rage made an appearance too, and while that’s always great, Brown had this sewn up before the end.

Episode Ranking

A simple but strong villain episode that plays into established continuity by bringing back John Corben and turning him into long-time Superman nemesis, Metallo. How they got there initially felt a smidge convoluted, but revealing it was all a Lex Luthor scheme counteracts that, and they divided up the action scenes smartly too. Superman does some everyday heroics at the prison, then Metallo unleashes his abilities and Superman barely survives him. Then we get a rematch on the yacht culminating in a giant explosion and more saving the day by Supes. Formulaic, but effective.

There’s not quite enough sauce to take it into the top tier, but if this is the quality we can expect from a typical episode this is going to be a good show.

I actually don’t think I have anything else to say, which may seem like a red flag, but simplicity isn’t always bad. It elevated two villains, reinforced Superman’s weakness to Kryptonite, had a decent go at a sympathetic bent for Metallo, and ended with a fun tease of his impending return for revenge against Lex.

Fun and Games
The Last Son of Krypton
The Way of All Flesh (NEW ENTRY)
A Little Piece of Home
Feeding Time

Rogues Roundup

Metallo (Malcolm McDowell) (third appearance)

The human design for Corben is so powerfully bizarre that he legitimately looks better with half a face. Giving him an appearance (technically two, but the first shouldn’t count) before his transformation isn’t exactly Harvey Dent before Two-Face, but it still helps the world feel lived-in and consequential. Corben unleashed a surprising amount of violence against Supes the first time around, standing out more than even Parasite in that regard, so giving him a sexy comic book upgrade does him wonders. Crucially, Clark never really defeats him in the episode, instead relying on distractions and creating distance both times. It’s important to establish a handful of villains that can beat up The Man of Steel.

They definitely have something with Corben being driven insane by his loss of feeling, taste, hunger and even sexual desire. Being unable to smell roses was a solid one to throw in too. It seems for a moment that he decides ‘Fuck it, I guess I’m a metal man’ and leaning into his supervillainy, but he is easily swayed by clearly empty promises of being fixed, and would rather punish Lex for making him this way than finishing the job against Superman.

So he improved both as a physical threat and gained an emotional hook. Up the list he goes.

Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown) (fourth appearance)

While Lex is a huge driving force of the plot, he’s not in the episode much. Luckily they maximise his minutes by teasing the conspiracy angle before Superman states it aloud. Infecting a dude with a terminal virus just so you can get him to volunteer to be turned into a Terminator is a wiiiild scheme. Surely there are easier ways, my man!

They also make sure to keep reminding you for all his villainy, Lex still pursues baser needs, trying to seduce a bimbo on his yacht. It makes him feel altogether more human. Yet he maintains his cool factor by being utterly unintimidated by Metallo and Superman, rather than instantly turning to a snivelling worm. He’s obviously terrified of the shark, but he’s right back to ‘you can’t prove anything’ after Superman rescues him. That sense of will and ever-shifting emotional range makes this character a delight. But I still think he can be more.

Toyman
Lex Luthor (–)
Metallo (↑)
Brainiac
Parasite
Mercy Graves
Bruno Mannheim