Plot summary: Superman (and Dan Turpin!) try to take down Bruno Mannheim and Intergang, who are armed with dangerous new weapons by a mysterious alien benefactor.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 12 (S1.E12)
Original Air Date: February 1st, 1997
Directed: Curt Geda (3)
Written: Mark Evanier (1)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (1) & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (8)
Music: Kristopher Carter (4)
Darkseid was seen as the solution to Bruce Timm’s unflattering assessment of Superman’s cast of villains when creating the show. Given his prevalence these days you’d be forgiven for thinking he had always enjoyed a large role in DC continuity, but he had only been used sparingly since his creation to this point. Thus the creative team felt like they’d struck gold by picking this sprawling corner of the DC Universe off the floor and dusting it off for a revival.
Dan Turpin is drawn here to resemble Jack Kirby, who not only created him, but also Darkseid and the entire New Gods set of characters. Plus, ya know, a butt load of Marvel characters that are attributed to Stan Lee.
Episode writer Mark Evanier was Jack Kirby’s assistant at the time of the creation of The Fourth World saga, and unofficially helped plot a lot of it.
Recap
A hot dog vendor and his customer outside the Metropolis Gold Exchange forget that anything you joke about in a cartoon comes true, as a fucking tank rampages directly into the building.
The cops arrive, led by Dan Turpin & Maggie Sawyer, but are utterly ineffective. Even Superman struggles at first, before ripping pieces off the tank and capturing the men inside, who work for Bruno Mannheim (remember him?)
Mannheim laments the quality of Intergang’s armaments, until he’s visited by the mysterious Kanto, who demonstrates a wide variety of insane sci-fi weaponry. What’s more, Kanto donates these toys to Intergang for free, but concedes his employer may want a favour down the line…
Dan Turpin, his pride wounded after an exchange with the media earlier, spies on the meeting and follows Kanto until he literally disappears into thin air. Sawyer warns him off the case, but he’s determined to bring Mannheim down.
Intergang get to work robbing an armoured train with their new tech, which is powerful enough to fend off Superman and allow them to get away.
Sawyer wants to involve Superman in the Intergang investigation, so Turpin turns in his badge and embarks on a solo stealth mission to try and get dirt on Mannheim, but he’s immediately captured by a returning Kanto.
Kanto provides Mannheim with a gun that should be able to kill even Superman, and not a moment too soon as The Man of Steel raids the compound. The gun works for a while, but Turpin frees himself and tackles Mannheim, allowing Supes to recover.
Kanto flees through a portal with Mannheim following. He finds himself on the fiery alien world of Apokalips, where he is brought before its intimidating ruler… Darkseid!
Best Performance
Joseph Bologna is perfectly cast as Dan Turpin, channeling as much grumpy curmudgeon and ‘guy that simply doesn’t exist anymore’ into his performance as possible. His fury at the assertion that the cops can’t catch any criminals without Superman’s help was a particular highlight, as was his total about-face at the end when Superman sets the press straight about who saved who. He’s unhinged in a way I enjoy, and Bologna is most of the reason why.
Conversely, Joanna Cassidy’s Maggie Sawyer felt so wildly off to me as I exclusively know the character to be equally as prickly as Turpin, whereas this version is more the pleasant straight woman… also ironic given she’s one of DC’s more prominent queer characters. She does try and add some edge at the midway point, but just doesn’t seem cut out for it.
Bruce Weitz is much better in his second outing as Bruno Mannheim, but in some ways it’s just a slightly worse version of what Bologna is doing. Michael York was an inspired casting for Kanto given his Shakespearean background, but doesn’t have enough lines to truly compete this time.
Episode Ranking
As we rapidly approach the finale of the first season this episode deftly weaves together many elements that have been working recently. First and foremost it hugely builds the world of the show, bringing back and expanding Bruno Mannheim and Intergang, introducing new supporting characters in Dan Turpin and Maggie Sawyer, and teasing the largest villain in the show (and the entire DCAU) as we meet Darkseid for the first time. That may sound like overload, but it’s balanced really well by tightly weaving these three factions together. Turpin is desperate to take down Mannheim, who is foiled by Superman. Darkseid sends Kanto to upgrade Intergang’s arsenal, and they experience some initial success, pissing off Turpin even more. Turpin goes rogue, gets captured, Superman rescues him, and Mannheim follows Kanto back to Darkseid. Turpin’s little feud with Superman (who naturally soaks up all the media adoration) is well written and performed, as the two are firm friends by the conclusion. That kind of satisfying journey really helps cement a new character. I also like the touch of seeing his reaction to Kanto’s vanishing act before later showing the audience the Boom Tube, as it really draws out the reveal.
Secondly, they hammer home Superman’s vulnerability even more, as while this version of Superman will still always overcome every obstacle, it’s far from a cake walk. They do this in three evenly distributed action scenes, starting with the tank in the opening, which knocks him for a loop on his first attack, and then requires some logical thinking to bring down. He struggles a fair bit to hoist it over his head, much like he’s greatly strained by supporting the weight of the electricity pylon in the middle of the episode, only narrowly lifting it out of the path of an oncoming train. Finally, the magic gloves that summon giant energy hands are established as highly effective tools throughout the episode, and Supes is almost crushed by them, before puzzling out that the mimicry works both ways, so is able to break the fingers of the wielder by manipulating the energy hands. Clever boy.
The Apokalips tech doesn’t just function to illustrate there are definitely forces in the universe that can hurt or even kill Superman, it also seemed a great deal of fun for the art team and Koko/Dong Yang, who give us all manner of wacky glowing alien weaponry. It’s one of the better looking episodes of the show so far, pulling off a sense of scale that potentially would have been fitting of a season finale, opening with a tank, following up with a train, and finishing with Superman having to contend with all of Kanto’s toys. Capping things off with the gorgeously rendered Apokalips and the strong design of Darkseid was just icing on the cake.
It’s a small extra thing, but I’m thrilled that in such a busy episode they still found a little pocket for charming character quirks, namely Clark stepping down an open elevator shaft and zooming out the bottom as Superman. It keeps Lois around (with Dana Delany making the most of short minutes), and it shows off Kal’s playful side.
Still, even with all of the above, it lacks the emotional hook from the opening three-parter and ‘Stolen Memories’, and the elegant simplicity of a tightly focused and bombastic villain like in ‘Fun and Games’, so I’m slotting it in fourth place.
- Fun and Games
- The Last Son of Krypton
- Stolen Memories
- Tools of the Trade (NEW ENTRY)
- The Main Man
- The Way of All Flesh
- My Girl
- A Little Piece of Home
- Feeding Time
Rogues Roundup
Bruno Mannheim (and Intergang!) (Bruce Weitz) (second appearance)
It was an interesting choice to have Mannheim debut relatively early in the show and only make the loosest allusions to Intergang. He certainly had cronies, but this episode establishes that they’re an enormous organised crime operation. I wouldn’t say this makes Bruno any more interesting, but it certainly elevates his threat level, and Bruce Weitz is good at the ticked-off mobster routine.
The most interesting aspect was the unlikely outcome of Mannheim ending up stranded on Apokalips, a locale waaaaay outside where you’d expect to find this kind of character. I’ll move him above Mercy Graves… for now.
Kanto (Michael York) (first appearance)
When I first started reading Fourth World related stories I couldn’t get over how goofy Kanto looked. A few years later and I found myself grinning at his arrival and mildly disappointed he’s not in an Italian renaissance costume. He does ever so slightly more than his master, acting as the sleazy giver of gifts, and then admonishing Mannheim for his failure before giving way to a more playful introduction at the end, so gets to debut slightly above Darkseid. Enjoy it while it lasts, bud!
Darkseid (Michael Ironside) (first appearance)
At long last, The Big Man is here. Obviously I can’t rank him above the bottom spot given the brevity of his appearance, which is reminiscent of Ra’s al Ghul rocking up for a few seconds at the very end of his debut episode. In both instances there’s not much they actually do, but they still signal as loudly as they can ‘this guy is a big deal.’
- Toyman
- Lex Luthor
- Brainiac
- Metallo
- Lobo
- Parasite
- The Preserver
- Bruno Mannheim (and Intergang!) (↑)
- Kanto (NEW ENTRY)
- Mercy Graves
- Darkseid (NEW ENTRY)
The Matt Signal 
Leave a comment