Plot summary: With Jax-Ur freed by Mala, Superman must scramble to find a way to re-imprison the dangerous duo before they can conquer the planet.

Notes and Trivia

Episode: 15 (S2.E2)

Original Air Date: September 9th, 1997

Directed: Dan Riba (7)

Written: Robert Goodman (3)

Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (10)

Music: Michael McCuistion (4)

Professor Hamilton coins the name Fortress of Solitude in this continuity, though we’ve seen it a couple of times now.

Superman wears his anti-Kryptonite suit to enter the Phantom Zone despite it still hanging in its usual place at STAR Labs behind Professor Hamilton. I suppose there could be a second model…

Jax-Ur exists in the comics, but has clearly taken on a surrogate General Zod role here, inheriting his title as head of the Kryptonian military rather than being a mad scientist.

Meanwhile Mala seems to be an amalgamation of Ursa and Faora. While a win for feminism, I do think it’s very funny both made it into movies before most of Superman’s far more famous villains.

Recap

Superman takes Professor Hamilton to The Fortress of Solitude and asks Brainiac (classic version) how to build their own Phantom Zone Projector.

Elsewhere, Mala briefs Jax-Ur on the situation and shows off her power as the citizens of Metropolis cower in fear. Jax-Ur must wait to absorb enough yellow sunlight before his own abilities kick in.

Jax tries to assist when Superman attacks them but he’s easily overpowered and restrained. Luckily for him, Mala poses a major threat on her own and the two brawl to a relative stalemate.

Mala spots Lois and puts her in harm’s way, allowing the villains to escape while Superman saves his lady love. Works every time.

Doubling down on the tactic, the duo later kidnap Lois and dare Superman to come after her. He obliges, wearing his anti-Kryptonite suit and unleashing some glowing green rock on Mala to debilitate her.

Jax-Ur gets the drop on our hero though, sending him (and the Kryptonite) into the Phantom Zone and then destroying the Projector to trap him!

Luckily it turns out Hamilton coated the anti-K suit in traceable radiation and is able to lock onto and restore Clark with a second Projector he’d been building throughout the episode.

Not a moment too soon either, as Jax-Ur and Mala are moments away from the head of the UN signing over control of the planet to them after several days of wreaking global havoc.

The three brawl, but Superman can’t handle the numbers disadvantage. Luckily his plan is instead to lure them directly into the path of Hamilton’s Projector and they’re successfully re-banished.

Superman places the Projector securely in The Fortress of Solitude, ruminates on being the last of his species again (kinda), pets one of his alien animals, and flies away.

Best Performance

I have never heard Ron Perlman sound like this in my life, to the point I had to double check the role hadn’t been re-cast between episodes. Jax-Ur was generic and aggressive in Part 1, but here there’s an almost playful rumble to his tone, finding Earth and Superman more bemusing than anything. Perlman seldom gets to play anything but tough guys, and while that may be the role he ostensibly occupied at first, he comes across as more of a thinker here, so that’s nice. I don’t think it was an overwhelmingly good performance, but nobody else does anything worth commenting on whatsoever, so congrats on a win by default!

Episode Ranking

Generally the formula for two-parters is the first half is mostly talking and character work, allowing the conclusion to be all-action. Interestingly Part I here was far more rough and tumble than many of its counterparts, but rather than reversing the roles, Part II elects to just dial it up to 11, devoting more minutes to fighting than in any episode so far. Superman and Mala absolutely wail on each other, which at first I thought was dragging but then I came to appreciate that was the entire point; Clark at last has a 100% physical equal. Sure, Brainiac, Lobo and to a lesser extent Metallo and Parasite were able to fight him effectively, but this is a true mirror match between two Kryptonians, so making it last a long time with neither gaining a true advantage sells that point. That in turn flows into Superman’s logical choice to tip the scales by introducing Kryptonite into the equation, which Mala hasn’t faced before while he has a protective suit.

The resolution to Superman getting trapped in the Phantom Zone was a bit clunky though in my opinion, first in the explanation they coated his suit in a radiation Hamilton could lock onto and get him back out, and then heading straight back to where he was zapped to get a piece of the original Projector. Just a little bit awkwardly paced. And did we really need that extra detail? I think they were trying to say the radiation let them extract a specific person, but they needed the broken off piece to send people the other way? Unnecessary! Plus the whole letting Lois live thing, which is always annoying. Oh! And Jax-Ur being a stickler for official paperwork seemed a smidge contrived, even if he is a military man looking to enslave rather than wipe out.

Worse than any of that is the climax, as Hamilton and Lois don’t exactly sneak up on the villains, who make no attempt to avoid the Projector beam, so they end up looking royally inept after spending the entire episode kicking the snot out of Superman. Just a real damp squib of an ending that coupled with the other things does knock the two-parter down a peg for me.

The sequence with Superman and Mala brawling inside a mail truck tumbling out of the sky was a pretty solid piece of work. I also enjoyed Mala causing a series of apartment balconies to break off onto each other in an attempt to crush Lois. I don’t think it would happen that way, but as visual language it works well.

1. Fun and Games
2. The Last Son of Krypton
3. Stolen Memories
4. Tools of the Trade
5. The Main Man
6. Blasts from the Past (↓)
7. The Way of All Flesh
8. My Girl
9. A Little Piece of Home
10. Feeding Time
11. Two’s a Crowd

Rogues Roundup

Mala & Jax-Ur (Leslie Easterbrook/Ron Perlman) (second appearance)

I like that Mala comes across as the powerhouse of the two, potentially due to her greater exposure to yellow sunlight, but maybe she’s just the better fighter and Jax is the brains! I kind of stepped on it when ranking the episode, but giving Clark a legit 1:1 matchup against fellow Kryptonians made for some gnarly brawling across the city.

It’s just a real shame that it all fizzles out quietly in the end before Mala is given any growth or Jax-Ur can really establish much personality whatsoever. The former maintains her grudge against Lois and exploits it twice, which is smart, but Jax seems like a real dumbass, despite me positing he may be the brains of the operation. It starts off well, with him quietly observing and getting the drop on Superman, but it’s all downhill after that as he lets Lois live, insists on official UN paperwork, and then just walks straight into the Phantom Zone Projector again alongside his lover(?) Given Jax is an obvious stand-in for Zod and positioned to be one of the top 2-3 most dangerous foes for Superman he can’t be considered anything but a failure in that capacity.

I’ll let them keep their current spot, purely because everyone below is either not a proper character (yet), or was kind of actively bad. Jax does himself no favours, but Mala was solid enough in Part I. I was wondering about this duo being too low after Part I, but this cements their spot.

1. Toyman
2. Lex Luthor
3. Brainiac
4. Metallo
5. Lobo
6. The Preserver
7. Parasite
8. Bruno Mannheim (and Intergang!)
9. Kanto
10. Mala & Jax-Ur (–)
11. Earl Garver
12. Mercy Graves
13. Darkseid