Plot summary: Superman discovers Kara Zor-El while exploring the wreckage of Krypton, with his ‘cousin’ desperate to emulate his heroism as Supergirl.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 40 (S2.E27)
Original Air Date: May 2nd 1998
Directed: Curt Geda (12)
Written: Evan Dorkin (3) & Sarah Dyer (3) and Paul Dini (10) & Alan Burnett (8)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (24)
Music: Lolita Ritmanis (11)
In most continuities Kara is Superman’s cousin and lands on earth after a route that took far longer. Here they’re entirely unrelated and Clark discovers her still in stasis on Argo. Both versions mean she’s technically much older than him despite their appearances.
Granny’s design is based on Boris Karloff’s appearance in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Kara uses the unimaginative cover name Karen when she meets Jimmy Olsen. Power Girl, an alternate universe Supergirl, has also gone by Karen at times. She also uses a disguise in this episode reminiscent of the one from her early comics appearances.
Al Roker lends his voice and likeness to the weatherman.
Recap
Superman has successfully followed the flight path of his rocket back to the remnants of Krypton, where he picks up a faint distress signal from the nearby planet of Argo.
Making his way to the source, a still-functional computer shows him via hologram that Krypton’s destruction ravaged most of Argo and knocked them out of orbit. The few survivors took refuge in stasis pods, but only one remains functional…
Clark brings the lone survivor, Kara Zor-El, back to Kansas, where she quickly develops identical superpowers. Unfortunately she also quickly becomes bored being confined to Kent farm and is intrigued by the mention of Intergang.
Back in Metropolis, Lois begrudges having to cover a tech conference, but luckily a pair of Intergang agents cause chaos and steal a crate, thus she and Jimmy follow the police chase that ensues.
Superman arrives to battle them but they’re able to escape thanks to putting Lois in danger. The duo return to their hideout where it turns out they and dozens of other teens are being brainwashed by Granny Goodness.
Kara arrives at the Daily Planet in disguise and claiming to be Clark’s cousin, offering to help, but Clark forbids it… so she follows Jimmy Olsen after overhearing him pitch a lead on the attackers.
Sure enough the pair stumble into Granny’s hideout. They try to lie about wanting to join her but she doesn’t like their vibe so sets her followers on them.
Kara easily fends them off and debuts her Supergirl costume and beats up Granny. Unfortunately it turns out she’s from Apokalips and summons The Female Furies as backup.
To be continued…
Best Performance
I have no idea whose idea it was so cast Ed Asner as Granny Goodness but it’s got to be one of the greatest decisions in the history of voice acting. It absolutely should not work but it absolutely fucking does. Asking the most decorated television actor in history to portray an old woman by simply speaking softly but not pitching his voice up in any way is magnetic and bizarre in equal measure. And that’s before you even get into the material about soft skin and her followers being her little goslings. He’s fully committed to the bit and shifts perfectly between the saccharin and sinister.
I’m torn on Tim Daly here. I thought his ‘Captain’s Log’ at the start of the episode was really solid, but then his grumpy authority figure relationship with Kara is pretty unlikeable. I get that this is a common dynamic for the pair, but Clark remaining the best dude even when he’s being a stick in the mud is a large part of the character, whereas I think Daly plays it in a way that hurts that a bit.
Nicholle Tom is mostly solid as Supergirl, but a slightly stronger performance wouldn’t have gone a miss. She’s better when Kara’s in full-on fun mode, dragging Jimmy around to try and find Intergang, but struggles a little with the ‘serious’ material like arguing with Clark. Speaking of Jimmy, it’s a shame he’s not a larger presence in the show because I like David Kaufman in the role.
Scott Menville and Julia Kato are straight-up awful as ‘Trouble’ and Amy.
Episode Ranking
Despite being considered the final penultimate episode of Season 2 this aired six months after ‘Apokalips…Now!’, which if we’re all being honest with ourselves should have been the season finale, with this serving as an exciting change to the status quo for Season 3.
When in doubt liberally borrow from Star Trek. Clark keeping an audio log of his deep space exploration while Lolita Ritmanis does the most obvious riff on The Next Generation/Deep Space Nine themes tickled me. Beyond that, it was just nice to see Supes having a methodical explore, navigating the swirl of glowing green rock and determining it’s safe to land on Argo. Speaking of which, Argo may not be the prettiest planet they’ve shown us to date, but I still dig the desolate icy tundra vibe. You tell me a sci-fi story about a faint distress signal from an ostensibly abandoned frozen wasteland where the computers still work and personally I’m hooked. Seeing a child’s doll frozen into a pillar of ice was creepy as hell. I also really liked how the smashed pods next to Kara’s were drawn with icicles sprouting from every direction, with gnarly corpses half-decayed, half-frozen.
On the polar opposite end of the scale, seeing Kara soar through the air with the sun shining behind her and the music swelling was wonderful. Honestly I preferred it to Clark’s equivalent scene in Episode 2, which of course took place at night. There’s more playfulness and grace (though it was likely not her literal first flight as it was for Clark), and the sequence gets more time so she can frolic with geese and skim the lake to check out her reflection. I commend their decision to just do a time-jump to keep the story moving, but it is a little weird to me how they handle the relationship between Clark and Kara. She claims to be Clark’s cousin as a cover story when she rocks up to the Daily Planet, but he gives that a weird look because in this continuity they are entirely unrelated. I don’t get why you’d do that personally, but found family is of course a valid concept. But like… they share a name!
Kara and Jimmy teaming up in the wake of being benched by Clark and Lois is a fun bit, and I got a kick out of her being a little worse at lying about her powers than Clark but that’s fine because Jimmy isn’t as bright as Lois. His attempted cover story to Granny is extremely charming, and ditto her boundless enthusiasm as she’s so desperate to see some action. I enjoyed her little debut showcase, tossing the Intergang recruits across the room and easily fending off Granny.
So there’s plenty to like here from a vibes perspective, chiefly the ruins of Argo and Kara’s big debut, but you definitely feel the sting of it being a two-parter in the back half. Superman’s involvement melts away and you’re instead caught up in a teen runaways story that’s a little less compelling than the set-up. But it’s still a good episode with great music and visuals and plenty to work with in Part II.
- The Late Mr. Kent
- Brave New Metropolis
- Apokalips… Now!
- World’s Finest
- Livewire
- Double Dose
- Fun and Games
- Warrior Queen
- Father’s Day
- Little Girl Lost (NEW ENTRY)
- The Hand of Fate
- The Last Son of Krypton
- Ghost in the Machine
- Stolen Memories
- Action Figures
- The Prometheon
- Tools of the Trade
- The Main Man
- Mxzypixilated
- Blasts from the Past
- Target
- The Way of All Flesh
- Solar Power
- Protoype
- My Girl
- A Little Piece of Home
- Feeding Time
- Speed Demons
- Two’s a Crowd
- Identity Crisis
- Heavy Metal
- Monkey Fun
- Bizarro’s World
Rogues Roundup
Granny Goodness (Ed Ansner) (first appearance)
We’re not counting Granny’s silent cameo in the exposition montage about Orion and Mister Miracle being swapped as babies. I’m also going to toss in ‘Trouble’ and Amy with her because ultimately they’re just kids being manipulated by the actual villain, so the fire & ice lasers they use go into her points column. For now I’m also packaging The Female Furies up with her, but if they end up being a strong presence in their own right in Part II, I’ll spin them off. Lots to Granny for now!
For this introductory episode she’s nothing to write home about beyond being unsettling in large part thanks to Asner’s incredible voice work and the bombastic costume. She’s brainwashing teens and has reinforcements from Apokalips on speed dial. But Kara is able to overcome her pretty easily, so her ranking is going to be based more on vibes than competency for now.
- Livewire
- Darkseid
- Lex Luthor
- The Joker
- Toyman
- Queen Maxima
- Metallo
- Parasite
- Karkull
- Brainiac
- Mr. Mxyzptlk
- Harley Quinn
- Kalibak
- Lobo
- Luminus
- DeSaad
- Detective Bowman
- Granny Goodness (NEW ENTRY)
- Bruno Mannheim (and Intergang!)
- Steppenwolf
- The Preserver
- Kanto
- Mala & Jax-Ur
- Mercy Graves
- The Prometheon
- De’Cine
- Corey Mills
- Earl Garver
- Titano
- Bizarro
- Weather Wizard
The Matt Signal 
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