Plot summary: Superman is shocked to encounter Jax-Ur and Mala, having escaped from the Phantom Zone and conquered a distant planet.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 47 (S3.E6)
Original Air Date: January 16th, 1999
Directed: Butch Lukic (2)
Written: Hilary J. Bader (11) and Alan Burnett (9)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (30)
Music: Shirley Walker (4)
Sarah Douglas replaces Leslie Easterbrook as the voice of Mala. Douglas played Ursa in Superman (1978), who Mala was allegedly an inspiration for (along with Faora.) The DCAU version of Mala has far more in common with Ursa, just as they use Jax-Ur as a General Zod stand-in.
An unknown actress called Jennifer initially recorded lines as Cetea. Jennifer Jason Leigh then stepped in to replace the initial casting. Jennifer Hale ended performing some ADR as JJL was unavailable to do so. Three Jennifers!
Tokyo Movie Shinsha animated the black hole effects, which were jokingly referred to as the whole reason to do the episode. I miss you, TMS!
Superman’s quote about evil triumphing when good men doing nothing is by Edmund Burke.
Recap
While on a research mission for STAR Labs, Superman finds himself rescuing a spaceship from getting sucked into a black hole.
Returning the people to their home planet, he’s left confused when they all flee from him on sight rather than thanking him. One of the crew recommends he run too.
A pair of fighter jets attack so Superman grounds them and demands an explanation. Before one can be provided heavy reinforcements arrive… led by Mala, who welcomes him to ‘New Krypton’!
He’s brought before Jax-Ur and the pair mock his sympathy for the enslaved locals, explaining they were freed from The Phantom Zone when a pair of meteors collided in the black hole.
Jax-Ur boasts of the order and industrialisation they brought to the planet, but just as he finishes up his monologue ‘anarchists’ try to murder them with a missile. They dismiss this as a minor nuisance.
Superman is encouraged to leave but obviously hangs around to talk shop with Cetea, one of the ‘criminals’, who explains the ship he saved was full of the planet’s former leaders.
Learning the factories Jax-Ur installed are producing a fleet of attack ships destined to invade Earth, Superman finally takes action against his foes… who unleash some of their new weaponry to easily imprison him.
Jax-Ur and Mala take Superman and Cetea back to the edge of the black hole but one of their ostensibly loyal guards reveals everybody fucking hates them and releases the prisoners.
Superman battles the Kryptonians and of course the ship becomes damaged and begins to drift into the black hole.
After a brief struggle the villains tumble to their apparent violent death, while Superman gains control of an escape pod and returns to the planet where he gets a medal from Cetea.
Best Performance
Uhhhhhh…. I guess Ron Perlman has his moments as Jax-Ur? He and Tim Daly do the most talking in the episode and it’s not one of Daly’s better outings, so I guess I’d reluctantly go with Perlman. He gets two big monologues, first explaining how they’ve ‘saved’ the planet, and then his fixation on black holes near the end. It’s not even close to the best Ron Perlman performance in the DCAU to date but it will simply have to do, I suppose.
Sarah Douglas was fun in brief spots as Mala, but not enough to get a real look in. Jennifer Jason Leigh is literally not giving a complete performance, and was a late replacement and you can kind of tell. Maybe if she’d been there from the start and had more of a character?
Episode Ranking
I suppose there’s something theoretically interesting here in Jax-Ur and Mala just kind of hanging out with Superman as they show off their radical makeover of ‘New Krypton’. Superman is neither their prisoner nor their honoured guest. He doesn’t try to attack them on sight, but also makes no bones about disapproving of what they’ve done. The duo talk about things like interference and jurisdiction, while Superman instead warns Cetea about the collateral damage that would come with him helping overthrow his fellow Kryptonians.
But all of that naturally goes out the window the second he learns the duo are planning an invasion of Earth. It’s not that this isn’t a valid reason for him to change tacts, but rather it’s a convenient resolution to what could have been a tricky moral quandary for our hero if Jax-Ur and Mala had simply been ruling a planet in a way he didn’t like but couldn’t actually prove anything truly nefarious was going on. Plus the ending makes the whole thing even worse because there was a full crew aboard the ship that either all died when it went into the black hole or they all just escaped off-screen. Clark’s hesitation about fighting Jax-Ur and Mala was about keeping people alive… and then he fights them and people almost certainly die and then he gets a medal and cites an unearned quote about inaction.
Never giving the planet or its people names doesn’t help anything whatsoever. Cetea and Alteus get names but aren’t real characters, though it is deeply funny to me Cetea is clearly hitting on Superman and he couldn’t give less of a shit. Establishing a stronger sense of cultural identity and making all of these people mean something would have gone a long way. I think sticking with the core premise of Superman being conflicted about interfering could have led things this way, but they simply spend too much time fixated on black holes.
I like the designs of the aliens, both in and out of their armour, as well as the factories, ships and weaponry. They also did a kind of cool thing with Superman returning for the final fight with his colours muted to convey cool lighting, but they just ditch that and it ends up being nothing. The aesthetics aren’t so good that they boost this into being a good episode.
- Obsession
- The Late Mr. Kent
- Brave New Metropolis
- Apokalips… Now!
- World’s Finest
- Livewire
- Double Dose
- Fun and Games
- Warrior Queen
- Knight Time
- Father’s Day
- Little Girl Lost
- 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
- Where There’s Smoke
- Protoype
- My Girl
- A Little Piece of Home
- Feeding Time
- New Kids in Town
- Little Big Head Man
- Speed Demons
- Two’s a Crowd
- Absolute Power (NEW ENTRY)
- Identity Crisis
- Heavy Metal
- Monkey Fun
- Bizarro’s World
Rogues Roundup
Mala & Jax-Ur (Sarah Douglas & Ron Perlman) (third appearance)
These two. Repaying their rescuers by taking over their planet is bad enough, but they went full fascism and ripped out their natural ecosystem so they could install a bunch of factories, all while trying to sell it as a communist utopia.
The problem is they’re just way more boring than they should be. They provide contrast to Superman by fully buying into the whole imperial rule philosophy some Kryptonians believed in, but they’re just lacking in personality. The only remotely interesting wrinkle is Jax-Ur being fully aware Mala wants to fuck the locals and not caring, though it’s still unclear if they’re meant to be a couple or not, so it could be a platonic alliance and she’s just sowing her wild oats. They also have Jax-Ur do a little rant about how much he loves black holes but like… ehhhh.
I feel like this duo are semi-popular in the fandom so kept looking at their position on the list and feeling bad but honestly they need to be even lower. Which is kind of crazy given they were already barely hovering above the ‘have no actual character’ zone.
- Livewire
- Darkseid
- Toyman
- Lex Luthor
- The Joker
- Queen Maxima
- Metallo
- Parasite
- Karkull
- Brainiac
- Mr. Mxyzptlk
- Harley Quinn
- Granny Goodness
- Kalibak
- Volcana
- The Gotham Rogues
- Lobo
- Luminus
- Project Firestorm
- The Female Furies
- DeSaad
- Detective Bowman
- Bruno Mannheim (and Intergang!)
- Steppenwolf
- The Preserver
- Bizarro
- Kanto
- Mercy Graves
- The Prometheon
- De’Cine
- Mala & Jax-Ur (↓)
- Corey Mills
- Earl Garver
- Titano
- Weather Wizard
The Matt Signal 
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