Plot summary: The two-part series finale begins with a bang as Superman has been brainwashed by Darkseid, setting his eyes on Earth as the next planet to conquer for his ‘father’!
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 53 (S3.E12)
Original Air Date: February 5th, 2000
Directed: Curt Geda (16)
Written: Paul Dini (14) (story) and Rich Fogel (12) (teleplay)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD & Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (33)
Music: Shirley Walker (6)
Remember in ‘Apokalips…Now!‘ when Darkseid told Superman if he wouldn’t be his knight he’d be his pawn? Well… here we are.
Allusions to Superman’s brief turn to evil were made in Batman Beyond‘s ‘The Call‘, which would still be to come if I had covered the DCAU chronologically instead of starting with Batman and then moving out from there.
There is an Elseworlds story called ‘Superman: The Dark Side’ that sees him land on Apokalips as a baby. He even wears armour very similar to this episode.
Bizarrely this was originally intended to serve as a season premiere, with the theme of the rest of the episodes being Superman working to regain the world’s trust and Paul Dini set to write the teleplay. However Dini (and Bruce Timm!) became too busy brainstorming the upcoming Batman Beyond, which meant Rich Fogel had to complete the script and it ended up airing as the series finale.
Recap
An Apokalips fleet invades a planet of bug creatures, who do their best to hold their own, until a mysterious flying warrior clad head to toe in armour arrives to annihilate them.
This destroyer reports back to Darkseid, who calls him “son”, only for it to be revealed as Superman himself beneath the helmet!!! Darkseid promises him his own planet to rule… Earth!!!
Granny Goodness ‘helps’ with Clark’s nightmares about his former life, revealing to us that he is being brainwashed with an alternate version of his history, allowing him to maintain most of his personality while loyally serving Darkseid.
Darkseid privately confirms to Granny his intention to use Superman to devastate Earth (and die in the process!) so he can step in to ‘restore order’.
During all of this, Kara has been remotely controlling various Superman and Clark robots to keep up appearances, but struggles to maintain the facade. It’s both fun and funny.
Lex Luthor sees through her efforts with one of the Superman bots and uses it to form an alliance with General Hardcastle (remember him?) to guard against Superman.
This turns out to be a smart move, as Superman begins his invasion, taking out key military installations, with even Supergirl struggling to hold him off.
Lois Lane is finally able to get close enough to Superman to make him snap out of his brainwashing… but Hardcastle unleashes a LexCorp Kryptonite missile that seemingly kills The Man of Steel!
To be continued…
Best Performance
Ed Asner. Need I say more? Always great as Granny Goodness and extra sinister in the scene where she reassures Clark about his nightmares and promises to take them away, as the audience knows she’s instead suppressing his memories. Establishing the character as cruel and vindictive in the past makes it unsettling for her to be so pleasant to Clark, which in turn gives way to her cackling to herself when he leaves. Good stuff. They also rely on him to provide the audience with an explanation as to what the hell is happening, and he obviously makes a great narrator.
Michael Ironside is good as Darkseid, whispering his schemes and being the conniving king of evil in the shadows, but his role is limited. Similar for Clancy Brown as Lex. It’s good stuff, but too brief. Tim Daly isn’t bad at all, and in a world where they do more with the final moments Dana Delany probably would have moonwalked her way to the win.
Episode Ranking
Similar to ‘Apokalips… Now!‘, I appreciated the sense of grandeur and scale that came with Darkseid’s invading fleet, with dozens of the flying attack ships we saw there, as well as the cool dragon tanks and a score of Parademons. By establishing all of these things in the past you don’t even need Darkseid to be physically present to know who is attacking or how threatening their forces are in a dialogue-free scene. I liked the design of the bug creatures too, and the simple but effective choice to dress their leader in red and give them an incomprehensible bug language, meaning we only understand them through the narrowing and widening of their eyes. Superman’s Apokalips armour is fucking dope, especially the helmet, so it’s a shame he only briefly wears it again after the initial reveal.
The visuals and writing are in perfect concert here. For example, the shot-matching in Granny’s exposition montage is wonderful, with the scene where he discovered his ability to fly in Episode 2 now featuring fire pits instead of farmland, and his Apokalips armour in the place of his jeans and t-shirt. It’s a clever little idea, communicating to us that they’ve pulled this scheme off by ensuring some of the broad strokes of his life are identical but with the setting changed in order to help his brain accept the lies, versus inventing a fully bespoke origin. Furthermore Darkseid’s entire plan is excellently conceived, as they’re taking his vow to leave Earth alone seriously rather than conveniently dropping it at the earliest opportunity, with this being his second clever way around the truce. By having Superman appear to act as a lone agent he is instead proposing to let his nemesis die devastating the planet so that he can step in to restore order. I mean I guess that specific part is a tiny bit wobbly, but the overall premise rules. And then their needless vindictiveness threatens to give the game away, as they make him fly banners featuring the Superman logo, which triggers more of his subconscious memories.
This brings us to the most noteworthy part of the episode. It’s fundamentally pretty powerful to see Clark going full tilt for Team Darkseid while Parademons wave his symbol around. It’s not just local destruction, but a co-ordinated global assault on major military sites, arguably upping the stakes even further from ‘Apokalips…Now!’ Supergirl’s recent return to the show came at a great time as it gives Clark someone powerful enough to briefly trade punches with in a story that puts him on the side of the most powerful villains in the show. Their decision to start all of this in the middle rather than depicting Superman getting captured and turned is a good one as the surprise of the reveal at the start is such a potent storytelling moment.
I love the implication that Superman is banging Lashina at a minimum, if not the entire Female Furies in his new life. You could read it as them just drinking to celebrate, but Lashina sure is already in his bedroom when he has that nightmare. Speaking of which, his dream where the supporting cast plead with him and then he fights himself is one of the better such scenes they’ve done, bathing both versions of him in just enough shadow to keep it vague and stylish.
Kara trying to juggle the various robots and keep multiple conversations going is delightful, including the mix-up with her accidentally calling Lois a greedy pig. It’s not all played for laughs though, as you can see how much of a drain it is on her, falling asleep while piloting one of the drones and struggling to keep the whole thing going and also eat and sleep. On top of that, it acts as grim foreshadowing as the out of control robot causes minor destruction once she loses control of it, minutes before the genuine article will attack his adopted home.
If I were to offer some criticism it would be that the final moments feel much too truncated, especially given it’s a multi-part episode. In particular the scene where Lois breaks Clark’s mental conditioning should feel like a far larger moment, with some really weighty and emotional dialogue teed up for Dana Delany to hit a home run with. A confession of love, perhaps? Instead it feels like a bit of an afterthought. Clark and Kara fight for like… 15 seconds? The global outrage over Superman’s invasion is somewhat brief too. I would have pushed for a three parter and really stretched out ‘the bad times’ to an entire episode in the middle. That could also grow Lex, Lois and Kara’s roles. Hell, go all the way and show me the palace intrigue of Clark’s relationships with The Female Furies, Kalibak, Steppenwolf and Kanto, with some of the villains so irked by his presence they almost blow the whole thing, while bickering with the ones who are a little too into it. Plus the Kents appearing via Skype is unacceptable given the story being told. Their boy is missing and then leads a fucking invasion of the planet. I need to see them physically there!
Overall we have a lot of really good elements at play, but I think a failure to properly stick the landing and take full advantage of everything holds it back from the top spots. For now at least, as even though I haven’t seen it I know Part II has an extremely good reputation.
- Obsession
- The Late Mr. Kent
- Brave New Metropolis
- Apokalips… Now!
- Unity
- World’s Finest
- Livewire
- Double Dose
- Fun and Games
- Legacy (NEW ENTRY)
- 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
- In Brightest Day…
- Tools of the Trade
- The Demon Reborn
- 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
- Superman’s Pal
- Little Big Head Man
- A Fish Story
- Speed Demons
- Two’s a Crowd
- Absolute Power
- Identity Crisis
- Heavy Metal
- Monkey Fun
- Bizarro’s World
Rogues Roundup
Darkseid (Michael Ironside) (sixth appearance)
I already covered it in the episode review, but once again, a great scheme from Darkseid to circumvent his promise at the end of last season. Turning your greatest enemy into your loyal puppet is one of the biggest wins a villain can experience short of ultimate conquest, and it’s cute that he promised he’d do exactly this at the end of Season 2. Even if you attribute the finer points of the brainwashing to Granny (see below), it’s still some galaxy brain shit from Heavy D. If it did come from Darkseid, then bonus psychological points for making Clark call him father. Freud wins again!
Plus even when he’s mostly just standing around looking conniving and regal, he’s still a badass. And I do think the Parademons, tanks and ships should all count towards him a little. What I’m saying is he’s still great even if his role in Part I is somewhat limited.
He’s got one last chance to try and dethrone Livewire…
Granny Goodness (Ed Asner) (third appearance)
This is such a tricky character to evaluate because Ed Asner makes her absolutely magnetic, but there’s no denying the fact she’s mostly just a proxy for Darkseid. It’s a silly design that you either find endearing (me now) or dumb (formerly me.) If you choose to affix the means and precise details of Superman’s brainwashing to her then it’s a huge piece for her, as it’s both clever and uniquely cruel, all while she’s a reaaaaal dick about it.
I’m going to push her up a few spots but I feel a little uneasy placing her right behind the biggest icons in the show (and a few of my personal favourites.) Depending on what – if anything – she does next episode, she may find herself moving back down a little.
Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown) (seventeenth appearance)
It was a nice touch to make Lex Luthor the only one who can see through Kara’s robot deception. It’s unclear if he intended to use the bot for his own ends as he’s able to seize control of it to prove his point, but then Kara melts the remote control. Either option is fun.
He also notices Superman’s behaviour is totally different during the invasion. I know that should be obvious as everyone is shocked he would do such a thing, but there’s something about Lex zeroing in on the look in his eyes as he does it that works really well. To truly hate is to know someone intimately.
To then use all of this as an excuse to activate Project Achilles and form a military cabal that would impact the DCAU for years to come is great, though I would have liked to expand on all of this as I mentioned above. Still, he sure has been inventing a Kryptonite Missile in the background that seems to be able to kill Superman!
I’d say this undoes some of his shakier appearances recently, but he’s still not done enough to return to the Top 3… yet.
- Livewire
- Darkseid (–)
- Toyman
- Lex Luthor (–)
- Unity
- The Joker
- Queen Maxima
- Parasite
- Metallo
- Karkull
- Brainiac
- Mr. Mxyzptlk
- Granny Goodness (↑)
- Talia al Ghul
- Harley Quinn
- Kalibak
- Volcana
- Ra’s al Ghul
- The Gotham Rogues
- Lobo
- Luminus
- Sinestro
- 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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