Plot summary: Superman finds himself powerless and the lone inhabitant of a bizarre alien world… or so he thinks!
For background on the creation of Justice League and info about how I’ll be covering it, check out the Series Primer.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 46 (S2.E20)
Original Air Date: November 29th, 2003
Directed: Butch Lukic (22)
Written: Dwayne McDuffie (12)
Animation: Koko Enterprise Co., LTD (36)
Music: Kristopher Carter (18)
Those damn Lightspeed Energy Bars return once again from ‘Eclipsed‘ inside the car Clark salvages.
Aquaman is displayed as the eighth member of the Justice League in the Watchtower Database, suggesting the team swiftly moved on from Lobo’s temporary help.
Vandal Savage name-drops Ray Palmer aka The Atom, who will appear in JLU. He mentions that his past-self stole a device that runs off white dwarf star power. This is how Palmer achieves his shrinking abilities.
These episodes borrow from the comics ‘Funeral for a Friend’ and ‘Superman Under the Red Sun’, as well as I Am Legend/Omega Man. Dwayne McDuffie originally wrote it for STAS‘ cancelled fourth season.
Recap
Superman awakens on a strange alien planet below a red sun, thus stripped of his powers, not another person in sight.
He is able to ping the location of The League but nobody answers, so he salvages a car and begins driving, roughing it in nature, growing a beard and fending off strange animals.
After running out of gas he switches to a sled pulled by alien wolves he tames in battle, first traversing snowy tundra, then dense jungle before he finds his target: the crash-landed Watchtower!
The barely functional computer confirms The League’s whereabouts are unknown, with Vandal freakin’ Savage emerging from the shadows to reveal they’ve been dead for thousands of years!
That’s right, this is the far-flung future on Earth, with Toyman’s weapon sending him forward in time. Savage shows Clark around the ruins of Metropolis, casually revealing he destroyed the world.
While Savage is resigned to living this way forever, Clark discovers the villain’s long-abandoned Time Machine, and the unlikely duo get to work finishing it.
Lacking a sufficient power source, they’re forced to try to reclaim a ‘miniature sun’ some mutated insectoid creatures stole from Savage. Regaining his powers in its presence, Superman wrecks shop.
Parting ways, Superman successfully returns to the end of the previous episode, dismisses Lobo, and leads the team to thwart Savage’s younger self and save the future.
Best Performance
Basically a two-horse race here given the nature of the story. George Newbern is extremely solid, putting in one of his best shifts as Superman to date, but he is simply outclassed.
Phil Morris has always been good as Vandal Savage, but this is definitely his best work. It’s the ‘this guy has been the last man alive for a very long time and it’s gotten to him’ vibe, a little softer than he used to be, but still matter of factly talking about genocide and dictatorship. The delivery of “Wanna come over to my house?” is delightfully cracked. There’s also a sense of melancholy behind his assertion Superman cannot kill him, like he’s finally grown tired of living after millennia living alone on a destroyed planet. I found myself genuinely affected when he vulnerably admits he does not want Clark to leave him alone again, but still implores him to go and be the best of us all.
Episode Ranking
This is in contention for the best-drawn episode in the DCAU. The vast empty spaces and ruined architecture of what used to be Metropolis are such a vibe, and they contrast really nicely with Savage’s pristine house full of books and a voice-activated computer. Seeing him delicately chop ingredients and serve up fine dining for a feral Clark who has subsisted on whatever he could forage is such a beautifully bizarre image. Then after that aesthetic has served its usefulness they move on to the beautifully drawn insect hive for the final stretch.
They do a pretty solid job convincing you this is another planet, what with the red sun, totally desolate surroundings, and mutated/evolved flora and fauna passing for alien. I liked the attention to detail to perfectly cut and paste the various chunks of the battlefield blasted by Toyman’s mega-cannon, not just Superman. It gives a bit of a diorama effect to see them with a different colour pallet, juxtaposed against the desolate red wasteland.
Seeing Clark having to do hard graft to just stay alive is endearing, as it demonstrates his willpower and ingenuity, first calmly siphoning gas and gathering supplies from the various cars, and then fashioning himself a sword to better salvage food and fend off predators (the camera cut as he slashes his sword at the Alpha Wolf, next seeing him wearing its hide was a clever way to get around censorship rules) which of course leads us to bearded wild man Superman, covered in scars, wearing a wolf pelt, which is such a great concept that you could build a whole episode around it. And they kind of did!
Well, half of one anyway, as the Superman/Savage unlikely partnership is what really makes this episode sing and reach heights that the dope atmospheric setting alone could not. I’ll talk about it more in the Rogues Roundup section, but they simply did an excellent job of harnessing the pathos potential of an immortal villain being the lone companion of the world’s greatest hero; the last two men alive. Clark really goes on an emotional rollercoaster with Savage, instinctually putting his guard up when they first meet, then seemingly slipping into the comfort of no longer being in solitude, only to fly into a murderous rage when he learns Savage was responsible for everything, and then at last resigning himself to the reality of their situation, ostensibly forming a legitimate bond by the end. There is SO much meaning behind that final handshake, as well as their parting words. I’m really glad they gave the final shot not to The League going off to save the world, but rather Savage fading away to nothing as the future changes around him.
The explanation as to why Savage couldn’t use the time machine himself initially seems like hastily-written sci-fi bullshit to dig their way out of a hole… but upon reflection it’s actually refreshingly coherent. I can personally get behind the idea that a person cannot occupy the same plane of existence as a past or future version of themselves, which is basically always for the immortal Savage. I can’t help but compare it favourably to the inter-dimensional gateway from ‘Legends‘ which they had no way to power, and then should have faded away at the end, but remained and was able to be activated with no more than John’s ring. THAT was some hastily-written sci-fi bullshit.
I feel like this might be the best episode of STAS, but I was so thoroughly impressed with the powerful setting and character-juggling of ‘The Savage Time‘ and the meta-textual tribute to DC’s past in ‘Legends‘ that it’s simply very difficult to crack the top two at this point.
- The Savage Time
- Legends
- Hereafter (–)
- Only a Dream
- Twilight
- Hearts and Minds
- Injustice for All
- Paradise Lost
- In Blackest Night
- Tabula Rasa
- The Terror Beyond
- The Enemy Below
- Secret Origins
- A Knight of Shadows
- A Better World
- Fury
- Maid of Honor
- Secret Society
- Eclipsed
- War World
- Metamorphosis
- The Bold and the Brave
Rogues Roundup
Vandal Savage (Phil Morris) (sixth appearance)
The final appearance of Savage in the DCAU is a pretty good one. I feel like they squandered the character a little, but at least they really capitalised on his immortality as revealed in his last appearance.
It’s your classic ‘villain lives so long he reflects on his evil ways’ trope, bolstered very nicely by Phil Morris’ voiceover work. The matter-of-fact recounting of how he murdered all of Superman’s friends and then destroyed the world is great stuff, because serene evil is always scarier than ranting and raving. See also his total apathy towards Superman trying to murder him, confident that he’d survive. Speaking of which, his blasé attitude towards causing an extinction event makes you root for Superman to go through with his impulse to take violent revenge… yet that would leave him alone again, this time without the hope that drove him to make the trek in the first place. Nice complicated situation created by the villain, IMO.
It’s a nice touch that he hasn’t simply accepted defeat, but rather elected to live in penance, abandoning a planned space mission to find a new planet. You can feel his sense of curiosity piqued when they get to work on the time machine together, and make no mistake about it, he’s distraught when it seems Clark has perished near the end. Then the bittersweet ending really ties a bow on it all, as they say their goodbyes and Savage vanishes along with a future that will no longer come to be.
I’m moving him back up the list and I don’t care how many iffy appearances it took to get here, because it rules.
- Darkseid
- Dr. Destiny
- Lex Luthor
- Despero
- Vandal Savage (↑)
- The Joker
- The Injustice Guild (and Brainwave!)
- Amazo
- Solomon Grundy
- The Injustice Gang
- The Imperium
- Brainiac
- Hades
- Draaga
- Aresia
- The Superman Revenge Squad
- Deadshot
- Gorilla Grodd
- Orm
- Simon Stagg (and Java!)
- Colonel Vox
- The Secret Society
- Felix Faust
- Ichultu
- Eclipso
- Morgaine le Fey
- The Manhunters
- The Justice Lords
- Kanjar-Ro
- Mongul
- Doomsday
The Matt Signal 
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