Plot summary: The Trinity gather to celebrate Superman’s birthday… but Mongul already gave him the gift of deadly hallucinations of a perfect life.
Notes and Trivia
Episode: 2 (S1.E2)
Original Air Date: August 7th, 2004
Directed: Dan Riba (1)
Written: J.M. DeMatteis (1)
Animation: Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD. (1)
Music: Lolita Ritmanis (1)
This episode adapts a comic story of the same name by legendary curmudgeon Alan Moore, and is famously literally the only adaptation of his work that he actually likes despite them making a number of changes, all with his permission after Bruce Timm approached him personally.
Jor-El’s design was tweaked to match Superman’s from Season One of Justice League, which fans felt made him look too old.
The debut of Wonder Woman’s invisible jet. One of the key aims of the cancelled Worlds Collide (which became Crisis On Two Earths) was to show how she acquired it. No idea if ‘she stole it from Owlman, and the cloaking tech got stuck to permanently on’ is canon. Let’s say yes.
Despite there being over 100 episodes of BTAS (TNBA counts) and multiple movies, this is the first appearance of Joe Chill in the DCAU. This is also the only mention of Zod, who was functionally replaced by Jax-Ur in STAS.
It’s been noted many times Bruce Timm is a huge Marvel fan, particularly The Fantastic Four. Clark’s dream version of Brainiac looks more than a little like H.E.R.B.I.E.
Recap
Batman and Wonder Woman fly to The Fortress of Solitude to celebrate Superman’s birthday… only to discover he’s under the thrall of a dangerous alien parasitic plant.
Mongul presents himself as the culprit, explaining ‘The Black Mercy’ feeds its victims realistic fantasies while slowly killing them. Diana tries to attack, but Mongul is too strong.
Clark dreams of being a farmer on Krypton, married to Lois (who looks a little like Lana) with a son, Van-El, their dog, Krypto, and a friendly little Brainiac helper robot. Cute!
Kal and Van visit Jor-El, where Clark expresses his worries about recent earthquakes. His father begs him not to follow his footsteps, assuring him they’re nothing to worry about.
However as Batman continues to plead with him to fight Black Mercy, Clark bids a tearful farewell to his son as the world falls apart around them, confessing he doesn’t believe any of it is real.
But it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire, as Bruce yanks Black Mercy off Clark and it immediately latches itself onto him!
As Bruce experiences his father thwarting the attempted armed robbery that claimed their lives in reality, Superman bursts into action to unleash furious vengeance on Mongul.
Diana frees Bruce from Black Mercy and then tosses it at Mongul, trapping him in visions of conquest instead. She then shares her birthday present for Clark: a new strain of rose she named the Krypton.
Best Performance
If nothing else, Eric Roberts sounds a lot less bored than he did last time out, and steps up the menacing factor pretty significantly. He even sounds a little like Michael Ironside doing Darkseid towards the end.
Kevin Conroy is pretty great too as he pleads with Clark to save them. Whether feigned or genuine, he sounds very believable in his desperation.
But this is George Newbern‘s finest piece of work in the DCAU to date, as he painfully recounts a lifetime of ‘memories’ of his son that he suspects are not real, all while trying to be kind to the boy. This is such a powerfully poignant moment that works way better than the finale of WandaVision, with Newbern knocking it all of the way out of the park. It’s not as simple as just going quiet and sounding a little sad, this is a genuinely affecting piece of acting. He makes it work even better retroactively with his rampage against Mongul after he’s free of the illusion, carrying the pain of the life he could have had with him.
Episode Ranking
The very first lines of dialogue of this high concept episode being some flirty banter with WonderBat is joyous. Diana playing defence against an opponent she ostensibly stands no chance against so that Bruce can save Clark is touching, and even more so her crawling towards him battered and broken after Superman tags in, more concerned for ‘her man who’s not her man’ than she is for herself. Bruce’s attempt to make Clark snap out of it by claiming Mongul will kill Diana… and then everybody else is an excellent little line of dialogue. Is it a shock tactic? Is this a genuine moment of vulnerability on the part of the stoic Dark Knight admitting he’s afraid for the life of ‘his girlfriend who’s not his girlfriend’? We’ll never know, but both work. His frustrations that none of his tools have any effect on Black Mercy are certainly real.
While Batman plays detective and tries to get the parasite off Clark, Diana’s role is to desperately try and beat the snot out of Mongul to little avail. Their fight scenes have a legitimate sense of visceral violence beyond a good 90% of what we usually see in the DCAU. Between the plotting of their fights (brawling through various rooms in the Fortress), the music and sound effects, and Bruce’s repeated pleading to Supes, the whole thing feels so dangerous. Like Diana could actually die here.
We all love a good dream/nightmare sequence, don’t we folks? Clark stitching together all the most important parts of his life and wanting to be a blue collar family man is cute. It’s interesting to me they’d include Jor-El’s original predictions from ‘The Last Son of Krypton’ that such tremors meant the impending doom of their planet, but in this ‘reality’ he turned out to be wrong, and was mildly disgraced as a consequence. It doesn’t really add anything beyond giving Clark some minor opposition as he begins to subconsciously rebel, but I still like it as a creative choice. Actually I suppose Jor-El outright telling him to let go of the past and embrace the future ends up being quite important for Clark’s final promise to the statues of his parents. But my word, when Clark actively chooses to let it all go despite how much it clearly means to him? Speechless. There’s your episode right there.
By comparison Bruce’s fantasy of his parents not dying at Joe Chill’s hand is obvious, but still touching. They don’t dwell on it overmuch, but there’s something psychologically telling about how savagely Thomas assaults their would-be-killer while his son looks on with a huge grin on his face. The horrendous violence of Batman’s mission creeping in at the edges, if you will. And yet he snaps out of his personal thought prison much quicker than Clark… because he hears the sound of Diana’s voice. Now you can make all the arguments you want that she’s stronger than him so could pull Black Mercy off easier, or him being so mentally strong that he could see straight through the facade… but this is clearly an act of love.
This is so clearly the new number one and will take some doing to defeat. Stripping the team down to just The Trinity and delving into the psyche of Superman in particular, but also making a compelling case for the WonderBat ship, and rehabilitating a damaged villain is all great, but the voice acting and music are what really seal the deal here. My only gripe is there not being time to let Diana have a turn with the Black Mercy, but there are only so many minutes to go around. Actually, fuck that, that’s what I always said when Wonder Woman drew the short straw in Justice League. The episode still rules, but we’re not just going to let this stuff slide anymore. Let the girls play too! Use your whole lineup!
- For the Man Who Has Everything (NEW ENTRY)
- Initiation
Rogues Roundup
Mongul (Eric Roberts) (first appearance)
This very much feels like damage control after the events of ‘War World‘ made for an extremely underwhelming first impression of a character who is generally presented as exceptionally strong and powerful. By contrast his first moment on screen here sees him carrying an unconscious Wonder Woman like she’s weightless, and then he casually brushes off her punches while she looks at her hands in painful disbelief. In fact they really emphasise his hulking size throughout, as he frequently grips his foes in one hand and tossing two of the strongest heroes in the world around like they’re nothing.
Having any personality whatsoever would be good enough to dethrone Brimstone, but Mongul has earned it nonetheless. I do think the mechanism of his plan is bigger than he is… but he makes for a shockingly large physical challenge for somebody Superman defeated relatively easily in their last encounter. He’s also sporting way more ‘tude than before, and that ain’t nothin’.
- Mongul (NEW ENTRY)
- Brimstone
The Matt Signal 
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