"Last Son" Re-Watch: "Livewire" & "Identity Crisis"

 Superman The Animated Series

"Batman: The Animated Series" wasn't the only '90's DC animated series that had a character that made the jump from the small screen to the comics. The villainess, Livewire, introduced in the first episode of today's post also made that jump. She wasn't nearly as successful, but she has had her own live action debut thanks to "Supergirl." So, that is something.

Leslie Willis: "What's the deal with you and Superman, huh?"

Lois Lane: "What are you talking about?"

Leslie Willis: "Come on, you're always getting exclusives with him. Just how exclusive are you two?"

[Clark Kent clears his throat nervously.]

Lois Lane: "It's not like that."

Leslie Willis: "Oh its not, huh? Ah, I guess we'll never know if his PJ's have that big red S on them too."

Metropolis shock jock has it out for the Man of Steel. She regularly lambasts him on her AM radio show. Clark and Lois go on as guests to try to set the record straight, but all they get for their trouble is rude comments and an invite to her third anniversary live show and party later that night. Even though, it's storming, Leslie refuses to shut the shindig down. When lightning strikes, Superman attempts to save her but the bolt bounces off Big Blue onto her granting her power over electricity. When Leslie awakes, she takes up the name Livewire and decides radio stardom just isn't enough for her anymore.

This bitch.

I have to start off by giving it up for Lori Petty. That's right, Tank Girl herself is the voice of Livewire. She does a great job even thought the character of Livewire herself is pretty annoying and kind of terrible. 

It's pretty clear that they were trying to have their own version of Harley Quinn except minus the pathos and the charm and the actually being a good character. When Howard Stern rose to prominence in the '90's, it feels like every show that was around at the time had to have some sort of shock jock character and apparently that extends to animated series as well. Willis is completely one dimensional. Her only character trait is that she hates Superman and uses that weird hatred of him to get ratings. And it seems like her show is pretty popular. Is there really that many people in Metropolis who don't like Superman? It doesn't feel legit. Are they just listening because it's the cool thing to do? I don't like it at all.

While Willis is interviewing aka ambushing Lois, she outlines what she hates the most about the Man of Steel. (Also, wouldn't Lois have sniffed out this tactic as soon as she realized that the itnerview had changed?) Willis claims that Superman is never there when you need him, things always come easy to him and he only cares about himself. As she's going on and on, the show basically refutes all this. We pretty much all know that what she's saying is bullshit, but the show does her no favor by basically giving her no leg to stand on right from the jump. I enjoy villains that have motivations that you can at least empathize with, but that's not Livewire. Willis mentions having to work harder for everything because she's a woman and Superman has it easier being a man. This could be an interesting tact but I don't trust it to be done the way it needs to be done with Livewire as the focal character.

After Willis becomes Livewire, she pretty much immediately goes to the dark side, ready to hold all of Metropolis' electronics for ransom. It basically proves right from the jump that she was not a good person. Her fight with Superman is pretty lackluster too. Superman deals with her the way that all electricity based villains are dealt with: water, of course. Livewire ends up in the hands of Lex Luthor so you know we haven't seen the last of her. For better or for worse.

Grade: C

Bizarro: [Superman saves a ship about to crash into the moveable bridge he "fixed."] "No! You am no Superman! Me am Superman! Me am Superman! You leave me alone!"

Superman: "So now I'm ruining his day."

Clark Kent is in for a rude awakening when he's saved by... Superman? He pursues his double only to find him decomposing. It turns out that this Superman is a clone and as he decomposes he starts to go a little nutty. He starts causing problems in the name of fixing them with Superman following close behind. When Bizarro takes Lois on a "date," she learns that it was Lex Luthor mass producing these clones. Can Superman stop this and will Bizarro help or hinder?

Me Am an Ok Guy.

This episode is a lot of fun and a great way to introduce Bizarro to the world of "Superman: The Animated Series." We don't get the traditional take on Bizarro. In the comics, Bizarro lives in on a square Earth where everyone has his gray hue and speaks in backwards talk that can become very confusing very quickly. Seriously, reading a Bizarro centric comic is the quickest way there is to a migraine. So, I can totally understand why they'd alter it a bit, particularly for children.

The opening sequence of Bizarro as Superman doing Superman-like things is pretty great. Those kids at the beginning are the worst. You're not going to tell Timmy's mom if he dies? News flash, kid. She's going to figure it out. It's a genuine surprise when Superman saves Clark and I didn't immediately see the Bizarro twist coming. Once "Fauxperman" starts to decay it made perfect sense, but I thought the show played it really well. 

In fact, I really enjoyed the way that this Superman clone became Bizarro. He becomes more and more unhinged the more that he is confronted with the actual Superman. As this happens, his speech becomes more Bizarro-like. It's not the opposite Bizarro speak but it is the "Me am" stuff that we've come to know and love. He also starts causing trouble in the name of fixing things. Bizarro doesn't forget about a date with Lois Lane and the sequence where he takes her out is hilarious. It's great to see Lois quickly sympathize with Bizarro and while at first it might feel like she is manipulating him to get information, in the end she sees him for the hero that he really wants to be.

It does feel like the fact that Luthor took Superman's blood and made these clones is sort of glossed over. I guess since it seems like they were all destroyed, alls well that ends well? You'd think that Superman would have been a little more upset about that. All in all, a great introduction to Bizarro and I definitely hope that it isn't the last we've seen of him.

Grade: B+

Next up, Lois has a stalker and Superman is terrorized by an imp.

What do you think of these episodes? Are you as annoyed by Livewire as I am? Did you like this interpretation of Bizarro? Let me know in the comments.