"Last Son" Re-Watch: "The Prometheon" & "Speed Demons"

 Superman The Animated Series

We are continuing on with season 2 and "Superman: The Animated Series" does something "Batman: The Animated Series" never did. It actually introduced another DC superhero. There are actually other ones besides Batman and Superman! Can you believe! Let's get to it.

Gen. Hardcastle: "N-X gel, ten times hotter than napalm! We're gonna have us a down-home barbecue!"

Superman: [the monster roars angrily] "Better hold off on the marshmallows."

Superman joins Professor Hamilton and General Hardcastle in space to help them destroy an asteroid headed for Metropolis. While planting explosives on the rock, Superman discovers a giant living being chained to the asteroid. The creature, an alien built synthetic, breaks free after the asteroid is destroyed and heads for Metropolis. Can Superman stop the monster with Hardcastle hindering him at every turn?

Clayface?

There isn't a ton that happens in this episode. It's pretty self contained. There's no Lois and Jimmy. No real subplot. And I think it's for this reason that I was maybe harder on this episode than I would have been otherwise. Needless to say, it wasn't my favorite. 

I think we need to start off talking about General Hardcastle. Here's the thing. It makes complete sense that certain authority figures wouldn't trust Superman no matter how altruistic he seems. There are a number of reason that this could be. Superman, like Batman, is a vigilante. He answers to no one and it's just his moral code that stops him from taking over the world. Sine he primarily does his heroing in the United States, it makes sense that American government officials would want to claim him as their own and use him to carry out missions for them etc. There are a myriad of reasons and I think you get the point. All this to say, there is a great story "Superman: The Animated Series" could tell of a mistrustful government official and the Man of Steel. This isn't it, though.

General Hardcastle is extremely one dimensional. When he and Hamilton are talking about Superman, he says that he doesn't trust Superman because he can't be controlled. So, he basically loses all credibility right there and never regains it. He's just a tool and Superman hands him his ass and proves that he is a tool at every turn. It's just not that interesting or exciting and I wish they would have handled him with a little bit more nuance. 

The giant synthetic, the Prometheon of the episodes title, is another super strong enemy the writers created so Superman can really let loose. He gives big Doomsday vibes. Seriously. If you've read "The Death of Superman," you had to think of Doomsday watching this episode, particularly when the creature is walking across the ocean floor. I haven't seen all of "Superman: The Animated Series" but I assume Doomsday shows up at some point so I don't really get this. And I get this is a cartoon and exposition dumps can be clunky sometimes, but these aliens really just sent all the information about this machines creation with it when they tied it to an asteroid and sent it in to space? Sure.

The episode culminates with a pretty paint by numbers fight between Superman and the synthetic. With Hamilton coming in with last minute pseudo scientific solution where while the synthetic is in the water these two chemicals they dump on him flash freeze him. Or something. And then they just leave him there like the Celestial at the end of "Eternals." Alls well that ends well but it is very ho hum.

Grade: C

[Flash zips around Superman, who then stops him by holding an arm out]

Superman: "Save it for the race."

The Flash: "Don't worry about me, pal. I've got more than enough heat to beat your sorry..." 

Mayor: "Ahem..."

Superman and Central City's hero, The Flash, agree to participate in a charity race to determine who is the fastest man alive. They have to complete 100 laps around the world. Little do the two superheroes know that this race is also a ruse by Flash villain Mark Mardon. His brother has created a device to harness the ionic energy produced by the racing heroes. This energy is funneled into a machine that allows Mardon to control the weather and become the villainous Weather Wizard.

The Flash showing Superman where he wants it.

Now this is more like it. I have very few complaints when it comes to "Batman: The Animated Series." It's basically a perfect animated series and maybe the best depiction of the Dark Knight onscreen. If I had to give it one major criticism, it would probably be that the world it creates is very insular. The majority of the action happens in Gotham City and there really isn't any even insinuation that anything is happening outside of it. As far as the world of the show is concerned, Batman is it. There aren't any other heroes out there and that's OK. The DCU is very connected so it would have been nice to at least have some mention of other heroes. Well, "Superman: The Animated Series" decided to make it happen. They mentioned Batman in an earlier episode and in this one we get introduced to Central City's speedster, The Flash.

Introducing The Flash using a race against Superman is classic DC. This episode is a loose adaptation of the Superman comic "Superman's Race with the Flash." The Flash appears on the scene cocky as ever. If you watched the "Justice League" animated series you might notice that he's voiced by a different voice actor in this episode. In "Justice League," he's voiced by "Smallville" actor, Michael Rosenbaum. Here he's voiced by Charlie Schlatter, whoever that is. The Flash is a bit more of a douche than most people are probably used to, but I think it works here. The overly confident, crass Flash is a nice juxtaposition with our Big Blue Boy Scout.

It's not before the slightly adversarial nature of this meeting to turn into a full fledged team up when Weather Wizard hits the scene. It's cool that they brought in a classic Flash villain for this episode and Weather Wizard is perfect. His weather controlling powers are an actual challenge for both heroes and he's a real piece of work. The dude tries to kill his own brother after he basically uses him to gain these powers. 

It's great to watch Superman and The Flash using their powers in tandem when they take care of the damaged oil tanker. Superman rends the split in the hull together and then welds it shut with his heat vision. At the same time, The Flash creates a vortex that gathers the spilled oil and then releases it. They are working together but also showing off. It happens again when Weather Wizard encases the heroes in ice and Flash gloats about how he vibrated himself out of the ice. You can tell Superman is both annoyed an impressed.

This is an all around great episode and it leaves you hoping that more DCU heroes will make an appearance before the show is over. Maybe the Flash will show up again since it leaves who is the actual Fastest Man Alive unsettled.

Grade: A

Next up, Metropolis' answer to Howard Stern, Livewire, hits the scene and he am not Superman!

What do you all think? Was it fun for you seeing Superman and The Flash team up for the first time? Were you let down by "The Prometheon?" Let me know in the comments.