Superman The Animated Series
A pair of interesting episodes this time. We meet an imp from the fifth dimension and a famous writer from "Batman: The Animated Series" writes one of the episodes we are looking at in this post. It's a good time so let's get started.
Lois Lane: "Tell me something. How do you always manage to arrive just in the nick of time?"
Superman: "It's a gift."
"You wouldn't be keeping an eye on me or anything?"
Superman: "Well... some people need more watching than others."
Lois Lane: "Someday though it'd be nice to see you when I wasn't about to be killed."
Superman: "Someday..."
Thanks to a LexCorp exposé, Lois Lane wins a prestigious Metropolis journalism award. At the ceremony, she is almost killed and it soon becomes clear that someone has it out for Lois. Unfortunately, Lois' enemies list is a mile long. Can Superman keep up with these attacks and keep her alive?
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| This looks dirty. |
We finally get an episode focused on Lois Lane and it is about freaking time. Lois has been present in most episodes but she's not really been the focus of the action. She's there to make snarky remarks or sometimes get kidnapped so Superman can save her. I'm not saying that Lois has zero agency because that's not true. She's the intrepid, bullheaded Lois that we've known since she made her debut. But she's mainly just a side character. Even in the Bizarro episode, it's still Superman doing most of the heavy lifting. In this episode, the action is because of Lois and she's right in the thick of it and trying to save herself for the majority of it.
There is some really great action in this episode and some great scenes of Clark finding ways to get away from Lois so he can turn into Superman and save her life. He dumps his drink in his lap on at the awards. Luckily, Lois' colleague Julian is too incensed at Lois' win to notice him. I'm kind of surprised that they would have a giant class sword dangling above the people giving speeches, but I guess it is a case of style over safety here.
The most exciting sequence is what happens after the awards. Lois and Clark are on the freeway and then the unseen antagonist takes control of Lois' car. It's a really intense scene and I was on the edge of my seat. We all know that Lois is not going to be harmed, but it definitely feels like there are real stakes. When Clark is flung from her vehicle, Lois seems to have a real "oh shit" moment and starts to take matters into her own hands. She climbs out of the car. It's completely badass. It could be one of my favorite sequences the show has produced.
The elevator sequence is great as well. Lois again showing that she's not going to wait around. She climbs out of the elevator and is on top of it. I mean, that takes real balls. If I had one minor issue, it would have been nice to have Lois save herself at least once instead of Superman showing up each time.
The episode flounders a little bit at the end. It's pretty obvious that Lois' source, Eddie Lytener, is the stalker. His motive is that he blew the whistle so Lois would date him and she didn't so he got mad about it. Toxic masculinity strikes again. He has a suit of armor so he can go to toe to toe with Superman but that lasts like two minutes. The red herring with the police detective wasn't really necessary either since it didn't really go anywhere.
Grade: B+
Clark Kent: [trying to pronounce Mxyzptlk] "Hmmmm... MICKS-ILL-PLIK..."
{Mxyzptlk pops out of a comic]
Mr. Mxyzptlk: "No! Repeat after me, bright boy: it's MIX..."
[turns into a mixer]
Mr. Mxyzptlk: "YEEZ..."
[turns into an album cover]
Mr. Mxyzptlk: "SPIT..."
[spits in Clark's face]
Mr. Mxyzptlk: "LICK!"
Superman begins being tormented by an imp from the Fifth Dimension who goes by the name, Mr. Mxyzptlk. He challenges Superman to a duel of sorts. If Superman can trick him into saying or writing his name backwards, he'll leave and not return for three months. Superman pretty easily accomplishes this and each time it happens Mxyzptlk becomes more and more determined to take down the Man of Steel for good.
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| Imps are the worst. |
This episode was written by the prolific "Batman: The Animated Series" writer, Paul Dini and his fingerprints are all over it. I am not a huge fan of old Mxy. In fact, I find him generally pretty annoying and not like in a cute fun way, but Dini really makes this character work. The episode is genuinely funny and by putting Superman in these ridiculous scenarios over and over, he infuses a some whimsy into a character that can be pretty stodgy and serious.
There is some pretty stellar guest voice acting in this episode. The late, great Gilbert Gottfried is the voice of Mxy and wow, what a perfect piece of casting. Mxy's loud grating voice is the perfect voice for such an irritating character. I can't believe I never thought of that myself. If I ever read Mxy in a comic again, it's Gottfried's voice that I will hear forever. We meet Mxy's Jessica Rabbit like girlfriend, Gsptlsnz, is voiced by the living legend herself, queer icon, Sandra Bernhard. Bernhard is the perfect combination of sultriness and exasperation. I had no idea she was voicing this episode and I was floored.
There is a ton of comedy here. I laughed a lot at the scene at the Kent's house. It was just so different than how Jonathan and Martha Kent react. Then when they start crawling around on the floor clucking like chickens. Mxy sticking them in an American Gothic style portrait and putting them on the wall. I love a Grant Wood gag. I really enjoyed the zoo animal gag in the Daily Planet as well. Mxy really loves turning humans into animals. It probably is representative of how he sees humans in general. Lois eating the carrot after being turned from human to horse is a great gag as well.
Superman getting more and more irritated as each encounter with Mxy happens is great. We don't usually see Superman this frustrated unless we are talking about some sort of end of the world scenario, which this definitely is not, no matter what Mxy thinks.
Just when I was thinking that this episode was a little light on action we get to the third act where Mxy goes full destroy Superman mode. I kind of sighed and was like, did we need this? But then we learn that it was all a ruse. Superman was leading Mxy around to get him to skywrite his name backwards twice and get rid of him for good. Mxy promises to be back or is it a threat?
Grade: B+
Next up, Metallo leaves the sea and Livewire breaks out of prison.
What do you all think of these episodes? Happy to have Lois take a more active role? Let me know in the comments.
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