"Last Son" Re-Watch: "Monkey Fun," "Ghost in the Machine" & "Father's Day"

 Superman the Animated Series

It's been a minute, but we are covering three episodes on this post and the next one. But, let's be real these episodes are just a prelude to the next posts main event. Let's get into it.

Superman: "I'm sorry, Lois, but your monkey friend's goin' down."

Lois Lane: "Don't hurt him! He's just a baby!"

[seeing Jimmy's look]

Lois Lane: "Okay, a really big baby."

As children, Lois and her sister, Lucy, became friends with an ape named Titano, that was going to be shot into space. The space launch goes awry and he ends up lost. Cut to years later when Superman is taking care of a meteor shower, he locates the lost shuttle with Titano inside. It turns out that the bacteria Titano was exposed to in space causes him to grow at an accelerated rate and go on a King Kong style rampage.

This is happening.

 I hope that you read that description because that is exactly what this episode is about. It doesn't go deeper than that. Superman goes toe to toe with Lois' childhood pet monkey. This is a modern re-make of the 1970's cartoon, "The New Adventures of Superman" episode, "The Chimp Who Made It Big." So, I've never seen the episode that this is based on, but maybe it didn't need to be re-made? Maybe this particular episode could have stayed in the '70's?

I have a lot of questions about everything in this episode? The biggest one is why did Lois and Lucy's dad, General Sam Lane, decide it was a good idea to have his daughters get close to a space experiment? It didn't feel like this was just a one-time thing. It felt like Titano had been coming around for a while. It just seems like a bad idea to get your young children attached to an animal that you are literally shooting into space. Sam Lane continues to be a pretty bad dad, assuring the girls that Titano will be fine and of course he is not.

This episode is just dumb. It feels like the writers just wanted to do a King Kong homage and they didn't care about anything else. Apparently there was some space bacteria that Titano was exposed to that causes growth when it is exposed to Earth's atmosphere. I mean, sure. Why not? We are talking about a giant space monkey. You can't nitpick too much on the why's.

My biggest issue with this episode is how Superman acts. He is super aggressive. He doesn't try to reason with Titano once. Superman leads with empathy, not with his fists, and he doesn't ever try that tact at all in this episode. He just wants to wail on Titano from the jump. Even the quote I chose to open the post. "Your monkey friend is goin' down?" Does that even sound like anything that Superman would say? Not to me. So, when Titano punches him into the House of Mirrors it made me laugh.

And, they just leave giant Titano in the jungle somewhere? Again, why not? Hopefull we never see him again.

Grade: D

Lois Lane: "Sabotage?"

Clark Kent: "Has to be. Luthor's too careful to foul up like that."

Lois Lane: "But who'd want to destroy Luthor?"

[notices Clark's look]

Lois Lane: "Well, yeah, but who'd be crazy enough to try?"

After a disastrous demonstration of his LexCorp Sky Sentry, Lex is trapped by Brainiac, who has been hiding in the LexCorp computers, and forced to rebuild the Kryptonian androids body. When Clark Kent goes to get a quote for a story about industrial espionage happening in LexCorp, he finds out that Luthor is missing. Superman teams up with Lex's right hand, Mercy Graves, to free Lex and defeat Brainiac.

Looking rough Lex

I think this episode really proves what a strength Lex Luthor is to this show. He is the Man of Steel's arch nemesis for a reason and I feel like he's been used pretty sparingly throughout the series so far. The Joker wasn't popping up in "Batman: The Animated Series" every other episode, but that was fine, because Batman had the rogues gallery which Superman seems to be lacking. This is one of the best S: TAS episodes in a while and it is primarily because Lex is back. Brainiac showing up, doesn't hurt things either.

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this, but Clancy Brown's voice acting for Lex Luthor is top notch which is not a huge surprise. Andrea Romano, the casting director for most of the Timmverse animated shows, has an ear for this. Brown is the perfect voice for Lex. He has that great mix of condescension and superiority plus smarmy charm.

It's great to see Lex kind of cut down to size. And maybe the only person or robot that could have done it is Brainiac. Lex is usually so in control and the one with the plans, so to see him haggard, with dark circles under his eyes from working non stop to put together Brainiac's new body. I never thought I'd see Lex Luthor wolfing down candy bars from a vending machine. I'm actually kind of impressed that Lex had a vending machine down in his secret lab. Brainiac really cuts Lex down to size. When Lex finally fights back, it's too late. Brainiac is able to take control of the body that Lex has built.

The show tries to shed a little light on the relationship between Lex and his bodyguard and gal Friday, Mercy Graves. This is the one area of the episode I'm not sure is totally successful. It turns out Mercy was living on the streets when Lex took her in and trained her. I understand that this would engender loyalty in Mercy, but it seems like she traded loyalty for her self respect. Mercy spends the back half of the episode trying to save Lex but he leaves her to die when the lab crumbles around them. Luckily, Superman saves her. And of course, Mercy is still working for Lex at the end of the episode.

It is kind of surprising that Superman just lets Lex keep Brainiac's new body. Wouldn't he have at least taken that? Seems like a bad idea to have your biggest enemy keep the body of your other biggest enemy, even if the parts were mainly from LexCorp.

Grade: A-

Martha Kent: [seeing Kalibak run after Superman] "Clark! Look out!"

Lois Lane: [confused] "Clark? Where-?"

On the planet of Apokolips, Darkseid is still plotting to take over Earth and kill Superman. When Desaad's newest invention fails, Kalibak, Darkseid's son, asks to be sent to take on Superman, but Darkseid refuses. Desaad sends Kalibak anyway and he attacks the restaurant where Lois and the Kents are going to have lunch with Clark for Father's Day. This leads to a smackdown between the son of the Kents and the son of Darkseid.

Kinky.

We haven't seen Darkseid since the second to last episode of season one, so it's nice to have him return and remind us that he's still out there plotting. I don't necessarily think this is the strongest episode or the best way to reintroduce the Apokolips plot, but it's not the worst.

I think it starts off really well. Desaad sends his death sphere to challenge Superman. Lois happens to find it on her run. Superman makes short work of it and we're back on Apokolips where Bruno Mannheim is still there. I don't think I realized that. I knew he was at the end of the Intergang episode, but I didn't realize that he had been there this whole time. Huh. He is an idiot. Why would you insult someone like Darkseid within earshot of him? You're lucky that you just ended up in the mines of Apokolips.

With a title like "Father's Day," I definitely thought that they'd try to capitalize on that theme a little bit more, but they don't really. It seems like the Kents visiting is just a way to make Superman extra motivated to wallop Kalibak since Jonathan is in danger. (Oh and they want to make the Kents look like bumpkins. Computers? Not in Smallville.) The majority of the episode is just a brawl between Kalibak and Superman. It has its moments and its evenly matched, but it becomes kind of boring after a while.

There are some head scratchers here. Would Martha really shout Clark's name in front of Lois? I feel like she'd be smarter than that. And Jonathan was trapped under all that rubble for the entirety of the fight? Wouldn't he be dead from all the internal injuries he suffered? And wouldn't Superman have made some time to go save him? 

The episode ends strongly thought when Darkseid shows up and confronts Superman for the first time. One zap from Darkseid's Omega Beams drops Superman to his knees and even though it feels like Darkseid could clearly take Superman now, he says its not time. Which is a pretty badass mic drop moment. Oh and Darkseid kills Kalibak, his own son, for disobeying him. The episode succeeds in setting up Darkseid as a great foil for Superman, but I just wish the middle portion had been a little more exciting.

Grade: B-

Next up, Batman and Superman team up for the first time in a three part adventure.

What did you all think of this? Is Lex the best? Should he be around more? Was Darkseid chilling enough for you? Let me know in the comments.