Superman the Animated Series
Volcana: "I hope you'll think of me, especially on those cold Metropolis nights."
Superman: "Don't you ever cool down?"
Volcana: "No."
[blows him a fire kiss.]
A robbery at a yacht club by a female pyrokinetic leads Superman to a facility that is training young metahumans. Clark Kent learns that the government is providing the primary funding and is then taking the metahumans and using them as spies and assassins. The young woman, Volcana, was able to escape but the agents are closing in on her. Can Superman stop her before she does something she'll regret?
 |
| FIYAH. |
This is a fun episode. I go into these episodes not sure what to expect. It's a lot different than watching the DCAU series, because I already know that for the most part they are going to be good. With episodes of "Superman: The Animated Series," the pendulum can swing pretty far in terms of good or bad but sometimes it rests firmly in the middle and that is what happens with this episode. There are some great ideas here but they never are developed enough to make it a good episode, but not underdeveloped enough to make them a bad episode. This makes an entertaining but ultimately forgettable episode overall.
Volcana is a pretty generic character. It feels like "Superman: the Animated Series" has this tendency to create these female villains or bring existing female villains in to the show and then make them absolute worst. Volcana isn't as awful as Maxima or as annoying as Livewire, but she's not fleshed out enough to make you really care about her. I feel like a flashback could have worked wonders here rather than just having other characters basically recite facts about her past. And of course, her personality is just flirty and fiery because of her powers. She controls fire because she's horny. *rolls eyes*
There are some pretty impressive voice actors in this episode. Peri Gilpin who played Roz on "Frasier" is the voice of Volcana. The head agent pursuing Volcana, Kurt, is voiced by Sandy Cohen himself, Peter Gallagher. And then a random agent is voiced by the All-State guy himself, Dennis Haysbert. I am always impressed with the quality of voice talent they bring to these shows. On their own, each of these characters are kind of lame, but the actors do their damndest to make you care and they succeed for the most part.
We get to see Clark Kent do some real investigative journalism. I sometimes forget that Clark is a journalist when I watch this show since he so rarely does any real reporting. Although, I do think it's strange that this seemingly secret, mainly government funded school/training facility for metahuman children would just welcome in this "Daily Planet" reporter. Its like if someone from "The Daily Bugle" showed up at Professor Xavier's school and wanted to write an article about how they are all mutants. It's just strange.
But all in all, this is an entertaining episode. It isn't a terrible way to spend 21 minutes. It's basically Clark/Superman on his own aside from some brief appearances by Lois and Jimmy. Speaking of Jimmy, what was up with him taking pictures of Volcana and then being a full pervert when Clark catches him. Gross. Jimmy's the worst.
Grade: B-
Robin: [referring to Batman] "He's really being controlled by aliens?"
[makes face]
Robin: "Ugh!"
Superman: "I'm deeply hurt."
Robin: "Sorry."
After capturing one of Batman's rogues, Roxy Rocket, in Metropolis, Superman learns that the Dark Knight has been missing for a while. He heads to Gotham City to investigate and runs into Robin who is trying to curb the rise in crime alone. Robin tells Superman that Batman told him he was leaving town on Bat business, but Bruce Wayne told Lucius Fox that he was going on vacation. Superman disguises himself as Batman to investigate but could one of the Man of Steel's foes be behind this?
 |
| SuperBatman and Robin |
Dear reader, let me tell you this. When Roxy Rocket appeared in the opening minutes of this episode, I was extremely concerned. If you read my "The New Batman Adventures" re-watch posts, you will recall that the episode that debuted Roxy was derided by me for several many paragraphs. I was hopeful that I had seen the last of this character so needless to say, I was not pleased. But my frown turned upside down when Superman carted her off to jail and she wasn't seen again. Roxy proved that the only thing she's good for is to dispense cursory exposition to get the plot moving. I still would have preferred they used any other character, but I'll forgive them since they didn't make her a running character throughout the episode.
The three-part "World's Finest" were three of the best episodes of this series so I was excited but a little concerned when I realized that Superman was going to be spending the majority of the episode in Gotham City. Could lightning strike twice? Will this episode rise to those. And the short answer is: absolutely.
There's just something about putting Superman in Gotham City. It completely changes Clark's personality. He becomes really fun and kind of cheeky. This is serious, no doubt. With no recent sightings of Batman, crime in Gotham City is way up and everyone is concerned including Robin and the police. Even though Superman isn't the Batman's biggest fan, he knows he has to do something. And of course, that something is impersonating Batman.
Superman masquerading as Batman is so much fun. I love the idea that Superman can train his vocal chords to sound like other people. It allows us to hear Kevin Conroy (RIP) throughout this episode even though Batman/Bruce Wayne doesn't technically appear until the end of the episode. It's hilarious how Robin thinks it's really cool until Superman mimics his voice and then it isn't so funny. You've got Robin coaching Superman on how to be more Batman-like. And we see the effect that Batman has had on Robin. When Robin makes that "ew aliens" comment, that is coming from directly Batman. We all know how Bruce feels about aliens and of course he'd pass that on to Tim. At least, Bruce isn't a Republican.
The episode is loaded with villains. We see SuperBatman trying to shake down the Penguin. He initially tries the Superman way but it isn't long before he's breaking a table in the Penguin's office. Next, SuperBatman squares off against Bane, the Riddler and the Mad Hatter. Bane is the perfect Batman villain to put against Superman and they even make sure to let us know that Bane's Venom serum is improved and has made him even stronger.
It's great to see Bane and Batman square off and watch the villains reactions as SuperBatman shakes off attacks that would surely kill the Dark Knight. He gets "crushed" with a statue that he shrugs off. He flexes and snaps the cable that Riddler has tied him up with. I'm not sure if Superman is doing this on purpose, but by doing all these things, he's just upping Batman's scary reputation among the criminals of Gotham and I'm sure Batman will appreciate that.
If I have one minor gripe about this episode, I will say that things become a little cookie cutter in the third act when Brainiac is revealed as the villain. Though I do love the call back to Brainiac being in LexCorp's computers and being able to piggy back through them to WayneTech. It's a nice little continuity touch that I appreciated. But the final battle between Superman, Brainiac and Brainiac's WayneTech built rocket is a bit paint by numbers. It's not terrible, but its nothing to write home about, and I kind of expected more based on how great this episode was otherwise.
The episode ends with the two heroes seemingly taking tentative steps towards if not friendship at least mutual respect. And I do love how Superman gives Tim his props and Bruce a little jab about how he maybe isn't the loner he likes to make himself out to be.
Grade: A-
Next up, The Legion of Super-Heroes is back from the future and Lana Lang returns with Toyman in tow.
What do you all think of these episodes? Is Volcana one of your faves? Is Superman in Gotham always a win? Let me know in the comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment