Superman: The Animated Series, Season 1, Episode 5: A Little Piece of Home
It's another villain-of-the-week episode, and this time around Lex Luthor takes central stage. Luthor in Superman: TAS is unique in that we don't actually see the man brought down and arrested until Justice League, at least not to my knowledge, so he spends a good chunk of these episodes orchestrating events and getting away relatively without getting put into jail himself, which is interesting -- it sets up some kind of a status quo for the show, keeping Luthor's threat as this untouchable public figure while also letting him tangle with Superman.
The episode also features, more importantly, the debut of Superman's greatest nemesis -- Kryptonite, the titluar pieces of home. An attempt to foil a robbery by the honestly pathetic Caroli brothers turns into Superman struggling to walk as he gets near Kryptonite -- something Luthor catches on to and quickly weaponises. In a memorable scene from when I watched this episode from my childhood, Luthor contracts the hired gun named Joey (and Mercy totally emasculates him by kicking that beanbag -- I love Mercy) who then menaces Superman with a jetpack and leads him to Kryptonite.
Then begins a nice game of cat-and-mouse as the forces of Superman, Lois Lane and Professor Hamilton of STAR Labs (also low-key sneaking in Hamilton and the Labs, quickly establishing them as trustworthy allies), as well as Luthor's forces. There's also some nice bits of showing Clark Kent's attempts to hide his weakness to the sliver of Kryptonite that Lois has.
Again, Luthor tries to make a deal with Superman, who naturally refuses to cooperate, and this really shows a great deal about Luthor. Yes, Superman is doing the hero things we expect him to do and admire him for doing, but Luthor's a more complex beast. It's not enough to kill Superman, though that's not unwelcome -- he wants Superman to bend down to him, more than anything, and that's what makes Luthor's motivations so interesting.
Also, in a moment that went over my head when I watched this episode as a kid (which I remember mostly for the Mercy scene), Luthor catches on to Peterson colluding with Lois Lane and STAR labs, and the last we see of Peterson is Luthor closing the door and telling Peterson that Mercy will totally give him a ride home and 'deal' with him, while the man looks absolutely scared. The scary thing about this isn't the death threat, it's the implicit undertones that it's actually done. We never see Peterson again after this, there's no real way out for him from the situation and even if Superman could arrive fast enough, he's not even aware of what's happening. For a show that spent its previous episode dealing with Toyman and his giant duck, I'm genuinely surprised at how dark it gets in this episode.
And then we have Superman fighting a giant robot dinosaur that Lex controls via an old-timey SNES controller, while Lois Lane plays basketball with Kryptonite and a lead cup, and all is well with the world. Unless you're poor Peterson.
But while, once more, Luthor's actions cannot be tied back to him (though, I dunno, a giant dinosaur robot of death in his museum that moonlights as a display must be hard to explain) we get to see the final shot of the episode -- Luthor's men combing the Earth for more Kryptonite. He's found out how to hurt Superman, and while he has prevailed this day, it's not long before Luthor pulls off something scary. Maybe he'll make the Kryptonite not removable from his next robot. Eh? Eh?
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- First appearances of Emil Hamilton and Mercy Graves. Mercy, Luthor's bodyguard-chauffeur, is a character created from the show and later imported into mainstream comics similar to Harley Quinn and Rene Montoya. Professor Hamilton first appeared in the 80's, initially as a villain before becoming one of Superman's allies and a major character in STAR Labs.
- Also the first acknowledged appearance of Superman's weakness of Kryptonite, though hardly will be the last.
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