Superman TAS S02E01-2 Review: Bow Before Jax-Ur

Superman: The Animated Series, Season 2, Episode 1-2: Blast From the Past

That monocle be fancy

We start the second season of Superman with, appropriately enough, a homage to the second live-action Superman movie. Sadly, though, the animated series really doesn't do enough to deviate a lot from the formula. It's another two-parter, and it shows off several important pieces of Superman's mythology, mainly the existence of other (evil!) Kryptonians, exploring the Phantom Zone as a concept. I'm not sure it really deserves its two-episode runtime, though.  I suppose as an episode that features Superman tussling with two other Kryptonians it's an epic enough plotline, but they really don't do enough.

The first part starts off relatively strong. Superman and Emil Hamilton experiment with the Phantom Zone Projector, first releasing a random centipede monsters (what's with these two-parters and filler alien-monster enemies?) before finally releasing Mala, a female Kryptonian. We get a neat little backstory via a Brainiac-orb introdump, and some interesting ethical questions on how a life sentence given by a now-nonexistent government is going to be handled.

Mala herself isn't anything special, with a generic warrior-lady personality, but her position as an adult Kryptonian who served her sentence in prison only to find that she's one of her race's few surviving Kryptonians... except the show doesn't acctually do much with that concept. We get to see Mala try to stop a robbery, misunderstand Superman's role as a protector instead of a warlord, before going into a pretty generic 'I'm a villain route'. There were moments where Mala seems to be okay with latching on as Superman's 'mate' in this new planet, but they don't quite show enough or give Mala much of a personality beyond introdump-y dialogue that I just don't care all that much.

And then she traps Superman in the Phantom Zone and unleashes her boss, Jax-Ur, who has a fancy monocle, as well as General Zod's role (I'm curious why they didn't just use Zod himself) but none of his charm or hamminess. Jax-Ur is absolutely flat, even moreso than his partner, and the two just run around playing warlords while Hamilton and Lois get Superman back. The fight scenes between Jax-Ur, Mala and Superman started off strong but ended up being really repetitive. The conclusion is also relatively predictable and unexciting.

Like, this isn't a bad episode, but considering how exciting the episode's premise was, the fact that neither Jax-Ur or Mala are any interesting (and Superman himself's still a generic hero at this point) and they didn't really have an emotional core amongst the villains unlike Parasite's self-esteem issues or Metallo's loss of humanity or Luthor's pride... I suppose there's Mala's possible envy, but that's a flimsy thread to hang on to. So yeah, overall, while still watchable, it still ends up feeling like a weak entry to Superman's second season. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Jax-Ur and Mala are based mostly on General Zod and Faora/Ursa, famously featured in the feature film Superman II, where they are Kryptonian villains (specifically, Zod/Jax-Ur is a general of Krypton with power-mad ambitions, and Faora/Ursa/Mala is the female second-in-command deathly loyal to the general) released from the Phantom Zone. The scenes where Jax-Ur and Mala take over the U.N. seems to be inspired from General Zod's team taking over the White House in that movie. Likewise, the scene at the Daily Planet before Jax-Ur and Mala breaks in is also a reference to Perry White's speech in that movie before Zod's crew tear the Daily Planet apart. 
• Jax-Ur is one of the various Kryptonian prisoners within the Phantom Zone, and alongside Zod and Ursa, was the third member of the Phantom Zone prisoners in Superman II. In the comics, Jax-Ur's usually imprisoned for destroying a colony of Krypton, and is more of a mad scientist than a power-mad general.
• Mala is based on Zod's female majordomo Faora (Ursa in the movies), but borrows her name from an obscure male Kryptonian villain in the comics. 
• The Phantom Zone Projector's existence is alluded to in the first episode of the series, "Last Son of Krypton", where Jor-El suggests putting Krypton's entire population in the Phantom Zone and launch Kal-El's ship to another world. 
• Professor Hamilton coins the phrase 'Fortress of Solitude' for Superman's retreat, first seen in 'Stolen Memories', the events of which Superman references.