Superman: the Animated Series, Season 2, Episode 3: The Prometheon
This is a pretty underwhelming episode, honestly. Superman fights a rock giant that absorbs energy and... that's about it. I suppose in a Superman series the show's obligated to do a giant alien monster storyline sooner or later, but holy shit, this one's just so... throwaway. Case in point, I don't even remember ever watching this episode, even though I remembered both the episodes before and after this one. In a TV series, a cartoon in particular, it's not a crime to do a simple 'villain of the week' episode. Hell, for Superman it's pretty much its bread-and-butter. But the titular Prometheon is a mindless stone giant, so the only real antagonist here is General Hardcastle, who's the focus of a very flat 'nuke-happy military general' to Superman's caution. Of course the alien monster gets stronger with explosives being set off all around it. How convenient for the episode's poorly-conceived moral.
Hardcastle's a strawman compared to Superman and Hamilton's reasonable caution, and honestly would be far more forgettable if he's not otherwise known as 'that one general from Superman: TAS that shows up in Justice League Unlimited's Cadmus plot'. The titular Prometheon isn't very interesting either. We get a few cool 'tanking the military's weaponry' scene but otherwise all he does is swing his fists around. The way it's beaten is pretty silly too, with a prolonged and uninteresting 'lure it to a river where we'll freeze it' bit... and then the episode abruptly cuts off, because apparently not even the show makers reall gave too much of a shit about the Prometheon itself.
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