Superman: The Animated Series, Season 2, Episode 7: Target
'Target' is probably one of my least-favourite episodes in Superman: TAS's second season. Superman: TAS's episodes, compared to its predecessor/sister series Batman: TAS, tends to have less intricate plotlines that mostly just boils down to setting up Superman punching another super-villain. Sometimes an obligatory Lois rescue is thrown in there. It's not a bad model, of course, and both shows do have their share of bad eggs. 'Target' is one I dislike due to how it tries to be different but just falls flat at doing so.
We're led to believe that Lois Lane, winning the Excalibur Awards, is under the crosshairs of a particularly vengeful person. We get the requisite red herring in her jealous workmate Julian Frey, as well as a brief string of clues that point to our favourite supervillain, Lex Luthor. Or maybe it's the asshole cop, Detective Bowman, who Lois actually notes she had discredited in a previous article? But just like how a Scooby Doo episode likes to introduce a minor character that seems helpful but disappears after his or her introduction just to make sure that the villain is someone we've seen before and not some unknown quantity, the villain of the piece is the helpful tech-guy that Lois gets to identify the piece of machinery halfway through the episode, Edward Lytener. The Superman: TAS cartoon isn't afraid of introducing new characters and devoting entire episodes to them. Livewire and Mercy Graves have been two very, very amazing inclusions to the Superman lore that originated from the show taking risks, and I liked Volcana (who we won't see for a while) and Mala as well. But Lytener (better known by his nom de guerre Luminus, which he doesn't actually adapt until later on) is a bland villain with a flimsy motivation.
Sure, I can buy that he's pissed off at being both friendzoned and denied the glory that he thinks he'll get by whistleblowing. But somehow he wants Lois to suffer so much so he terrorizes her with devices that can take over her car, an automated laser deathtrap that so conveniently cuts the Excalibur crystal sword ornament, hijacks the Daily Planet lift to shoot out of the building into the air, and has a weird laser cage thing? It's be something if the episode actually was smart about trying to deflect suspicion to any of the other red herrings, but it's not. It's just a montage of one murder attempt to another, prolonged ones at that -- and it's not like the episode is hurting for screentime, since it had an entire 'oooh murderer no wait just a dream' sequence.
The fight when Lytener dons his suit is also relatively banal, and that's saying something considering we're just a couple of episodes off the Promethean episode. Which is a shame -- I think this is the first episode that actually tried to put the focus on Lois Lane, and while it does her credit by showing her to be independent without being a moron (which is a common complaint in a lot of pre-TAS Superman stuff) the whole episode kinda is interesting and fell absolutely flat. Ditto for the relatively rare moment of giving Luthor a non-malevolent role as a change.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Superman opening lift doors and saying "I believe this is your floor" is a homage to Superman rescuing Lois Lane from the Eiffel Tower lift in 1980's Superman II. No jet rockets are involved in that movie, though.
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