Superman TAS S02E08 Review: Five-Dimensional Imps

Superman, the Animated Series, Season 2, Episode 8: Mxyzpixilated

Mr. Mxyzptlk (the fact that I actually don't have to check the spelling of Mxyzptlk's name because I'm confident enough in my geek cred to get it right automatically is the sign that I read way too many comics) is a motherfucking weird villain.

Like, let's go through a list of Batman's enemies, yeah? They're all gangsters and freaks with a colourful theme or two. When Batman writers try to reach out, they make, like, the immortal leader of an assassin cult. Or maybe actually give some of the gangsters and freaks superpowers. Likewise, with Wonder Woman villains. Her villains come in two flavours, Nazi psychopaths and beings out of Greek legends. And the oddballs are, like, humanoid cheetah women and stuff.

Silver Age/Post Crisis Mxy

Superman's bread and butter comes in the form of alien warlords or powerful metahumans, with the odd corporate criminal executive. You've got your Parasites and Metallos and Zods and Bizarros and Monguls and Brainiacs, but then someone decided one day that, hey, Mr. Mxyzptlk is going to be exactly the right kind of enemy to spruce up Superman's rogues' gallery. A goofy little man in a suit and a bowler hat... but he's a fifth-dimensional being with god-like powers! (I'm actually surprised the term 'god-like being' actually got it past the censors in a 90's cartoon, honestly). And Mxyzptlk is such a bizarre entity that the moment that he showed up in this episode back when I watched this series as a kid, I was enamoured. Mxyzptlk is a lot better in the comics, I think (even if most of his career he's a lot skinnier and looks more like an old man), and watching his debut episode years after I grew older I was a bit bummed that Mxyzptlk was less insane-funny and more annoying, but that's not quite enough to make me hate him.

The concept of Mxyzptlk's existence is just so bizarre. He's a godlike being from the fifth dimension (a dimension without vowels!), which, to him, warping our puny three-dimensional reality is a matter of a finger-snap. He operates on a completely different and alien set of laws and wants to challenge Superman as part of his own amusement. Oh, and sending him back to the fifth dimension for 3 months means that Superman needs to trick him to say his name backwards. I refuse to believe that drugs were not involved in the conception of Mxyzptlk.

But the show introduces Mxyzptlk in a weirdly hilarious manner, going all-in on the imp's personal wacky comedy show and throwing Superman straight in it. I'm not sure what the whole point of the 'McGurk' stuff was, but Mxyzptlk introducing himself by literally walking out of the funny pages to correct how Clark's reading his name, before disappearing, making it look like Superman's hallucinating. He then continues to cause havoc, by having Superman fight the living statue of the Thinker and then make it look as if Superman showed up and just punched the statue in front of everyone. It's all weird, wacky unrelated magic stuff until Superman shows up at his parents' house and in one of the legitimately most unsettling moments, Ma and Pa Kent starts talking about how there's nothing wrong with god-like beings from the fifth dimensions, before starting to peck on the ground like chickens.

Thankfully Mxyzptlk is more comedic than sinister, and when the parents are turned into actual chickens, then into ducks, then into rabid murlocs and into a painting it's back to the funnies again as Mxyzptlk explains the rules of the game to Superman. He simply presents his fifth dimension as this world full of godlike beings, and he shows up to find three-dimensional people to challenge. Superman tricks Mxyzptlk to say his name backwards after establishing the rules of their game, and then we get a brief montage of them going through the same thing several times, with Clark treating this as more of an annoyance than a threat (the bit with proofreading spelling errors is especially funny).

Mxyzptlk acts like a wacky little kid throughout this all, much to the chagrin of his wife, Jessica Rabbit Ms. Gsptlsnz (her, I actually have to look up). Gsp doesn't think much of Mxy's obsession with Superman, and honestly just wants some attention. That overlong gag of her morphing from one fetish outfit to another is so brazenly hilarious and took like nearly a full minute and I'm surprised it even got on air.

Then Mxyzptlk goes on one final showdown against Superman, and Superman tries to do what everyone should do to trolls and annoying people -- ignore him and hope he goes away. Mxyzptlk's biggest victory is to win in a game, and it's not fun if your opponent refuses to play. You want to beat them and laugh in your face. Which, of course, is part of Superman's big plan to trick Mxyzptlk to spelling his name backwards via his exhaust. It would mean that Superman banked on Mxyzptlk turning into a fake plane and leave exhaust, but eh, I'll buy it. I mean, we're talking about fifth-dimensional midget imps with reality warping powers, after all. It's not the most elegant solution and I'm not sure where the 'sent him back permanently' rule ever got established, but this insanely bizarre episode ends with Mxyzptlk still intent on returning to Earth one day. But now he's going to get some good time with his wife.

So yeah. Mxy might be one of the weirdest part of DC comics lore, but shit, I do love the fact that they took out an episode to let him hang out and be fun, considering his significance to Superman's lore in particular.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• While Mr. Mxyzptlk has been around since the Golden Age, for the most part he's drawn in his Silver Age appearance, which looks similar to the image I mirrored there -- two tufts of white hair, purple top hat, and a weird space-esque futuristic orange-and-purple garb. However, in his earliest Golden Age appearances Mxyzptlk actually looked exactly like he does in Superman: TAS, a bald midget with a more youthful expression, with an entirely-purple suit-and-tie deal going on. 
• Streaky, the Kents' cat, makes its first appearance here. While not named in this episode, Streaky draws her name from Streaky the Super-Cat, one of Supergirl's Golden-Age pets.
• The Mxyzptlk comic script is written by 'Siegel and Shuster', which, of course, is a reference to the creators of Superman, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, with Siegel in particular also being responsible for creating Mxyzptlk. The other comic strips are also homages of other American comic strips.



Horse Lois!

• 'Dini the Meanie' is based on Calvin and Hobbes (although Dini is a bigger dick than Calvin ever was), itself drawing its name from TAS show-writer Paul Dini. The writer of Dini the Meanie is 'Bill Wemissu', which, of course, is a reference to Bill Watterson, real-life creator of Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin and Hobbes ended in 1995, with the 'wemissu' being a thinly-veiled love letter to Bill.
• Glenn is based on Peanuts, of course, which the Charlie Brown lookalike not even being subtle at all. The name 'Glenn' is a reference to the art director for Batman Beyond and Batman TAS, Glen Murakami.
• Dan Danger is apparently based on Dick Tracy. Since every other strip name is based on a TAS staff member, this one's probably a reference to Dan Riba, storyboard artist for every single one of the TAS cartoon series.
• Not sure about Zub Street. Dilbert, I guess, but I can't find any TAS creator named Zub.
• Superman's original pronunciation of Mxyzptlk as "Miks-eel-plick" is how the character's name was pronounced in the old Hanna-Barbera Super Friends cartoon.
• Jimmy turning into a turtle is probably a reference to one of his many, many alter egos in the Golden Age comics, namely Turtle Man. Lois turning into a horse, meanwhile, probably homages "Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #92" where she did get turned into a horse. If you think I'm making these up...