Superman TAS S03E10 Review: The Shadow Over Smallville

Superman: The Animated Series, Season 3, Episode 10: Unity

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!

"Unity" is a bit of a strange beast. Or, rather, the handling of Supergirl throughout Superman: The Animated Series is a bit strange. After introducing Supergirl at the end of the second season, the third season promptly forgot about her apart from a single cameo in Mxyzptlk's fake TV show that he showed Bizarro... only for her to show up in the last episode of the third season, and later in the last episode of the fourth season. I'm sensing a pattern. Considering all the hoopla we went to introduce her as a supporting cast, the fact that her appearances in Superman: TAS could be counted on one hand is a bit unfortunate (especially compared to Nightwing, Robin and Batgirl from Batman:  TAS), and I'm glad that we actually have her role expanded as one of the main characters in Justice League Unlimited. 

And, well, we did get some Supergirl-centric episodes such as Unity, where Supergirl goes on a bit of a trip from Smallville to Metropolis (after milking some cows at superspeed... poor cows) and beat up Volcana a bit, she returns to Smallville to find out that the entire city has fallen under an Elder Thing from beyond the stars, an eldritch abomination called Unity, who sends out tentacles to assimilate everyone and everything under its hive-mind, led by the very creepy Reverend Howell. 

And then it goes from 'fun Supergirl adventures' to some genuinely creepy scenes, because among the afflicted are Pa and Ma Kent, and seeing X-rays of Ma Kent's brain wrapped by a tentacle tendril, or Pa Kent acting like a zombie is pretty dang disturbing. Also disturbing is just the noises they make, and the tentacles that shoot out of their mouths. Supergirl ends up calling Superman for help, and together they destroy Cthulhu's crazy cousins. It's a level of weird creepiness that I don't expect from Superman: TAS, and that scene where Supergirl gets wrapped up by mouth tentacles while struggling and moaning sounds like it came out of a PG-rated hentai. 

The Unity stuff is creepy and all, but while I didn't really think much of the episode beyond 'hey, Lovecraftian horrors!', sitting down to type a review made me realize how well-done it is in showcasing Supergirl's frustrations at being cooped up in a small town and not really allowed to do much. Sure, she blames herself for not realizing that Reverend Howell is creepy as all hell when she boarded the train, but the show makes her frustrations at being cooped up in Smallville while her cousin goes around whacking Luthors and Brainiacs and Metallos and Darkseids in the head very well, especially that conversation in the bus. The episode doesn't really go much with it because status quo needs to be maintained, but I did think that it's actually a neat episode that balances the exploration of Supergirl's story with an unbelievably creepy villain. 

DC  Easter Eggs Corner:

• Supergirl makes a reference to 'Barbara', referencing Batgirl and their team-up that they had in the TNBA episode "Girl's Night Out".  
• Volcana was last seen reformed in "Where There's Smoke", but shows up here as a villain, and her subsequent appearances would have her as a simple villain. 
• Pa and Ma Kent mentions that the Langs own the farm next to theirs.