Titans S02E06 Review: A Good Boy

Titans, Season 2, Episode 6: Conner

See, I really like Superboy. The 2003 Teen Titans run is a personal favourite of mine as it was a comic run I grew up with, and more recently, the Young Justice cartoon was also a huge series that I love. So when Superboy was teased as the post-credits scene in the first season of Titans it was truly unexpected since the show was mostly drawing from the 1980-1990 New Teen Titans run.

...And I completely forgot about him as we jump into this season. Whoops! I think in the first season, I had expected the Superboy teaser to mean that he's going to swoop in and help to beat Trigon up... and this Conner-centric episode randomly show up in the middle of the season, he's going to be the deus ex machina that's going to save Jason Todd.

The thing is, though, as much as that bit of eye-rolling plot convenience ends up being, this episode is a very, very solid origin story, condensing and summarizing a lot of Superboy's story, still having Superman be a huge shadow behind him while making it well and truly Superboy's story. Or, well, "Conner" or "Experiment 13" at this point. The Superboy moniker hasn't stuck yet. But Conner ends up breaking out of Project Cadmus, freeing Krypto the Super-Dog and stealing the name written on the clothes he came across, and ends up wandering the city.

The problem? While certainly not entirely a child, Conner has the brain faculties of a child. He doesn't really understand money, he doesn't really understand right and wrong, and in the words of Cadmus's scientist Eve Watson, he's like a child that will absorb everything like a sponge. The child-like-adult is a trope that we've seen many, many times, but Joshua Orpin's performance as Conner really ends up feeling like something unique. He's genuinely earnest and sweet even if at one point he basically accidentally mugs a woman that's terrified by his manhandling of a robber, and sees nothing absolutely wrong with it. And the fact that he also comes into the show with an absolute good boy of a dog doesn't hurt either.

Meanwhile, though, as Connor goes around exploring the world, things aren't quite sunshines for the people who created him. Lex Luthor himself doesn't show up, but his right-hand woman Mercy Graves sends out a tactical team and the scientist responsible for Connor's creation, dr. Eve Watson, who is also a pretty fun character. While clearly not entirely innocent, it's clear that Eve is far more fascinated with Conner more than anything, and is justifiably wary about LexCorp's seemingly far more militant attitude towards him. Eve's story is pretty fun -- it's clear that she's way over her head, thinking that she's signed up for a simple cloning project before realizing that Luthor has basically done what she is working on theoretically just to create a Kryptonian weapon.

Conner, meanwhile, is beset by two series of memories, one that is Clark Kent's and another that is Lex Luthor's. The problem is that Conner has no idea who Superman is, or who Luthor is, or who Clark is... and just sort of follows the memories to their logical conclusion, where we get to meet Lionel Luthor, Lex's terrible piece of shit dad. And, sure, I totally believe that Lex's a right ass when he was a kid, but Lionel's no peach either. And I really do love that the episode still has the presence of Lex and Superman in it without making them domineering. The LexCorp goon squad eventually show up, allowing the amazing action sequence where Conner explores his powers almost instinctively, driven by an interesting combination of a desire to protect the beaten-down old man and simple, unadulterated rage. It's a very, very interesting way to put in the Jekyll-and-Hyde theme that I don't think the original concept of Superboy had, and without falling back to the all-too-tired multiple-personalities trope.

Also, Krypto totally gets a badass move of catching a rocket mid-flight and spinning it back towards the goon that shot it. Krypto is a GOOD BOY.

It's at this point that Conner and Eve's paths converge, and, as much as Eve is loathe to admit it, she is Conner's 'mother' in more ways than one, and Eve tries her best to... educate Conner. If nothing else, trying to teach him to control his impulses and teach him about consequences (or thinking about how to handle, say, an abusive boyfriend fighting with his girlfriend). And the acting here is particularly great, with Eve herself not being in the best mindset at the moment and having to deal with a man-child who is struggling with controlling his very, very dangerous temper. Eventually Eve ends up confessing all about her guilt, about how she thinks she can control it, how she thinks she's the one good person keeping Luthor's will at bay... and ends up bringing Superboy to an abandoned Cadmus lab to show him what he really is. The fact that Superboy is obsessed, initially, with meeting Lex Luthor, is also an interesting motivation.

Also Krypto totally is a smart good boy and he tries to stop Conner from seeing the hard truths what a GOOD BOY.

Eve tries to tell Conner that, no, he's not a monster. That's not the point of the journey, the point is to make him realize that he's part-Superman, part-Luthor, and while there's potential for great destruction in Conner... there's also potential for great good. That's an amazing story that takes the same general concept of Conner's comic-book counterpart but totally brings it in a different direction. Eve also impresses on Conner the importance to run and not make a scene, and near the end of the episode Conner and Krypto are forced to leave Eve behind.

Being Superboy, though, Conner can't ignore people in peril for long, leading to... of course, him saving Jason Todd when he got chucked out of a building. And in an almost hilarious moment, immediately gets shot with Kryptonite bullets. It is admittedly kind of anticlimactic, but I suppose it fits with the theme of 'consequences' and 'running' and all that jazz that has been impressed on us this episode.

Worst of all, though, Krypto gets collared with a Kryptonite dog collar and taken away. NO!

Overall... easily one of the strongest episodes in Titans, and it's almost kind of a shame that the strongest episode also is the one that has barely anything to do with the ongoing plot and the established characters. Conner's story, even without taking in the fact that I really do like the character, is well-told, his interactions with Eve and his growing confusion about his place in the world is amazing, and while it does come in arguably an odd place in the season, I really did enjoy the episode. A solid one.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Superboy, a.k.a. Kon-El, a.k.a. Conner, first debuted in the comics in 1993's Reign of the Supermen mega-arc, being one of the four mysterious superheroes claiming to succeed or be Superman after the death of Earth's greatest hero. Created by Project Cadmus, a group of scientists, had their thirteenth experiment (Titans!Conner is also 'Experiment 13') succeeded in being a half-human, half-Kryptonian clone that is able to emulate Superman's Kryptonian powers with a form of 'tactile telekinesis'. While originally working independently, when Superman returned, Superboy was taken in under his wing. Superboy would join the 'Young Justice' team, and later on graduated to join Cyborg's incarnation of the Teen Titans. 
• Superboy's true backstory, that the human half of his DNA actually came from Lex Luthor instead of Project Cadmus's leader, and this is explored throughout the 2003 Teen Titans run. Superboy's appearance, with a simple black T-shirt with the Superman symbol, is taken from his appearance that debuted in that run of comics. 
• In his first appearance in the comics, Superboy was inspired by a similar black T-shirt with Superman's symbol on it in creating his original costume -- those shirts were created to commemorate Superman's death. 
• Krypto the Superdog debuted in the Golden Age, and was originally Kal-El's dog on Krypton and was sent on a rocket to Earth as a test subject by Jor-El. His rocket was knocked off-course, and Superman wouldn't be reacquainted with his old pet until much later. For the most part, Krypto stayed in the Fortress of Solitude, but is able to use his Kryptonian powers to assist its master in fighting crime. Post-Crisis-of-Infinite-Earths, Krypto was retconned to arrive from an alternate, idealized version of Krypton that was created by Brainiac 13. 
• In Superboy's original run, he hung out with a stray, earthen dog named Krypto. Later on, however, this was dropped and the Kryptonian-dog Krypto ended up being particularly associated with Conner.
• Mercy Graves, debuting in Superman: The Animated Series, is Lex Luthor's hyper-competent secretary, chauffeur, bodyguard, enforcer and right-hand woman. Lex Luthor himself is mentioned several times, although he doesn't make an appearance.
• Lionel Luthor and him being a major presence for Lex came from the TV show Smallville, before being adapted into the comics. 
• The Daily Planet's distinctive globe can be seen in the background of some scenes, particularly when Mercy and Eve were talking to each other. 
• Conner briefly sees a file and reads the title as 'Project Rakshasa', but I can't find any reference to it in the comics, and briefly looking through Cadmus's projects, I can't find anything. Likewise, Eve Watson seems to be originally created for the show.