Supermay 2024: Superman TAS: The Last Son of Krypton

For Superman Day 2024 i’m re-publishing my supermay reviews from last may. In this penultimate entry I take a look at Superman TAS’s pilot.

Hello all you happy kryptonians and welcome back to Supermay! And.. another schedule change. So long story short I got hit upside the head with a cold, so I was sick most of last week so doing a long 16 part serial THEN a three part mini series may of been a bit much and Kev graciously offered to do something else. And since we’ve covered plenty of Batman the Animated Series and will again, i'ts only fair we take a look at the other side of the coin, the three part pilot to superman the animated series, Last Son of Krypton

Superman TAS came about for the reason a lot of animated series often do

DC was considering a new superman film, likely the one where braniac wrestled a polar bear, and wanted a series to go with it. Timm naturally agreed. He tried to go for a style reminsicent of the 40’s flescher cartoons at first, but realized he simply coudln’t match it and instead went full art deco again, going for a chunky futrist design.

The result got us three great seasons of a fantastic show. Like Batman TAS I grew up with this show, though I didn’t see it as often on cartoon network or kids wb. Even then Warner’s bat bias was strong. I still liked what I saw and rewatching it years later, the series is excellent, distlling decades of superman into a stylish package the same way batman did.

While the two shows would look similar and have simliar “Retro universe that has modern tech and sensiblities”, styles, they fitting take opposite approaches to how they tell stories: Batman is case of the week, Superman has overaching big bads in Luthor, Braniac and eventually Darkseid alongside various villians of the week. Gotham is dark and and feels cramped, Metropolis is perptual blue skies and bright optmistic arctechture. The villians Batman fought are mostly people who need help but won’t take it and have some sort of tragic past, most of the villians of superman tas are assholes, with the ocasional sympathetic vilian, but the big three especailly are pure monsters, if very intresting and layred monsters. It’s not a shock a superman show an da batman show would contrast, but it’s neat in HOW they DO SO, yet still feel consitant with each other: Superman still feels like an “ultimate unvierse” take, taking all the best ideas from decades of media and compressing them down similar to batman, while bringing it’s own bold new ones to the table.

That approach is seen well in this opening three parter/movie: Last Son of Krypton succesfully crams superman’s origins on krypton, his youth, and his first days as superman into one narrative that never feels overpacked while setting up two of the series rotating big bads perfectly. Come with me under the cut and see what I mean and see that a man can fly.

Part one takes place entirely on Krypton and as a kid I found this bit boring, and feel it colored my later perception of stories based on krypton: kinda boring and sterile. I admit I still haven’t completely shaken this, as I prefer Superman as throughly human and krypton being a part of his past. There can be GOOD krypton stories, see the New Krypton arc of superman, but the culture’s just never fascinated me that much in the incarnations i’ve seen. So a full episode there wasn’t a great prospect.

So it’s telling that Superman the Animated Series DOES sell it on me a bit. The design of it still isn’t fo rme.. all crystal spires and pretty standard sci fi stuff: robes, stuffy councils etc. But character wise it tells a fairly heartbreaking story of a man BEGGING his government to listen to problems that will destroy them and said government refusing to hear them due to their own petty arrogance and self intrest. And a rampant ai. It helps the idea of a planet destroying itself and not realizing it is all to prescient into how humanity treats the planet, only with thousands of jor els instead of just this one guy. While stuffy boards who don’t really buy into what the heroes says are PAINFULLY common and get tediousu, it’s part of why krypton has'nt really grown on me, the fact it’s all to realistic helps a lot.

That one man? Shooter McGavin

Okay technically that last man is PLAYED by Shooter McGavin actor Christopher McDonald, who you may also remember from such films as Grease 2 , Thelma and Louise, and the tv show Hacks. McDonald does a fantastic job, to the point it was only on this second watch I recognized him.

He fights a monster as he researches because this episode needs more than one action scene apparently, and returns to his wife Lara, voiced by All My Children and Charmed alum Finola Hughes, whose distractingly british but like McDonald does a great job.

At home Jor El plays with Baby Kal El, and argues with his father in law Sul Van. Sul Van is played by voice acting legend Tony Jay , who usually plays the bad guys in these sorts of things but here is just “disapproving old man” which to be fair Jay also did a great job with. Van is a mouthpiece for the council Jor Els on, all of whom think he’s crazy and avoid him. Jor-El is confident though that they will believe him and krypton CAN be saved

Yeah as usual.. it dosen’t go this way, partly because the council is utterly flabbergasted at his solution to temporarily shoot everyone into the ghost prison dimensionk nown as the Phantom Zone.. and partly because the planet’s AI refuses to back him on this and changed the numbers. That AI.. is Braniac.

Superman TAS choose to completely rework Braniac, mostly thanks to co creator Alan Burnett. As Bruce Timm recalled it was burnett’s pitch to make him an AI.. and Timm was skeptical as in the comics, Braniac is an alien invader man. He was also a hypnotist once but we all ignore that. But Timm couldn’t deny Burnett’s brilliant idea: that Braniac here was the AI for all of krypton, it’s backbone.. and didn’t prevent it’s death because it was downloading EVERYTHING. It didn’t really NEED Krypton itself and planned to leave, taking everything it was with him.

And honestly.. it’s a brilliant concept and works perfectly :Sure he’s no longer Colluan.. but it still keeps the heart of the character as a collector of worlds, taking their knowledge.. then destroying them so he can hoard it. The AI part of it makes his cold logic to it more simple: he didn’t really evolve emotions like some ais, simply a purpose and a desire and thus dosen’t care about the lives lost to get what he wants. When Jor El confronts him… he only gets away because he poitns out if Jor El kills him, Krypton’s remains die with the computer.

Jor el sadly can’t prove it in time as the death spiral of the planet has begun. He dosen’t even have time to evacauate, only to dodge security for one desperate gambit: use the small, multi person spacecraft he planned to use to help migrate the phantom zone projector to send clark there on autopilot. The autopilot was a sneaky way to keep the rocket in good condition, unlike most versions where it’s in tact or i'ts soley there to deliver

So Superman would have a spaceship for later adventures. So the parents tearfully part as Tony Jay leads the others away and Braniac and Clark are the only ones to survive krypton.

Part 2 opens with the kents finding the baby and the portrayal of martha here is hilarious. She’s just like “The baby likes me we’re taking him home and i’ve already named him” Which is sweet but also is all done as her husband points out some very logical things “He could’ve been sent up by the us or the russians, we don’t know who he belongs to, we should turn him in”. It’s for the best they didn’t, don’t get me wrong, Martha’s heart is in the right place, but she should ask some followup questions.

We have no time for that as we jumpcut to years later. Clark’s a teenager and the design for this clark kent REALLY dosen’t work on a teenage frame

It does a little but it’s clear they didn’t QUITE Know how to draw teens just yet. They’d learn, as seen with Kara later on, but it took some time.

Clark has been spacing out lady and his friend Lana Lang asks if he’s okay… with the ENTIRELY natural dialouge of “Clark it’s me the girl whose had a crush on you since she was three years old”. Lana is played here by Kelly Schmidt, who… does her best. I don’t want to critcize a child actress.. but it’s really stiff and woden and she could’ve been given better direction.

She sticks out next to clark’s actor, Jason Marsden, coming freshly off his star making voice acting role in a Goofy Movie, and soon to be a fixture on Step By Step, his major live action role, who was also young but nails it well. I admit his voice dosen’t QUITE fit the character model, but I’m not sure what voice would fit a character model that awkward, so he does his best.

Clark admits to lana he can hear conversations feet away and see through things. Lana just asks how many times he’s looked into the girls bathroom. Lana this is a superhero work not porkys. superheroes don’t do that

Anymore. What the fuck was that gag…. I swear… anyways Clark hears a car about to have a tire burst and rushes to save it… and then wonders what the fuck IS he and how did he do that.

He confides in his parents who reveal the truth.. well what they know: they found him in a ship and they found a weir dbox with it. Said box shoots a superman signal into clark’s brain that reveals holograms of his parents

They explain the basics: he’s an alien, distant planet went boom, last survivor that they know aside from his cousin, and his dog and his monkey, all the basics.

Clark takes it poorly saying he’s not a freak.. then punching a support beam into splinters. I do like this idea for clark, that he dosen’t automatically accept “i’m an alien” as something easy to swallow. It’s somethign that takes time to process and MANY a good younger superman story have taken this balla nd ran with it: Superman Earth One, Superman Smashes the Klan and My Adventures with Superman are all good examples of dealing with superman’s push and pull between being human and alien, and the latter two cases turn it into an immigrant story and a story about being diffrent respectively and do so brilliantly.

Here they don’t really dive into it and honestly the Smallville portion of things feels underbaked in this three act story their telling. Krypton gets a full episode, Metropolis gets one and a half.. but Smallville and Clarks childhood and teen years is compressed into half an episode and while it does a decent job, it feels like they were struggling to cram everything into this space.

How Clark Reconcliles things is nice though.. he jumps.. realizes he can jump long chasms in a single bound and soon flies.. and i'ts the JOY of this that makes him realize while he’s not sure HOW he feels about being an alien… it’s not all bad. That there is something to it, some piece, some piece of this new side of him that brings him joy. He reunites with his parents and we begin act 3.

The Metropolis Portion like I said takes up about half of the runtime, and while I do feel smallville got short changed as a result I get why: Krypton sets up braniac, one of the series main threats and Metropolis sets up damn near everything else, with a good chunk of the supporting cast and one of the other big bads being introduced, while one of the major pieces of the rogues gallery is also given some small setup for later.

So for the past few weeks Metroplis has had reports of a guardian angel, a mysterious man who has been helping people, most notably saving a small child who fell out of a skyscraper. I'ts nicely set up too, as a human intrest story that pisses lois lane off as her smuggling story got pulled for this “crap”.

She’s soon has more pressing issues as we meet the daily planet’s new staffer, Clark Kent, from Smallville. Lois procedes to respond to him asking if she’s been to kansas with a sharp

And is asked to take Clark along to a press confrence on Lex Luthor. She responds by ditching clark as soon as possible by foistering him off on Jimmy. Run clark, run before he can extract your tears!

As you can see Lois and Clark .. don’t exactly get off to the best start and this is in line with what the cartoon’s taking the most inspiration from: the late 80’s reboot by everyone’s least faviorite old man yelling at clouds, John Byrne. In the late 80’s byrne, fresh from marvel, was tasked with retooling superman: as a result his power set was reduced, and several things were given an overhaul.

One of these was Lois which was mostly for the better: instead of being obessed with superman to early amy rose levels, Lois was a hardnosed military brat who took no one’s shit and was often in danger not because she was stupid, but because she was that gutsy and could often get out of it.

As a result her and Clark’s Romance was put on the back burner, with him having other love intrests first. Here they split the diffrence: theirs chemistry present and Lois is easily clark’s closest friend in both identities, but it’s clear their not QUITE as close as they’d get in the comics and never seem to reach that level: they care about each other, but they just aren’t together yet and may never get there. Justice League never really gave us any closure.

Lois is portrayed awesomely by Dana Delany, an actress known for China Beach and Desperate Housewives who’d go on to play lois throughout Justice League and Justice League Unimilted after this and is my faviorite in the roll thus far, getting her down as whip smart, no nosense, and hilarious all in one, though Alice Lee’s take is a close second.

It works though as it not only lets Lois be her own person, but let’s her be bold brash and a bit of a dick: as seen here she isn’t the most plesant to work with.. but later gives clark his due when he beats her to the scene and requests a bi line, now getting he’s not some clueless newbie, but really sharp.

I also like that Superman TAS dosen’t completely short change Clark Kent. Clark.. isn’t really diffrent in either identity, something taken from the post crisis/byrne era (he wasn’t the only writer) and that’s thankfully become the standard. Gone are the days of Clark Kent as a pathetic mask for superman so he can do normal people stuff because shut up. Instead Superman is throughly human and simply wants part of him to be able to live a normal life, while still using his power to help. Clark is witty, helpful and kind in both identities and that’s how it should be, with people not finding him simply because most assume he’s just… superman 24/7.

Their at a weapons press confrence for Luthor and like everything else, this takes more after post crisis: There Luthor was a captain of industry, the richest man in metropolis who owned most of it and earned his money via his inventions instead of using them to try and conquer the world. He was still a schemer and still did evil shit.. but it was modernized: he kept his schemes on the downlow and used his giant pile of money as a shield from consequences. It was a much needed refresh: Luthor was every bit as dangerous and smart… he was just now a problem superman couldn’t punch.

Perfectly playing this version of luthor is Clancy Brown, one of the greatest voice actors ever and one of the most decorated, with plenty of live action work such as his breakout roll in highlander to also sweeten the pot. The man’s an icon and THE lex luthor for me. Unlike Clark it’s not even REMOTELY close. No other luthor thus far has perfectly matched him. He’s THE Luthor, the guy to play him and gets him perfectly. the ego, the facade of friendlness, the thinly veiled threats. He was and still is my lex luthor.

Luthor is unveling a prototype, but soon terrioists hyjack it because it’s the mid 90’s and that isn’t as horrifying as it would be soon. We get a great shot of Clark ducking away and doing the iconic undoing his shirt thing, and thus superman leaps into actoin. He does his best and mostly saves the day, but ultimately the head terroist, John Corbin, shoots a plane an dpart 2 ends as the plane goes down

Part 3 begins as it goes up up and away as superman grabs it in a great sequence where he then helps land it, struggling all the way, a nice way to set him up.. and make it so Clark can no longer keep his other self secret. Superman is out to the world and gloriously so, as Clark finds out when Perry dubs the guy this while Lois is curious.l.. mostly due to his “nice s”

So Clark confides in Ma and Pa, with Ma having been keeping clippings of his exploits, a nod to said Byrne run, and both encouraging him. Clark worries this is the end of him but Pa encourages him “Your clark kent. Superman is jsut a part of you”. A perfect incapuslation of who clark is and the anthethesis to captain “i’ll kill myself with a tornado so you don’t out yourself as a freak son”.

Clark does decide to answer some questions by giving lois an interview.. and does so by lifting her car into the air. Maybe it’s because he likeeees her, maybe it’s because he trusts her, my guess

And tells her he’s an alien which she has trouble buying. Keep in mind batman at this point has had a man made of clay and they outright reference batman.. but I do kinda get it as while batman’s had demons and man bats, it hasn’t quite got to aliens YET. She still agrees, though can’t get him to spill all his secrets, and I like the touch that she DOES get he probably has another identity as he’s not around 24/7.

With this Clark and Lois pay a visit to lex.. and Clark once again impresses her this time by pressing lex, not directly implying anything.. but by pointing out some facts: the war suit he made behing heisted means the government will want more, and better since Kanznia now has one, and that he stands to mak ea lot… heavily implying he let them take it. Luthor is pissed, and Lois.. is shocked. He’s only the second person to piss Lex off that much. The first was her when she dumped his ass, another nod to the byrne run and something thankfully glossed over here and it fits: Their both smart and tenacious, but Luthor lacks a soul.. and his penis is presumably concave

Clark backs up his statment too as it might be MORE than just Luthor defrauding the us government: he saw some old photos on file of luthor.. with the head of Kanznia, a fictional country the government recently stopped sale with, but Luthor seems close with.. and in one of the pictures is the head terrorist john corbin.

Clark here is played by Tim Daly, star of Wings and Private Practice and one of the best supermen ther'es ever been. Ther'es just a nice warmth to his performance copuled with a lot of charm. It’s subdued, but in a way that conveys a lot of emotoins at once. Clarks’ a calm collected guy, but you can always tell how he feels and when he’s pissed you can feel it, as you shoudl when someone this nice is honked off.

Lois goes off to find a source, her old friend Bibo. Bibo is a longtime supporting character from the superman comics. Bibbo is a sailor, dockworker and loveable sailin man whose a massive fan of superman and will help his hero when asked. He’s mostly comic relief but he’s loveable as hell anytime he shows up which is often as no matter the run, writers really love this guy and I can’t blame them. Here he’s played by sitcom star and my boy Brad Garret, who does a phenominal job. He’ll also later guest star as the main man lobo and do a great job there too.

Bibbos been dealing with a ship tha'ts been pissing him off, so far so normal, because it won’t hire anyone union, and is shady as hell. Lois tries to sneak on and is let on by the captain, played my Malcom Mcdowel, neither of which is a red flag. Turns out he was just baiting her til lthey could get out to port and then get out to interinational waters to unalive her for snooping. Seriously lois at least pack some bear mace or a crotch seeking purse dog.

Thankfully she has the best crotch seeking purse dog in superman, as clark figured out she was in danger, zoomed off from having to deal with jimmy and clears the boat. Head Terroist John Corbin flees in the battle suit and we get a drawn out fight sequence as the two lock horns. It’s decent, and shows off that this superman isn’t super invunerable: miniguns affect him, and it keeps the fights fair. The writers admit he was as weak or strong as they needed to be and it works as Clark is both new at fighting threats on his level, and that power scaling really isn’t important when he’s the main focus: it keeps the tension up to where needed and he has a more consitent power scale in Justice League when stacked up against others.

Superman saves the day and I love his final line to corben"Want to try another round without th esuit?“

Superman wins ….. and naturally luthor is pissed, as the represnative from Kaznia wants thie rmoney back as they never got their delivery. then gets to get out of haggling as superman is hovering angrily outside Luthor’s tower.

The following scene.. is my favorite in the pilot. Luthor rants to superman, figuring he figured out his scheme but can’t prove it and Brown delivers the monologue perfectly pointing out he owns 2/3 of the city, and some of them don’t even know it. Superman can prove nothing.. and all while superman just GLARES at him, not giving luthor the satisfaction of responding till luthor finally snaps

"SAY SOMETHING!”
“I’ll be watching Luthor”

It’s the perfect incaptulation of their relationship: Luthor has all this power.. but ultimately.. superman disrputs all that. he’s outside the systems that let’s corrupt billionare jackoffs like luthor get away with their shit. In Real Life Luthor probably would’ve pulled off his scheme. Here.. superman is there to hold him acountable, to ruin it, to cost luthor billions.. and to watch him. He’ll be there again and again till Luthor is finally stopped.. and true to his word.. he is. He’s there again and again: he’s the one who finally takes Luthor down over in justice league, and does so multiple times. He’ll always be there to help us with threats we can’t face.. and sometimes that’s something embedded in the system. It’s a brilliant update of his leftist routes and I support it wholeheartedly.

So we end with superman flying away to an adoring crowd.. while on a disatant ship two aliens are slaughtered..as braniac uploads himself.

Last Son of Krypton is a solid pilot, deftly setting up everything for the series, and setting the tone briliantly: the threats won’t be gone as easy, the stakes are slightly bigger, the hero is sightly bigger.. but he’s ultimately still human. A truly great set of episodes that unlike far too damn many cartoons is still on max if your curious. Truly worth your time