1x02 The Last Son of Krypton (2)

[7.8/10] That’s more like it! Now that we have the throat-clearing on Krypton out of the way, Superman: The Animated Series can really fly! (Pun only sort of intended.)

I like the glimpse we get of Ma and Pa Kent finding little baby Superman. There’s something very natural about their back-and-forth. Martha’s immediate willingness to take him in represents the kindness and willingness to help that the Kents pass on to their boy. And Jonathan melting when he sees how cute his new adoptive son is, only to get his finger crunched by the super-strong baby, is a nice tease too.

I also like the little bits we get to see of Smallville-era Clark Kent. Again, the show has to shoehorn a little action in given the demographics, but I like what it does here versus what it did in part one. Whereas the last bit of fireworks felt shoe-horned in, seeing a young Clark, who doesn't even know he has powers yet, rush in to rescue a family in danger helps show Superman’s inherent goodness and altruism long before he knew he had the strength and invulnerability to do it without worry. That goes a long way, and the exploding camper setup is just well-done on a nuts and bolts animation level.

By the same token, I appreciate how we see a young Clark struggling with and eventually overcoming the fact that he’s different. The show doesn't devote a lot of time to it, but what we get works really well. His toying with x-ray vision, heat vision, super hearing, and other features that seem to throw him off is a clever way to introduce his powers for anyone not already familiar, and having him figuring out how to fly as a way to silently dramatize his acceptance that these powers are a gift, not something that makes him a “freak” is a very canny choice.

That said, I appreciate that the show takes at least a little time to show Clark having to deal with the news that he’s the last scion of a dead world. The sequence where the little info box projects the Superman logo on his forehead is neat. His parents’ warnings to him about people treating him differently but not responding in anger are good, foundational stuff. And his impulse to deny that any of it’s true and try to affirm himself as a normal human make this larger than life figure relatable.

I enjoyed the introduction to Superman in the present too. The Clark Kent we meet arriving in Metropolis is much savvier than the teenager we see in the middle portion of the episode. The show immediately establishes Lois Lane as a force to be reckoned with, someone who knows her way around a story and isn’t afraid to push back at her colleagues or the TV competition. She and Clark immediately have a combative chemistry that I really like, and the pair working together on the Lex Luthor story is a good setup.

Of course things go awry and Superman, the one we know and love, needs to make an appearance. The tease of him as a “red angel” and his final, cape and underoos appearance to save Lois from a falling hunk of metal is a cool bit. Given the way the episodes are chopped up, it feels a little odd that we cutaway mid battle, but some allowance must be made for the needs of episodic television.

Overall, this is a big improvement from the first episode, and a nice introduction to the different stages of Superman’s life that make him who he is and becomes.