Recap: Superman: TAS "The Last Son of Krypton, Part III"

Previously on Superman: TAS, Superman.

And now, the continuation.

As the innocent plane begins to fall from the sky, Superman flies into action. First, he grabs the plane by the tail to slow it down, but this only rips the tail off.

"I meant to do that!"

Superman: “Nice one, Clark.”

You might not want to get into the habit of talking to yourself if you’re going to be spilling your secret identity, there.

"Aaah! That flying guy just poked holes in our instrument panels!"

He manages to slow down and redirect the plane into the nearly empty park, saving the day. Before he can fly away, amateur camera footage manages to capture him on tape. And back at the Planet, Jimmy, Perry, Lois, and Clark start going over it.

Perry: “Who is he? Where does he come from? What does he want?”

But Lois is having different thoughts about the strange visitor.

Lois: “Nice ‘S.’”

Looks like Lois wants to do her own investigations regarding his [insert pun here]. "Man of Steel," "Kryptonian rocket," etc.

And, of course, it wouldn’t be legal to not have Lois christen him Superman (though they justify it by having her namedrop Nietzsche). Looking at you, Man of Steel. (There, I criticized Man of Steel after complimenting it last time. Now no one can be upset that I liked it. ...right?)

Perry takes a liking to the name and gives Lois and Clark the job of getting an interview with big blue. Clark flies back home real quick to talk to his parents about how difficult it’s going to be keeping a low profile from now on.

Clark: “Suddenly, people are calling me ‘Superman.’”

That nice ‘S’ on your chest may have helped a bit, buddy.

Martha: “Still, it wouldn’t be bad if people knew more about ‘Superman.’ I don’t want anyone thinking you’re like that nut in Gotham City.”

Yeah, Clark, you really don’t want to be compared to Harley Quinn.

So with a bit of his Pa's reassurance that he can be Superman and Clark Kent, Clark’s made up his mind. Later that day, we see Lois driving down a Metropolis highway and the series dates itself by showing Lois on a car phone. When she finishes, he politely makes his presence known and grabs Lois’s car right off the street, flying it to the outskirts of town. So wait, Superman was flying under her car until she finished her call? What a gentleman.

Anyway, they have a meeting on a scenic cliff, where he gives the whole spiel. Minus the bits about being Clark Kent, of course.

Superman: “I’m not here to scare anyone. In fact, I’ve always tried to help people whenever possible.”

But Lois doesn't exactly believe him. It's clear that she wants to, but he seems too good to be true. And she's taking the whole "Krypton" thing with a grain of salt. But at the end of the conversation, Lois has other things on her mind again.

Lois: “What do you do on your off-hours?”
Superman: “I think that’s a question for another time.”

Good choice. Best not to let her know about your Star Trek/DBZ fanfic just yet.

The next day, Lex Luthor reads the Daily Planet article on this “Superman” with some amusement as Lois and Clark enter his office for an interview.

Lex Luthor: "Well, well, an alien in my own backyard... and such a civic-minded one, too."

He's getting a massage as he reads, because he's a busy man. Why, there's meetings to go to, golf to play, and massages to have. The daily grind for your average evil, bald, businessman.

"You're interrupting my happy ending."

He’s grumping a bit because of the theft of his battlesuit, but Clark points out that since terrorists have the prototype, the government is going to be willing to pay out the nose for an even better one.

He's also mostly naked and wearing the world's skimpiest towel in front of a giant window. Clearly, the man is confident.

Clark: “When all is said and done, this could net you a multi-million dollar windfall.”

And so, it begins.

Luthor: “You’re very amusing, Mister… Kent? Is it? Yes. I’ll remember that.”

Apparently, that's all he remembers. From this point on, Luthor only refers to him as "Kent."

On the drive from Lexcorp, Lois compliments Clark in his dealings with Luthor.

Lois: “You’re only the second person I’ve seen get under Lex’s skin.”
Clark: “Who’s the first?”
Lois: “Me. When I dumped him.”

Lois starts HOLD THE PHONE.

Lois and Lex? …I have several questions. Many of which are best left to the realm of fanfiction, so I'm not going to ask.

Um, anyway, Clark tells Lois that he doesn’t think this whole thing was actually a theft, but a gift. When they get to the Planet, Clark shows Lois some pictures he found of Lex in the archives meeting with a Kasnian leader a while back. The USA and Kasnia aren’t too friendly at the moment, so if Lex wanted to sell Kasnia a warsuit, it’d be an act of treason. But a “theft?” Hmmmm...

But back in the 90's, "hunches" weren't actually facts (oh, how times change in the news business, huh?), so Lois goes off to investigate her own source, “Bibbo” at the docks. Apparently, there’s a suspicious Kasnian tanker that’s been there for a while. Lois hands some change to Bibbo and tells him to call Clark Kent at the Daily Planet to tell him what she’s doing and call Inspector Henderson (a character from the old theatrical Superman cartoons) if she doesn’t call back in twenty minutes, and she goes to investigate. Bibbo uses the money to buy some soda.

Bibbo: “She’ll be okay.”

You literally had one job!

"Mmm, spinach-flavored soda."

Lois gets yelled at by one of the men on the ship, but one of the henchmen from last episode comes along to smooth things over. And he's apparently evil. How do I know he’s evil? He’s voiced by Malcolm McDowell, who played such roles as Alex DeLarge, Linderman (from Heroes), and Dr. Tolian Soran, aka the guy who killed Captain Kirk. Yeah. He’s evil.

"Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?"
"Why are you talking like that?"
"I'm... I'm not sure...."

He introduces himself as John Corben, and she asks about the cargo. John claims that they have no cargo, what with that whole trade embargo. But she quickly spots the warsuit, so Corben pulls out a weapon. Over with Clark at the Planet, Jimmy’s busy showing off all his “amazing” pictures, one of which has to do with Lois’s gun smuggling story. Clark spots the Kasnian flag on one of the ships in the background, and pieces it all together.

The tanker takes off, with Lois Lane tied up in the cargo hold while she tells them that they better watch out for her backup.

Corben: “Sweetheart, if anyone knew or cared, they would’ve made a move by now.”

They soon enter international waters and prepare to shoot her dead. Luckily, Superman appears just in time to block the bullets with his pecs. He saves Lois and takes care of the gunmen, but Corben enters the battlesuit to even the odds. Superman gets Lois the heck out of there and tells her to call the cops as the exosuit flies over to Metropolis to continue the fight. Of course, Superman wins, despite getting wrapped in a car and blown up.

The next day, after the story hits the headlines, a Kasnian official meets with Luthor to tell him that the deal is off, since the suit never actually left Metropolis. He quickly leaves as he sees Superman appear behind Luthor.

Watching.

Waiting.

But not commiserating.

"....."

Luthor: “Oh, the silent treatment, eh? Well, I don't know what you think you heard out there, but I know what you can prove. And it's nothing. You see, uh, ’Super-Man’, I own Metropolis. My technology built it, my will keeps it going, and nearly two-thirds of its people work for me, whether they know it or not. Even you have to admit it's a model of efficiency.”

"....."

Luthor: “And yet, I've often thought, ‘Why limit myself to just one city? A being of your abilities could be very useful to me on a, shall we say, global scale? Why don't you float on in and we'll discuss it?”

"....."

Luthor: “Say something!”

Luthor grabs a model of the warsuit and throws it. Superman catches it and crushes it to powder between his hands.

Superman: “I'll be watching you, Luthor.”

Superman flies off to the cheers of the crowd below, and as the fanfare plays, the episode… doesn’t end. Somewhere, out in space, an alien craft brings aboard a strange satellite. It soon kills them all and plugs into their ship, taking it over.

Brainiac: “Brainiac systems activated.”

Dun-dun-dunnnnn!

And now, finally, let's review the first outing for the Man of Steel.