Superman: The Animated Series - Episodes 17-20 Reviews

Onto a strong selection of episodes as a speedster shows up for a race, Lois gets a blast from the past and Superman faces two other entertaining enemies.

Episode 17: Livewire

Livewire is a pretty decent baddie and I was looking forward to seeing how this series handled the character as she popped up here before appearing in The New Batman Adventures. Here we get to see shock jock Leslie Willis (Lori Petty) revel in being controversial and generally anti-Superman, even more so when a lightning accident at a media event transforms her into Livewire and Leslie takes to being a new villain rather quickly by trying to blackout Metropolis and control it's media. Her defeat and eventual incarceration by Lex Luthor though is a rather dark way of ending this episode. 7/10

Episode 18: Speed Demons

Having an episode with The Flash was not something I was expecting seeing as Batman: The Animated Series seemed to keep the big heroes out of Gotham but we've got a race between Superman and the Flash (Charlie Schlatter) for charity that gets interrupted by Weather Wizard (Miguel Ferrer). I love the use of Weather Wizard here and his relationship with his brother, not to mention the snarky rivalry between Superman and the Flash, nicely played for laughs too. 8/10

Episode 19: Identity Crisis

I have a bit of a soft spot for Bizarro and this episode had me actively rooting for the poor guy too. He starts the episode genuinely believing that he's actually Superman and is shocked when the real Superman points out he's a fake. It also doesn't help the poor guy that Lex Luthor has a batch of Superman clones waiting to go and that Mercy takes pleasure in ridiculing his looks and giving him the name of Bizarro. At least Lois is kind to him and his heroic sacrifice, while predictable is pretty affecting to watch though. A fantastic episode, easily one of the series best. 9/10

Episode 20: Target

After three incredibly strong episodes, this one was rather weak by comparison. Basically Lois wins a journalist award and we learn that a former mentor of hers hates her guts while at the same time, someone is terrorising Lois and trying to kill her at different times. The person responsible also become a new baddie, Luminous and there's an okay enough fight scene between him and Superman but after the previous three episodes, this one wasn't as impressive. 6/10

Next blog I'll delve into Action Figures, Mxyzpixilated, Double Dose and Solar Power.