1-3: The Last Son of Krypton (Premiere) [September 6, 1996]
4: Fun and Games [September 7, 1996]
5: A Little Piece of Home [September 14, 1996]
6: Feeding Time [September 21, 1996]
7: The Way of all Flesh [October 19, 1996]
8: Stolen Memories [November 2, 1996]
9: The Main Man (Part One) [November 9, 1996]
10: The Main Man (Part Two) [November 16, 1996]
11: My Girl [November 23, 1996]
12: Tools of the Trade [February 1, 1997]
13: Two's A Crowd [February 15, 1997]

Superman: The Animated Series
[Last updated February 19, 1997]
[Information], [Background Comments from Newsgroups]

Many thanks to Peter T. McDermott (pete@pegasus.att.com) who has taken over
where Andrew Gould left off in writing up each episode for this Superman:
The Animated Series Episode Guide! :)

Episode Guide
This guide does not list airdates for repeat showings, except for
The Last Son of Krypton to tell the writing and
directing credits for each of the 3 parts.

Cast
Superman/Clark Kent: Tim Daly
Lois Lane: Dana Delany
Lex Luthor: Clancy Brown
Perry White: George Dzundza
Jimmy Olsen: David Kaufman
Angela Chen: Lauren Tom
Ron Troupe: Dorian Harewood

Martha Kent: Shelley Fabares
Jonathan Kent: Mike Farrell
Jor-El: Christopher McDonald
Lara: Finola Hughes
Sul-Van: Tony Jay
Braniac: Corey Burton
Lana Lang (teenager): Kelly Schmidt
Lana Lang: Joely Fisher
Teenage Clark Kent: Jason Marsden
Bibbo: Brad Garret
Bruno Mannheim: Bruce Weitz
John Corben: Malcolm McDowell
The Toyman: Bud Cort
Mercy Graves: Lisa Edelstein
Professor Hamilton: Victor Brandy
Parasite/Rudy Jones: Brion James
Commissioner Henderson: Mel Winkler
Angela Chen: Lauren Tomas
Gnaww: Don Harvey
Lobo (The Main Man): Brad Garrett
Sqweek: David J. Sander
Emperor Spooj: Richard Moll
Serpent: Frank Welker
Big Susan: Valri Bromfield
Lizzie: Lauri Fraser
Mr. Eelan: Larry Drake
Al: Kevin W. Richardson
Blaine: Phil Hayes
Dan "Terrible" Turpin: Joseph Bologna
Darkseid: Michael Ironside
Kanto: Michael York
Maggie Sawyer: Joanna Cassidy
Dr. Earl Garver: Brian Cox

Credits
Produced by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm
Associate Producer: Haven Alexander
Series Story Editors: Stan Berkowitz, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini
Series Writers: Hilary J. Bader, Stan Berkowwitz, Alan Burnett, Paul Dini, Robert Goodman, Mark Evanier
Series Directors: Hiroyuki Aoyama, Curt Geda, Kenji Hachizaki, Toshihiko Masuda, Dan Riba, Yuichiro Yano
Superman Theme by Shirley Walker
Voice Director: Andrea Romano
Casting Director: Leslie Lamers
Production Management: Joe Reily
Executive Producer: Jean MacCurdy
Character Design: Sharon Bridgeman, Shane Glines, Dexter Smith, Jim Stenstrum, Tommy Tejeda, Bruce Timm, James Tucker

Episodes

1-3: The Last Son of Krypton (Premiere) [September 6, 1996]
Written by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini
Directed by Dan Riba, Scott Jeralds, Curt Geda, Bruce Timm
Music by Lolita Ritmanis, Michael McCuiston, Harvey R. Cohen
Jor-El's tests confirm Krypton is doomed to explode, but the ruling
council disbelieves him, because the Braniac computer - built to study
and monitor Krypton - disagrees. Jor-El finds Braniac has lied so that it
will have time to save itself by transferring itself and its' repository of
kryptonian knowledge into a sattelite, instead of being ordered by the
council to help the people. At Braniac's orders, Jor-El is pursued by police.
Jor-El makes it back to his home, where his father-in-law, Sul-Van, now
believes him. Jor-El and his wife Lara prepare their son, Kal-El, to escape
Krypton in a rocket, while Lara's father decoys the police. Braniac leaves
Krypton. Jor-El and Lara watch Kal-El's ship leave just before Krypton
explodes.
The ship takes Kal-El, and some meteoric remains of Krypton, through a space
warp to Earth's solar system. The ship lands and is found by Jonathan and
Martha Kent. Martha insists they keep the small child. That child grows up
in Smallville as Clark Kent. In high school, Clark tells his friend Lana
Lang that he is worried about how he is developing strange powers. Lana
sees Clark rescue people from a truck accident without being harmed. Clark's
parents show him the rocket he came in and a small device. The device has a
message from Jor-El and Lara which tells Clark he is not human. Initially
confused, Clark accepts his birthright and continues discovering his
powers. Several years later in Metropolis, Clark gets a job at the Daily
Planet. Lois Lane finds her story about dockside gun smuggling has been
replaced by a story about a mysterious blue angel that saved a girl's life.
Superman makes a public appearance at a Lexcorp Laboratory when a prototype
battle suit is stolen, and saves Lois. He pursues the men who stole the
battle suit, but is diverted by having to save a plane downed by a missile.
At the Daily Planet, Lois dubs the new hero Superman. After talking with his
parents, Clark as Superman gives Lois Lane a short interview to explain
himself to the public. Clark meets Luthor and suggests Luthor can profit
from the battlesuit's theft, then later shows Lois photos that link Luthor
to the country of Kaznia. At dockside, Lois gets a tip from Bibbo about a
Kaznian ship, and onboard meets John Corben. Corben kidnaps her when she
spots the stolen suit. Tipped off by a photo from Jimmy Olsen, Clark as
Superman saves Lois at the last moment and begins fighting Corben, who
uses the suit. Ultimately the suit is destroyed and Corben captured. Later,
Superman appears to Luthor who admits allowing the suit to be stolen, and
Superman vows to keep watching him. Meanwhile, in space Braniac is retrieved
by aliens. Braniac kills the aliens, and takes over their ship.
The premiere is available on home video (64 minutes).

Fun and Games [September 7, 1996]
Written by Robert Niskir
Director: Kazuhide Tomonaga
Music by Kristopher Carter
The Toyman targets respectable gangster Bruno Mannheim, for ruining his
toymaking father (Winslow Schott), by interfering with an armored car
heist, and later sending toy planes gunning after Mannheim. Superman
rescues the armored car robbers from a lethal bouncing ball, and Mannheim
from the planes, but finally the Toyman captures Mannheim by keeping
Superman busy with a giant duck equipped with rocket launchers. Next, Toyman
has Lois Lane kidnapped, and with her dressed in a doll costume wants her
to accurately report as he plans to have Mannheim shot to death by a toy
soldier firing squad in the Toyman's hideout. Clark and Jimmy deduce who is
the Toyman. Superman rescues Lois and Mannheim, after shaking off the
Toyman's Dopey Doh. The police find no trace of the Toyman admist his
ruined hideout.

A Little Piece of Home [September 14, 1996]
Written by Hilary J. Bader
Directed by Toshihiko Masuda
When two crooks try stealing items from a new city museum supplied by
Luthor, Superman finds himself suddenly weakened allowing the crooks to
escape. Luthor determines a green rock on exhibition caused Superman to
weaken. Luthor arranges a trap using the rock by luring Superman with a
crook hired to steal treasury plates. When Superman manages to escape and
tells Luthor he'll never work with him, Luthor vows to kill Superman. One of
Luthor's scientists has supplied Lois with a sliver of the rock. At S.T.A.R.
Labs, Professor Hamilton names the sample Kryptonite and tells Superman and
Lois that lead will shield the radiation from Superman. Luthor lures Lois and
Superman back to the museum. He traps them in a hall with the kryptonite
and a robot dinosaur. After Lois manages to toss the rock into a lead vase,
Superman rescues them. Superman asks Lois not to tell people about kryptonite
and tosses the lead-sealed kryptonite into space. Luthor has hired people to
look for more kryptonite.

Feeding Time [September 21, 1996]
Written by Robert Goodman
Directed by Curt Geda
Rudy Jones, after helping a crook steal chemicals from S.T.A.R. Labs, is
exposed to the chemicals and transformed into a parasite that can absorb
people's memories and energy. Metropolis is terrorized when the Parasite
abducts Superman to feed on Superman's powers. Jimmy rescues Superman,
being held in the lower levels of S.T.A.R. Labs. The Parasite returns and
fights Superman, who wears a protective suit developed by Professor
Hamilton, in the labs. The Parasite is stopped when he touches the sample
of kryptonite being kept at the lab.

The Last Son of Krypton (Part I) [September 28, 1996]
Written by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini
Directed by Dan Riba

The Last Son of Krypton (Part II) [October 5, 1996]
Written by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini
Directed by Scott Jeralds, Curt Geda

The Last Son of Krypton (Part III) [October 12, 1996]
Written by Alan Burnett, Paul Dini
Directed by Dan Riba, Bruce Timm

The Way of all Flesh [October 19, 1996]
Luthor manages to turn John Corben into the Cyborg Metallo, using
kryptonite as a power source. Superman barely manages to survive a
brawl with the new Metallo.

Stolen Memories [November 2, 1996]
Directed by Curt Geda
Lois and Jimmy secretly watch Luthor at an arranged contact with the
alien being Brainiac. Luthor thinks he has a business deal to provide
data on Earth, in exchange for Brainiac's data on other planets.
Meanwhile, Brainiac tells Superman that he is also a survivor of Krypton,
and shows the remaining data globe for that planet. After a nightmare,
Superman is suspicious of Brainiac, and warns Luthor. But Luthor starts
a data transfer, which Brainiac soon controls. After finding the other
data globes show Brainiac has destroyed the planets he visits, Superman
fights Braniac. Superman stops Brainiac, while Luthor's weapons cause
Brainiac's spaceship to crash. Superman saves Krypton's data globe,
while Luthor decides to ignore alien code noticed by an employee.

The Main Man (Part One) [November 9, 1996]
Directed by: Dan Riba
Faster then a speeding bullet, a sleek spacecraft that is seen to be the very
one that bought Superman here to Earth, screams across the desert floor as
scientists nearby attempt to gauge it's speed. It tears through the air,
whipping up it's own contrail of air and dirt as it rips by us. We see that
Professor Hamilton is leading the team of scientists as they try to measure
it's speed. After Superman gives the scientists a few close fly-bys, Professor
Hamilton tells Superman it was his and his team's privilege to work on the
Kryptonian technology within the ship to ready it for Superman's test flight.
And as the episode tells, the ship will indeed become integral very soon as
Lobo, an intergalactic bounty hunter, and general tough guy, is hired
by an interstellar collector called The Preserver, to capture Superman for his
private zoo. This zoo is inhabited by creatures who are the last of their
kind. Superman, being the last son of Krypton, qualifies admirably.
Lobo, being a mercenary type, has no qualms about getting Superman no matter
how much he tears up Metropolis in the process. He blows into town and gets
Superman's attention by shooting up Police headquarters. Clark's super-hearing
tells him all about it, and over to headquarters he goes. Not knowing Lobo's
eh, anti-social tendencies, he tries reason at first. Two seconds after Lobo
knocks him a block or two, he realizes reason won't work, and the fight is on!
After a good old fashioned Super-fight, which was refreshing to see in a
cartoon, Lobo takes off into space. Determined to prevent Lobo from returning
to Metropolis and causing more damage, Lobo *loves* a good fight, Superman
dons his Neutron Suit Armor(TM) and goes into space seeking Lobo. Find
Lobo he does, and after a little more physical discussion, the two eventually
come into range of the Preserver's ship, and Superman is fired upon by the
Preserver's weapons which prove to be too powerful for Superman. When Superman
awakens, he's in a Kryptonian room, dressed in Kryptonian clothing! Once the
Preserver appears and explains that he collects beings who are the last of
their kind, Superman tries to punch his way out of the cage and finds he's
powerless! The Preserver explains that there's a special "Red Sun" lamp in
the top of the cage which removes his powers, and thereby maintains the
authenticity of the Kryptonian display and keeps Superman from escaping.
Lobo tells the Preserver to pay him as he has to get back to his last job to
turn in that particular prey, and he'll now take the Preserver's payment for
capturing Superman. The Preserver pays Lobo by gassing him into unconsciousness
and imprisoning him as he's the Last Czarnian by dint of him having killed
everyone on his planet as a graduation assignment! Lobo had foolishly bragged
of this to The Preserver and also told him he gave himself an "A" for the swell job he did. So now the Main Man, Lobo's nickname for himself, and Superman are both prisoners of this intergalactic collector. Episode ends with the infamous, "To be continued
...".

The Main Man (Part Two) [November 16, 1996]
Directed by: Dan Riba

The episode opens with a happy recap of last episode. For those who came in
late: The most infamous bounty hunter in the galaxy is Lobo. His latest
contract is to bring back gold and the thief who stole it to the Emperor Spooj
who's very upset with the thief named Sqweek. Lobo gets his man, er alien,
and then while heading back with his prize, is contracted by a creature called
the Preserver. The Preserver has a zoo wherein reside various creatures who
are the last of their worlds. Lobo's new target is the last son of Krypton,
namely Superman. After a heck of a good couple of fights, Superman is
captured. As Lobo is the last Czarnian, he killed his planet for his high
school science project and gave himself an A, he's immediately captured by the
Preserver too! Jeez, you just can't take your eye off those intergalactic
zookeepers for a minute, can ya'? And now, "The Main Man" Part 2. We open on
an angry red planet, and zoom in on the Emperor Spooj's throne room. Spooj, a
Jabba the Hut type who spits leeches at his audience, is being lied to by
Gnaww, the brother of the hapless thief Sqweek whom Lobo caught in the first
episode of our story. Gnaww is blaming Lobo for Sqweek not yet being returned
for punishment. As Lobo's not around to defend himself, and gee can he do
that, Spooj gives Gnaww permission to go get Lobo and Sqweek for the Emperor
to thrash soundly. Gnaww tells Spooj that if anybody's going to bring Sqweek
in for the bounty, "it's gonna' be family." Meanwhile, we see Superman
getting back into his costume aboard the Preserver's ship, while the Preserver
explains to Superman that he normally doesn't take sentients, but as Superman
and Lobo *are* the last of their kinds, he'll make the exception in the ir
case. Lobo wakes up to find two alien party women in his cell with him. This
looks like a party to Lobo until he bumps into his enclosure walls and starts
to freak out declaiming the Preserver all the while. Suddenly Lobo's party
women spout gas nozzles out of their mouths and gas Lobo back into a more
tractable state. They're nothing more then security dro ids with a pretty
facade to placate the main man, Lobo. Superman seeing all this, decides to
escape using a crystal sculpture in his cell by using it to reflect the Red
Sun lamp's rays keeping him powerless into a neighboring creatures eyes to
irritate the animal into stampeding through the cell's walls. It wo rks, and
Superman escapes and heads out to stop the Preserver. Before he can go, Lobo
begs for help escaping, and ices the deal by claiming he'll nuke the Earth if
he ever gets out. Superman extracts a promise of non-interference from Lobo
concerning himself and the Earth, and then breaks Lobo out of his cell. Lobo
thanks Superman, and punches him across the room so Superman "won't think he's
goin' soft." Suddenly, the pair are confronted by security probes who tell
them to return to their cells. Lobo barks out, "Who's gonna' make us?" The
probes respond by blasting the two with withering power beams! As their
powers aren't up to snuff yet, this unlikely t eam-up of the brave and the
bold realize they've got to work toether. Unfortunately, for Lobo this
consists of shoving Superman into the line of fire as an instant decoy. But
once the probes concentrate on Superman, Lobo sneaks behind them and
lobo-tomize s them. Now Superman suggests it's time to head for their ships,
and Lobo says he's staying long enough for some payback with the Preserver.
The Preserver, who's watching all this on his monitors, rankles at this
statement, and drops the two into a deep p it that comes with it's own sand
serpent who's all fangs and appetite. He thrashes Lobo and turns on Superman,
getting the upper hand. Lobo saves Superman by the "skin" of the snake's
teeth, causing the Preserver to ponder actually taking a personal hand in all
this, despite the viewers wondering at this. You see, the Preserver looks
like nothing so much as a four foot tall floating inverted egg with a mouth
and a jacket on. Not what I'd consider a threat at least. But we're given no
time to ponder it, as suddenly Gnaww shows up with his fellow bounty hunters
demanding Lobo and Sqweek. The Preserver knowlingly smiles and tells Gnaww,
"Better yet. Come and get him." Now we see Lobo re-capturing his quarry
Sqweek, and then all three fugitives head for the docking bay. Just then
Gnaww and the guys show up with blasters blazing at the still powered-down
Superman and Lobo. Superman tells Lobo to make a run for it with Sq week
while he holds them off. After taking out a member of Gnaww's gang, Superman
runs to the next zoo environment's door and hammers it down just as the bounty
hunters show up and blast him in the back. They hear a wild howling from
within the enclosure, and figure Superman was mounting a desperate last ditch
attempt at beating them using the creature. They throw him into the pen, and
wait for him to fall victim to the animal. But all they see is a small bird
once known on Earth as a Dodo, thought extinct, which the Preserver had picked
up in earlier galactic wanderings. And that means an Earth environment!
Superm an stands and raises his arms wide as he gladly drinks in the
power-giving rays of this cell's yellow sun lamp. The bounty hunters see all
this and start to back away and run for it. But a now fully powered, (my
*that* was a little quick), Superman flys through them sending them sprawling.
Now we see Lobo reaching the spacedock just as the Prserver arrives there
also. He tells Lobo one last time to return to his cell, and Lobo again
cracks back, "Who's gonna' make me?" The Preserver in answer suddenly hunkers
down as if he's trying to pump himself up, and suddenly starts to tear out of
his own little previous egg style alien skin , into a drop dead bonafide
monster with giant claws! (Author's Note: Unless I'm mistaken, this
monstrous form is an homage to Jack "The King" Kirby. Bless and rest his
soul. Mr Kirby was drawing this kinda' mondo cool monster back when I was a
kid before his Fantastic Four days. But this is merely a surmise of mine. He
sure *looked* Kirbyesque.) The now huge and bugged Preserver is about to make
things harsh for the Main Man, but like the calvary comes Superman crashing
into the Preserver and Ladies and Gentlemen, the Main Event is on! Now, as
Superman and the Preserver go at it, Lobo tells Sqwee k he's about to see his
"good deed of the century." He throws his hook-end chain into the airlock
door controls, causing instant, violent, explosive decompression! Now all
H-E-double hockeysticks breaks loose, as everything loose is flung into the
deadly vacumn of space! Alarms are screaming, Lobo's hanging on by his chain,
the Preserver's being dragged towards certain death hanging by his claws as
they tear great ruts in the deck as the inexorable pull continues. And
Superman's tearing ruts across the floor with his fingers, as he tries to hold
on too! Then, we see the Preserver lose his race for life, as he makes a last
stand at the airlock door, but a small random piece of debris knocks him loose
to his doom. As we watch him fade into a speck in the vastness of space, the
scene fades to Lobo sipping a cold drink in the Emperor Spooj's palace,
telling Spooj that all he's just told him is the reason he was late getting
Sqweek there. We see Sqweek mopping around Spooj's great green slime bath
along with the hapless Gnaww and his cohorts who're getting co piously
splashed with slime by Spooj with great delight. But what, Spooj asks,
happened to Superman and the many creatures in the Preserver's mighty zoo?
Lobo tells him that Superman said "he had a placed all picked out for them."
Now, the scene fades to a vast arctic wilderness of ice. Then Superman
streaks down in front of us into a deep azure-blue pool of ice cold water. He
swims a ways underwater and flies up out of another pool, one submerged under
tons of arctic ice. Now he w alks from the pool to steps carved out of the
very ice. He mounts the stairs and walks up to another level with large
rooms, one we see already equipped with a bank of computer equipment.
Superman walks on, through what is now obviously nothing less, then the
Fortress of Solitude! Long exactingly carved walls raising up to great
heights we see. Now we see a hall with the containers of the creatures once
held by the whims of an insane hoarder. Now kept in safety and respect, as
only Superman could do. He walks past the Dodo bird's p en, and then down the
great hall lined to the iced ceilings with plexiglass walls. And as the
episode ends, we see another important part of the Superman mythos firmly
established in this serie's tales.

My Girl [November 23, 1996]
Directed by: Yuichiro Yano
In this episode Clark gets a blast from the past, when he sees his old friend Lana Lang from his Smallville days dating Lex Luthor! Lana's now a
big time fashion designer in Metropolis at a fashion show that Lois and
Clark are covering. He goes to speak with her, but Lana gets waylaid by two
women looking to steal her high-priced jewelry. After changing to Superman
and taking care of the crooks, Lana drops the bombshell on Clark that she
knows he's Superman! Superman warns her about how dangerous Lex is, but Lana
thinks she's going to become Superman's sidekick in fighting crime. She's been
spying on Lex and an arms dealer who're setting up a sale of some deadly
microwave guns. She tells Clark where the sale's setup for and he goes to stop
it. Once there, he stops two would-be terrorist buyers, but Lex's man escapes
by shooting out a nearby train trestle just as a train approaches. Superman
saves the train, and meets Lana later to tell her that this deadly game must
stop. What she and Superman don't know is that Lex and Mercy are already spying
on them, and know she's a double agent helping Superman.
While lunching with Lex the next day, Lana overhears that a second attempt
at the arms deal is going through in Central City. That night while waiting for
Lex's limo to pick her up for dinner, she calls Clark and tells him of the
planned rendevous. Clark tries to stop Lana from this dangerous spying, but
she hangs up on him. He smells trouble and takes off to help Lana. But Lana's
just found out that Lex is on to her, as the arms dealer traps Lana in a
Lexcorp foundry leaving her to death by molten lead! Just then, Superman
arrives, and the arms dealer uses one of the microwave guns to turn the
entire foundry into a seething lake of flaming hot lead.
Lana climbs up on chairs, then tables, then finally she dangles from a
ceiling lamp. The raging hot lead rises higher, higher. Then, the lamp cord
starts to break away from the ceiling! Lana is seconds from death. She screams
"CLARK!" And rising out of the molten torrent, comes Superman! He flashes to
catch Lois just as the lamp cord finally gives way. He crashes through a shaft
in the ceiling and then we see the foundry's exterior. Suddenly the foundry
erupts in multiple explosions, it's internal damage from the battle has taken
the final toll. It rocks with blast after blast, and then we see Superman come
flying out of the maelstrom of destruction. With Lana safely tucked under his
arm, and the arms dealer clutched firmly in his other steel fist. One being
borne to safety, the other to justice.
Later, at the Daily Planet, we see Clark and Lana finally admitting to
each other that their just being friends is how it's going to be. Lana tells
him to give her a call if he ever changes his mind. Clark allows himself a quiet
sigh as he watches Lana go. But Lois shakes him from his reverie with a yell
that Perry's calling. And Clark turns to follow the woman we all know will
become that special someone for him.

Tools of the Trade [February 1, 1997]
Directed by: Curt Geda
The Metropolis Gold Exchange is getting robbed by no less then a tank!
This looks like a job for...the SCU, Special Crimes Unit! This elite police
unit is lead by the intrepid Maggie Sawyer, and her right hand man Dan
"Terrible" Turpin. As they pull up on the scene, the tank starts blasting away,
and frankly it's winning! After a few tense minutes, Lois shows up for this
hot story, and Superman's not far behind. The tank gets in a few good shots
at Superman until he finally wrecks it's cannon muzzle and disables the tank.
Afterwards the press takes a cheap shot at the SCU by accusing them of being
dependent on Superman to take out the big problems. Turpin rankles at this,
but Maggie's cooler head prevails. One thing's for sure, Intergang's up to
it's old tricks again!
Now we see the Leader of Intergang, Bruno Mannheim, ranting at his cronies
about this latest setback. With Superman around, he needs tougher weaponry!
Just as he's raving, Mannheim's approached by a fellow named Kanto who offers
him just such weaponry, in the form of a pair of "energy gloves" which create
giant hands that do whatever the wearer does. And they have strength enough for
even Superman! Mannheim's curious about the source of all this, but Kanto tells
him he has a "Master" who merely wishes to help him suceed. He wastes no time.
The next day a team of men confront an approaching train that's carrying money.
One is wearing the energy gloves and wrecks the train trestle causing a crash.
As they loot the train, Superman arrives and is knocked away by the Intergang
thug wearing the gloves. Then Superman is kept busy saving another approaching
train. After he saves it, he turns to see the bandits have made their escape.
Maggie and Dan get into a tiff as Maggie wants to bring Superman in on the
case officially. He gives her his badge and storms out. But he then goes to
spy on Mannheim. While spying, he's captured by Kanto, who's arriving to give
Mannheim a gun he claims will destroy even Superman! As Turpin struggles to
break his bonds, Superman arrives. While he's freeing Turpin, he's shot by
Mannheim. The otherworldy weapon hurts Superman badly. And Mannheim's shooting
at Superman relentlessly who dodges most blasts, but is finally hit again.
He struggles to rise, but Mannheim then sets the weapon to full power to kill
Superman once and for all! Just then, Dan Turpin jumps Mannheim, and as they
struggle the powerful gun is blowing the warehouse to smithereens. Kanto flees
all this mayhem, and as Turpin falls beneath wreckage, Mannheim follows him
begging for more help. As Kanto flees into some sort of glowing tube, Mannheim
jumps in to join him. Superman arrives from pulling Turpin from the wreckage
a moment too late. The tube and both Kanto and Mannheim are gone.
Later on, the press is needling Turpin about needing Superman to save them
again. Superman tells the media that it was Dan who saved *him*, not the other
way around. Now we fade to another world of firepits and great machinery. We
see Mannheim following Kanto, desperate to know where they are, and who's his
mysterious benefactor. Kanto points to a large hulking figure above them. The
figure turns, and we see a creature with a face like a gravestone. The creature
tells Manneim, "Welcome to Apokolips. I am your new master. I am Darkseid!"
Episode ends.

Two's A Crowd [February 15, 1997]
Directed by: Hiroyuki Aoyama
A disgruntled ex-employee of Star Labs is holed up in his house and
refuses to come out for the S.C.U., Special Crimes Unit, run by Maggie Sawyer.
He's saying he's hidden a bomb with a four hour timer on it.The bomb is made of
stolen Star Lab isotope which, in Professor Hamilton's words, "Could take out
a square mile of Metropolis." Maggie orders her men in, but to their sudden
surprise, the house is built of reinforced steel and resists all their efforts!
Superman arrives and after running a gauntlet devised by Dr. Earl Garver, the
would be extortionist is unexpectedly injured during Superman's struggles with
one of the death traps. Now Garver's in a coma, and with only four hours even
Superman admits he can't search all of Metropolis in time. And then Professor
Hamilton suggests they seek help from an unexpected source, the Parasite!
The Parasite tells them he'll go along with their plan as long as he gets
one thing. Cable TV in his cell with premium channels. The sheer boredom of his
captivity in Star Labs has gotten to him. As he's ushered into Garver's
hospital room he starts to absorb the scientist's consciousness with surprise
results. When the Parasite speaks, he's talking with Garver's voice and mind!
The Parasite/Garver now tells them he stills wants his ransom money, but he's
reminded that if the bomb goes off with him in the city, he dies too. Garver
surrenders to fate, and tells Superman and Maggie that he's hidden it on a
sunken ship. But when they go searching for it, he uses their absence to escape
from the hospital and talks the Parasite/Rudy Jones side of their now shared
mind to work with him as a "partner."
Garver/Parasite contacts Maggie with only 20 minutes to go, demanding that
Superman deliver $50 million in bearer bonds to him at a abandoned subway line.
Superman arrives at the line deep under the earth which construction was stopped
on when a bottomless pit was found in the line's path. As Superman puts the
ransom down where Garver/Parasite's told him to, Parasite reaches out and
grabs Superman draining some of his power! Now it's a game of cat and mouse
between them as Superman and Garver/Parasite struggle. The Parasite trying to
leech Superman's powers, and Superman forcing the Parasite to use up what
power he's lost already to the Parasite. Then the Parasite up's the odds by
reactivating the bomb with only two minutes to detonation!
Superman appeals to the Rudy Jones side of the Parasite, telling him how
Garver's going to sacrifice him while his body's safe upstate lying in the
back of an ambulance. The two sides of the Parasite's mind now struggle,
sending the Parasite into spasms of mental and physical pain as Superman tries
to turn off the bomb. The Rudy Jones side loses to Garver who now attacks
Superman just as he's hurled the bomb into the pit, praying it's deep enough
to contain the blast. They both hang on the pit's side trying to claw their way
back to the top. Then, the bomb blows deep in the pit's depth's and it's fiery
blast comes racing up the pit threatening to incinerate them both!
They both barely clear the top as the blast roars out of the pit, tearing
the cavern to shreds. When the dust finally clears, Superman rises from under
tons of debris. He's survived, and so has the Parasite, albeit a now Rudy Jones
only Parasite, who's promptly taken back to his Star Labs cell. We see Garver
waking in that ambulance where he'd hidden his body. But as he opens the doors,
he see's he's miles in the air, and Superman's taking him to a cell of his own
at Star Labs! As he's being escorted past the Parasite's cell, Garver hears the
Parasite laughing as he's enjoying his newly installed cable TV, with all the
premium channels, just as he'd been promised. Episode ends.