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Superman: The Animated Series Season 1 Episode 12

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8.5

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 2/1/97

Bruno Mannheim's Intergang terrorizes Metropolis with hi-tech weapons from Darkseid, while SCU Inspector Dan Turpin goes on a personal hunt for answers.

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Fan Episode Reviews (2)

Darkseid's debut as the 'other' arch-villain for Superman was very similar to the debut for Ra's Al Ghul in Batman: The Animated Series.

8.2

By Aldrius, Oct 30, 2010

This was a good episode, to be sure. I really like Dana Delany's Lois Lane for what little screentime she got. ("A train was derailed, apparently someone was on the tracks... I hope it was the man who made this elevator!") She works much better as a character when she's not just there as a plot device for Superman to show up.

Michael York is a favourite actor of mine from what little I have seen (and heard) from him, the character he created was more than what was intended. Instead of a throw-away henchmen we got a rather mysterious and interesting chessmaster.

A parallel I noticed in this episode, was with Ra's Al Ghul from the Batman series. In Ra's Al Ghul's premier episode, his daughter Talia as well as one of his servants (voiced by none other than Michael York.) take up most of the screen time, with Batman eventually figuring out that Talia is not who she seems to be. At the end we get a few seconds of screen-time with Ra's saying his line and the episode ending. That is exactly what happened in this episode with Darkseid, which was more of an interesting tid-bit than anything.

One thing I really liked, was the cop featured in this episode. He starts off with a mis-trust for Superman, and we can clearly see the jealousy in his behaviour. But in the end, average cop manages to save Superman. Which is simply awesome.

Overall, a very indearing and interesting episode. Setting up a majour villain, and establishing what another sect of the city thinks of our hero.moreless
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The Debute of Darkseid.

7.4

By JLUmember1, Oct 30, 2010

This episode was a nice way to introduce Darkseid, althoug, I think it could have been alot better. I mean, come on, A darkseid debute episode should be full of Darkseid action, like big fights, instead it was all Kanto and the Intergang fighting off all of the powers that Superman can muster. [url=http://www.tv.com/superman/show/1524/summary.html]Superman TAS [/url] had a great episode in the making here, but I think that the writers could have done a better job on this series and tried to make a Darkseid debute with Action with Darkseid fighting Superman. The Apokilips Now episode is way better than this one.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Timothy Daly	Clark Kent/Superman
Dana Delany	Lois Lane

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Michael York	Kanto	Guest Star
Bruce Weitz	Bruno Mannheim	Guest Star
Kevin Michael Richardson	Al	Guest Star
Lauren Tom	Angela Chen	Recurring Role
Joanna Cassidy	Maggie Sawyer	Recurring Role
Joseph Bologna	Dan Turpin	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (0)
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QUOTES (6)
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- Mannheim: Where in god's name are we?
  Kanto: That depends. Which god are you talking about?
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- Mannheim: (holding a gun) You know what's really amazin'? I'm not even firin' it at full power. (pointing gun at Superman) Get ready to eat it, Superman.
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- Darkseid: Welcome to Apokolips, Mr. Mannheim.
  Bruno Mannheim: Who are you?
  Darkseid: Your new Lord and Master. You may call me... Darkseid.
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- Superman: You don't think he tried something foolish, do you?
  Maggie Sawyer: I'd count on it!
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- Superman: Think he'll come back?
  Maggie Sawyer: If I had a dime for every time Dan Turpin threw in his badge, I'd make Lex Luthor look like a pauper!
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- Bruno Mannheim: What's your boss want in return?
  Kanto: Nothing... for now.
  Bruno Mannheim: It's my experience that 'nothing' can be very expensive...
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NOTES (2)
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- Darkseid has his first appearance in the very end of this episode.
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- Introduces Dan Turpin and Maggie Sawyer.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Dan Turpin
  
  The character design for Dan Turpin was crafted after that of Jack Kirby, a legendary comic book artist who co-created characters like Thor, the Fantastic Four, and Darkseid (who makes his very first appearance on the show in this episode).
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