Superman: The Animated Series, Season 3, Episode 8: Superman's Pal
Okay, I'm definitely not a big fan of this episode. I'm not opposed to giving Jimmy Olsen some spotlight. In fact, watching Superman: The Animated Series I'm honestly a bit sad how little the supporting cast like Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Lana Lang actually have any sort of spotlight given to them. Jimmy is probably the worst of it, with very few spotlight episodes beyond Supergirl's debut at the end of the second season. So giving Jimmy Olsen an entire episode to himself is definitely a welcome prospect.
Except, well, he gets kind of a shitty one in 'Superman's Pal'. Bruce Timm, one of the great minds behind the DCAU, has even gone to saying that this particular episode, more than anything else in his long tenure, is the lowest point... and it's no real coinidence. The episode tries to tell a fable about fame, about how Jimmy Olsen, by claiming that he's Superman's best pal, ends up being hounded by the media and other random citizens of Metropolis trying to curry favour out of Jimmy and by virtue of that, Superman. Because, um, people are all dumb sheep, I guess. All the while this random hot intern Tina basically goes from dismissive to wanting to get into Jimmy's pants.
Except Tina is working for Metallo all along! And is his lover. Poor Metallo, always gets himself stuck with the shittiest episodes in this series. Tina apparently is a "sucker for metal", which, now that I'm older, brings... a lot of uncomfortable implications as to their relationship. Metallo is, by the way, if we forgot, completely incapable of emotion or actually feeling senses, so... yeah. The fight between Metallo and Superman is not horrible but far from Superman: TAS's best, but Jimmy ends up being useful by... throwing battery acid on Metallo's body, causing the kryptonite to fall off and deactgivating Metallo.
Remember how metallo-the-metal is supposed to be this indestructible alloy that can even withstand Superman's punches, the pressures of the deep sea and lava? Yeah, apparently its weakness is humble old battery acid found in a junkyard. God damn this episode is dumb.
Tina is also a very, very unlikable character. Remember how I was m'eh with Darci from the Toyman episode and didn't even remember the names of the alien freedom fighters from the Jax-Ur/Mala episode? At least they were inoffensive. Tina is given the most annoying, vapid voice and lines ever, and that doesn't do the episode any favours.
My favourite moment has to be the fact that this episode gives Angela Chen, the background reporter that has been on the literal background for a majority of the series, is finally given a personality as a news hound -- causing an accident when she's overzealous with chasing down the story (with a helicopter!), and later editing Jimmy Olsen's interview to frame it so that she's just interviewed Superman's best pal. Angela's probably the sole redeeming factor of this episode, but she shows up for like all of fifteen seconds.
I dunno. This episode is so haphazard -- it's clearly meant to be a more light-hearted and zanier adventure, but even then the TAS series have always managed to tell stories that are both zany and still good. So yeah. This episode, if anything, made poor Jimmy Olsen more annoying in my eyes (the voice acting is still excellent, thankfully), did a gigantic disservice to Metallo, and probably deserves its title as the worst episode of the DCAU.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- At the end of the episode, Jimmy gets his famous signal watch from Superman, given to him just like his pre-Crisis comic book counterpart. Jimmy having the signal watch was one of the trademarks of Superman stories in the Silver Age.
- 'Superman's Pal', the title of the episode and oft-repeated catchphrase, is actually Jimmy Olsen's Golden Age and Silver Age title, and the title of his solo comic book series during the Silver Age.
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