Superman: The Animated Series
Episode 27
Ghost in the Machine
This has one of the most impactful moments in the DCAU and you’ll miss it if you blink. Brainiac is back after uploading himself into LexCorp system before getting destroyed in his last appearance. He screws up some test Lex Luthor was running and Superman saves the day. Lex is super pissed and starts investing what happens. He discovers Brainiac is rebuilding himself and needs Luthor’s help for the final touches.
Clark Kent grows wise to Luthor’s disappearance and uses his sleuth reporter skills to inform Mercy Graves, Lex’s bodyguard. Then Superman is on the case and is working with Mercy to find Lex. Superman tries to convince Mercy to ditch Lex because he’s a total douche. Mercy makes a plea that Lex is awesome and brought her up from nothing.
They find Lex in a closed off section of LexCorp. Superman busts in and does his thing. He fights an incomplete Brainiac. While the structure is collapsing around them Lex and Mercy make a run for it. Mercy gets trapped and Lex leaves her to die. Mercy gives Superman advice on how to take out Brainiac, he uses some special weapon kills the robot in a horrifying fashion (since there are no standard and practice rules on the death of robots), saves Mercy from being trapped, saves Lex while climbing a ladder.
Mercy goes back to work for Lex like someone trapped in an abusive relationship. Lex learns nothing from his experience and is only concerned about harvesting all the Brainiac tech which was built with LexCorp supplies.
It’s a great episode, one of the best. Lex gets shot with a blast from Brainiac. It actually injects him with nanites that gradually influence his thinking until in culminates into some awesomeness in Justice League Unlimited. That’s years away though. The main issues is how Lex left Mercy to die after being trapped. Lex Luthor is far from a coward but he is callous and selfish. This moment made him look more cowardly but one could argue he calculated her odds of survival and determined she was a lost cause. Either way, Lex is a douche and the bitter ending of Mercy still working for him after that is so exponentially a Batman: the Animated Series ending, it is what makes the episode amazing.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com
