Superman on Television

Superboy: Episode Reviews

Season 2 - Episode 1: "With This Ring I Thee Kill"

Reviewed by: Jim Bennett (lastson78)

"Of course I have a heart Leo, a very cold heart" - Lex Luthor

Synopsis:

In his hideout, Lex Luthor, bound in hand and facial bandages, talks with Leo. He says that he's aged himself 15 years and burned his vocal cords to change his voice, all in an effort to be unrecognized by Superboy. He speaks of a plan to destroy Superboy. He plans to hijack a weapon called the Superboy Gun, developed by renowned scientist Warren Eckworth.

At Eckworth Industries' test field, Lana and Clark ready themselves for the testing of the Superboy Gun. Lex and Leo watch from a distance, as they prepare to wreak havoc on the test. Clark suggests splitting up to get their stories from various guests, and then leaves and flies in as Superboy. As they aim the weapon towards a target, Luthor scrambles the signal and re-aims it in Superboy's direction. The missile strikes and stuns the Boy of Steel. A moment later, Lex tries to fire another missile at Superboy, but he uses his heat vision to fry the circuitry on the firing mechanism to disable it. Frustrated, Luthor determines that the power on the weapon should be turned up 25%.

Back at his hideout, Luthor is disappointed after unveiling his new face, Eckworth's. He then kills Leo so there's no one left to recognize him. Later, he goes to Eckworth's office pretending to be him, kills the real Eckworth, and then takes over his operation. His first order of business is to have the power on the Superboy gun increased by 25 perc------wait------50%.

At Shuster, Clark and Lana look at a story on the front page of the Daily Planet, written by T.J. He has gone to work for his father's (Perry White) paper. Moments later, Andy McAllister makes his grand entrance and immediately makes his scheming personality known. Lana leaves, and outside, is stopped by Luthor in Eckworth's limo. He lures her in and takes her back to Eckworth's office.

There, he reveals his sick plan to marry Lana. He then tells her his true identity. He plans to marry her at an old prison off the interstate. He purposely leaves Lana alone, and then she calls Andy at Shuster to pass along an urgent message to Clark, Luthor watching on a monitor from another room.

At the site of the "wedding," Eckworth's and Leo's dead corpses are in attendance. A video of a reverend with a gun held to his head serves as the head of a dummy that reads their vows. Superboy arrives to stop the ceremony. Luthor turns the newly juiced-up weapon on Superboy and fires. Superboy lays unconscious in the ruins of the prison wall. Soon after, as doctors are working on him, it is announced that Superboy will never walk again.

4Rating - 4 (out of 5): With a new season comes a new Superboy and a new Lex Luthor!

Gerard Christopher is our new Superboy and even though you don't actually get to see much of him in this episode what you do see looks good, the distinction between Clark and Superboy is great. He looks very mild mannered as Clark and looks... well, Super as Superboy but this episode is all about Lex.

Lex Luthor is now played by Sherman Howard and his character is much darker and far more foreboding than before, I like how they managed to instantly make him into a billionaire by taking the face of someone who already owns a large corporation so as of the first episode Lex is already where he should be. They also finally put the nail in the coffin of poor old Leo (Michael Manno) and I can't say that I will miss him.

This whole episode had a very Lois & Clark feel to it from the beginning where Lex is hiding out in some kind of subterranean lair then also with Lana and Clark reporting on a new military weapon all the way up to Lex trying to marry Lana. I could've quite easily seen Dean Cain, Teri Hatcher and John Shea acting out this whole episode.

The only other thing they did with this episode was introduce a new roommate for Clark as TJ White (James Calvert) has gone to work for his dad's paper, the Daily Planet. Andy McAllister (IIan Mitchel-Smith, who some people will know from Weird Science) is quite brash and forward and I guess is there to spice things up, we'll have to wait and see.

I love what they did with Lex in this episode he's right there as the Lex that we all know and love but I was disappointed in the lack of Clark/Superboy, I know they needed to set Lex up but I do think they could have moved the new roommate scene to the next episode and have a bit more Clark and Lana.

Well I guess we'll see if they do it in the next exciting episode "Lex Luthor: Sentenced to Death".



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