Superman on Television

Superman: The Animated Series - Episode Reviews

Season 2 - Episode 14: "Ghost in the Machine"

Original Air Date: September 29, 1997

Reviewed by: Jeffrey Taylor

"Resistance is futile."

4Rating - 4 (out of 5): This was without a doubt one of the best character driven stories to come out of the series, plus it had a top notch action sequence at the end of act two. It also featured the return of Brainiac, last seen in the season one episode, "Stolen Memories." At the end of that story, it was clear that Brainiac had been defeated but not destroyed and that he would return at some point.

Superman #167 Brainiac and Lex Luthor often teamed up in the comics, especially in the Silver Age. Neither ever trusted the other and both frequently turned on each other, which usually led to their downfalls, much as it did in "Stolen Memories." This time, Brainiac kidnapped Luthor in order to force him to create a new robot body that Brainiac could inhabit.

For the first time, Mercy Graves's character was fleshed out a bit. She was Lex Luthor's henchwoman and an original character for Superman: The Animated Series. She became popular enough to eventually appear in the comics. Lois and Clark spoke a few times in this episode questioning why she would blindly follow someone like Luthor, but by the end Superman got the answer and it left the audience with an opportunity to objectively judge whether she was a bad person, or just someone led astray.

When asked, Mercy told Superman that Luthor had found her on the streets and made her what she was. The downside of that statement is that it cheapened Mercy. This was actually the reason the episode received a four rating instead of a five. She was a strong-willed woman who was clearly devoted to Lex, but the alley cat explanation was nothing short of a copout. Luthor's early life was never explored in Superman: The Animated Series, however most of the show was based on the updated comics titles starting in 1986. In 1989, a prestige format comic, Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography was released. The story followed Luthor's early days as reflected by stories of the modern era. According to the book, Lex Luthor spent his young life with his parents in a poor part of Metropolis. Luthor hated his parents, so he took out a huge life insurance policy on them both and caused their seemingly accidental deaths. He used the money to start a business that eventually became Lexcorp.

There was a question as to whether or not Brainiac knew that Clark Kent and Superman were the same person. Clark had been getting close to the truth about Luthor's disappearance, so Brainiac called Clark on the phone to confirm that he was home and fired a missile at his apartment. So much for advanced alien technology that doesn't come with voice recognition software.

The missile scene was action packed and multi-layered. Clark Kent caught the rocket and took to the air in his civilian guise to get it away from buildings, but the missile explosion burned his clothes off to reveal the Superman costume. It wasn't the first time it had been done, but as long as it doesn't happen all the time, it's a good way to transition Clark turning into Superman. The sequence entered double jeopardy with the collapsing pieces of high bridges through the city and then triple with the bridge pieces almost hitting a train. It was amazing to watch and as good as the helicopter sequence in Superman: The Movie.

Of course a sociopath like Luthor would save his own skin before Mercy's, which was made abundantly clear to her when she saved his life from Brainiac and he left her trapped. First Superman showed his mettle by saving Lex, but then Lex opted to run away when Mercy needed his help. Mercy's dissent against Luthor didn't come to full fruition until a later series, but for now she continued to serve Lex.

It was a bit silly when Brainiac kidnapped Luthor in order to force him to build Brainiac's new body because his robot drones were not advanced enough to work with such complex circuitry. A well designed and programmed robot should have less difficulty working with small robot parts than even the smartest human engineers and programmers. Even worse, after the end fight, Luthor decided to keep Brainiac's robot body for "further study." Wait a minute. Didn't Lex build it? Why would he have to study it?

Overall, this was a very fine episode with good characterization, but it fell a little short for its clichés and poor details. The subtlety of the ending when Lex ordered Mercy to drive him away and she looked up at Superman with admiration was legendary.



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