Superman on Television
Superman: The Animated Series - Episode Reviews
Season 2 - Episode 20: "The Hand of Fate"
Original Air Date: October 11, 1997Reviewed by: Jeffrey Taylor
"It's a Kind of Magic" - Queen
The use of magic in any kind of storytelling has always irked me in one way or another. Let me put it in these terms: When I played Dungeons and Dragons in college, I was always a fighter, never a mage. I've often found that many writers use magic as a way to explain the unexplainable. Plus more often than not, the final solution ends up being some sort of spell that the audience would have never seen coming because magic is subjective to the writer and if the writer wants there to be a spell that magically fixes everything in the end, then that's what you get.
Once in a while, a story can surpass that kind of a crutch and present a reason why the final outcome was possible, hopefully long before the conclusion of the story. For example, I liked the Harry Potter series because much of the nature of how magic worked and was used had been explained as the reader progressed through the story. If you followed the logic, the end of the last book made a good deal of sense. It wasn't just some final powerful spell that could fix everything because the writer said it did.
On the other hand, much of science fiction can end in the same pitfall. Kevin Spacey stated in Superman Returns that any sufficiently advanced technology would appear to be magic to anyone unfamiliar with its existence. Just imagine the reaction one might get from bringing one of today's mid-ranged laptops back in time to World War II, or a pair of Uzi's to feudal Portugal. One of the reasons I've learned to forgive fiction about magic is that I understand that magic and fantasy are not so different from science fiction, which I tend to like. Sometimes in science fiction, the technology that can save the world/galaxy/universe or whatever is something equally inane. In the end, it's all about the quality of the characters and the story.
Quick lesson on Dr. Fate: He first appeared in More Fun Comics #55 in 1940 and was a member of the Justice Society of America. His history is long, convoluted and spans more than a dozen separate DC series over the years. Plus his mask was worn by several characters over the hero's existence. In Superman: The Animated Series, as well as later animated incarnations of DC superheroes, Kent Nelson wore the mask and costume.
Rating - 2 (out of 5): Although I tend not to care for magic in my fiction, the main theme of the episode was that Superman could do more than just save people. He could inspire others to join his crusade to help people who needed saving. When Superman visited Dr. Fate, Fate refused to help Superman because he felt that saving lives was a waste of time because evil always creeps back. The good doctor was inspired to help Superman in the end because Big Blue charged into a situation where he didn't stand a chance in order to save lives. It encouraged Fate to put his helmet back on and fight for good, which was heavy-handed and lacked subtlety, plus I've never care for that characterization of an established version of Dr. Fate.
The villain Karkull's design was ridiculous, as were his henchmen who took over the bodies of the Daily Planet staff. He was basically a giant black squid with green eyes who could fly, but left a slime trail when he hovered across the ground. His mouth was made of little flesh colored tentacles which achieved creepiness, but looked cheap. The design just didn't work.
On the upside, the animators really nailed the early action sequence with Karkull and Superman. First, Karkull clawed at Superman's chest, leaving three tears right in the middle of the "S" emblem, which made for a cool design and showed that he was in mortal danger. Superman may be weak to magic, but he used his speed ability well to avoid much of the danger and it made for a gripping battle.
There was a very funny moment during the first big fight of the episode where Jimmy was waxing idiotic to Lois in the Daily Planet offices while Superman and Karkull fought in the cityscape background.
If I were easily offended, I might have had even more issues with the depiction of the character credited as "The Psychic Girl," who was the Wiccan woman that understood the magic Karkull had been doing. After all, this is a world where Dr. Fate has magic powers and the Daily Planet building had been surrounded by an otherwise unexplainable forcefield. So why did the Wiccan girl who believed magic was real portrayed as a certifiable nutcase?
When Karkull first came into this reality, it was because of a magic stone tablet that could summon or banish him, which upon his entrance to this world, he immediately destroyed, making him virtually unstoppable. The magic spell that saved the day (as I mentioned before because the writers say it does), was that Dr. Fate was able to say some words, move his hands around and recreate the tablet from nothing, which is how Karkull was again banished to the ether/nether/under/between or whatever you might imagine such a creature would return to. Although to be fair, after Dr. Fate recreated the tablet, he dropped it, forcing Superman to face a giant magical creature as it fell into the "bottomless pit," which added an almost appropriate amount of tension after the magic-spell-that-fixed-everything.
One of the other great travesties of this episode was that it was the second and final appearance of Ron Troupe. He first appeared in the comics in Adventures of Superman #480 from July 1991. He earned Clark Kent's job at the Daily Planet after the "Death of Superman" storyline. Later he married Lucy Lane and fathered her child. In this episode he appeared as the "token black guy" on the Daily Planet staff who was among the first to be assimilated by Karkull's drones. He wasn't even mentioned by name, which relegated him to "red shirt guy" status.
Karkull was voiced by Ted Levine (Silence of the Lambs, TV's Monk). Despite the awful design, he fit the voice of the character well. Karkull got higher billing than Dr. Fate because Levine is a bigger star than George Del Hoyo (TV's Days of Our Lives and St. Elsewhere), who played Dr. Fate.
Cree Summer (Mercy Graves in the Superman/Doomsday animated DVD, also TV's Drawn Together) voiced the maligned "psychic girl"/Wiccan freak character. The unnamed (until the credits) Ron Troupe was played by Dorian Harewood (TV's Seventh Heaven and Boomtown). He was also in part two of the pilot, but he was underused there as well.
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