24 June 2011

Crisis of Infinite Episodes - The Mechanical Monsters


Original Airdate: November 28, 1941

In his second outing, Superman faced off against an evil inventor who could somehow finance a flying robot army, but resorted to using them to steal jewels. I think he may have been better off by not incurring the robo-related debt in the first place. Or, if he inherited the robots, why not sell them and buy the jewels?

Best Part: Unsurprisingly the flying robots were the highlight on the show. They were clearly the inspiration for robots in both Island in the Sky and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Worst Part: Superman used his X-Ray vision and it was hella creepy. His pupils rolled back and some like secondary eyeballs appeared. Hard to imagine Lois Lane falling in love with a freak like that!

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Episode Count: 0002
In Series Count: (2 of 17)

3 comments:

  1. I really like that interpretation of his x-ray vision! Since this was the first time his x-ray vision would be seen on screen, I can see the production team sitting around the table, trying to figure out exactly how his eyes work.

    Also, you'll note that Superman only "leaps tall buildings in a single bound" in this series as he didn't fly in comics at this time. It was Max and Dave Fleischer that pleaded with DC Comics to have Superman fly in the cartoons, because leaping in animation looks goofy. A short while later is was incorporated into the comics.

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  2. Can you imagine Superman today without being able to fly? Though I swear he did fly in the first episode.

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  3. Yeah, he sort of did. A little cheating, I guess, as they didn't really know how to animate leaping.

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