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Episode #32 – The Late Mr. Kent Original Airdate – November 1st, 1997. As Clark Kent rushes to save an innocent man from dying in the gas chamber, he is involved in an auto accident and thought to be dead.But the eyewitness is unreliable, allowing Clark to emerge and find the man who should truly be in the gas chamber — Detective Media by Bird Boy | Credits: Written by Stan Berkowitz Directed by Kenji Hachizaki Music by Kristopher Carter Animation by TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation Voices: |
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| If I had to choose my single favorite episode of all time, "The Late Mr. Kent" would win by a landslide. (This excludes, of course, the two two-part Darkseid stories. Even then, however, I would be hard-pressed to choose a favorite.) No other episode of Superman has such a moody atmosphere, as great a story, or is as well-written. WHAT WORKED: What struck me immediately upon from the first second of the episode was the fantastic music. Not being any kind of music major, or having any ability to talk about music intelligently, I can't describe what the music was like. It's a score that you need to hear for yourself. (Then maybe you music people can send me a line and explain the beats and tempo or whatever the hell. 😛 ) Whatever the case, the score fit the mood of the episode extremely well. It's some of the best musical work ever done on the series. Bravo! Also very well done was the animation. There are some episodes of this series that do not do justice to Superman himself or other characters, (most notably, SUPERMAN'S PAL, which was a very poorly-done episode,) but in this one, everything went together nicely. Superman's spit curl looked natural, (his face in general looked very detailed,) and his chest "S" insignia was expertly drawn in all of the scenes—a rarity. The colors also helped reflect the moody, somber nature of the story. The story itself made for the most unique episode of all the Superman episodes. It would seem an obvious idea to me, being that Clark Kent is a "reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper," that we would eventually get to see him actually working on a story. It was a great relief to find that Clark is capable of doing more than following Lois around silently and leaving to change into Superman. Here, we see his journalistic, investigative abilities shine on his own, even as the fabled Lois Lane dismisses his story as a lost cause. (Later, it was fun to hear that Lois admit to Superman that she does, in fact, have respect for Clark, even through all her teasing.) The focus on Clark Kent as opposed to Superman is always a welcome change, and makes things that much more interesting. We know that The ending of this episode was insanely cool. Bowman's "He's SUPERMAN!" followed by the officer pushing the lever… I'm a fan of powerful or emotional endings in books and TV/movies and this was easily the greatest ending of an Superman episode ever. WHAT DIDN'T WORK: In Bowman's final attempt to stop Superman and escape, he shoots Superman with bullets, and Superman is rendered helpless. Whatever happened to the concept of bullets bouncing off GREAT QUOTES CLARK: Dinner was hard to pass up. I hadn't eaten all day—not that I needed to. CLARK: I suppose I could've flown to the governer as Superman and given him the disk, but that could've raised some awkward questions. MARTHA: Yes, Detective Bowman, I understand. My son's car blew up and went into the ocean. JONATHAN: It's not like he's really dead, Martha. He just can't be Clark anymore. CLARK: So after I swam to shore, I guess I must've found a phone and called Lana. BOWMAN: How did he survive that car bomb? How? HE'S SUPERMAN! |