Thursday, March 24, 2016

My Crazy Youth: That Time That Superman Fought a Monkey Astronaut!

In honor of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, here is the first of two looks at their respective Shows.

First up, Superman finally gets his turn.  He gets top-billing here!

This is an adaptation of a 'Classic' Superman tale, but it is weird all the same...
As a Child, Lois and Lucy Lane (who has dated Jimmy Olsen in two Mediums now!) had a pet Chimpanzee.
The catch: it was meant to be a Test Astronaut for NASA.

Fun Fact: the program was discontinued in 1969, while this Prologue is set in the mid-70s.
While out in Space in the present-Day, Superman discovers his ship and takes him back to Earth.

Fun Fact: Most Space Monkeys die within days of their return- if they make it.  Fun!
What happens next?  Well, the little guy grows big!  Real big!
Superman must now stop a rampaging Monkey.  Somehow, this involves playing Pull My Finger.
The Climax involves Lois finding a toy that the Monkey- nicknamed Titano- loved when Lois had it and gassing it to sleep.
They dump it on an Island where it will do no harm.

...save for completely-destabilizing the ecosystem and presumably dying from hunger in a few months when all of the resources are gone.  Hurray!
 An ape of a tale.  Am I done with Monkey Puns yet?  You sure hope so.  We'll chimpanzee how that works out though.  I'm done now.  The Story is pretty simple, but they have fun with it.  You get to see a giant 'Monster' on the loose on a Kid's Show- what else do you want?  There is, of course, the consistent issue of just how strong Superman is on the Show.  Why is he weaker than a giant Monkey?  If he wasn't, the Story would be less dramatic.  It was nice of them to give Titano a backstory to tie it all together and give it an emotional angle.  It isn't *too* sentimental and it isn't too silly.  Given how silly the whole thing could have come off, they do a good job with it.  The Writers like to send enemies to Islands throughout the run of the Show, be it Bizarro this same Season (it is a Planet) or Volcana in Season 3.  I don't think they ever did a call back for Titano, so I guess there is still an Island covered in giant Monkey droppings in the Animated DCU.  I wouldn't visit there.
In spite of how negative I may sound at times, this is fun, silly stuff.  It isn't meant to be too dramatic, so it's all good!

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