Brave New Metropolis

Superman: TAS episode
"Brave New Metropolis"
Airdate:	September 27, 1997 (USA)
Production Number:	025
Airdate Order:	25
Animation Services by:	TMS-Kyokuichi Corporation
Written by:	Stan Berkowitz
Directed by:	Curt Geda

"Brave New Metropolis" is the twenty-fifth episode of Superman: The Animated Series. It depicts Lois being transported into an alternative dimension where she was killed by Intergang. Grief stricken over the loss of Lois, Superman teams up with Luthor and turns Metropolis into a police state. After Luthor learns that Lois is "still alive" he tries to have her killed so that he can keep Superman under his control.

Plot

Out at S.T.A.R. Labs, Jimmy and Lois are being shown a machine built by Professor Hamilton that is based on the Phantom Zone Projector. It's supposed to provide a window into other dimensions, but it doesn't seem to work. However, when Lois looks between the machine's two posts, she notices the glass between them looks cracked while anything around the posts is whole. As she looks over it, however, she gets too close and is pulled into the alternate dimension.

Lois ends up in a decrepit and destroyed S.T.A.R. Labs and heads off to Metropolis. The streets seem to be deserted, however, and Lois discovers a large statue of Superman and Luthor's heads declaring them "the men who saved Metropolis." Lois is then confronted by Turpin, who demands to see her curfew card. When he finds she doesn't have one, he attempts to arrest her but a group of shaggy men break into a building and start firing on him. Amongst these men is Jimmy, who runs into Lois. Before he can say anything, however, Superman arrives and violently stops the gang. Jimmy drags Lois away before they're noticed.

Jimmy leads Lois away and explains to her that she's supposed to be dead: while Lois was working on an Intergang piece. they attempted to kill her with a car bomb. However, Lois remembers that Superman saved her. Jimmy claims that in this timeline, Superman was too late to save her, and then became brutal and turned the city into a police state.

The duo arrives in a building filled with more downtrodden people and Jimmy reveals that his mission was to steal a rock of kryptonite. Unfortunately, a group of soldiers led by Mercy arrives and take the people into custody. Lois is taken to Luthor, who expresses some surprise at her being alive, yet he finds that he cannot deny it. Deciding that she's too dangerous to be kept around, he tells Mercy to kill her. Fortunately, Mercy and Lois run into Angela Chen, who distracts Mercy long enough to allow Lois to take Mercy's gun and escape.

Lois runs through the city and climbs up a large Superman/Luthor monument and fights off a group of police helicopters. In spite of this victory, she is injured and Superman soon arrives. However, when he sees his target is Lois, his demeanor instantly changes. He saves her from falling when she faints and takes her somewhere safe. All of this is witnessed by Mercy, who reports to Luthor.

Elsewhere, Lois explains about her origins and Superman explains that his Lois' death shocked him into realizing that his heroics were futile. He decided that he needed to take control to stop all crime. Lois wonders why he would go so crazy just over her, and Superman admits that he was in love with her. Lois is angered not only at his hiding her feelings for her, but for joining up with Luthor as well. Superman claims that Luthor is in check, but when he learns of Luthor's true actions, he becomes enraged and confronts his partner.

Faced with certain death, Luthor starts his fast-talking and then reveals he now has the chunk of kryptonite Jimmy had stolen. Lois tries to save Superman but Mercy stops her. As the two women fight, Luthor tells Superman that he'll smooth-talk the people of Metropolis and become their savior. Just as he says this, the rebels arrive and reveal they know Luthor's true intent. Luthor runs and Mercy tries to follow, but is tripped and the crowd advances on her. Luthor manages to escape in a flying vehicle, but Superman goes after him. All of Luthor's attempts to shake his enemy off the vehicle come to naught. But when Superman gets too close to catching him, Luthor uses his kryptonite to force him away. Unfortunately for Luthor, Superman damages the vehicle enough to cause it to go out of control. Luthor is unable to eject, and crashes into the side of the monument bearing his own face, killing him and marring the statue in his likeness.

With Luthor gone and Superman in check once again, he and Lois go to S.T.A.R. Labs and discuss the rebuilding of Metropolis. However, a portal opens, and our world's Superman comes through, calling Lois back home. The alternate Superman swears that even though he's losing Lois again, it won't change things for the city. Lois kisses the alternate Superman and then returns home. Back at home, she decides to never let her own Metropolis to suffer the same fate as the alternate one, and invites Superman to dinner.

Background Information

Trivia

• This episode's theme would later echo in the Justice League two-parter "A Better World", with a much greater scale of Superman's fascist oppression.
• First time Lois kisses Superman, albeit an alternate dimension's version of him.
• One of the rebels in the alternate dimension appears to be John Henry Irons.

Cast

Actor	Role
Tim Daly	Clark Kent/Superman & Superman (alternate)
Dana Delany	Lois Lane
Joseph Bologna	Dan Turpin (alternate)
David Kaufman	Jimmy Olsen & Jimmy Olsen (alternate)
Clancy Brown	Lex Luthor (alternate)
Lisa Edelstein	Mercy Graves (alternate)
Lauren Tom	Angela Chen (alternate)
Victor Brandt	Professor Hamilton

Quotes

Alternate Lex Luthor: The insolence. The outright rudeness. She's definitely the genuine article.

Lois: Hey, I'm not finished! Alternate Lex Luthor: I beg to differ.

Alternate Angela Chen: Lois? Lois Lane? My God, it's you, it's really you!! You're alive, after all these years! Can you loan me a dollar?

Lois: So, I am Lois Lane, but I'm not the Lois Lane that you knew... Alternate Superman: Ever since you-- she died I've wondered if there were other dimensions out there. Other versions of me... and you. Lois: Hold it! I may be a lot like your Lois, but you're nothing like the Superman I know! He's no tyrant. Alternate Superman: I had to take control, there was no other way. For too long I fooled myself into thinking I was just doing a simple clean-up job. And if I did enough good, people would follow my example. I didn't realize it was a war. And suddenly you were a casualty of that war. And I knew I had to stop it by whatever means possible.

Alternate Superman: You never knew what I felt about you. I never knew, till you were gone. Lois: (slaps him) You could've said something. We could've talked about it and figured it out! Now look at you... married to Luthor...

Alternate Superman: I never thought I'd lose you... twice. Lois: Will it change anything? Alternate Superman: For me, but not for Metropolis. Not his time.

Superman: So that was me? Lois: Yes. And... no. It-it's complicated. I could explain it over dinner. Superman: Dinner? Are we getting a little personal? Lois: Better now than never...

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