Lex Luthor's Powered Armor is severely damaged in a fight with the Justice League. He crawls back to Lex Corp, and gets his assistant-turned-CEO Mercy Graves to direct him to the home of his former Mad Scientist employee, Professor Ivo. When he gets there, Ivo is dead, but has left a grieving 10-foot android called Amazo. Luthor convinces Amazo that Ivo was one of his best friends, so Luthor becomes Amazo's new master.
Luthor needs fuel to repair his suit, so he sends Amazo to steal it from a nearby facility. Hawkgirl intercepts Amazo as he tries to flee, and is astonished to see Amazo sprout wings and a mace like hers. Luthor immediately seizes the opportunity and sends Amazo to fight the whole Justice League, where he picks up each of their powers in turn just by scanning them with his eyes. The only superhero who isn't there is Martian Manhunter: earlier he scanned the city telepathically to hunt for Luthor, and was so depressed by the selfishness and venality of most humans' minds that he ran off into the woods.
Batman finally drives off Amazo with a chunk of kryptonite, realizing that the android has absorbed the heroes' weaknesses along with their powers. Amazo returns to Luthor but has begun to grow suspicious of him, which worries Mercy. Once he's convinced Amazo to fight the League again, Luthor reveals to Mercy that he has a remote-control detonator to a bomb in Amazo's head, in case anything goes wrong.
Out in the woods, Martian Manhunter regains his faith in humanity after he encounters a group of volunteers searching for a missing child. After locating the child, he tracks down the Justice League who are again fighting Amazo, and it is not going well. J'onn allows Amazo to acquire his telepathy, which reveals to Amazo that Luthor has been deceiving him. Amazo turns on his master, but rather than finish them off he realizes that he's evolved to a point where all these meat-beings are beneath him. He turns gold and ascends into the sky, going "where gods belong," according to J'onn.
Tropes seen:
- Adaptive Ability: Amazo losing his vulnerability to kryptonite. Later the implanted bomb fails to work on him for the same reason.
- All Your Powers Combined: Eventually, Amazo has all the powers of the Justice League put together.
- Anti-Villain: Amazo. He's an opponent to the League only because Luthor goaded him into fighting them after telling him a sob story and pretending to be a Parental Substitute to him. After learns the truth, he curbstomps Luthor, then decides he's learned enough from fighting the Justice League that he finds the good vs. evil conflict meaningless, evolves, and departs for the cosmos.
- Art Evolution: Mercy's STAS character model has been tweaked, though it's less because of the Time Skip since STAS and more to show her evolution from Lex's chauffeur to CEO.
- Assimilation Backfire: At first played straight when Amazo absorbs Superman's vulnerability to kryptonite, but his Adaptive Ability overcomes it.
- Badass Boast: "I learn, but I also adapt...and evolve!"
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: A positive example kickstarts the resparking of J'onn's faith in humanity; whilst observing the search party in the woods, J'onn reads the mind of one guy who complains of being out in the cold searching for someone he doesn't even know...then the guy pulls himself up and redoubles his determination to find her: "I know how I'd feel if it were my kid."
- Batman Gambit: Martian Manhunter apparently figures out Amazo is being used by Luthor to destroy the League, so he allows the android to copy his powers. While this makes Amazo more powerful, it also allows him discover Luthor's deception and leaves him to defeat Luthor.
- Betrayal Insurance:
- Discussed between Batman and Hawkgirl when he uses the chunk of kryptonite in his utility belt to drive off Amazo - who'd recently copied Superman's powers:
Hawkgirl: Do you always carry kryptonite with you?Batman: Call it insurance. (shoots his grappling hook and swings away)Hawkgirl: And they say I'm scary.- Luthor reveals to Mercy that he has a detonator to activate the self-destruct device in Amazo's head in the event that he turns on him. Amazo copies Martian Manhunter's powers, and learns that Luthor manipulated him, prompting the former to use it - except it's no longer enough to put him down anymore.
- Big Damn Heroes: A few security guards Amazo had overpowered earlier fire at him as he's about to finish off an incapacitated Hawkgirl and try to retrieve the technology Luthor sent him to steal, causing Amazo to break off his attack on the hero.
- Bodyguard Crush: Luthor hints that this is the real reason why Mercy is helping her former Bad Boss.Mercy: Lex, I'm doing you a favour here.
Luthor: No you're not. (Mercy starts to walk out, but Luthor grabs hold of her) You're doing this because you need to.
Mercy: I don't know what you're talking about...
Luthor: (pulling her close) Face it Mercy, you missed me. You missed the excitement, the sense of transgression. Not to mention, certain... other things. - Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Downplayed. Amazo is never referred to by name, but it's on the blueprints recovered at Ivo's house.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Mercy to Luthor. She was constantly devoted to a guy who treated her like a dog.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Mercy mentions that Luthor's schemes and obsession with destroying Superman and the League had nearly driven LexCorp to bankruptcy, and it's Mercy's own business-savvy that saved it. Is Lex grateful for this? Have a guess.
- Demoted to Extra: Professor Ivo is a significant character in the comics, but here he appears only as a Post Humous Character.
- Deus Exit Machina: J'onn's troubles with his powers coincide with Superman and Batman's need to know if Mercy's been entirely honest with them about Luthor.
- Didn't Think This Through: Luthor did consider Amazo turning on him, and used a detonator as a fail-safe...he just didn't consider that after copying Martian Manhunter's powers it wouldn't be effective.
- Due to the Dead: Amazo has covered Ivo's body under a sheet and makes sure to gently put his arm back under the sheet once Luthor disturbs it.
- The End... Or Is It?: After Luthor openly doubts that Amazo is now a god:Superman: [to Luthor] Then why do I have a feeling that if he ever comes back, you're gonna be doing a lot of praying?
J'onn: Perhaps we'll all be praying. - Feet-First Introduction: Mercy is reintroduced legs first in the work dress she's adapted since becoming LexCorp CEO.
- Foregone Conclusion: While Batman's Kryptonite is destroyed by Amazo in the climax, we know he'll eventually acquire another sample of the irradiated ore by the time of Batman Beyond. It's also possible Bruce's fragment from "The Call" was salvaged from his destroyed sample (as small chunks of Kryptonite can clearly be seen falling to the ground after it collides with Superman's chest).
- From Bad to Worse: Amazo copies the powers of Hawkgirl, Flash, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern—leading to curb-stomp battles. Then he copies Superman's powers. The trope gets zig-zagged a bit. Batman uses his kryptonite to stop the fight, but it proves to be a temporary solution, as demonstrated during the climax, where the kryptonite no longer works on Amazo and is used to take Superman out of the fight.Wonder Woman: Hera, help us.
Green Lantern: She better. No one else can now. - A God Am I: When Luthor sneers at the idea that Amazo is now a Physical God, Superman retorts that if he ever comes back, "you're going to be doing a lot of praying."
- Golden Super Mode: Amazo turns gold just before he takes off, implying that he's become a higher being.
- Grew a Spine: Mercy Graves by the end of the episode. Luthor calls her from prison demanding she gets him best doctors and lawyers that money can buy. At this point, she's had enough, and hangs up the phone without a single word to him.
- Heroic BSoD: Martian Manhunter gets this because A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: The episode opens with Lex Luthor's new status as a wanted supervillain: Fleeing from the Justice League and barely escaping with his life. He arrives to LexCorp as a broken man, begging Mercy Graves, his former bodyguard and now CEO of LexCorp, for help. To his dismay, Mercy refuses to give any and instead reveals that LexCorp became profitable under her management after she made massive cuts to his anti-Superman projects, smugly implying that everyone was better off without him.
- Humble Hero: J'onn brings the missing kid to the search party and departs before they can congratulate him.Wonder Woman: You're not getting away that easily. [hugs him]
- Informed Flaw: Most of the thoughts J'onn is shown reading during his A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read moments, while not exactly filled with any great depth, don't seem as rotten as he seems to find them.
- Just a Machine: When J'onn declares that Amazo has gone to "where gods go," Lex dismisses the notion.Lex: He's just a machine. I don't care how much power he has, he's no god.Superman: Then why do I have a feeling that if he ever comes back, you're going to be doing a lot of praying?
- Logical Weakness: Batman figures out that if Amazo can copy the League's abilities, then he also gains their weaknesses as well - and uses kryptonite to force Amazo to retreat. It works...for a while.
- Superman found a different one earlier: Amazo can't copy someone if he can't see them, so Supes wraps a scrap of metal around his eyes before engaging him.
- Look Behind You: Subverted when Amazo grabs Flash.Flash: You're just too fast for me, Bro, but not him.
Amazo: Oldest trick in the— [gets blasted by GL] - A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Martian Manhunter tries wide-scale mind-reading on humans for the first time, and is so depressed by their selfishness and duplicity that he wonders why he's protecting them.
- Missing Child: When J'onn sees the group of adults looking for a missing girl, he reads the mind of a man lagging behind."Here I am freezing my butt off, and I don't even know the kid...but I know how I'd feel if it was my kid out there."
- Never Say "Die": Luthor tells the Android that if he doesn’t get help, then he’ll “go to sleep and never wake up”, just like Dr. Ivo.
- Not Worth Killing: Amazo learns that Luthor used him, and tears apart his battlesuit, save for the chestplate that keeps his cancer at bay. He then decides not only to spare him, but also comes to the conclusion that Luthor, the League, and indeed the Earth collectively are beneath him, and heads off into space.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Wonder Woman and Green Lantern's reaction when Amazo copies Superman's powers.
- Batman in the climax of Part 2 when Amazo adapts and overcomes Superman's Kryptonite weakness.
- Amazo figures out that Luthor was lying to him by reading his mind. He briefly keeps his cool and uses the kill-switch for the detonator to destroy the android, but Amazo's Adaptive Ability overcame even that, and Luthor gives this reaction.
- One Phone Call: Unfortunately Lex makes his one phone call to Mercy. Who hangs up on him.
- Please Wake Up: Amazo doesn't literally say this, but at first he doesn't understand death so Luthor has to explain to him that Ivo isn't ever waking up.
- Physical God: What Amazo has become at the end
- Playing Sick: Sort of — Luthor really is sick, as was explained in an earlier episode, but when Amazo starts to question him he puts on a sudden attack of pain, provoking the android's protective instincts.
- Posthumous Character: Professor Ivo.Luthor: The cigarettes finally got you.
- Properly Paranoid: Mercy insists to Superman and Batman that Luthor is twisted and denies having any contact with him.Superman: She was a little too cooperative, wasn't she?
Batman: You're learning. - Role Reprise: Lisa Edelstein reprises the role of Mercy Graves for the first time since the conclusion of STAS in 2000.
- The Runaway: When Martian Manhunter hears the thoughts of the missing child, he hears that she ran away from her parents deliberately but has come to regret it.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mercy finally makes her break at the end by hanging up on Luthor when he phones her for help.
- Sequel Episode: To Season One's "Injustice for All" (and to a lesser extent "Legends"), continuing Luthor's storyline (and also following up on the fates of LexCorp and Mercy since his downfall).
- Ship Tease: Lex drops a strong hint that he and Mercy were lovers
- Take Me Instead: One of the search party wishes she'd be the one lost in the woods instead of the little girl.
- Unwitting Pawn:
- Mercy remarks she was flattered that Luthor put her in charge of Lexcorp in his absence. Then she figured out he only did so because he couldn't trust anyone else to give the company back at a later date.
- Amazo is just a tool for Luthor to repair his suit and kill the Justice League. Amazo learns this in the end and is pissed.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: This episode finally follows up on, and resolves, a dangling loose end from "Injustice for All": What happened to LexCorp and Mercy after Luthor's downfall?
- Worf Had the Flu: This two-parter was the first of Season 2 to be produced and reflects the change in Superman. Instead of falling victim to The Worf Effect, he puts up a much better fight against Luthor's Powered Armor than before and stands strong against a powered-up Amazo. He only gets taken out of the fight during the climax due to his longstanding weakness to kryptonite.
- You Don't Look Like You: A deliberate case. Bruce Timm and others didn't care for Amazo's design from the comics and overhauled it.
- Your Head A-Splode: Luthor uses the kill-switch for the detonator in Amazo's head to destroy him, but the android just grows back a new one.
