http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS1E1To3TheLastSonOfKrypton
The origin of Superman, from the end of Krypton to him dealing with his first criminal threat. This was released on home video as
Superman: The Last Son of Krypton.
This episode contains examples of:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Brainiac knows that Krypton is going to explode, but covers it up in order to save itself without having to divert attention and resources to saving anybody else since there wasn't time anyway.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Jor-El complains about Brainiac's intrusion on his privacy, saying that people don't like that, Brainiac asks if that's the case, why would they create something like him? Jor-El admits he asks himself that question often.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Lois gives Bibbo money to call Clark should she get in danger. He quickly forgets and spends it on a soda machine. Superman ends up saving her anyway.
- Badass Normal: Jor-El, who is basically the same as a normal human, starts the episode escaping a giant monster and escapes the Brainiac-deceived police to evacuate Kal-El from the doomed planet. It seems awesome runs in the family.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Krypton accepting Brainiac's word without questioning. Sul-Van is the only Council member to realize this.
- Blessed with Suck: How teenage Clark views his powers, until...
- Bullet Catch: Superman catches a whole volley of bullets and throws them back at the shooters' feet.
- Captain Obvious: Perry points to a picture of Superman and asks Clark and Lois who he is. Jimmy (listening in) helpfully suggests that it looks like a man flying.
- Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: Luthor does it near the end.
- Continuity Cameo: Pete Ross, Clark's best friend in the comics, appears as just a fellow student.
- Cultural Rebel: Jor-El. He's the only Kryptonian to not trust the AI Brainiac, which the Science Council are aware of.
- A Death in the Limelight: Jor-El is for all intents and purposes the main character for the first episode.
- Decoy Getaway: Sul-Van leads the police away while Jor-El makes the final preparations and launches the rocket.
- Doorstop Baby/Moses in the Bulrushes: Discussed and lampshaded as the Kents tell Clark about how he was found.
Jonathan Kent: Do you know how some babies are found in baskets? (reveals the rocket) Well, this is how we found you.
- Death by Origin Story: Jor-El, Lara-El and the entire planet of Krypton.
- Doomed Homeworld: Krypton, and the entire first episode is devoted to how and why it got that way.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Clark tells Lana about his emerging powers, including X-ray vision. She jokingly asks if he's been peeking into the girls' locker room, but Clark's not too happy with that remark since he's really worried about the weird stuff that's happening to him. Lana backs off and shows genuine concern for him.
- The End... Or Is It?: The final scene is an alien ship finding Brainiac's escape pod and being overtaken.
- Foreshadowing:
- In Part I, Jor-El explains his original plan was to put the entire population of Krypton in the Phantom Zone, send someone in Kal-El's ship to a habitable world, and then release the Kryptonians from the Zone. This will later pay off in "Blasts from the Past", when Clark discovers Jor-El had packed a Phantom Zone Projector in the ship before its launch. With the High Council refusing to approve the plan and Brainiac's betrayal, the implication is Jor-El either didn't have time to remove it (or completely forgot) in the chaos of scrambling to launch Kal-El off Krypton.
- Jor-El tells Lara he can reprogram Kal's rocket to take her to Earth as well. Later episodes have adult Superman using it. In "Little Girl Lost", he even brings another survivor back to Earth in it.
- When Kal-El's rocket enters hyperspace at the end of Part I, multiple now-irradiated fragments of Krypton get caught in the hyperspace window. This is how Kryptonite will end up on Earth come "A Little Piece of Home". Alan Burnett even points it out on the DVD Commentary.
- In Part III, Martha Kent offers her advice on Clark's PR. She urges him to ensure people won't think he's like "That nut in Gotham City". Clark will eventually make the acquaintance of said Gothamite in "World's Finest".
- The leader of the Kasnian terrorists is John Corben, the man who will eventually become Metallo.
- Happily Adopted: Typically, Clark finds out he's adopted and an alien both at once - but in this version, the Kents let him know he was adopted long before he found out about his powers. He doesn't show any angst on the subject.
- Hero's First Rescue: While Clark is confiding in Lana about the weird things that have been happening to him, he is interrupted by the distant sound of a tire blowing out. He races to the scene and saves a family from a burning crashed van.
- Heroic BSoD: Clark after he finds out about his true nature.
Clark: It's not true... I'm not a freak... I'm not... I'm NOT!
- Ignored Expert: Jor-El, as usual, though it's not quite as bad in this incarnation as he is discredited by Brainiac, who was buying some time to save himself, giving the Science Council an easy-out of trusting him even though he turns out to be right.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: A young Clark initially feels this way upon learning he isn't from Earth. He quickly gets over it however when he realizes his powers do have a few perks (see The Joy of First Flight below)
- I Own This Town: Luthor on Metropolis - and given the amount of power he has, he's hardly exaggerating.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Martha calls Jonathan out for calling baby Kal-El a "thing."
- It's All About Me: Brainiac's justification for not revealing Krypton's fate.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sul-Van, Lara's father, who despite doubting his son-in-law, is ultimately the only Kryptonian who took his concerns seriously, if only due to caring about his grandson's future.
- The Joy of First Flight: Young Clark Kent is understandably distraught when his Puberty Superpowers kick in and his adopted parents reveal that he is an alien. Learning that his alien heritage includes the ability of flight, however, goes a long way to calming him down and starting him on the road to coming to terms.
- Loophole Abuse: The theft of the Lexo-Skel Suit 5000. The Kaznian Regent seeks to purchase the power armor, but Lex can't sell it due the current trade embargo. So, Lex and the Regent concoct a scheme wherein it's 'stolen' during its public demonstration and spirited out of the country. The Regent gets the armor and Lex gets a nice, lucrative contract from the American military to build another one to counter its stolen predecessor (on top of the under-the-table payment from Kaznia). Unfortunately, neither party had any way of anticipating something or someone like Superman.
- Match Cut: While holding baby Kal-El, Martha was considering a name for...
Teacher: (to a teenage Clark) Clark! Clark Kent!
- Mythology Gag:
- One of the guards says "Great Rao!", which Superman often says in the Silver Age comics.
- When Martha Kent finds the infant Superman, she considers the names Christopher and Kirk, in reference to Christopher Reeve and Kirk Alyn, who also played Superman in the Richard Donner films and the 1948 serials respectively, before deciding on Clark.
- Lois tells Bibbo to have Clark call "Commissioner Henderson" if she is not heard from soon. Inspector William Henderson was a character originally introduced in the 1940's radio series as Superman's contact on the police force; he was later adapted into the television series and, eventually, the comics. His role was eventually supplanted by Daniel Turpin and Maggie Sawyer, two characters who would become important recurring characters within this series, and he is currently Metropolis's Police Commissioner. He is given a small role in "Feeding Time" and appears in the background in "Apokolips... Now!".
- When Lois asked Clark how he showed up before her, he casually answered that he "just flew". Similar to the scene in Superman: The Movie, when the popular clique (which includes Lana Lang) asked how Clark got ahead of them, he remarked that he ran.
- Noodle Incident: Lois remarks that Clark is the first person to get under Luthor’s skin since her, when she dumped him.
- Not Helping Your Case: After Brainiac discredits him Jor-El pleads for the council to at least hear out his plans. They involve (temporarily) trapping the entire population of the planet in the Phantom Zone, only further convincing the council of his supposed madness.
- Papa Wolf: Both Jor-El and his father-in-law Sul-Van (the one member of the Council he is able to convince) become this, as Brainiac tries to use the police to prevent him from activating Kal-El's rocket. Mostly Sul-Van, however. Knowing that he really has nothing to lose now. leads the police on a high-speed chase ending in a crash simply to draw them away from the lab and buy his son-in-law time. They manage to catch him only minutes before the rocket takes off.
- Powered Armor: Luthor unveils a new prototype, which is promptly stolen. The "theft" is actually a cover for an illegal arms sale to Kaznia.
- Puberty Superpower: Clark discovers that he can hear faint distant sounds and see through walls. As he's talking to Lana about this, he is interrupted by the sound of a distant tire blowout, and rescues a family from a crash by racing to the scene at superhuman speed, tearing the door off a van, and finally charging into a raging fire to save the child still trapped in the vehicle.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Sul-Van originally shares the Council's skepticism toward Jor-El's conclusions, but he's willing to look at the evidence for himself... and changes his mind, to the point of running interference to buy time for the launch.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Jor-El warns the council that their faith in Brainiac would bring the end of their world. While he was right, what he was referring to was their willingness to depend solely on the artificial intelligence without voicing their own opinions.
- Sarcastic Confession:
Lois: How'd you get here before me?
Clark: Well, I just flew.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Superman demonstrates his strength and invulnerability, as Corben races for the battle suit he uses to fight Superman, one of his henchmen is seen hastily climbing a ladder that leads to the exit in the background.
- Shout-Out:
- Jor-El encounters a gelatinous monster on Krypton that he calls a Shoggoth, which resembles the ones described in the Cthulhu Mythos.
- One name Martha considers giving Clark is Christopher, no doubt in honor of Christopher Reeve, who played Superman onscreen.
- She also considers "Kirk", possibly a reference to Kirk Alyn, who played Superman in a 1948 serial.
- The unfortunate aliens who find and retrieve Brainiac's pod (and are immediately massacred) resemble the "Martians" from the 1953 film of The War of the Worlds.
- Silent Treatment: Superman gives this to Luthor at the end. Luthor recognizes it for what it is, but eventually snaps under the pressure.
Luthor: SAY SOMETHING!
(He throws a miniature of the Lexo-Skel battlesuit at Superman, who catches it and crushes it to powder.)
Superman: I'll be watching you, Luthor.
- Slave to PR: Martha Kent suggests that Clark ought to cultivate a good public image rather than try to help people behind the scenes and disappear, lest people get the idea that he's like "that nut in Gotham City".
- Smarter Than You Look: After Clark succeeds in outscooping Lois after she initially blew him off, she quickly learned not to underestimate him.
Lois: I take it back. You're not the rube hayseed I took you for.
Clark: Thanks... I guess?
- The Space Race: One of Johnathan's initial concerns about finding Clark in a spaceship is that he could be a Russian "Sputnik Baby", though he also considers that "maybe he's one of ours."
- Strong Family Resemblance: Facial features-wise, Kal-El is nearly identical to his father Jor.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Just before Krypton gets destroyed.
Kryptonian: Not another one [earthquake]...
Sul-Van: No.
The last one.
- Title Drop: Jor-El mentions to Sul-Van that Kal will be "The Last Son of Krypton."
- Too Dumb to Live: Jor-El was right that Krypton's blind faith in Brainiac would doom them all, as he'd intentionally lied to get time to save himself.
- Villainous Breakdown: Luthor has a minor one after Superman silently refuses his offer to work together, throwing a model of the Lexo-Suit at him (which is promptly crushed) and yelling after him as he flies away.
- Villain Has a Point: Brainiac's excuse for lying about Krypton's doom is that he would have been ordered to think up an evacuation plan, which he already knows is pointless due to how little time the planet has left. Of course, had he told the truth when he learned it weeks previously, this might have been avoided. But (as we see again in a later episode), Brainiac believes that saving himself and the collective memory of Krypton is paramount; once he has the data, the original civilization is... expendable.
- We Can Rule Together: After making it plain to this mysterious alien that he runs Metropolis, Luthor notes that he often wonders if he should be satisfied with "just" one city, and that between the two of them they could basically run the world. Naturally, Superman doesn't bite.
- Wham Line: A minor, yet still important one in Part 3: "Still, it wouldn't be bad if people knew a little more about Superman. I don't want anyone thinking you're like that nut in Gotham City." It's the first indication that despite Bruce Timm's Art Evolution between shows, STAS shares the same setting with its predecessor — an indication that will fully pay off the following Season in "World's Finest".
- You Are Too Late: To save everyone on Krypton, since the planet only has a few hours remaining.
