http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS1E7TheWayOfAllFlesh
While in custody on Stryker's Island, John Corben somehow catches a rare, untreatable, and terminal disease. As a result, he has to turn to an old friend of his, Lex Luthor. He has his mind transferred into a robotic body combined with kryptonite to get a chance in defeating Superman.
This episode provides examples of:
- Achilles' Heel: Corben's metallic body is too dense to float, causing him to sink to the bottom of the ocean when he's blown off Luthor's yacht.
- Adaptational Origin Connection: In the comics, Dr. Vale believed Superman was an advanced scout of an alien invasion and rebuilt Corben into Metallo to fight him, and Metallo killed Vale. Here, Dr. Vale works for Lex, who had him rebuild Corben, and later had him killed.
- Adaptational Personality Change: Dr. Vale, again. Opposed to the comic, he seems like a kind old man who's probably unaware of Lex's true intentions.
- And Then What?: Luthor pulls this on Corben when his doublecrossed employee threatens him.
- Armor-Piercing Question: During the final fight, Superman reveals the truth to Metallo by explaining how the disease was put in his food at the prison.
Superman: How else do you think you got such a rare disease?
- Asshole Victim: Given Corben was already an amoral mercenary, not many will feel too sorry for him.
- Blatant Lies: When Superman tells Corben that Lex ordered Dr. Vale to give him the disease, Lex tells Corben that the kryptonite made Superman delirious and that he's trying turn them against each other to save his own life. Corben responds by trying to feed Luthor the virus sample Superman gave him in order to "test" it.
- Blessed with Suck: While Corben's new body gives him super strength, invulnerability and an anti-Superman weapon, he has lost his sense of touch, taste, and smell.
- Brawler Lock: Superman vs. Metallo, natch. Supes comes to regret it later, once John reveals his kryptonite power source.
- The Chessmaster: Luthor deliberately had Corben infected with the lethal virus so he could use him as a guinea pig for the cybernetic transplant experiment to "save" him from the virus.
- Call-Back: The news mention of Corben's attack since "The Last Son of Krypton".
- Car Fu: During the first fight, Superman knocks Corben onto the highway by using Lois's car. Corben lands on a passing truck and is out of the way for now.
- Cassandra Truth: Corben doesn't listen to Superman's warnings that he's been set up and Lex is his real enemy—until producing the virus.
- Contrived Coincidence: A plot point. Corben contracts a rare disease despite being in prison, allowing him to take Luthor up on his offer of 'saving' him. Lois at least justifiably points out that as a global mercenary, he could've been exposed anywhere prior to the series Pilot. Clark of course discovers Lex actually engineered the illness.
- Create Your Own Villain: Luthor and Superman are both responsible for Corben's transformation (albeit directly and indirectly respectively).
- Didn't Think This Through: Corben revels in gaining a indestructible cybernetic body that saves him from a deadly virus and renders him immune to pain, but finds out the hard way that it also depletes all his pleasurable senses, and that the transplant is irreversible.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Luthor doesn’t seem to think giving up the ability to feel sensual pleasures in exchange for what is basically immortality to be a bad thing. Though, he might be just trying to calm Metallo down by pointing out the positives of his condition.
- The End... Or Is It?: Metallo falls off Luthor's yacht and can't keep afloat. He sinks into the water. Then, at the episode's conclusion, the camera cuts below the surface and we see two glowing eyes and a figure walking along the sea floor...
- Exact Words: When Corben mentioned that he couldn't feel anything, Luthor tells him there would be "adjustments," which Corben assumed meant that his new body needed some fine-tuning. Turns out, Luthor meant that the adjustments were on his end (i.e. he'd have to get used to his new condition).
- False Reassurance: When Corben goes to confront Luthor, he tries to explain that, in time, he would be able give Metallo his senses back (or transplant Corben’s brain onto another organic body). Metallo is not fooled this time.
- Forceful Kiss: The newly-minted Metallo grabs Lois and forces himself on her... only to recoil in horror when he realizes he can't even feel a kiss.
- Irony: Unaware he's Superman (one of the fastest beings on Earth), an old lady on a bike passes Clark and calls him a "slowpoke".
- Karma Houdini: Luthor thanks to the virus sample going down with his yacht and Vale having been eliminated before he can be arrested and give testimony. Though it's downplayed when Superman points out Metallo will want Lex's head on a platter just as much as he wants Superman's. Ironically, Metallo never attempts get payback on Lex after this episode, dedicating his revenge solely on Superman.
- Lack of Empathy: Even if he’s only trying to convince Corben not to turn on him by telling him he's immortal, Luthor clearly doesn’t fully grasp the frustration he has from no longer being able to feel any type of sensual pleasure.
- Luxury Prison Suite: Corben was living in one as gratitude that he didn't reveal his ties to Luthor.
- Marilyn Maneuver: In a Freeze-Frame Bonus during Corben's debut as Metallo, the impact from him hitting a train unleashes a backdraft that almost blows up a woman's dress before she pushes her skirt back down in the nick of time.
- Oh, Crap!: At first, Corben is happy, and even gloats, that he can't feel pain from being shot at by the police or Superman's punches, especially after the latter gets weakened by Kryptonite. When Lois shows up to report on the fight, Corben grabs her and plants a Forceful Kiss on her, which is when he realizes that not only can he not feel pain, but he can't feel anything.
- Rage Against the Reflection: Metallo finally realizes he's stuck with his Sense Loss Sadness and is trapped inside of lifeless robot body for the rest of time. He is no longer John Corben, tearing much of his artificial skin off and he smashes that man's reflection in the mirror.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Superman tries to explain to Corben that Luthor is the latter's enemy for turning him into Metallo, Corben's response is to credit that Luthor made him the man he is today, or the virus would've killed him otherwise. To his credit, Corben's not far off: Luthor made him the man he is today by tampering his food with the virus, and he would've been dead if not for the procedure that made him Metallo (the twist is, it was all part of his plan).
- Sanity Slippage: Corben's mental state starts crumbling as the reality of what's happened to him sinks in.
- Save the Villain: Done twice (the first time incidentally).
- As Corben is attempting to forcefully infect Luthor with the virus Luthor gave him, Superman blows up the yacht, launching them both overboard before Corben can successfully infect him.
- After the boat blows up, Superman saves Luthor from a shark.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: An old lady biker who rode pass Clark, calling him "slowpoke". (See Irony)
- Sense Loss Sadness: Corben is upset when he realizes that he can't feel, smell, or taste, and flips out completely when he's told that the condition is permanent.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Luthor is rather smug, but Superman gives him a reality check.
Luthor: You'll never pin this on me. The virus is destroyed, and Corben's lost at sea. And even if you found him, there'd still be that kryptonite to worry about.
Superman: I don't think I'm the one who should be worrying.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: As Corben beats a Kryptonite weakened Superman in a lower deck of Luthor's yatch, Superman takes out a small glass vial containing the virus, and tells Corben that he was infected while locked up in Stryker's Island by Dr. Vale, who was ordered by Luthor to mix the virus into his food.
- There Is No Cure: Corben is turned into Metallo by Luthor by having his mind implanted into a bionic body. At first, Corben's happy he now possesses Super-Strength, can't feel getting shot by the police, and can go toe-to-toe with the Man of Steel himself, especially since he now possesses a piece of Kryptonite. However, when Corben plants a Forceful Kiss on Lois Lane, he realizes he can't feel anything at all. When he confronts the scientists Luthor hired for the procedure, Corben is told that he has to get used to not feeling anything anymore because the procedure is irreversible. Corben then decides that from now on he'll go by Metallo.
- Turned On Their Masters: Corben allowed himself to be turned into Metallo to get revenge on Superman, but after realizing that his metallic body left him with without the ability to feel anything, pain or pleasure, he demands Luthor implant his mind on another body. When Superman confronts Luthor on his yacht, Corben uses his Kryptonite to subdue Superman, but then Superman reveals a sample of the virus and that Dr. Vale purposefully infected him under Luthor's orders. Corben realizes that he was nothing more than Luthor's Unwitting Pawn in his revenge against Superman, and tries to infect Luthor as payback
- Villainous Breakdown: When Corben realizes his fate.
Corben: (
looking in a mirror) It's all fake... (
tears off the flesh from his face)
A FRAUD! (
starts ripping the skin off) There's the reality! The metal behind the man! It's all I am, it's
who I am! (
punches the mirror) Metallo!
- Walk, Don't Swim: Metallo, at the end of the episode.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Luthor argues Corben has all the time in the world for further advancements since he's practically immortal. Corben isn't reassured because of what being without senses is like.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Dr. Vale.
