Review: Superman (2025)

 Dust off your cape and trunks, Superman takes flight once again.

Alright, let’s do this.

 

Superman (2025) opens on a stretch of Antarctic ice as we get a text crawl explaining this universe. Three Centuries ago, the world became aware of Metahumans, humans with amazing powers. Three Decades ago, an alien pod crash landed on Earth and was discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent. Three Years ago, Superman introduced himself to the world and was hailed as the most powerful Metahuman. Three Weeks ago, Superman interceded in a war between the countries of Boravia and Jarhanpur, stopping the Boravians from invading. Three Hours ago, Superman was attacked by a man calling himself the Hammer of Boravia. And Three minutes ago, Superman lost his first fight. And our first image of Superman (David Cornswet), Kal-El, last son of Krypton, is him crashing into the Antarctic ice, looking like he was beaten to hell and back. He whistles, summoning Krypto the Superdog to help him out. After, well, being a dog for about a minute (play fighting, licking his face, dragging Superman’s leg around etc), Krypto grabs Superman by the cape and drags him the few hundred yards to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude as it raises up.

 

Inside the Fortress, Clark is met by several Robot servants, the leader of which appears to be Four (Alan Tudyk) who gets him set up in a chair designed to maximize the sunlight his body can absorb. This is to rapidly heal Superman, but the process is painful as hell from the look of it. Four plays the message that came with his pod from his parents, Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Lara Lor-Van (Angela Sarafyan) telling him about where he comes from. The message is damaged, though, and cuts off halfway through. Superman gets healed and immediately prepares to fly back to Metropolis. Four advises against this, as Superman is only up to about 83% of his full strength, and the Hammer beat him when he was at 100%, but Superman’s gotta Superman. He stops when he notices that Krypto had smashed up the place a bit since he’d been there last. He tries to chastise the robots for not keeping an eye on Krypton, but Four points out that they had. They feed him, but he’s unruly. Four thinks it’s because he knows they’re robots and thus are incapable of actually caring about his wellbeing. Superman makes Krypto sit when he tries to come with him and flies off.

 

Unbeknownst to him, he’s being tracked by the Engineer, Angela Spica (Maria Gabriela de Faria), a cyborg working for Lex Luthor. She wants to try to get into the Fortress, but Lex tells her to wait.

 

 Superman flies to Metropolis at top speed and we get our first look at the Hammer of Boravia. Personally, I think the Juggernaut is going to sue if he ever saw this design. Anyway, Superman battles the Hammer, but we learn that the Hammer has got tech support. Billionaire industrialist and all-around scummy dude Lex Luthor (Nicholas Holt), and a team of LuthorCorp tech guys are monitoring the fight via drone cameras, and imputing commands to send to the Hammer to counter each of Superman’s moves. One of the techies tells the other that Lex has been obsessively studying Superman for years to learn his attack patterns and program these counters into his super weapon. Anytime Superman moves, Lex calls out a command like 18A, 34B, or 98Z and the Hammer applies the appropriate counter. The Hammer drops Superman into the concrete when Lex announces 44T. A falafel salesman named Malik Ali (Dinesh Tyagarajan) and other bystanders gather around and help Superman to his feet despite his protests. He gets ID by Lex’s drones, which can’t be good. Meanwhile, the Engineer tries to get to the Fortress, but it drops back into the ice. Lex orders her back and for the Hammer to finish up. The Hammer finishes spouting anti-Superman rhetoric and says that if he interferes with Boravia again, he’ll be back. Superman tries to go after him, but he’s too hurt. One of the civilians says that maybe he shouldn’t have done that thing in Jarhanpur.

 

The Hammer flies to a base outside of Metropolis, enters a pod of some kind, enters a weird cave-looking area and then steps out into the LuthorCorp control building, revealing something that we all knew already, that he’s working for Lex. The Hammer is really “Ultraman,” Lex’s minion and personal bodyguard. The LuthorCorp goons all cheer for this great victory.

 

Later, a much less bruised Superman heads into work as Clark Kent, news reporter for the Daily Planet. Inside, his boss Perry White (Wendell Pierce) complains that he’s late. Clark apologizes and does his best to play down Superman’s defeat at the hands of the Hammer, despite his coworkers like Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) and Steve Lombard (Beck Bennett) are constantly bringing it up. As he walks to his desk, Pa and Ma Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell) call him. Well, Ma calls and Pa occasionally grunt to make it clear that he’s there. She wants to congratulate him on his front-page story. He has to brush her off a little as he’s busy, but it’s clear his parents love him. Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) comes over and pokes holes in Clark’s story about the incident, asking if the Hammer really did just fly in out of nowhere and deck Superman, to which Clark insists that it’s true. Jimmy wonders if maybe Superman did overstep with this Boravia thing, but Lois rightly points out that they don’t know if this guy is really from Boravia. When Jimmy says that’s what he called himself, Lois counters by saying she doubts that’s what his parents named him. The reporters shift focus to an interview with Boravian President Vasil Ghurkos (Zlatko Buric) also denying any ties to the Hammer. Clark says that “Superman” said that he thought the Hammer was faking the Boravian accent. Lois seems skeptical as hell about how he’d heard that, but Clark insists he interviewed Superman right after the fight. She points out how funny it is that he keeps getting these interviews with Superman, but he brushes it off. Ghurkos goes on to complain that the alliance between the US and Boravia has been ironclad for 30 years, until Superman came along.

 

We cut to the Pentagon, where Lex is in an interview with the Secretary of Defense, and several top generals including Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). He’s pitching them his latest ‘defensive products’ Ultraman and the Engineer. He explains that the Engineer gets her powers from Nanites in her blood and that coupled with her former spec ops experience makes her the perfect weapon. He’s much more vague about Ultraman for some reason, just saying that he’s the most powerful being on the planet. He also has his armored flying soldiers he calls Raptors. They’re all included in his PlanetWatch program. He’s trying to convince the joint chiefs to hire his PlanetWatch to capture Superman after this whole incident with the Hammer. Flag points out that Superman stopped the war, that he’s naïve but well intentioned, but Lex keeps on poking at this idea that Superman needs to be held accountable.  Director Crawley (Tinashe Kajese-Bolden) points out that LuthorCorp has sold nearly a trillion dollars’ worth of arms to Boravia over the years and points out the conflict of interest here. Lex insists it’s not about business, saying that they’ll die if Superman keeps going half-cocked like this. He tries to use the fact Superman has his secret fortress in the Antarctic as proof of possible wrongdoing, but they aren’t going for it. Partially due to his popularity, and because of the fear of what would happen if they went after him and failed. You don’t swing at Superman if you’re not positive it’l hit. One of the others asks about Kryptonite, and we learn that that material has been scoured from the planet, but Lex claims he has a work around. They’re still not going for it.

 

Lois returns to her apartment and hears someone in her kitchen. She grabs a bat to defend herself, only to learn it’s Clark, he’s over to make her breakfast for dinner to celebrate their three-month anniversary. That’s right, she’s been in the know about Clark Kent being Superman for a while now. He says Breakfast for Dinner is her favorite, but she points out that it’s actually his. She still kisses him, though, so it’s clear she appreciates the thought. They start to have a sort-of fight about Clark’s interviewing tactics. He treats it as more playful, but it’s clear Lois isn’t exactly happy that Clark keeps interviewing Superman from an ethical standpoint. To prove that he’s good at interviews regardless of who is doing it, he offers for her to interview him. We’ve all seen the scene, but to speed through it, Lois asks Superman some hard questions about his actions in Boravia and he gets more and more upset about how protecting civilians isn’t a good enough reason to stop a US ally from declaring a war. There are several asides about what is on and off the record, something Clark is really bad at calling, and Lois just keeps poking the tender spots. Oh, and he reveals that he took Ghurkos out into the desert and put him up on a cactus to get him to swear not to do this again. She shifts to how Superman is getting a lot of heat on Social Media lately. Clark says that “Superman doesn’t have time for Selfies,” and Lois teases him for talking in the third person. Lois asks about where he comes from, and he says he’s been upfront about being an alien and that his home planet was destroyed. He says that all he has is the video of his parents telling him to help people and that he cherishes that more than anything. Lois then points out that there is a growing sentiment online that he’s here for not-so-good reasons, pointing to the hashtags Superspy and Supershit, which really upsets Clark. He actually starts to storm off, but Lois stops him, and they try to talk things out for a little longer, but don’t make much headway. She mutters about how she ‘knew this would never work,’ and Clark asks what she means. She just says she’s not good at relationships, and Clark leaves.

 

We cut back to the Antarctic as Lex touches down with the Engineer, Ultraman, and his airhead girlfriend Eve Tessmocker (Sara Sampaio). The Engineer asks how they’ll get inside, and Lex just says oh ye of little faith as the fortress raises up. They go inside and are greeted by the Super Robots. Lex has his goons take out the Robots in a very impressive fight scene to show off their powers. Krypto attacks and damages the Engineer, but she just throws a ball of nanites onto his face to disable him. Lex goes to Superman’s computer and says that hopefully something on there will give him the evidence he needs to get the joint chiefs to act. He goes into his hatred about Superman, insisting he’s an It not a Man, how he’s got a stupid costume and stupid grin and yet somehow, he dominates the world conversation. He has the Engineer begin to hack the system. She asks what they’ll do if Superman comes back and Lex reveals he has a plan to keep Superman busy for a while. As the Engineer works, she’s able to repair the damaged message from Superman’s parents.

 

 The plan, as it turns out, is to have his minions, one of them being Otis (Terrance Rosemore), unleash a small monster into downtown Metropolis. Well, it starts small. By the next morning it’s full-on Kaiju sized. Superman is doing his best to fight the creature without killing it and to protect the civilians around it, including their pets and a squirrel that almost gets squished. He’s eventually joined by the Justice Gang (Name still up for debate), consisting of Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi). They’re a privately funded superhero team funded by Maxwell Lord and his LordTech industries. They help fight the monster but also inadvertently cause more damage as they’re overall less careful than Clark. Lois, meanwhile, is watching the report from the Planet. Fun fact, the reporter doing the story is in real life the youngest son of the late great Superman actor Christopher Reeve, Will Reeve. Terrific comes over to Superman and asks for details. Superman reveals that he’s been doing his best to get the creature out of here alive, which doesn’t impress Mr. Terrific. He tells the others to go for its eyes, as its hide is too tough. Ultimately Mr. Terrific throws his T-Spheres into the creature’s stomach and detonates them, killing it. It falls backward, but Superman catches it before it can crush anything. The report Lois watching says that there were no casualties thanks to Superman.

 

After the fight, Guy tries to get the crowd to cheer for them all, but no one seems to be noticing. Why? Because Lex Luthor is on the big screen, revealing that he’s got proof that Superman is here for nefarious intent. He plays the full message, revealing that Jor-El and Lara sent Clark here to conquer the planet. They tell him to rule the people, to dispatch anyone that goes against him, and to take as many wives as necessary to breed a new generation of Kryptonians. Jor-El explicitly tells him to rule without mercy. Superman is shocked to learn this part of the message. On the talk show, Lex claims that Superman’s actions have been to lull humans into complacency and get them prepared to serve him. Lex goes on to say there’s no telling how large his ‘secret harem is already.’

 

Superman walks away from the angry crowd around him into a Stagg Industries building nearby. The Justice Gang follow him, Guy making a force field around the building to keep people out, and Guy straight out asks Superman if he has a harem. Superman denies it, saying that he’d never heard that part of the message. Mr. Terrific unfortunately confirms that the message is real, he knows the people that confirmed the message and says they wouldn’t say it’s legit if it wasn’t. Hawkgirl asks where they got the footage, and Superman races to the Antarctic.

 

Lois confirms with her news source, as it turns out Generals Mori and Rick Flagg, that they’re considering taking Superman in for questioning. Rick asks if Mori is buying it, and Mori says he’s not putting anything past Luthor, but that the message is authentic so they can’t ignore it. Ghurkos uses the reveal to drum up hate for Superman, joking that Superman wants to add Boravian women to his secret harem. After the interview he goes to his office and tells them not to disturb him. It’s revealed he has that same portal device behind a portrait of him that Ultraman used, confirming he’s in on whatever Lex is doing. He meets with Lex in that weird space and Ghurkos celebrates beating Superman. Lex says not to celebrate just yet, and reveals that as part of whatever deal they worked out, he’s getting half of Jarhanpur when the dust settles.

 

Superman arrives at the Fortress to see his robots in bad shape. Four is stabbing himself repeatedly in the head. Superman sees his computer is wrecked. He asks how Lex got into the Fortress as the door is DNA coded, but Four doesn’t know and shuts down. Superman whistles for Krypto and panics when he doesn’t come running.

 

Superman flies to LuthorCorp, kicks down the door and demands that Lex give him the dog. Lex has Eve record and post the whole interaction. He comes across as calm and collected as the angry alien spouts nonsense in his office. But he makes sure to take a dig at Superman to make it clear he does have Krypto by whispering that it’s an ugly dog in a cape.

 

We see Clark watching the Cleavis Thornwaite show that night as he spins Superman as the only rabid animal here. He has Peacemaker (John Cena) on, and he also talks shit about Superman. He missed 22 calls from his parents while all this is going down, so it’s clear they’re worried too. In the window we see the Justice Gang fighting some sort of giant energy creature. Lois, who’d been waiting for him, asks “you have a dog,” and Clark says that it’s a foster situation. She asks if he’d been helping with the creature, but Clark says it’s just an energy imp and the Justice Gang can handle it. He was looking for the dog. He explains that the message was damaged, and he only ever heard the first half of it, and he believed he knew how it ended. He says he’s not here to rule over anyone, and Lois says that she never believed that for a moment. He apologizes for their fight about the interview. He asks what she meant when she said she knew this would work, but she says she doesn’t know. Clark says that he’s going to turn himself into the DOJ in the hopes they’ll take him to where Krypto is. She says it’s just a dog. Clark agrees, and even says he’s not a very good dog either, but he’s alone and scared, so he has to help. They hug and Clark says he loves her before leaving.

 

Superman is violently thrown to the ground by Ultraman as he’s arrested. He says no one reads his rights and Rick Flag tells him the courts decided rights don’t apply to aliens. He goes on to say that due to the difficulties in detaining someone like Superman, they’ve outsourced his imprisonment to PlanetWatch. Flag does apologize for all this as the plane touches down to take him away.

 

We cut to that beach from earlier. Superman is taken through to the Portal device and taken in. He’s put into a cell cube with Rex Mason aka Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). They call him Element man, but that name is less fun. Lex is waiting for him, and Superman says this obsession with him is getting creepy. We learn that this is a pocket dimension Lex created, it exists outside this universe. Clark whistles for Krypto but the dog doesn’t come. Lex explains that Rex can reshape his body into any element, even ones not naturally occurring on Earth, and as he says this Rex turns his hand into Kryptonite.

 

While Superman is gone, we learn that Ghurkos and Boravia are preparing to invade Jarhanpur less than a day later. Lois is distracted from the news, though, saying that she’s looking into how Lex fits into all this. Jimmy points out the arms deal angle, but Lois doesn’t think that is the case. She says that she’s got a contact with the bank that does the deals between LuthorCorp and Boravia and they say that Lex is charging next to nothing for the weapons. Jimmy asks why and where they’re holding Superman, Lois calls it the 78 billion dollar question. Jimmy, deciding to help, goes into his contacts and looks at someone he has labelled “Mutant Toes.” He messages her, despite the unhinged message, and gets told within 30 seconds that Superman is being held in a pocket universe. He says he doesn’t know what that is nor does his source, but she’s sure he’s there. He says Lois owes him big, as Mutant Toes starts messaging him some more asking to meet up.  

 

In the pocket universe we learn that Lex has largely manufactured the Superman online hate, using a literal farm of monkeys on Computers to message how much they hate Superman 24/7. He sees Krypto as they travel, he’s being held a pod and they’re beaming the images of Super Squirrels into his brain so he’s forever chasing them. Lex says they’ll examine Krypto, learn what they can, and then put him down. They arrive at Lex’s private holding cells. He says they’re mostly rented out to governments to hold their political prisoners, but he’s got some personal prisoners too, like his petty ex-girlfriend. Dude is unhinged. Lex says that he’d have killed Superman already were it up to him, but the Government insists that Superman answer some questions first. We also learn how Lex is keeping Rex under control, they’re holding his son Joseph hostage. Lex leaves and says they’ll be back tomorrow for answers.

 

Jimmy meets with his contact in a back alley. She’s actually Eve Tessmacher, who is obsessed with him. She apologizes for having to meet him in such a shady place, saying they have to because Lex follows her on traffic cameras. Jimmy asks why she stays with him, and Eve tells him about all the exes Lex has in his pocket universe. Damn. Jimmy tries to get Eve to tell him about the connection between Lex and Boravia. She’s disappointed at the thought that he’s just trying to get information out of her. He swears that getting info out of Lex is to just get rid of him so they can be together again. He begs her to get info, and she says she’ll see what she can do.

 

Superman tries to talk to Rex, offering to save Joseph if he’ll just let Superman go. Rex refuses, telling Superman to not talk to him and that there is no way out. When Superman tries to talk more, Rex hits him with a bigger Kryptonite dose and he passes out.

 

We cut to the Hall of Justice, home base of the Justice Gang. Lois has stopped by to get them to help her save Superman. Guy asks how she even knows Superman. They feel each other out, and we learn that in universe Superman wears hypno-glasses that make him look different when he wears them. When Guy confirms they also know Superman is Clark Kent, Lois throws up her hands in exasperation that he’s this trusting. Guy says that he only trusts them as they’re “of the cloth.” Mr. Terrific reveals that he put trackers into Superman’s blood, but they’ve disappeared. Even if he was dead, the trackers would work. He disappeared at a supposedly defunct army base and agrees with Lois article that Superman is in a pocket universe. Lois wants them all to go to Fort Kramer to get Superman, but the others aren’t comfortable fighting the US Government. Well, Guy and Hawkgirl aren’t. As Lois storms off, Mr. Terrific joins her and offers to take her to the Fort. Good guy, Michael Holt. They take his T-Ship, as Lois vents about their relationship, revealing she was going to break up with Clark before all this shit went down and he said he loved her.

 

Lex wakes Superman up, saying that they have a special guest to talk to him. Superman thinks he means Ghurkos and so makes fun of how Ghurkos pissed himself when he flew him to the desert. But no, he’s just there to watch. The person he brought is the falafel guy Ali. Lex puts a gun to Ali’s head and demands Superman tell him who he’s working with. Ali tells Superman not to answer, saying that he has no family and no one will miss him, begging Superman to protect himself for once. Lex asks who raised him as a child. When Superman doesn’t answer right away, he pulls the trigger and kills Ali. Superman screams in agony at his death. Lex admits he thought that that would go on longer. He promises to bring someone else Superman knows here next and they’ll keep doing this game of Russian Roulette until he talks, suggesting he’ll Clark Kent next. Beside him, Rex is also crying.

 

Mr. Terrific and Lois land at Fort Kramer. He uses his T-Spheres to map Superman’s movements, ignoring the Talon soldiers as they order they leave. Next comes one of the best scenes of the movie, where Mr. Terrific solos the entire camp using his T-Spheres and Lois watches from inside a force field to the tune of “Five Years Time” by Noah and the Whale. Never underestimate the smart guy. They find the pocket universe portal, Mr. Terrific saying that using that device has huge consequences. Namely that if your math is off even a little, you risk making a blackhole, and that risk goes up every time you use it. He has his T-Sphere’s hack the system, saying he’s only helping because it’ll piss off Guy.

 

Rex finally breaks after processing what happened, realizing his son is in danger even if he cooperates. He stops making Kryptonite and Superman starts to recover, but slowly because he doesn’t have sunlight to power him up. He tells Rex he needs one to heal.

 

Lois and Terrific get the portal device working and make their way inside. Beneath them is an anti-proton river, and we see weird growths on the portal on their side. Mr. Terrific says it’s too dangerous for them to go themselves. He sends the T-Sphere to check things out.

 

Rex says that he can’t make a sun, but he can make something like it. He makes a small star between his hands, even as the other prisoners try to rat them out. The mini son flashes bright, blinding everyone. Superman rockets over and knocks out the goon holding Joey. Rex flies over and tells Superman that he has to be the one to carry Joey as Rex can’t hold him while he’s in a gaseous form. Superman frees Krypto next, and they make their way to the portal. The portal starts to flash and break, Mr. Terrific says it’s been open too long.

 

Talon guards jump Superman and knock him into the Anti-Proton River. The guards try to grab Rex, but he splashes them with a powerful acid that definitely kills all of them. Mr. Terrific’s T-Spheres find Krypto and the dog immediately starts chasing him. Superman holds Joey out of the anti-protons as they hurtle towards a blackhole. He whistles for Krypto and tries to get him to help them, but he doesn’t get the danger. Rex arrives and grabs Superman, doing his best to pull them out of the blackhole. Superman uses his Super Breath and pushes them all free. Mr. Terrific’s remaining T-Sphere leads them back to the portal, which is basically squished by the rock of the other universe. Superman knocks them all through right before it’s destroyed. Superman tries to go back through to save the others, but he’s too weak. Mr. Terrific tells Lois to take the T-Craft somewhere where Superman can rest for a bit, he says the controls are intuitive. He’ll do his best to secure the portal. Rex flees with Joey into the night. Lois can think of only one place to take Clark, and that’s Kansas.

 

Lex’s learns of the jail break and throws a fit. He orders Eve out of the room and demands to know where Superman went. Eve calls Jimmy and tells him she has everything he needs to ruin Lex. She mutters that the straw that broke the camel’s back was Lex throwing a pencil at her a moment ago. She makes Jimmy promise to spend the WHOLE weekend with her in exchange for her info, which he begrudgingly does. She uploads a bunch of pics for him, just as Ultraman bursts in and grabs her. He’d heard her screaming from the other room. Unfortunately, it seems like all she did was send him selfies. Hundreds of Selfies.

 

The T-Craft Lands at the Kent farm and Martha and Jonathan introduce themselves as they drag Clark inside. He passes out in his old bed, muttering to his ma that his bio parents sent him to earth to hurt people. John asks if Clark’s going to be okay, and Lois says he will be. Martha tells her not to mind John, saying that he’s a big old pile of Mush when it comes to Clark. Jimmy texts Lois to tell her to call him. She looks over Eve’s pics and is weirded out by how much game Jimmy has. That is until she takes a closer look at the selfies and realizes in the background of every single one is incriminating evidence. The big one being a picture of Jarhanpur split in half, one side labeled new Boravia, the other Luthoria. She tells Jimmy she’ll be right there and they need to talk to Perry.

 

At LuthorCorp, Lex is crashing out hard, demanding they open the dimensional rift at Fort Kramer. The device might be gone but the aperture is still there. He insists they’ll be able to close it; they just need it open long enough to lure Superman in. Mr. Terrific does his best to slow him down on the Fort Kramer end, because he’s Mr. God Damned Terrific. Unfortunately, the rift gets bigger and opens a canyon into the pocket Universe.

 

In Kansas, Clark wakes up to find Krypto watching him while laying on him. He goes outside to eat breakfast and watch Krypto play with the cows. Jon joins him and they have a heart to heart. Clark is still upset about the message, and Jon tells him that what he thought the message said is infinitely more important than want it actually said. Clark wanted to be a hero, that’s what matters. Jon says Parents aren’t for telling what their children are supposed to be. They’re guides, tool givers, not directors. Jon says that he couldn’t be more proud of Clark and starts tearing up. Martha comes out and tells him there’s something on the TV to see. On the news we see the Boravian military about to invade Jarhanpur, the villagers preparing to face them. We see all the characters reacting to the villagers raising a flag with Superman’s S on it and chanting for him. Martha tells him that he cleaned his boots. Mr. Terrific’s T-Sphere arrives and he tells Clark that he needs to get to Metropolis now. The rift is growing and it’ll consume the whole world if he doesn’t stop it.

 

In Metropolis an evacuation is underway. While everyone is trying to flee, Lois and Jimmy explain the plot to Perry. Saying that Lex sold the weapons to Boravia for pennies on the dollar in exchange for half of Jarhanpur. Perry summons his best people to come with them to take the T-Craft, grabbing Cat Grant, Steve Lombard, and Ron Troope. They get onboard and prepare to post the story as Lois does her best to take off.

 

So Clark must choose between saving a country and saving the world. Hell of a choice. Guess you’ll have to see the movie to find out.

 

Okay, so the good. This is a perfectly cast movie. Everyone from David Cornswet to minor characters like Anthony Carrigan’s Rex were spot on for what I know of the characters. David looks damn good in his cape and trunks. I love the behind the scenes story that he came up with the justification for the trunks, telling James Gunn that the fact the look silly is the whole point, to make him seem nice and approachable. You believe him when he screams in pain, and you believe him when he’s giving a heartfelt speech. Perfect. Nicholas Holt is great as Lex Luthor. He perfectly fits the insane hate energy that Lex is supposed to have for Superman. I especially liked his speech in the finale where he makes it clear he knows he’s envious as hell of Superman. It always come back to how badly he wants to be the center of attention, of being the person everyone talks about. Is it petty? Hell yes, but Lex is petty when it comes to Superman. Edi Gathegi is the standout performance though. He’s extremely cool as this basically unknown to the general populace hero Mr. Terrific. His fight scene at the fort was amazing, and I loved all of the nerd flexes he had throughout this story. Rachael Brosnahan is great as Lois, capturing her “I’m a cynic but I want to be proven wrong a good percent of the time” attitude. I could list offal the actors who did great, but there’s not a bad performance in the bunch. I liked the effects, it made me believe a man could fly again. The look of the pocket universe was cool too. I loved the colors and textures of that other dimension, it’s very James Gunn’s style. Speaking of, he’s great as director and screenwriter. I loved this whole thing. And how Lex is finally beaten, chef’s kiss.

 

My negatives are minimal. I hate that I now know details about Mr. Terrific. … Let me explain. Mr. Terrific is a character that has appeared as a minor character in several DC projects I’ve watched including Justice League: Unlimited, despite knowing of him since I was a teenager, until this movie came out I couldn’t have told you what his powers or backstory were. He was just the guy with a T on his face for me for nearly 20 years. But now I know he’s Michael Holt, that his powers are tech based and that he’s a legacy hero, taking up the mantel from Terry Sloane. It’s the end of an era. Yes, this was mostly a joke negative, but otherwise this section would be tiny. Overall, I think the movie is a bit too fast pace. It takes a bit to get going, but when it does it goes at a breakneck speed. Think like 20 to 90 in zero seconds. But other than that, nah, I loved it.

 

This was a great reintroduction to Superman. The story perfectly captures his best qualities, that he’s first and foremost an agent of kindness and shield for the weak. He inspires those around him to be better people. He’s the hero that other heroes look up to him and try to emulate him. That while he’s an immigrant that was brought to our world, that he is as human as anyone. He does what he does because it’s right and he protects people. He is, in short, Superman. I had high expectations when I heard James Gunn was taking over the DCU and starting over with the big blue boy scout, and he met every single one. I am super excited to see what he does next (the Clayface horror film is what I’m most anticipating, but Supergirl should be great too). So, ya, this is my favorite Superman movie of the last two decades by a mile. Hope you enjoyed it too. Have a good night!

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬

Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 28

 Megatron goes recruiting.

Last time on Beast Wars, both sides went through some big changes. Within a few minutes of Optimus Primal’s death, both Maximals and Predacons were hit with a Quantum Energy Surge created by the Transwarp cell detonating within the alien doom moon. The surge painfully upgraded several Transformers, Megatron, Cheetor, Rattrap and Tarantulas, into new “Transmetal” forms, giving them more vehicle-like beast modes. The Maximals did their best to check on Rhinox and Dinobot while also searching for Blackarachnia. The Spider escapes, dragging Tarantulas’ body with her. The elder spider has infected her mind, allowing him to telepathically cause her pain if she disobeys him. Tigertron and Airazor nearly capture her, but Megatron arrives with Waspinator, and they have a standoff. Megatron nearly finishes off Cheetor and Rattrap but is distracted when Rhinox hurls Inferno out of the Axalon and then grabs his machine guns. After the fight, Rattrap announces that the Beast Wars just got a whole lot weirder. Unbeknownst to him, two Stasis pods crashed and activated their DNA sequencers, but were heavily damaged, one of the protoforms bursting from the metal container before the credits roll. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open on a gnarled tree during a storm. We’re show the two crashed and damaged stasis pods before cutting back to the Darksyde. Megatron and Inferno head out to claim these new troops before the Maximals can. Waspinator is left to watch the base and notes that with the destruction of the Doom Moon, there’s only one Moon in the sky now. He also notes some unusual markings and says that he ‘knows’ before darting inside. Dinobot watches him go from the cliffs near the crashed ship. He’s sighted by a turret and shot at. He dodges and notices a pit of mud. Pulling a Dutch, Dinobot coats himself in Mud to hide from the turret’s scanner, gets in close and destroys it.

 

Waspinator heads into Megatron’s vault and sees both Golden Disks floating in a stasis field. He tries to grab one but is blasted back by the field, landing at the feet of the mud covered Dinobot. He grabs Waspinator by the head and disarms him. He asks Waspinator if he noticed about the moon, Waspinator does, and Dinobot realizes that Megatron had been right all along. The coordinates they got from the Golden Disk, aka the Sounds of Earth, and the Transwarp drive had taken them to a prehistoric Earth, one that was unrecognizable due to the interference, or lack thereof, of the Aliens. Waspinator says that the disks gives record of the future, ultimate Power. Waspinator suggests that they team up and steal the disks together, Dinobot thinks that’s a great idea. He hurls Waspinator at the field, temporarily disabling it as it shocks him. He casually grabs the Golden disks as Waspinator is ripped to pieces. He’s then also compacted into a tight cube, because the universe hates Waspinator. Blackarachnia comes in, kicking Tarantulas’ body across the floor as she does. Dinobot escapes with the disks. Tarantulas demand Blackarachnia to go after him, but she refuses, not realizing how powerful the disks are. Tarantulas tells her fine, and they go to transfer his mind back into his body. As they walk off, Waspinator drags himself away, complaining about how no one cares about him and how he’ll drag himself to the CR Chamber for repairs.

 

The Maximals gather around a pod, having recovered one near their base. Rattrap’s happy this one landed near them, but Cheetor reminds him two more landed in Predacon territory, and there’s no telling where the others landed. We learn that Tigertron and Airazor are headed out to try to find out this very moment. Both Rhinox and Cheetor wish them well, Rhinox saying that they’re part of this world and to let it guide them, and Cheetor asking the Big Cat to look after himself. He chuckles and says, “I will,” to the Little Cat. Rattrap complains about everyone getting schmaltzy and suggests they pop the Stasis Pod and welcome their new buddy. Rhinox then tells him they can’t, this pod has a blank protoform. There’s a body inside, but no Spark to give it life. Rattrap asks what good this’ll do them. Rhinox says none, yet, and that they can only hope Megatron has similar luck.

 

We return to the damage pods to see that, no, their luck isn’t that good. Their crashes have critically damaged the DNA sequences, and the pods data tracks. The multiple system errors lead to… interesting results. One pod unleashes a Transmetal Scorpion with a Cobra head for a tail, and the other a wolf with eagle claws and wings. The wolf seems very confused, but the Scorpion has serious anger issues and immediately attacks the wolf to prove he’s the toughest. Their fight is interrupt by Inferno flying in and shooting at them both. The Scorpion attacks Inferno, biting him with his cobra-head tail. Inferno doesn’t bat an eye, saying pain is his friend and that he’ll gladly introduce the Scorpion to it. He whips the Scorpion around with his tail. The wolf calls that dirty fighting and tries to help. Inferno shoots at him. Megatron watches from a distance, he enjoys the fighting, but then has his computer to access the new Transformers activation codes while they’re distracted. When that’s done, he slaps Inferno away with his tail, muttering to himself, ‘Goodbye bad cop, hello good cop.” He introduces himself to the new Transformers, claiming Inferno attacking them is just a misunderstanding. He claims they’re all Predacons here, and that they’d know this if their data tracks weren’t damaged. The wolf takes Megatron at his word, but the Scorpion is much more warry. Megatron asks for their names, and they introduce themselves as Quickstrike, the scorpion, and Silverbolt, the wolf. Megatron clearly knows Silverbolt is going to be annoying for him, but continues his rues, telling them they just need to say “Terrorize” to transform. Quickstrike does so first, followed by Silverbolt. Quickstrike’s robot mode uses his Cobra-head tail and scorpion legs for his arms, his scorpion claws becoming his feet. Silverbolt effectively does a handstand, his eagle front paws becoming his legs and his back legs his arms. Silverbolt clearly doesn’t like the word at all, but Quickstrike loves it. He uses his Corba-tail arm to blast Inferno with a poison shot.

 

Back with the Maximals, Rhinox is working on a device of some kind while Rattrap complains about their luck. He mentions how half their team is currently gone (Optimus is scrap, Dinobot disappeared, and Tigertron and Airazor went on their scouting mission) which makes it insane that Rhinox is about to go offline to do something. He says that the explosion that destroyed the alien weapon opened a hole into Transwarp space, and he needs to do something there while he can. Rattrap tries to stop him, but Rhinox isn’t listening. As ranking officer, Rattrap tells Cheetor to take off and try to find Dinobot before they get attacked. As Cheetor races off, Rattrap shakes his head and asks Optimus how he did it.

 

Meanwhile, Dinobot is performing a remix of Hamlet’s “To Be” speech, wondering if the golden disks show what WILL be, or only what MAY be. The idea that he lives in a determinist universe terrifies him and he claims he’ll end himself if he discovers that to be the case. He briefly considers destroying the golden disks but says that would be the coward’s way. He buries one of them instead, planning to think it over more.

 

In his lab, Tarantulas transfers his consciousness from Blackarachnia into his new Transmetal form. He screams “I LIVE” like he’s Dr. Frankenstein and the Creature at the same time.

 

Megatron continues to lie to the new Transformers, claiming teamwork and cooperation are part of the Predicon way. Quickstrike asks if Treachery and Backstabbing is part of that way too, and Megatron laughs, saying they’re flexible. Clearly, Quickstrike is going to be a great addition. He tells them that they need to focus on the destruction of the Maximals, though. He then sees Cheetor flying by and says they’ll have their chance to do so right now. He shoots at Cheetor and orders Silverbolt to pursuit and kill him. Silverbolt is confused by the order, asking why he’d hurt someone that did nothing to him. Megatron shoots him tiny T-Rex hand guns and angrily tells Silverbolt to NEVER question him again. They all transform into flight mode, with Inferno carrying Quickstrike.

 

Cheetor has clearly gotten better at flying since the last episode, leading the Predacons into a canyon and flying them around pillars of stone. He takes out Silverbolt, but Megatron just brute forces his way after him. Cheetor radios back to Rattrap and tells him he’s leading a Predacon parade back to them. Rattrap activates Sentinel and tries to wake up Rhinox, but Sentinel warns him that Rhinox’s core consciousness has left his body, and if he’s disturbed before it gets back, he could die. Rattrap whines about terrible timing when Dinobot comes back in, hiding the alien Golden disk behind his back. Rattrap asks where he’d been, “saving the world?” and Dinobot says “possibly.” He brings up the Maximal armory as Rattrap explains the situation to him, namely that Cheetor is on his way with Predacons in toe and if anything happens to the base Rhinox is dead. They get outfitted for war and head out. Rattrap races off in car mode first, sees Megatron chasing Cheetor and shoots him down. Megatron lands and transforms, ordering all Predacons to regroup around him.

 

In his lab, Transmetal Tarantulas takes menacing steps towards Blackarachnia. She tells him to stay back, or she’ll shoot, only for Tarantulas to reveal he kept a link to her mind intact, allowing him to control her movements, and to psychically torture her if she displeases him. Megatron interrupts him before he can make Blackarachnia shoot herself in the head. Waspinator gets out of the CR Pit at that moment and tries to tell Megatron about what happened with Dinobot and the Golden Disk, but Megatron tells him to shut up and get to his position.

 

We see the forces gather, Cheetor, Dinobot, and Rattrap vs. Megatron, Tarantulas, Waspinator, Silverbolt, Quickstrike, and Inferno. For some reason some stereotypical cowboy music plays as they load their guns and prepare to have an OK Corral standoff. The episode ends as everyone prepares to fire on each other. Hell of a way to end an episode.

 

This episode is considered part 1 of a Two-parter called Coming of the Fuzors, referring to Quickstrike and Silverbolt, but honestly it could be considered “Aftermath” part 2 of 3. I like that we’re taking multiple parts to deal with the major paradigm shift that was the death of Optimus and the near cataclysm of what has been revealed to be prehistoric Earth. Speaking of that and the Golden Disks, be prepared for a lot of Dinobot angst this season. The bot seems deeply disturbed by the thought that he is not the arbiter of his own fate and is going to spend a lot of time wrestling with what he should do about the disks. Fun fact, my introduction to Shakespear was Dinobot cribbing lines from Hamlet and a few other of his works, and from characters like Macbeth being a recurring antagonist in Gargoyles. The 90s was a weird time, man. Silverbolt and Quickstrike are nice new additions to the cast. When I first saw Quickstrike I kind of assumed he’d end up more or less sliding into Scorponok’s position, just with a Texan accent and a love of Cowboy desperado talk. But nope, the similarities to the late Scorponok was just in the general shape of his beast form. I like how they seemed to go out of their way to subvert expectations with this second scorpion by giving him a truly bonkers robot mode. Imagine, claws for feet! I also think it’s interesting that of the two, he looks more like the new Transmetal forms, while Silverbolt seems more naturalistic. … You know what I mean, he looks like a wolf-eagle, not like a robot wolf-eagle. And with Silverbolt I like that he was an innately good person. From minute one he showed a kindness and decency that Quickstrike was sorely lacking. He’s extremely naïve, obviously, as he took Megatron’s word as true with zero proof, but he still has good instincts. Like, he doesn’t even really know what Terrorize means but still doesn’t like using it. Hopefully that good nature will get him to make the right choice in the coming battle. Obviously, I know what he ends up doing, but I like talking about these shows like I’m seeing them for the first time, you know that. So, the Maximals are outnumbered two to one, if any of the Predacons can get past them and attack Rhinox he’s dead, and their only backup at the moment would be him unless they get a Hail Mary of some kind. Won’t you come and see how it plays out? Next month. For tomorrow, is Superman (2025) day. Have a good night. 

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‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬

Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 27

New Season, new look. 

Last time on Beast Wars, it was a race against time to stop the apocalypse. The Maximals scrambled to find a way to stop the Alien Doom Moon from destroy the planet. They discovered Blackarachnia putting the finishing touches on a stasis pod that she and Tarantulas modified to use as an emergency escape pod and elect to use it. Optimus decides to use it and the Transwarp cell that Tarantulas stole to power it to make a gigasized bomb to destroy the doom moon. He planned on jettisoning from the escape pod at the last moment. This plan was thwarted by Megatron, who had preprogrammed Tarantulas’ pod to lock the occupant inside. He announces his victory in the Beast Wars as Optimus hurdled into the weapon, destroying it and himself as he screamed “Megatron!” in fury.

 

The story picks up just after Optimus’ death and the destruction of the doom moon. The Maximals watch in horror as the signal cuts out. They watch the static so closely that Blackarachnia is able to slip away while they’re in shock. Rattrap smacks a console to get Sentinel online. It tells him that the doom moon is gone, but Rattrap says that can wait and asks about Optimus. Sentinel confirms that he was destroyed. At the Darksyde they get the same information and cheer. Megatron takes compliments from his minions for a minute before announcing that they’re going to attack the Maximals and destroy them all while they mourn their leader. But before they can get to that, the computer warns of a quantum surge headed towards the planet. He orders his men to prepare for the wave.

 

The Maximals try to come to terms with Optimus’ death, everyone asking the big question, why didn’t Optimus eject? Rattrap pulls out his blaster and says he knows who to ‘ask,’ and only just then learns that Blackarachnia escaped. Tigertron prepares to hunt her down when they get the Quantum Surge alert.

 

Blackarachnia tries to slip away while in spider mode, crawling on the ceiling. She tries to escape, but her eyes suddenly start glowing green, and in Tarantulas’ voice she says, “mustn’t go yet partner.” She transforms in a panic and demands to know where Tarantulas is. He reveals that by connecting their minds last time to try to finish the escape pod last episode, she uploaded a copy of Tarantulas’ mind as well. So, he’s in her head and able to take control of her body whenever he likes. She tries to refuse him, but he says he doesn’t have time to play… but then takes a moment to show her a mental image of herself stuck in his web as a giant Tarantulas in spider mode hovers over her. Weird guy.

 

Both forces batten down the hatches and prepare for the wave. The quantum wave hits both bases, causing massive amounts of damage. We see close ups of Rattrap, Cheetor, Megatron, Scorponok, Terrorsaur, and Waspinator getting filled with high energy particles and morphing their super structures. Well, the first three anyway. Terrorsaur and Scorponok crash into each other and fall into the lava pits and are seemingly destroyed. Waspinator falls into one of the Restoration Pits and is shielded from the effect. For characters like Tigertron and Airazor, though, the particles just pass through them. Everyone passes out from the shock, though, regardless of their reaction.

 

Blackarachnia is the first to wake up, with Tarantulas telling her what happened and demanding she get his body before the Maximals wake up. Tigertron and Airazor get up next and look over the damage. The ship is in shambles, but Rattrap and Cheetor are looking… different. The Quantum Surge has altered both their bodies into more metallic forms, dubbed Transmetals by the show. They essentially look like Robot animals in beast mode now instead of animals. They also have some spiffy new gear, as Rattrap has wheels and Cheetor has jets that let him fly. His first test flight has him crashing into a computer, and Rattrap drives into a wall to dodge him. Rattrap mutters that this’ll take some getting used to.

 

Waspinator is the first to get up on the Darksyde, he was shielded by the Restoration pit, and hasn’t been turned into a Transmetal. Megatron on the other hand… well, we don’t see him fully right away, we just see his silhouette and glowing red eyes. Waspinator asks him what happened and Megatron says he’s had a change for the better.

 

Blackarachnia finds Tarantulas’ body and a damaged Inferno in the holding cells. She turns off the bars and is shocked to see that Tarantulas’ body also got an upgrade. He tells her to hurry and get it back to his lair. As she drags it off, Inferno comes back online.

 

Rattrap tells Tigertron and Airazor to look for Blackarachnia while he and Cheetor check on Rhinox and Dinobot. Tigertron thinks that she has to have escaped by now, but Rattrap thinks she got knocked out by the surge too, so it makes sense to look. In the Restoration chamber, Rhinox has a vision. He sees Optimus hurtling into the Doom Moon and dying in the explosion, only for the explosion to morph into Optimus’ spark, an energy silhouette of Optimus’ body raising out of it and flying away. He comes back online and asks what happened. He’s briefly shocked by Rattrap’s new look, before demanding Rattrap tells him what happened. While he catches Rhinox and Dinobot up on the situation, Inferno gets himself back together and says he needs to return to the Royalty immediately. We jump back to Rattrap finishing the explanation and officially dubbing their new forms as Transmetals. Dinobot makes a snide comment about how it’s an improvement but that’s not saying much. They start to fight, but Rhinox tells them to knock it off. Dinobot briefly tries to assert that he’s in charge now that Optimus is dead, but Rhinox grabs him by the throat and lifts him off his feet. He pulls Dinobot in real close and snarls, “I’m in a bad mood. Understand?!” Dinobot nods and that’s the end of that argument.

 

Blackarachnia gets herself and Tarantulas’ body out of the ship. She kicks the inert body out, causing Tarantulas to yell at her to be careful. She tells him to back off or she’ll activate her self-destruct and kill them both. She looks around and notes that the landscape has changed after the alien’s heat ray. Airazor points out the more things change, the more they stay the same, before punching her in the back of the head. They try to recapture her, but both are blasted away by someone’s attack. Rhinox hears it and orders Rattrap and Cheetor to go out and help while he and Dinobot get Sentinel back online.

 

We see Megatron descend from on high, Waspinator in toe. His transmetal form gave him large energy turbines that allow him to fly. His T-Rex head is now incorporated into his chest, giving him two free hands, but he can still carry his tail to use as a lance like he did before. Blackarachnia begins to kiss his ass, but Megatron’s backhands her and asks if she really thought he didn’t know what she and Tarantulas had been up to. He puts his new lance-blaster to the back of her head, but she stops him from firing. How? By pointing out that the Maximals only lost Optimus, while the others are fully functional. And because he arrived without Terrorsaur and Scorponok, she guesses he needs troops. He grabs her and raises her to his face. He says she’s clever but warns her if she betrays him again, she’ll suffer. Cheetor and Rattrap descend, and the Predacons move to ambush. Rattrap warns Rhinox and Dinobot, and they prepare to go help, but Inferno jumps them. And before Cheetor and Rattrap can go help them, Waspinator attacks. Cheetor is knocked clear off the cliffside. He transforms and tries out his new jets. He swings around, Megatron ordering Blackarachnia to fire on him. She tries, but Tarantulas demands she get his body out of there. She tries to resist but his control is too strong. She swings away, and Megatron adds her to his shit list.

 

Cheetor faces off against Waspinator and impresses him with his new jets. Rattrap compliments Megatron’s new look and they decide to compare beast modes. Along with the jet turbines, Megatron also has skates he can activate. He powers up his turbines and Rattrap revs his engine, the rat and the rex playing chicken. Rattrap stiffens his tail and slides sideways, tripping Megatron. Pissed off, Megatron transforms again and starts firing on him. Cheetor meanwhile disarms Waspinator with his new tail-whip, and Waspinator tries to flee. Cheetor chases after him but sees Rattrap’s in trouble and circles around to help. He tries to fly tackle Megatron, but Megatron dodges and he instead collides with Rattrap. Megatron charges his blaster-lance, saying, “New packaging, same product, losers.”

 

Inside, Dinobot is duking it out with Inferno. The ant gets the upper hand, but then Rhinox gets up and grabs him by the head. He hurls Inferno out of the ship. Megatron sees and goes over to investigate the state of his minion. He looks up in time to see Rhinox, his machine gun out and revving up as he bellows, “MEGATRON!” Deciding he’s had enough for today, he transforms into beast mode, grabs Inferno and flies off. Rattrap gets up and tells Cheetor that a few flying lessons wouldn’t hurt. Rhinox asks if they’re okay, and Rattrap says they are, but says that in his opinion the Beast Wars just got a whole lot weirder.

 

We cut to a pair of Stasis Pods that had crashed during the alien attack. Their DNA scanners activate and start sweeping the area for lifeforms to copy, but their computer states there’s a malfunction. We close on one of the protoforms punching through their pod, their hand curling into a fist.

 

Well, that’s a hell of a way to start a new season. Optimus- space junk, Scorponok- dead, Terrorsaur- dead, and half the remaining cast get sleek new looks. The build up to the Quantum Surge is great, with everyone ping ponging between emotional extremes as they try to process Optimus’ destruction and possibly their own upcoming doom. And the actual effect as Megatron, Cheetor, and Rattrap get their upgrade is so good they add it to the opener. Their upgrade forms are all really cool in my opinion. Cheetor is my least favorite, with Rattrap, and Megatron is the king in this first episode. They somehow found a way to make a purple T-Rex cooler. If you’re watching the show for the first time, the number of onscreen deaths may have shocked you. Imagine how I felt at 6 years old watching it for the first time. Yah, I’m pretty sure these were my first character deaths, ever. Believe it or not, but there’s a production reason for that. At the end of the day, Transformers franchises exist to sell toys. Ergo, a Transformer TV show needs to introduce new characters to highlight new toys. But the technological limitation of CGI animation at the time basically meant that the show’s staff were already at the limit of the character models that they could save and use in the animation process. Hey, back in the 90s, having 12 fully CGI animated characters was impressive. I think a modern YouTube indie show could do about as much, but that’s 30+ years of progress. Anyway, if they wanted to bring on new characters, like the two teased at the end of the episode, two guys had to get the ax. Interestingly, originally it was Scorponok and Waspinator on the chopping block. But they floated the idea to some test audiences, and they were appalled. Waspinator’s misfortune and cartoony dismemberments had become fan favorite moments of the series, so they decided to swap which of the fliers got the ax. In retrospect it makes me laugh that, with the death of Terrorsaur, Megatron’s entire fighting force is made of bugs. How the mighty have fallen. And it was fun seeing Rhinox get pissed off. He’s about two metric tons of anger right now and seeing him unleash it on everyone that crossed him was delightful. So, both sides have suffered losses, gotten some upgrades, and are still reeling from almost dying. And two new Transformers are about to enter the fray. It should be interesting. See you soon to talk about the Fusors. 

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬

Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 26

A Hail Mary plan to save the day. 

Last time on Beast Wars, the aliens made contact. Rattrap and Airazor were the first to reach the alien site just before it morphed from an open location of standing stones into a closed off temple. Rattrap is knocked outside of it, while Airazor is painfully scanned by the aliens. Optimus arrives along with the Predacons, though Megatron is ‘kind’ enough to order Scorponok to blow a hole in the building with a poison missile. They enter and Rattrap gets Airazor out, but Optimus stays behind to try to talk to the aliens. He’s grabbed and violently scanned again. The aliens appear to him in the form of Unicron’s giant disembodied head to show Optimus the gravity of the situation. The aliens tell Optimus that regardless of their reasoning, the Transformers have ruined whatever project they’d been working on here and they were activating a termination sequence. The closer of the planets two moons is revealed to be a giant WMD that is now being charged with Energon to prepare it for scourging the planet. Meanwhile, Tarantulas is desperate to get off the planet to avoid this very fate, and gets the idea from Blackarachnia to break onto the Axalon to steal one of their stasis pods when he learned it’d be over a day before the next orbiting pod landed. Megatron anticipated this scheme as he’s actively spying on all of his minions and ordered Inferno to follow them. As the doom moon is powering up, the spider’s knock out both Dinobot and Rhinox, and Tarantulas ominously calls the weapon “The beginning of the end.” Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We begin the finale with a few from space as the doom moon is powering up by syphoning Energon from the surface. It seems to be growing bigger as it does. Cheetor and Tigerton were on patrol together and watch it for a few minutes, Cheetor asking what it is and Tigerton rightly calling it, ‘The light at the end of the world.” Optimus radios them to tell them to regroup at the base so he can explain what’s going on. He’s rocketing towards the base as we speak, Rattrap clinging to his back as he often does, and Airazor flying alongside him. Rattrap announces for the fiftieth time that they’re all going to die, but Optimus tells him to stow that talk as Rhinox will figure out a way to save them.

 

At the site, the upload of energy seems to be complete as the temple disappears, and the alien announces that it’s returning to Nexus Zero.

 

The Predacons are monitoring the situation and both Terrorsaur and Scorponok think it’s gone. Megatron calls them dolts for even thinking it was ever a moon and tells them to do a deep space scan. We see that the larger outer shell was concealing two rings, one encircling the other. The central ring expands into a flower shape, and Megatron calls it the instrument of their destruction. He has the others seal their base and charge the shields to maximum. He initiates program Zero Hour. The plan seems to hinge on Tarantulas’ escape attempt, as the Darksyde’s computer tracks his location to the Maximal base. Upon learning that he’s in the Maximal base and their shield is down, he has the computer scan using the alien frequency. Through it he learns that two Maximals are in the base but offline, and that the spiders and Inferno are inside. He’s happy to learn his little drone is still with the spiders and prepares to sit and wait.

 

In the stasis pod hold, Tarantulas is frantically programming one of the pods to make the pod space worthy. Blackarachnia joins him. She makes the observation that the one pod would be snug for two but then switches to a flirty line about how that might be romantic. Tarantulas at this point is not even amused with her flirty comments and says that he has a megacycle (hour) to get this ready and he doesn’t have time for her banter. As he gets back to work, Blackarachnia pulls her blaster on him, saying he won’t have to put up with it for much longer, but is then shot by Inferno. The Ant says that the Royalty will be interested to learn what the spider’s are up to. He tries to radio their boss but can’t get through the static. Tarantulas tries to shoot the gun out of his hand, but Inferno catches the bolt, catches his gun and sets Tarantulas alight. Tarantulas screams as he runs through the halls of the ship before colliding with a wall and passing out.

 

The computer warns Megatron that the upload of data to the pod has stopped and Tarantulas is now offline. He angrily shouts, “NO!” and demands to know what that fool has done.

 

Optimus and company reach the Axalon and aren’t happy to learn the shield is down. Airazor spots the cats and says they’re nearly there. Rattrap says that’s great and now they can all be reduced to hot burning scrap together. Airazor and Optimus tell him in unison, “Shut up, Rattrap!”

 

In the hold, Inferno examines the modified pod but is jumped by Blackarachnia in spider mode. She bites him and that seems to mess with his aim. They have a quick fight, with the smaller spider ultimately stealing his blaster and shooting him in the face. She grabs Tarantulas’ headgear and plugs herself into Tarantulas’ mind to get access to his data tracks to finish the ship. We see a psychedelic image of a Blackarachnia avatar entering Tarantulas’ lab and snooping for the data she need before we hear Tarantulas’ chittering laughter. She’s briefly surrounded by Tarantulas’ heads before she gets out of his head, screaming.

 

The Maximals find the base empty, Dinobot and Rhinox nowhere to be seen. That is until Airazor steps on some of the spider’s Energon silk and they see their missing companions webbed to the ceiling. The cats are ordered to get Rhinox and Dinobot to the R Chamber for repairs and Airazor and Rattrap to look for the spiders. Rattrap asks why they can’t just let Sentinel handle it, and Optimus tells him they can’t spare the power. He also tells his hunters that he wants the spiders functional, making Rattrap whine about him ruining the fun.

 

Megatron’s computer informs him that the data upload has resumed, which is good. But then Scorponok tells him the doom moon is powering up. We get an ariel shot of the weapon charging its main gun and firing. Optimus tells Sentinel to get the shields up. Sentinel tells him that the shields are holding but the outside heat is hitting 140 RADS and climbing. That’s enough radiation to cause cancer in mammals, just an FYI. Optimus realizes that the weapon is going to heat the Energon deposits until they all ignite. The boom will be massive if that happens. Megatron explains that it will be a big enough boom to rip the planet to atoms and remove all traces of the alien’s existence. He’s impressed by the showmanship, if nothing else. “I rather like these aliens,” as he puts it. The others are panicking slightly, though Scorponok says that Megatron will save them. Megatron says he’s going to leave that to Tarantulas. He tries to reestablish a link with the Maximal base but the shields are back up.

 

Rattrap and Airazor search the ship for the spiders. Meanwhile, Blackarachnia finishes setting up the pod. Before she can celebrate, the hunters pull their guns on her head and say, “whoopy for you,” Blackarachnia calmly reminds them both they have a truce. The RADS have hit 300 and are climbing. Optimus tells Sentinel to modulate shields as necessary. The heat is getting so bad it’s causing the Axalon to shake on its foundation. Optimus asks Cheetor how long before Rhinox is functional, and he says about a megacycle (hour). He took a big hit of cyber venom. Optimus then asks Sentinel how long they have based on the present data, and Sentinel says about 28 cycles (minutes). Rattrap radios in and tells Optimus to get to the hold.

 

They examine the pod and Optimus says that it might fly. Rather insulted by this, Blackarachnia says it WILL fly, but only for her. She’d set it only to respond to her commands. Optimus demands she change it to accept his, and when she doesn’t immediately comply, he has Sentinel remind everyone they’ve got 20 minutes to figure this out. The others question the plan, Rattrap pointing out that he’s pretty sure Tarantulas didn’t build this thing to duke it out with a planet buster. Optimus thinks that if the doom moon follows other alien artifact’s designs, it was built for a singular purpose, one it’s fulfilling so it’ll be too busy to defend itself. Rattrap sarcastically asks if he’s going to beat it into submission with a heroic speech and Optimus says, “No, a transwarp explosion.” Blackarachnia says he’ll blow himself to atom and laughs. Optimus points out that if it works, it’ll be worth it, and if it doesn’t, well, they aren’t going to be any worse off. Blackarachnia gets to work reprogramming the pod. Everyone volunteers to do this instead of Optimus, except Rattrap who says suicide isn’t in his job description. Optimus agrees it’s not in his either and asks everyone to get to work rigging the Transwarp cell to explode with just enough of a delay for him to get clear.

 

The pod is finished, and Optimus gets inside. Blackarachnia asks if he realizes that this is crazy, and he shrugs and says sometimes crazy works. The others say goodbye to their leader, Tigertron and Airazor give heartfelt goodbyes, and Rattrap asks if he can have Optimus’ quarters if he doesn’t come back. Classic Rattrap. Optimus says no and tells his crew that they’re the finest beings he’s every served with. Blackarachnia asks if Maximals always talk such slop, and Airazor punches her in the face. Optimus lies back and takes off.

 

The pod has difficulty flying through the heated air but gradually climbs. Once it’s clear of the shield, Megatron realizes that Optimus is in the ship instead of Tarantulas, and he dubs this turn of events ‘delicious.’ The Maximals get their monitoring equipment working, Cheetor saying he used a trick Rhinox taught him to get a micro pulse out. He wishes Rhinox was with them. Rhinox does come to in the R chamber and seems to sense his friend is in danger.

 

Optimus reaches nearest point and commences ignition sequence on the bomb. He tries to blow the pod hatch, but Sentinel tells him it’s magnetically sealed. Optimus says that’s impossible, but Megatron transmits to him that it is quite possible. He says it’s amazing that they both thought of the same plan to destroy the weapon, but in Megatron’s version the pilot goes down with the ship. The Maximals on the ground don’t know what’s going on and wonder why he hasn’t blown the pod yet. Blackarachnia suddenly speaks in Tarantulas voice and says “It’s too late. Goodbye, Optimus Primal.” Megatron points out how all Optimus’s seemed to love making heroic sacrifices. He tells Optimus that this one, though, will see his troops dead. He announces that the Beast Wars are over and that the Maximals lose. As the pod hits the doom moon, Optimus screams, “MEGATRON!” before being destroyed, along with the doom moon. It unleashes a massive blast wave of energy, and we unfortunately see bits of Optimus mixed with the wreckage. The episode ends with an ominous “The End?” title card.

 

Nearly 30 years after first premiering and that finale still gives me chills. I mean, as an adult I can really appreciate how insane it is to end a season on your hero dead, the villains in a position to seize victory, and there’s no guarantee at the time of making it that you’ll get another season. The gambit clearly worked as we get two more seasons, but that had to be at least a little nerve wracking back in production. Optimus choosing to risk his life to stop the attack, and Megatron ultimately using that against him, is very on brand for the character. I would say from a purely logical standpoint that yes, Airazor would make more sense as she’s the more expendable flier of the Maximal forces, but Optimus would 100% never allow a subordinate to do something he wouldn’t do himself. Their goodbyes all felt on brand, even Rattrap’s flippant remark about getting Optimus’ quarters. Scavengers gotta scavenge. This final reveal of Megatron rigging the pod to explode is what cemented him in my mind as the superior tactician of the two Megatrons. Don’t get me wrong, classic D-16 Megatron is a brilliant commander and a warlord, but from what I remember of the G1 series, most of his plans are more… brute force than this. He’s all about new troops, bigger weapons, one off technologies, and yelling at Starscream. I just don’t see him coming up with a fiendish plan to trick one of his most traitorous subordinates into kamikaze-ing the doom moon and instead getting his rival in the trap. It’s a diabolical plan.  But this plan will have a few… unforeseen side effects, but I’ll get into that next time. Have a good night, everyone. 

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬