Before Clark Kent would become the Man of Steel, he was the boy of steel. Ilya and Alexander Salkind, the producers behind the iconic film series Superman starring Christopher Reeve, brought us the TV Series Superboy.
Warner Archive has made available Superboy Season 2 on Made on Demand DVD. We reviewed that amazing release here. But now it's time to take a look at the next Made-on-Demand season of Superboy.
In Season 3 the series would make more changes to the format. While The first two seasons took place at Shuster University, that ended in this season. Now Clark (Gerard Christopher) and Lana (Stacy Haiduk) are interns at The Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters in Capitol City, Florida. The Bureau was supposedly a government agency. One big change was Andy McCalister (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) was dropped from the series although he would make one final appearance in an episode "Special Effects".
Let's take a look at the episode included in this season.
Episode Rating:
****=Don’t Miss it!
***=Worth a look.
**=An Ok way to spend a half and hour.
*=You haven’t missed anything.
Disc One:
1. The Bride of Bizarro (Part 1): Bizarro returns to Eartmakes a deal with Lex. He will "create" a bride for Bizarro in exchange for a supply
of kryptonite which can kill Superboy.
****
2. The Bride of Bizarro (Part 2): Bizarro has fallen deeper into Lex Luthor's plot to kill Superboy in exchange for a bride.
****
3. The Lair: Clark, Lana, and Matt investigate sightings of a creature that was deformed as a result of contaminated water. The creature turns out to be a former employee of Pat Kenderson (from season 1's "Troubled Waters"). ***
4. Neila: A superhuman woman comes from another world in search of Superboy, testing him for his worthiness to be her husband. ***
5. Roads Not Taken (Part 1): An anonymous letter leads Superboy to Darla's hideout, where she has Lana locked in a meat locker. ****
6. Roads Not Taken (Part 2): Superboy jumps through the portal to escape the kryptonite assault. He finds himself in an alternate world, where his alternate is called the "Sovereign," a dictator that rules using fear tactics. ****
7. The Sons of Icarus: Capital City finds itself in the middle of a mystery as random fires
keep appearing all over the city. When Superboy investigates he
discovers a connection to an ancient tribe of flying warriors called the
Katia.
**
8. Carnival: A carnival appears out of thin air, and its owner steals the spirits of some of the carnival-goers, and tests Superboy to break his moral spirit. ***
Disc Two:
9. Test of Time: Two aliens from a mysterious planet accelerate the time on Earth in order to study Superboy's powers and weaknesses. ***
10. Mindscape: Superboy's life is in peril when an alien creature attaches itself to
his body, causing him horrific nightmares in which he battles his alter
ego of Clark Kent.
****
11. Superboy... Lost: Superboy experiences amnesia after he is injured trying to stop a
speeding meteorite. Now his only hope for remembering who he is lies
with the mother and son who found him wounded in the woods.
****
12. Special Effects: A rip in the time continuum has unleashed a wave of deadly creatures.
When a prominent movie producer is killed, Superboy must investigate and
ultimately fight for his life as the monsters attack.
***
13. Neila and the Beast: Neila returns to Earth, and summons Superboy to aid her in destroying a creature that is out to kill her. **
14. The Golem: An elderly Jewish man creates the mythical creature Golem to protect him
from racial bigotry. But when Golem goes on a rampage, Superboy has to
step in and save the day. ***
15. A Day in the Double Life: Its annual review time and Clark Kent has to recount for his boss a
typical day in his life. Carefully working around the excitement he
leads as Superboy, Clark paints himself as a boring, all American boy.
***
16. Bodyswap: Superboy is tricked into swapping bodies with Lex Luthor, which causes confusion for everyone involved in their lives. ****
17. Rebirth (Part 1): Superboy retreats to Smallville after he thinks he accidentally kills a leader of a dangerous gang. Clark decides to give up being Superboy. ****
Disc Three:
18. Rebirth (Part 2): Lana sets out to clear Superboy's name, so he can be vindicated of the town's condemnation. ****
19. Werewolf: Clark and company try to help a young woman, who has led them on a goose chase looking for a werewolf that she'd spotted. Meanwhile, she has a secret of her own. ****
20. People vs. Metallo: Court is in session for the trial of Metallo, but he turns the tables when kryptonite is smuggled into the courtroom, giving him strength to overtake it, and Superboy. ***
21. Jackson and Hyde: It is a dangerous case of split personalities as Superboy battles evil in "Jackson And Hyde."
***
22. Mine Games: After a botched rescue attempt Superboy and Lex Luthor end up trapped in a lead coated mine, with a chunk of Kyrptonite, and they discuss some of their issues. ****
23. Wish for Armageddon: Superboy discovers that he unknowingly entered into a contract with an
evil force that uses his dreams to create actual world disasters.
***
24. Standoff: Clark, his friends, and innocent bystanders are holed up in a building as hostages, and Clark must find a way to rescue them without revealing his identity. ***
25. The Road to Hell (Part 1): Superboy is transported to an alternate-reality jungle and turned into a
child, where he must fight for his life and avoid the evil alternate
version of Lex Luthor.
****
26. The Road to Hell (Part 2): Barely escaping the jungle, Superboy is transported to another alternate
reality where the demented Dr. Winger admits to trapping him. Now
Superboy will have to travel back through realities in order to save
himself and defeat Lex Luthor.
***
In my humble opinion this is the strongest of the season of Superboy. There is only a couple of weak episodes in the season. I love the paranormal feel of this season. It truly is an epic Superboy meets The X-Files.
All 26 episodes are transferred in their original full screen format and in Dolby digital 2.0 audio. The episode of this season are spread over 3 DVDs. The quality of these episode look and sound "super" on DVD.
So
if you are a fan of Superboy and superhero shows as much as I am. I
highly suggest picking up Superboy Season 3 from Warner Archive. They
are the only provider of this series
on physical media. You can get a
copy on Amazon.com. or a WBShop.com.
Out of 4 TV Sets (4 being the best) Superboy Season 3 on DVD set receives....
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