S:TAS reviews: Mxyzpixilated

Paul Dini’s signature S:TAS episode addresses a curious question. How would Superman react in the face of a mere annoyance instead of a threat? Mxyzpixilated spans several months, and the challenge posed by the magical fifth dimensional imp lacks any immediacy. What then, is the fun of an outing with no seriousness beyond a word game, and where most of the source material comes from comic strips as opposed to comic books?

As in The Main Man, Dini loves making the otherworldly hilariously familiar. Mr. Mxyzptlk’s comedy is two-fold. First is the fact that a mystical trans-dimensional ‘superior’ being is practically Gilbert Gottfried incarnate, an obnoxious funny looking loud-mouthed man. Though he professes to be above Earthly concerns, in his trivial pleasure-seeking and hoping to drive Superman batty with his irritating games, Mxyzptlk ends up going obsessively mad, whining like a child, and declaring revenge, ever prone to a wide spectrum of human faults and vices. The funniest of these is his sexual appetite, communicated in classic Warner Bros. fashion in the final scene, which in turn begs questions about his seductive girlfriend and their chic art deco apartment.

Secondly, the logic of Mr. Mxyzptlk’s powers and abilities is constantly vacillating. Initially we view him as having power without limits, restricted only by the limitations imposed by his enormous ego. If he wanted to, Mr. Mxyzptlk could destroy Superman in the blink of an eye with merely a thought. But when, out of rage, he is convinced to get rid of the Man of Steel, we see him slaving away for the entire three month sojourn in his own dimension, to which he is subjected if Superman gets him to say his name backward, on a massive robot suit, complete with oversized Swiss Army knife and zipper, which naturally fails to pay off. Mr. Mxyzptlk, for whatever reason, is bound by an arbitrary logic in his seemingly illogical world, evoking the ambiguous rules of physics and reality that governed old Looney Tunes cartoons (as in Baby-Doll, the fun of Mr. Mxyzptlk is that his cartoon design is like a remnant from the heyday of Warner Bros., visually at odds with Timm’s usual streamlined figures).

Almost as enticing as the weird antagonist is that Superman finally gets his time to shine as a human being, quick-witted, pestered, and prone to wry shoulder shrugging and satisfactory smirks. The appealing thing about Clark Kent is that despite his soft-spoken civility stemming from his guarded disposition, he is by nature a funny guy, whether he’s toying with Lois by sarcastically admitting that he’s Superman or beating her to the by-line, or simply sneaking in a sip of coffee when he’s supposed to have a broken arm. In Mxyzpixilated he makes do as a devious trickster in his own right, capable of verbal sparring and, at the end, indulging in uncharacteristic false modesty with a condescending grin plastered on his face.

Paul Dini has a blast with Mxyzpixilated; fans often complain of his decline from writing hard-edged dramas to farcical comedies, but upon close inspection one realizes that both are equally sophisticated.