http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E12BraveNewMetropolis
While at S.T.A.R. Labs, Lois goes through a portal and encounters a horrifying alternate Metropolis.
This episode contains the following tropes:
- Anyone Can Die: The alternate universe setting allows for Luthor to receive a very fiery comeuppance this time around.
- Belated Love Epiphany: The alternate Superman didn't know that he was in love with Lois until she died.
Superman: You never knew how I felt about you. I didn't know... until you were gone.
- Bitch Slap: Lois smacks the alternate Superman after he tells her why he decided to ally with Luthor (and because he never confessed his feelings for her). While Lois is tough, she would have no hope of physically hurting him with a slap... but emotionally is a different story.
- Bittersweet Ending: On one hand, Lois has to return to her dimension, leaving the other Superman to rebuild Metropolis (and the world's) trust in him, not to mention he'll have to move on without his Lois. As if to twist the knife deeper, the alternate Superman and Lois have a Big Damn Kiss before she has to leave to her dimension for good. On the other hand, Lois not only returns home, but reciprocates Superman's feelings for her by offering they go on a date.
- Bridal Carry:
- Superman carries Lois princess-style as he flies away from the lab after having been called to rescue her when she got pulled into an alternate dimension.
- The other Superman is shocked when he finds Lois, since in his dimension she’s dead and carries her when she passes out.
- Broken Pedestal: Enforced. The writers explained that they wanted Jimmy Olsen to be a member of the resistance and explicitly wanted it to be him who began throwing rocks at Superman, because they felt that nothing would better demonstrate Superman's fall from grace than losing the adoration of his biggest fan.
- Butterfly of Doom: Lois' death. Jimmy explains that Superman was a split-second late when Intergang put a bomb in Lois' car. Because of that, Lois died and Superman decided to take a more proactive role in running the city.
- Car Bomb: The Alternate Universe spun off from reality after Lois Lane was killed by a bomb that Intergang placed in her car.
- Dead Alternate Counterpart: This Metropolis' Lois was killed by Intergang.
- Death by Irony: When Luthor's Villain with Good Publicity image is broken, he tries to escape, but Superman manages to damage Luthor's escape craft and cause it to crash and explode directly into a giant monument of Luthor's own face.
- Defiant Stone Throw: The captive alternate Jimmy Olsen throws a rock at Superman.
- Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment:
- When the alternate Superman finds the Prime Universe's Lois, he seems to take it as a second chance to protect and express his feelings for her. However, when a portal opens to her universe and she seems inclined to go back, he lets her, acknowledging that she has her own world.
- Inverted; Lois finds out that the alternate Superman fell from grace after realizing he was in love with her counterpart, who died in an Intergang attack. She applies this to her own Superman and asks him on a date while he's flying her home from S.T.A.R. Labs. Luckily, her assumption turns out to be correct.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Alternate Superman has notable lines under his eyes, signifying how lost he's become without Lois.
- Foreshadowing:
- Good All Along: Invoked; once the other Superman learns about his Luthor's lies, Luthor tries to kill him with Kryptonite and hopes to convince the people that he was just being forced to play along with Superman's plans before having a chance to stop him.
- In Spite of a Nail: Lois comments that, even in this topsy-turvy world, Lex is the one person who is exactly the same.
- Innocuously Important Episode: This is the very first episode of the DCAU to establish the concept of parallel dimensions. The existence of a larger Multiverse within the DCAU will become more important for Justice League, returning with the Justice Guild and culminating with the introduction of the Justice Lords.
- Knight Templar: The episode takes place in a Mirror Universe where Lois Lane's death has turned Superman into a tyrant who cooperates with Lex Luthor. However, this version of Superman still isn't nearly as bad as Lord Superman and can still be reasoned with. Lex was lying to him and purposely got rid of people that could have told him he wasn't doing good. When Lois shows Superman the truth he is very ticked.
- Literary Allusion Title: The title of the episode was inspired by Brave New World.
- Made of Explodium: Despite the escape craft Luthor uses being comparatively the size of a car, the explosion it causes when crashing into a monument of Luthor's face manages to take a chunk of the monument down.
- Morality Chain: Lois Lane ends up in a parallel universe, where her double was killed by a car bomb. While in her own reality, Superman got there just in time to save her, this world's Superman failed and has never forgiven himself. Since then, he has become much less forgiving to criminals and abandoned his "no killing" rule, blasting any criminal he sees with his Eye Beams. When Lois encounters this version of Superman, he no longer wears the same uniform
◊ and appears to be working with Lex Luthor. She manages to set him right, though. Of course, she goes back to her own universe at the end of the episode, which means the other Superman is once again without a Morality Chain. - Mr. Exposition: The alternate Jimmy gives Lois the backstory on this version of Metropolis.
- Now or Never Kiss: Superman suddenly pops out through the dimension to bring Lois home, but they don’t have much time before she’s trapped for good. She grabs the other Superman and they share a quick yet passionate kiss before she leaves.
- Putting on the Reich: The alternate Superman wears a black costume with a new shield resembling the zigzagged S of the SS logo.
- Recycled Animation:
- The van that Superman blows up features reused footage from "My Girl", specifically the scene in which Mr. Eelan blows a vat of hot lead off its support.
- Likewise, when the motor of Luthor's jets catches fire, the ensuing explosion features reused footage from the gas canisters that Superman ignites in "The Way of All Flesh".
- Seriously Scruffy: The alternate Jimmy Olsen, being a member of the resistance, doesn't really have the ability to stay well-groomed. His hair has grown even longer and shaggier than regular Jimmy's quasi-mullet; he now has stubble, and he's wearing torn and patched clothing.
- Shout-Out: A dark future with a resistance fighting against a seemingly-unstoppable enemy in a hideout with flaming trashcans, where the future will be dark or saved based on whether a woman lives or dies? Basically The Terminator minus the robots.
- Siding with the Suffering: Lois goes into an alternate dimension where Superman, after joining forces with Luthor, becomes a tyrant. When Lois confronts him, Superman says he adopted more heavy-handed tactics because he couldn't prevent his Lois from being killed. However, when he sees how much people hate him (driven in when his version of Jimmy Olsen leads the captives in throwing rocks at him), and how much they are suffering because of his actions, he turns on Luthor, and joins the resistance.
- Spanner in the Works: If Lois hadn't convinced the other Superman to see his prisoners and freed them as an act of good will, that universe's Lex might've gotten away with his scheme of looking like he was the hero all along.
- Symbolism: When Jimmy and the other members of the resistance are captured by the authorities, one mother is ripped away from her child, framing how the other Superman and Luthor's reign on Metropolis has robbed the people of their freedom. Later, when Luthor is killed in the climax and the other Superman has sided with his captives, the same mother and child are seen reuniting, as though showing that Metropolis has regained its freedom.
- This Cannot Be!: The other universe's Jimmy and Superman are both shocked upon bumping into our Lois.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The other Luthor hopes to be seen as a hero by killing the other Superman and using the Just Following Orders excuse for all the bad things he did and/or helped Superman to do. It doesn't work.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The alternate Superman truly does just want to create a peaceful world and believes Utopia Justifies the Means. The local Luthor, on the other hand, just sees Superman's depression as a way to use him as a battering ram against the public and goes out of his way to hide the darker aspects of their rule.
- Wham Shot: The rebels start shooting at an approaching enemy: an alternate Superman clad in a black costume.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Lois slaps the alternate Superman and bitterly comments about his being "married to Luthor."
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: The alternate Superman describes his old self as one to Lois.
"For too long, I fooled myself into thinking I was doing a simple clean-up job; that if I did enough good, people would follow my example. I didn't realize it was a war and, suddenly, you were a casualty of that war."
