Recap / Superman: The Animated Series S2 E21 "Prototype"

LexCorp and John Henry Irons design a powerful prototype armor suit for the Metropolis SCU, which Lex hopes will make Superman’s services unneeded. The SCU officer who pilots the suit, Sergeant Mills, proves a useful partner to Superman at first, but the suit soon corrupts the officer’s mind, making him violently unstable. Irons is discouraged over the failure of his project, but Superman convinces him that it would be a valuable tool if Irons can find a way to stabilize it.

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• Amulet of Dependency: The suit quickly becomes this for Mills with its neural interface essentially making it feel like a part of his body, and according to Irons removing it from him is feels like removing a limb to him.
• Bald of Evil: Mills shaves his head to improve his interface with it. His disgruntled wife Trish says that he could have told her first.
• Bittersweet Ending: Upon being defeated and removed from the suit, Mills is in a catatonic state. But when Trish holds his hand, he squeezes it back, implying that he will recover in due time. Meanwhile, Irons is despondent that his invention caused so much trouble. Superman, however, encourages that he shouldn't give up inventing.
• Blinded by the Light: Mills uses a ray to blind Superman and win. However, Superman wins by the end of the battle.
• Brain/Computer Interface: Sergeant Mills of the Metropolis police force is given a suit that gives him great power, which is controlled by connecting to Mills' mind. This leads Mills to become aggressive and obsessive.
• Crushing Handshake: After both Superman and Officer Mills save the day, the former wanted to shake hands. However, Mills proves his arrogance and hostility towards Supes by attempting to crush his hand.
• Damsel in Distress: Luthor makes a comeback at Lois for accusing him of replacing Superman by stating that she should appreciate the extra help since she has a reputation for getting into danger. Clark humorously agrees with him much to Lois' dismay.
• Exactly What I Aimed At: Mills mocks a blinded Superman when he appears to miss him with a thrown truck only for it end up crushing him as it falls back to Earth.
• Foreshadowing: At the end of the episode, Superman encourages Irons to keep working on the suit and find a way to operate it safely, admitting that "it'd be nice to have a little help for a change." Irons starts brainstorming...
• Pet the Dog: Helping Superman to save people trapped by a fire, Mills one-ups him by going back for a cat.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: After his attempt to murder some criminals was thwarted by Superman, Mills attempts to claim to the SCU that the superhero was in the way of police business. Maggie, who has been friends with Superman for a long time, obviously sees that it's the other way around.
• Resign in Protest: John Henry Irons designs a suit of Powered Armor that LexCorp plans to supply the police, but Irons protests that the product is being rushed and in particular the neural interface for the suit hasn't been fully tested. After Luthor ignores his warnings and insists on starting production on the suit immediately, Irons resigns on the spot.
• Sanity Slippage: Mills is originally a perfectly just person who uses the suit to help Superman save a burning skyscraper. However, the longer he wears it, the more its neural link increases his aggression and dependency on it.
• Save the Villain: Mills eventually goes after Luthor after he tries to double-cross him, resulting in Superman saving Lex from being fed to his own pet shark.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Henry Irons quits LexCorp after seeing Lex's dismissal towards the dangers the suit has to its user.
• Sequel Hook: After Superman admits that he likes the idea of extra help, Irons has a "Eureka!" Moment.
• Shout-Out: Mills' suit was clearly inspired by Judge Dredd and RoboCop.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: LexCorp creates a suit of Powered Armor for Metropolis' Special Crimes Unit. While the creator of the suit, John Henry Irons, initially wants to conduct further tests, fearful of potential side effects the suit's neural interface could cause, but Lex ignores him and proceeds with a public demonstration of the prototype. Irons' fears soon prove justified when the pilot of the suit, Corey Mills, becomes addicted to its power and spirals into Police Brutality.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The plot of this episode.

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