Can a Luthor Change His Spots?: To Jimmy's shock, Perry White announces Luthor's hiring as the Daily Planet's new science editor. The junior journalist tries to catch Luthor in the act.
Superboy Meets Mighty Lad: A new superhero, Mighty Lad, arrives in Smallville, making Krypto suspicious.
Can a Luthor Change His Spots? includes examples of the following tropes:
- Bond One-Liner: Perry declares that Superman will come to bring the Daily Planet back to Earth. Luthor, who left Superman splashed with Kryptonite-infused ink on the Planet's paper preparation belt, sneers that the hero is "pressed for time."
- Chekhov's Gun: Jimmy grimaces at the taste of the water in the water coolers that the supposedly reformed Luthor set up. Later, when Superman is looking for the rockets that Luthor set up to launch the Daily Planet building into space, he remembers what Jimmy said about the water tasting odd. Sure enough, that's where the rockets are.
- Conveyor Belt o' Doom: Luthor splashes Superman with Kryptonite-laced ink and puts him and Jimmy (who he's tied up) on the Planet's newspaper preparation belt, intending for the machinery to dice and/or crush them. It fails because Jimmy manages to cut his bonds, allowing him to escape and save Superman.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Perry White actually makes Luthor the Daily Planet's science editor, providing him with a steady salary and his own lab. Luthor even manages to get the bank to let him test a device intended to open vault doors, which could have been immensely useful as a safety mechanism. He throws it all away to kill Superman and launch the Daily Planet building into space.
- Falsely Reformed Villain: To the disbelief of Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor has convinced Perry White that he has gone straight, and has thus become the Daily Planet's science editor with a huge experimental lab in the Planet building. Jimmy's disbelief leads him to try and catch Luthor in a deception, but his efforts lead to disasters. But ultimately Jimmy is proved right, and this is a scam of Luthor's to transform the Planet building into a gigantic rocket.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Perry gives Luthor a job after believing he's reformed, and he and Clark defend his right to a second chance against Jimmy's constant distrust. Of course, Luthor is pulling a trick. He even calls Perry a "gullible idiot" after launching the Planet building towards orbit.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Some people just do not change. In such cases, suspicion can be a good thing.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Jimmy is so sure the answer is "no" he follows Luthor until he arrived at a bank, where Luthor was using a device to easily open a vault door. Jumping to the conclusion Luthor was trying to rob the bank, Jimmy snatches the device, breaks it and closes the door. Then Luthor explains there are two people inside the vault and, unless the invention is fixed (or Superman returns from a far away rescue) on time, they'll suffocate.
- Subverted Suspicion Aesop: The answer to the Questioning Title? is "no, no matter how convincing it looks." Jimmy doesn't believe Luthor's assertions that he's turned over a new leaf and constantly assumes that everything he's doing is evil. After a few false alarms, Luthor turns out to be planning to kill Superman and send the Daily Planet building into orbit, vindicating Jimmy's belief that Luthor was up to no good.
- Wounded Hero, Weaker Helper: Luthor drops Superman with a bucket of Kryptonite-laced ink and puts him on the Planet's newspaper preparation belt to be crushed by the presses. Luckily, Jimmy (who was tied up on the same belt), frees himself with some of the machinery and stops the belt. Then he uses some ink remover to get the poisoned ink off.
Superboy Meets Mighty Lad contains examples of the following tropes:
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Mighty Lad turns out to have faked his powers when he gets cut off from the machines creating them after luring Superboy into a cavern trap.
- Properly Paranoid: Krypto distrusts Mighty Lad, which temporarily drives a wedge between him and his master. He turns out to be right that the guy is bad news (at first).
