"(male narrator) Rocketed from a distant planet, to a bold new destiny on Earth." "Found by a Kansas family and raised as Clark Kent." "He learned he possessed the strength of steel the speed of light and the desire to help all mankind." "He is Superboy!" "[music continues] [explosion]" "(male news announcer) The program regularly scheduled for this time will not be seen so that we may bring you this special news report." "(news anchor) Nobody knows who he was or where he came from." "And in only a few short years, the name Superboy has come to symbolize all that is right in America." "Courage." "Determination." "Resourcefulness." "He was a guardian." "[assault gun firing]" "An inspiration." "Above all else, a truly American hero." "[audience applauding]" "(Superboy) Thank you." "I like to think of myself as a man of action, not of words." "(news anchor) He could fly, see through solid rock and even bend steel with his bare hands." "Because of these gifts many people actually thought he was immortal." "But the events of the last few hours have proven them sadly mistaken." "For at this moment, the world waits in a grim vigil for the body of Superboy to be recovered from the floor of the icy Atlantic." "I'm Fred Mandel, and this is Night Time." "I've more after these words." "[news bulletin music]" "He...he was the embodiment of the heroic myth." "And by that, I mean, he wasn't just a hero he was Hero, if you can understand the distinction." "He was the ultimate mythic archetype." "The Nietzschean ideal." "He was ubermensch." "He was cute, and he was so cool." "We love you, Superboy." "He's not dead." "He can't be." "But apparently, Superboy is dead." "[sighs]" "The facts are still sketchy at this hour but based on eye witness accounts and government sources the Night Time staff has been able to put together the following chronology." "At 2:10 this afternoon, the coastguard received a distress call from a yacht called the Bohemian Star." "(Fred) According to its captain, the ship was taking on water approximately 50 miles south-east of Capitol City." "The Coast Guard immediately alerted its nearest cutter the Sequoia, then, 12 miles north of the scene." "Just as the cutter got within hailing distance of the yacht several of the Coast Guard's men spotted Superboy landing on the deck of the yacht." "But then...disaster." "Only seconds later, an enormous explosion ripped through the yacht's hull, sinking it almost instantly." "Superboy was lost and presumed dead." "We go now to Captain Harold Nicholson of the Coast Guard cutter Sequoia." " Captain, can you hear me?" " Yes, sir." "We got a bit of a gale out here, though." "Okay, I'll be brief then." "Uh, captain, has there been any sign of Superboy yet?" " Any sign at all?" " No, sir." "We've got divers underwater for the past two hours but they haven't been able to see anything." "We're about to deploy a mini sub equipped with the new H.D.S. system." " H.D.S.?" "I" " High Definition Sonar." "If there's anything down there, it should pick it up with more clarity than standard sonar." "What about the yacht, the Bohemian Star?" "Any survivors?" "We haven't been able to find any or any bodies." "And this yacht wasn't the Bohemian Star." "The real Bohemian Star is in the Indian Ocean right now." "Who is this yacht registered to, then?" "As best as we can tell, no one." "An unregistered yacht, with no passengers or crew and then an explosion." "Captain, could this have been a deliberate attempt on Superboy's life?" "We're investigating that." "What about reports that traces of kryptonite were found amid the debris of the site." "We're trying to verify that right now." "But, captain, we have independent reports that seem to very strongly indicate that" "Sorry, sir." "I really can't get into it now." "Alright, I understand." "We'll be coming back to you as events dictate." "Right now, however, we're going to the Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters in Capitol City.." "...where a press conference is about to begin." "[indistinct chattering]" "I have brief statement, then you can ask whatever you want." "(Fred) This is Matt Ritter." "A senior field agent at the bureau." "Everyone at the bureau is shocked and saddened by Superboy's death." "He was a friend to all of us here." "But his loss will be felt by the entire world." "(female reporter) Will there be a statement from Lana Lang?" "As soon as she's ready." "(female reporter) What was your relationship with Superboy?" "He was a friend." "Somebody I could always count on." "And he taught me a lot.." "...about dedication and sacrifice." "And something else too." "Most people only dream about flying." "And I was no exception." "But thanks to him, I got a chance to experience it." "And I'll never forget it." " Thank you." " Mr. Ritter, wait.." "[indistinct chattering]" "Yes, uh-huh, there's been a new development." "One of the communication satellites began to malfunction about five minutes ago." "There's a scrambled reference to Superboy." "Source unknown and then we lost the feed." "Our engineers are trying to recalibrate the audio and visual signals right now." "They have?" "Okay." "We go now to the satellite feed with apologies for the reception." "[buzzing]" "[Bizarro grunting]" "Him can't be dead." "Apparently, Bizarro has broken into the communication satellite and cut into the feed." "Superboy and Bizarro was best friend." "Who killed him?" "Who killed my friend?" "Bizarro, find out." "Then, Bizarro going to.." "[grunting]" "What we do without Superboy?" "Bizarro...am sad." "He am my brother." "He is my brother." "[buzzing]" "Sentiments of Bizarro." "An imperfect copy of Superboy." "Imperfect in every way, I guess, except one." "His heart." "And now, the equal-time doctrine obliges us to go to Capitol City State Prison for an interview with another person." "Standing by is Mr. Roger Corben, better known as Metallo." " Mr. Corben, can you hear me?" " Yeah." "[clearing throat]" " Yeah." "Hi, Fred, love the show." " Thank you very much." "Yeah, I get to see a lot of TV lately, you know what I mean.." "I, I imagine you do." "Now, Mr. Corben, your feelings for Superboy are obviously very different from those of his friends." "Oh, hey, you know, when I die those kiss-ups are probably gonna say the same things about me." "But the truth of it is, he was basically just a stiff guy who didn't know how to have any fun." "I mean, you know, him and me.." "...we could've run this city together." "I mean, hell, the whole country but...he didn't have the guts to do it." "You think it really was lack of guts, Mr. Corben?" "Or was it principle?" "Well, you know in my book one's just an excuse for the other." "Did you have anything to do with Superboy's death?" "Did I have any?" "[laughing]" "Come on, hey, look at me." "[coughing]" "We've just gotten a call from one of Superboy's most persistent adversaries, Lex Luthor." "He's on the...he's on the line right now." "Hello, Mr. Luthor." "Hello?" "Are you still there?" "(Luthor on telephone) For the moment." "I know those busy police operators are trying to trace this call." "Then why are you calling at all?" "Why, to express my sorrow and sense of deep personal loss over the apparent death of Superboy." "Do I detect a note of sarcasm in your voice, Mr. Luthor?" "Gosh, Fred." "I don't know, do you?" "Superboy and I had our differences but I never expected it to end like this." "Oh, of course, not." "Did you have anything to do with it?" "[Luthor laughing]" "You're awfully blunt, aren't you?" "Occupational hazard." "Well, did you?" "Afraid, I'll have to invoke the Fifth on that one, Freddy." "Okay, let me put it this way." "Are you glad that he's dead?" "I don't think I know that he is dead." "Assuming that he is, would you be?" "Well, let's put it this way, I'm saving the champagne till I'm sure." "With all due respect, this is going nowhere, Mr. Luthor." "If we can, let's switch back to the Sequoia for an update." "Make it snappy, Fred." "I'm a busy guy." "(Fred) Captain Nicolson, have there been any developments?" "Well, the sonar has spotted something on the bottom, but" "A body?" "It's shaped like one, but the sonar waves aren't bouncing off it like they would off flesh." "More like it's made out of steel." "Steel?" "We're going to try to haul it up now." "I've gotta go talk to the divers now." " So, if you'll excuse me." " Of course, we'll be back." " Yo, Fred." "Remember me?" " How could I forget?" "I suppose you have a comment." "Hello?" "[cork popping]" "Luthor, are you still there?" "What was that?" "Oh, I'm still here, alright." "And that was the champagne." "[Luthor laughing] [dial tone]" "We'll be back after these words from our sponsors." "[news bulletin music]" "My relationship with Superboy was pretty intense." "And he was always arresting me, putting me in jail which I certainly didn't enjoy." "I was on a quest for knowledge and I think Superboy respected me for that, I really do." "But the fact that I take pleasure in experimenting on human beings really bothered him." "I-I dunno, the last time I saw him, we parted as friends you know, and that was cool." "I'd very much like to conduct some experiments on Superboy's cadaver." "I'm optimistic that, that will happen and I think that's what Superboy would have wanted." "I really do." "He's not dead." "I know it." "He can't be." "To recap, sonar has located Superboy's body at the site of a massive explosion." "Divers are working to recover it, as we speak." "And it was just confirmed during the break that traces of kryptonite were indeed found at the site." "As we wait for our next live interview we're going to look at footage that was shot a month ago by a local station." "It is apparently..." "Superboy's last interview." "I think the one thing everyone's always wanted to know about you is, why you do it?" "Pardon?" "You risk your life this way, over and over again." "You could be spending your time making money running for public office anything you wanted to do, but you do this instead." "Is it a sense of duty, sense of obligation?" "No, I don't feel obligated." "Everything I've done it's because I wanna do it." "When you're brought up, your parents give you a sense of right and wrong." "And hopefully the courage to step in when things start to go wrong." "That's all I've ever really done." "But you've made so many enemies." "I've had to." "It goes along with the territory." "Besides, you think I'd really want to be friends with Luthor, Metallo or Chaos?" "Well, since you put it that way, what about the risk?" "I mean, your life is in almost constant jeopardy." "I never really thought about that." "There'd be no point." "I couldn't back away because of the risk." "It wouldn't be right." "You'll have to excuse me." "Ironic epitaph for the Boy of Steel." "As of this moment divers work to recover his body from the ocean floor." "We now turn to one of Superboy's closest friends and confidants." "Someone who has shared peril after peril with him.." "...until this final one." "Lana Lang." "I know this is difficult for you but please, if you would tell us what you're feeling right now?" "I didn't agree to do this to tell you what I'm feeling." "I'm doing this to let whoever is responsible to know that if it takes my last breath, I'll make you pay." "I don't know how, but I will." "Uh, could you tell us what your relationship was with Superboy, again?" "I just don't understand how someone could do this." "He was so strong and powerful." "But you never felt that...y-you only felt his gentleness." "Hmm." "Anyone who could have hurt him is not a human." "It's pretty clear that you felt very strongly for Superboy." "Would you say those feelings were mutual?" "I don't know." "[giggling]" " I always hoped." " Hmm." "But he always had so much to do." "He never had time for a relationship." "Would you have preferred that he'd not gotten involved in so much?" "That he had taken the time?" " I used, I used to wish that." " Hmm." "But then I realized that he wouldn't be who he was." "And I-I wouldn't love him." "Well, then you got just exactly what you deserved, didn't you?" "Luthor?" "This is unexpected." "Well, the telephone is so impersonal." "And that photo you have of me just the tad unflattering, don't you think?" "(Fred) I wouldn't say that this was much of an improvement." "And it's not exactly anonymous, either." "Isn't that the Capitol City train station behind you." "Oh, gosh." "Now that you mention it" "I think you might be right." "Not that it matters." "After all who's gonna come catch me, Super Corpse?" "You are so cold, Luthor." "Cold?" "I'm just being objective." "After all, isn't that what television news is all about?" "You did it, didn't you?" "Didn't you?" "Come now, my crimson haired gummy bear." "You don't expect me to just blurt it out, do you?" "You are garbage." "[mocking] He was so powerful, but you only felt the gentleness." "Apparently, they've brought something up." "We go now to the Coast Guard cutter Sequoia" "No!" "Looks like I better put another magnum on ice." "Y-you killed him!" "You keep saying that, would it make you feel any better, if I said I did?" "No?" "Well, I can only assume it'd make you feel worse." "In that case let me just say unequivocally yes, I did it." "The old Kryptonite bomb routine neatly stored aboard a radio controlled yacht." "Embarrassingly simple, really." "The only glitch was having to wait so long for 'em to recover the body." "Now, I got the world on a string." "(Fred) Wait a minute, are you really saying that you did it?" "In front of millions of people, are you admitting to murder?" "Why not?" "Now that the Boy of Steel has gone to that big junkyard in the sky there is nothing and no one to stop me." "[taunting]" "We go now to Captain Nicholson of the Coast Guard cutter Sequoia." "Captain Nicolson, have you brought up Superboy's body yet?" " Uh, kind of." " Kind of?" "Well, you see, High Definition Sonar is still in the developmental stages and someday it's going to be a very effective tool" "But captain, 15 minutes ago you said you discovered Superboy's body." "That's not what I said." "I said, we found a human figure that wasn't flesh." "Right, you said steel." "But who else could it have been?" "Well, if your cameraman will pull back, I'll show you." "Came from an old sailing ship called Hope Town." "Went down in 1836." "It was an understandable mistake." "A figurehead from an old ship." "But that still leaves a question open, where is Superboy?" "Cat got your tongue, Luthor?" "(Superboy) No, I do." "Took you long enough to show yourself." "You thought I was dead?" "I had to let everyone think that.." "...until whoever set the bomb stepped forward." "Somehow I wasn't surprised when it was you." "(Fred) Uh, Superboy, you weren't affected by the bomb?" "I would have been, if I'd been aboard the ship when it went off." "But just before that, I scanned the hull for leaks and spotted the bomb, so I went out through the bottom of the ship, into the water." "And what about the figurehead?" "I saw it underwater, so I moved it closer to the wreckage to buy myself some more time." "Incredible." "Absolutely incredible." "(Luthor) Luck!" "Dumb luck!" "[choking]" " Oh, Lana, I apologize." " No, I-I understand." " No, I shouldn't have." " It's okay." "You had to." "Thanks." "Oh, Lana." "I heard what you said before, and the feeling is mutual." "Ms. Lang." "Ms. Lang." "The interview is not over." "Yes, it is." "I have more important things to do." "But.." "Can, uh, can we go to tape?" "We can." "[chuckling]" "Alright, then." "I'm Fred Mandel and this is Ben Night Time." "Incredible." "Absolutely incredible." "[news bulletin music]" "Told you so." "[theme music]"