Directed by Scott Jeralds, Curt Geda
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This episode opens with a very brief recap of events from the previous episode, and then launches right into the next part of the Superman origin: being found by the Kents.
In this version of the story, the rocket leaves hyperspace or whatever at some point just outside our solar system, and heads straight for Earth, getting a bit of yellow sunlight on Kal-El's face. Meanwhile, on Earth, the Kents are driving along in a pick-up truck at night. The rocket flies overhead.
A nice touch here is that the rocket has little auto-boosters on it that guide it gently to the ground, and that it lands in the shallow part of a pond/lake. This explains why no one started wondering what was up with a huge, unexplainable crater, and it also makes sense that Jor-El wouldn't design a rocket that couldn't land on its own. His kid's inside there, after all.
Either boosters on the rocket heat up the water in the lake and create a ton of steam, or the rockets turning off create a lot of smoke (the latter idea is supported by Jonathan coughing when he's looking around), or some combination of both, which lends a nice sense of atmosphere to the proceedings. Jonathan gets out of the truck, flashlight in hand, and says, "Holy Christmas! What was that?"
Martha Kent spots something in the pond and makes her way towards it.
As she gets closer she discovers that it's a rocket, and then walks up to it, which seems a little foolish on her part, since this is the Cold War and everything, but we'll give her a pass on that one. Perhaps it was just her motherly instinct. (I would have preferred that the rocket popped open to reveal Kal-El earlier or that the cockpit was transparent and she could see him from the edge of the lake).
Interestingly, in the first issue of Superman her name is Mary, not Martha (she's also called "Mary" in 1948's Superman #53, in a story I've seen credited to the unfortunate Bill Finger). Jonathan isn't given a name at all, and the Kents are described as "an elderly couple."
Man, this Comixology edition looks a little washed-out. I'm going to scan the panels in myself for the next post.
She's not called anything in the newspaper comics because I don't think the Kents are mentioned there even a single time. It's some random guy on a road who finds Kal-El (well, it would be "Kal-L" in the newspaper strip) and turns him in to a nearby orphanage, and then suddenly a panel or two later Kal-El's being called Clark Kent. In the novel, the 1940s serials, and the black-and-white TV show, the Kents were called Eban and Sarah. "Jonathan and Martha" were, thankfully, established in Action Comics #158 (1951). Interestingly, Batman's mother is named Martha as well.
The cockpit window pops open automatically. Martha gently lifts Kal-El out of the rocket and brings him up to where Jonathan is standing. Jonathan says a couple things to the effect of "You don't know where that thing has been," and they wonder if this is part of a Soviet or NASA experiment. "Do you think NASA's missing a kid?" Jonathan asks. And that's funny and silly, but honestly, that's probably the only thing he could think of. I mean the baby looks human enough, so your mind is obviously going to try to work with as sane an explanation as possible. And if you ask me, it seems more speculative than it does 100% serious.
I should point out that the Kents do a lot of moving in this simple scene. In cheaper shows, or anime, usually characters don't change positions or use as much body language as the characters in the DCAU shows, and this will be a level of detail kept throughout the series: characters move around when they don't, strictly speaking, need to, in the same way that flesh-and-blood people do. It's quite well-done. Each little movement is reflective of the things the characters are saying or talking about and the way they feel.
Anyway, Martha says that it's a child and it needs their help. Jonathan is slow to come around until she hands him the child. Jonathan comments on how strong the baby's grip is, and then we hear a sound like knuckles popping.
