Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 28

 New Superboy and Supergirl just dropped.

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Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 27

 The contest of champions begins!

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Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 26

 Everyone tries to adjust to the new normal.

Last time on My Adventures With Superman, Clark faced off against Hank Henshaw. The dangerously unstable Cyborg Superman proved to be one of the hardest fights of Clark’s Superman career, as he utilized a small army of robots and his technopathic powers to wreak havoc across Metropolis. Kara and a late arriving Jon did their best to help but were also quickly overpowered. Lois and Jimmy raced to Metropolis, Lois leaping from Pa Kent’s truck and decking Lex across the face before convincing the sore loser to try to stop Hank. For fear of his own safety for what the cyborg will do to Lex after he’s done with Clark. This proved to save Clark’s life, as Hank had revealed he was powered by a heart of Kryptonite and the green rock was killing Superman. He sensed Lex’s hacking attempt and rushed over to stop him. Jon reveals to Kara after trying to get her to leave again that he’d been so cold to her this whole time was because he was still grieving his Kara’s death. She took over as his mom after Clark and Lois died and her recent death at the hand of Henshaw was still messing with him. She tells him that they have to fight together to stop Hank, and Jon finally sees that as the right call. They split pieces of his Kryptonite Shielding armor and are able to do a lot of damage to Hank, but he replaces the arms they rip off and upgrade them using his powers. He gets Jon in a head grab and prepares to execute him. Seeing his son in danger causes Clark to dig deep and super charge his powers, allowing him to temporarily be immune to Kryptonite. He saves Jon and rips Hank’s Kryptonite heart out. Hank is a sore loser, though, and tries to set off a bomb. Thankfully, he asks why Superboy doesn’t seem to be as affected by Kryptonite as Supers Man and Girl. Clark tells Hank that Jon’s mother is human. This seems to give Hank an epiphany that the future isn’t human supremacy but coexistence with the children of Krypton and he disarms his bomb before shutting down. Jon goes back to the future, but not before giving his parents (all three) his love and assuring Lois that the future will be better just by the nature that they’ll all be together. Unfortunately, we learn that overclocking his powers like Clark did cause them to burn out, he’s basically human now. Lois puts on a brave face and encourages him that they saved him, and that’s what matters. The future is better off, she assures him. We see it isn’t though, as now instead of Hank Henshaw’s evil future, we see an evil Future Lex ruling the world, and a more edgy version of Jon is held prisoner after he tried to take the time watch. Well… damn. Enough recapping, lets get to it, shall we?

 

We open with the ending minutes of last episode, Clark announcing to Lois that he’s lost his powers. We get a bit of text that lets us know that this was a month ago for the characters. Clark is pulled out of his flashback by Jimmy calling to him, he’d been staring off into space. In the present, the Super gang are headed to an award ceremony. Clark takes a pic of Jimmy and Lois, who’re up for an award for their reporting on the Cyborg Superman attack. Jimmy tries to get a shot with Clark, but he insists he’s fine, this is their night. Lois insists that Clark was nominated too, but he points out that SUPERMAN was, he wasn’t. He says it’s fine, he’s fine. Before they can discuss this more, Steve Lombard pulls up in his wolf van, he’s playing chauffer tonight. He jokes asking who gets to ride up front with him, laughs, and then says the back is for nominees only, so obviously Kent is up with him. They head out. As they drive, Steve asks Clark if he thinks Superman is going to show up. Seems like the gang has lied to the public and said that Superman is ‘out of town’ for reasons unknown. Clark says that he’s sure Superman wants to be there, and that he misses the city as much as the city misses him. He laughs awkwardly. In the back, Jimmy and Lois both know that Clark is going through an identity crisis, but don’t know how to help. Lois asks how long it takes to open up after your worldview is shattered. She resolves to talk to him tonight. Jimmy changes the subject and asks if Kara is bringing a date to the gala. Lois says no, as Kara has been full-time Supergirl for the last month… and then realizes that Jimmy is asking because HE is bringing a date. He says that he’s contractually obligated to go on one more WORMS date and he just so happened to pick the absolute worst situation to bring one. Lois points out the stupidity of this, “You’re bringing a date to the gala where Kara is receiving an award??” and when Jimmy is blasé about it, she says she’s looking forward to his date turning him into an octopus or something equally horrible. And Jimmy jinxes it by saying that nothing will happen tonight.

 

We jump to the red carpet, where Jimmy insists that nothing will happen tonight, right before he’s tackled by Flip Johnson. Flip says that she and the other interns are being featured tonight, and Perry said that they’re the squad’s problem for the night. We see Perry toast them before he gets back to schmoozing. Clark offers to be primary babysitter, Lois tries to tell him that he doesn’t have to, but then he hiss-whispers, “I need something to do!” Jimmy offers to go find Kara, right before she flies in. She’s in a very elegant blue dress and looks divine. Jimmy keeps saying that she’s moved on, but Lois points out that Kara is dateless. Lois draws Kara over to them, but before she can reach her friends, a car pulls up and Jimmy’s date gets out. This is Princess Marina Maru… this is bad, but I’ll save the reveal of why it’s bad for later. Cat Grant literally leaps over the car to get a soundbite from Marina, as only Cat Grant can. Kara, realizing that Jimmy brought a date, is furious and looks like she’s about to start wrecking the place.

 

Lois is flabbergasted that Jimmy’s on a date with an actual princess, but Clark just shrugs and says that Jimmy has a boyish charm. Lois tells Clark that she hopes they can talk tonight, but they’re interrupted by Flip setting another guest’s dress on fire. Clark rushes over to corral the News Kids. Lois leans back on the car and immediately met with Vicki Vale. She just comes into frame, like she’d been there the whole time. Vicki, being cattier than Cat, mocks Lois for turning down the job offer Vicki gave her for the Gotham Gazette to stick with her boyfriend. Lady, Clark is an emotionally intelligent, kind, smart, and adorkable man in the body of a Midwest farm hand. The amount of women that would rearrange their entire lives for that could fill a city the size of New York. She says that Lois is wasting her potential. Lois counters by saying they’re nominated in the same category, so she’s doing fine. Vicki counters the counter by saying Lois is ‘co-nominated’ and that she can’t do anything without one of her ‘boytoys’ helping her out. That pisses off Lois to no end, and she takes the bait when Vicki suggests whoever wins the award is the better reporter. Lois, angry and not thinking who might be overhearing, says that ‘what matters is what you can do.” Not the best thing for an emotionally vulnerable and depressed Clark to hear, now is it? He’s already had enough trouble wrangling the News Kids, as shown by Patti being Patti and chewing on Clark’s head. Clark drags the kids over. I enjoy the visual storytelling that he’s got to keep a closer watch on the three girls, and he just knows Big Words will follow meekly. Lois sees he’s upset and asks if he’s okay, but he continues to insist that he’s fine.

 

We shift focus to an ice cream shop in Metropolis square. A kid drops their ice cream, and a hulking man behind the counter gives him a new, bigger cone. It’s B-1Z! He’s working as an Ice cream man now. Super fitting as Kryptonians love cold. B-1Z is taking a jug of Ice Cream outside for some reason where he sees a news report about how Superman’s been MIA for the last month and how Supergirl is up for an award. He smiles when Superman on the screen and quietly says ‘my friend.’

 

Kara sits with her friends and asks Jimmy to introduce her to his date. That he brought to this gala. Where she is receiving an award. Kara is clearly about 1 nanometer of pupil dilation away from heat visioning SOMETHING when she asks. Marina cuts in, saying that Supergirl and Superman are greatly admired even as far away as her own vaguely French sounding country of Markovia. Kara thanks her, but says that Superman deserves the credit. Jimmy cuts her off, saying that Kara deserves credit, and that sometimes the city doesn’t know how it feels about her, but… ya. He’s cut off by Marina who says how nice Jimmy is to his platonic friends. … She has no idea what is going on between the two of them, but is clearly loving stirring the pot. Kara is visibly hurt by the conversation, but the gala starts. The 10 Anniversary Metropolis Humanitarian Gala I being hosted by Silver St. Cloud! (Funny how we’ve had three of Batman’s exes on this show before Batman himself. Four if you count Lois). She thanks everyone for joining them at the natural history museum and says they’ve got a full night ahead of them. As Silver speaks, we see Flip and the New Kids, clearly bored by this grown up talking, slip away to cause mischief. And the much more troubling group of armed men sneaking into the museum with barrels of mysterious fluid. The main three goons of this squad are Fox, Vulture and Shark, the Terrible Trio, a D or E list set of Batman villains.

 

Marina is extremely flirty with Jimmy as the event gets started, something he is clearly uncomfortable with as Kara is staring directly at them. Clark, being the good cousin-brother that he is, tries to distract Kara by talking about the Blue Whale skeleton hanging above them. He tries to get Flip to distract Kara with Blue Whale facts but then realizes she and the News Kids ran off. He takes off his suit jacket and goes to find them, promising to be back by the time Kara gets her award. Outside, we see B-1Z super jump to the roof of the museum in his costume. He’s extremely excited when Kara and Superman are introduced, but then extremely crestfallen when he hears Superman can’t make it. Kara gives a sweet speech about how grateful that she and Superman are for this award. She looks at her table when she says that Earth is full of the “people she loves” (Lois shakes her head as an ‘I’m sorry’ because Clark isn’t back,) and “friends I can count on” (Marina is still extremely possessively flirty with Jimmy). This is going to be a rough gala for her.

 

Fox, Vulture and Shark have gotten into the security room and are preparing for whatever attack they’ve been hired to do.

 

Vicki slips over to the table and tries to interview Marina. She apparently extremely outspoken on “Freedom of expression,” and has received threats about it. Lois looks up to the upper part of the museum and sees the armed mercs entering the hall. She decides to investigate. Vicki teasingly jabs at Lois when she walks away, and Lois claps back because these two bring out the grade schooler in each other.

 

Speaking of grade schoolers, the News Kids are running through the museum and laughing their heads off before they stumble upon the mysterious canisters. They also find a guard tied up, and Flip says they should probably tell someone about this. Shark sneaks up on them and asks, “Like who?”

 

Clark searches for the children, muttering to himself how nice super senses would be right now. He starts hearing a mysterious muttering and tells Flip to stop being creepy. He has a vision of the arctic and Kryptonian architecture, along with Kryptonian chanting. The words are hard to make out, but you can clearly hear “Kal-El” and “Rao.” Rao is the Kryptonian sun god and the name of their sun. He’s drawn out of the vision by Flip’s screams.

 

Back in the main gala, Lois tries to grill one of the security guards about how many goons are at this party but the guard is staying silent. Frustrated and annoyed she asks to speak to whoever is in charge, and Silver comes over, saying that that is her. She compliments Lois on her work, but says that badgering security is kind of bringing down the vibe. She adds that the extra security are part of the Princess private detail, nothing else. Lois apologizes, telling Silver that she’s in a stupid competition with Vicki and that got her keyed up. Silver gives Lois some advice about how if you need a trophy to feel validated, nothing will ever be enough. She advises Lois to just enjoy what she has with the people she loves before walking off. It’s at this point that Lois realizes that the person she loves is still MIA and that’s rather concerning.

 

Clark runs to the kids, undoing his tie as he does, but not having his Superman suit underneath. He runs up as Shark threatens them with a gun. Clark dives in the way, remembers that he’s currently not bulletproof, but still takes a swing at Shark. We cut away and are shown dress shoes on a downed man by blood covered glasses. We pull out to see it’s Shark laid out on the ground and while Clark got clipped, he’s overall fine. He ties off his wounded left arm with fragments of his shirt and checks on the kids. He ask if they’re hurt, and Flip says He’s hurt, and wants to know where Superman is. Clark can’t answer that, and they start running from more goons. Lois tries to find them but is spotted by Vulture, who starts chasing her. Lois runs incredibly fast for someone in heels and a hanbok dress. She’s grabbed by Clark and pulled into the supply closet he’s hiding in with the News Kids. Lois warns him about the man as Clark tries to shut the door, but Vulture arrives and tries to force his way in. Clark says, “Ya, his friend just shot me,” and Lois gasps in horror at the first wound she’s ever seen on her boyfriend. Vulture shoves hard against the door, but Lois gets him in the eyes with pepper spray. Vulture radios the others to send back up once they’ve got their hands on the princess. Clark calls Jimmy via their Flamebird watches and warns him that the goons might be after Marina, just as Marina takes the stage as the keynote speaker of the event. … Where she reveals her status as Dr. Poison and her plan to cause some eco terrorism to reverse the damage the human race has done to Earth. She’s the second Wonder Woman villain Jimmy has dated, by the way. Lois starts yelling at Jimmy for this very thing and Jimmy mutters that he just has a type. The goons spread out the canisters as Dr. Poison tells them to prepare to walk out of here on four legs or not at all. She throws on a gas mask as the canisters go off. Her gas somehow causes people to transform into animals, the first we see is Perry getting turned into a bear. Kara sees Dr. Poison runs off. She chases after and catches her. Dr. Poison is disappointed that the gas didn’t work on Kara, but warns Kara that her other men are setting up more canisters to go of in Metropolis Dam and that’ll infect the whole city. Jimmy tells her to go save the city and that Poison is “my contractual obligation.”

 

Vulture busts into the supply closet, but Clark and company slip into the oversized vents. Considering his beefy shoulders they’re extremely huge vents. Gas goes off in his face and Vulture starts to morph. Jimmy calls them and asks for ideas on how to stop Dr. Poison and Lois suggests he use his Boyish Charm, whatever that means. More gas goes off, and Jimmy laments being turned into a wolf, but the little legs he starts to develop aren’t quite wolfy. Vulture catches up to the group, revealing he’d been turned into a crocodile. Very odd. They all start crawling away as fast as they can.

 

Dr. Poison, in her terrible fake accent, tells her men to “GET TO DA CHOPPA!” but is interrupted by Jimmy. He was turned into a turtle. Dr. Poison tells him that it’s been fun, but she needs to bid him adieu. Jimmy says that surely she’s felt their… animal attraction, and that gives her pause.

 

Vulture the Crocodile chases after the group. Lois nearly falls through a grate, but that gives her an idea. She turns and pounds on the vent shaft until it breaks, dropping the huge croc to the poison filled room below. Unfortunately, Lois’ section breaks too and she falls. Clark screams her name… but then a black cat jumps up and bites him on the ear. Ya, Lois got turned into a cat. She tells them to keep moving and leads the way.

 

Dr. Poison admits to Jimmy that she only went on a date with him to get access to this event… which is weird because she was the keynote speaker, but hey, maybe this was from an earlier draft of the script that they couldn’t fix. Distracted by her rather elaborate choreography of her apology, Jimmy nabs her gasmask with his turtle beak and Dr. Poison turns into a dog.

 

Kara super speeds over to the damn and stops the goons from releasing the poison. Shark, who I guess recovered and got sent to the secondary site, radios the others to say that Operation Make A Splash has failed. Dr. Poison tries to escape with her men on the roof, but they’re stopped by B-1Z, who calls her a bad dog. Kara returns to the museum and clears out the gas with her super breath. She sees an explosion on the roof and flies up to investigate. She finds Poison and her men tied up in steel beams. She wonders aloud who did this.

 

We cut to a bit later where all the animalized people are in a line to get an antidote for their transformation and to get dressed. Jimmy sits on the museum steps while Dr. Poison apologizes for breaking his fragile heart. He says he fine. She doesn’t seem to hear him and goes on to say that there are plenty of sharks in the sea and he’ll find true love one day. Jimmy finally admits that he is already in love with someone, but he’s been extremely stupid about it. Poison thinks he’s talking about her, but Jimmy loudly says her name is Kara. Kara hears this… but doesn’t look happy. Dr. Poison tells Jimmy to tell himself whatever he needs to be happy and bids him au revoir as she’s led away on a leash.

 

Lois gets de-catted, and Silver gives her the award. Lois is flattered by this, and thanks her. Because Vicki is watching, Lois makes big show about not caring about the award and giving it to Flip instead. But the second Vicki leaves she takes it back and rubs it against her cheek, saying it’s soooo shiny.

 

Jimmy lies back on the steps, and an angry Kara flies into his line of sight and demands to know what the heck is going on. She’s extremely hurt that he could express his feelings to some rando like Dr. Poison but can’t do that with her. He tries to say that he thought she moved on, but she reminds him that she wanted to be with him and he’s the one the spurned her. Kara’s clearly been feeling stressed about things, as Clark has pulled back into himself and Jimmy hasn’t been there for her to talk to either. Jimmy thought she wanted to be friends, and Kara asks how he can be her friend when he hides when she needs him most. Jimmy apologizes, realizing that he didn’t realize how she felt. And she sadly says, “You didn’t ask.”

 

Lois hugs Clark’s wounded arm, oops, and excitedly says they did it. Clark isn’t happy though, as he says he didn’t do anything. Lois saved the kids, Jimmy stopped Dr. Poison, and Kara saved the city. All he did was get shot and hide in a closet. Lois reminds him that she loves Clark Kent, and Clark says he’s no Superman. Lois tells him that he needs to stop comparing himself to someone that he might not ever be again. Clark angrily asks what he is supposed to do and be now if that’s true. Before she can answer, Lois, Clark, Jimmy and Kara all fall through portals of energy. Mxy’s back!

 

Well, that was a rough time for Clark. Going from the Man of Steel to just a guy is a difficult adjustment whenever Clark has to do it. Some versions temporarily enjoy getting to be normal for a bit, Smallville Clark for example, but it rarely lasts more than a few days before they’re pining for their powers and responsibilities again. But, as sad as it is to see a Depowered Clark, I do like the fact that the show makes it clear that he’s still heroic. Dude dived in front of a gun without thinking to protect some kids is as heroic as you can get. But because he can’t do any of the bigger saves that he’s used to as Superman, it feels like he’s not doing enough. It’s also sad to see an open, emotionally intelligent man like Clark fall in on himself with the classic deflection phrase of, “It’s fine. I’m fine!” I feel bad for Lois in this one too, as she’s split between worrying about Clark, worrying about Kara, and getting sucked into another pissing contest with Vicki Vale. Silver’s little speech to Lois to not get so sucked into these petty little contests was great. But I also loved Lois faking humility to annoy Vicki just to immediately backtrack and talk about how shiny her trophy is. Take that League of Lois Lanes. It might not be a Pulitzer, but she’s on the scoreboard now! Jimmy is an idiot for bringing a date to a gala celebrating Kara, even if it’s to let the episode happen. Dumbass, dumb and ass behavior right there. I used all three words for emphasis. That said, Dr. Poison was extremely funny with her pot stirring, and then her weird acrobatics as Jimmy distracted her with his boyish charm. I didn’t even try to describe it, it’s impossible to transcribe accurately for me. She was putting on a contortionist show as she broke things off with Jimmy. I liked seeing B-1Z again. He seems to be doing great, and having him help save the day was neat. My only real complaint is once again the pacing, as we have to cover this episode describing the fallout of Superman’s disappearance without actually covering it. Another episode set in the month skip that shows Clark drawing away from Kara and Jimmy deliberately avoiding her would have helped drive the point home that everyone is kind of floundering with Clark losing his powers. Oh, and Cat Lois was cute and we could have used more of her. But, ya, that’s about it, next time we’ll have some Mxy shenanigans to bring up the mood. That’s always fun. Have a good night, everyone and stay safe. 

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Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 25

 It's a battle of the Supermen. The world shall tremble with their clash. 

Last time on My Adventures With Superman, the future came crashing into Lois and Clark’s relationship in a big way. While on a date with the goal of figuring out their future, the date is crashed by Superboy, Jon Kent, their time traveling son. Clark is clearly excited by the existence of this boy, while Lois spends most of this episode panicking. Jimmy, who’s latest WORMS date gave him quills, and Kara, she crashed the dating app from all her matches, join the group and they try to get to know Jon. Lois keeps trying to find an explanation for Jon other than what he clearly is, a conclusion highlighted by this Korean Superboy eating bread in the exact same way as his mother. They end up at the mall and do a shopping montage, with the boys bonding, Jon seemingly avoiding Kara, and Lois being anxious. A quake causes a toy advertisement to fall, but Jon leaps in and saves everyone. Seeing Jon selflessly save people like that makes it click for Lois that he is indeed her boy. But she’s very concerned as to why he traveled back in time to see them. They end up eating ramen on the roof of the Daily Planet, and Jon and Lois bond a little. Lois tells him her fears about the future, while he insists the future isn’t set in stone and they can shape it. Their meal is interrupted by another quake, Jon asking Kara to sit this one out so he and Clark can bond. Father and son arrive at a construction site being attacked by the Subterranosauri, a race of dinosaur people that live underground. They fight off the raiders, but the fighting is ultimately stopped by Jon giving an impassioned speech to their leader, leading to peace. The group heads to the Kent Family Farm to get patched up. Lois finally admits to Clark that after getting to know Jon, she’s not so afraid of the future, and Clark says it looks ever brighter than he’d hoped. The moment is ruined by Kara telling them to get inside. Hank, while this was going on, had finally snapped and destroyed Lex’s control remote. He’s attacking Metropolis and dares Superman to face him. Clark and Kara super speed away, and Jon looks horrified as he says that he thought he had more time. Lois demands to know what that means, and he reveals the truth. In his future, Clark and Lois are dead and the world is ruled by Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman. He came back to stop Hank. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

This episode forgoes the opening credits, diving right into Hank demanding that Superman face him, he eggs Clark to fight like a hero and to die like one. Clark and Kara fly in and Hank appears in a flash of green lightning. Clark, ever the mediator, tries to talk Hank down. He says that they’ve all fought to defend the world, but Hank cuts him off, saying that he fought to save earth from an invasive species. The world that Hank fought to protect is gone, and he going to make Superman pay for that as he dives at Clark.

 

We do get an opening credit “The Death of Superman” shown over a black monument of Superman’s Crest that is coated in blood. Well… that’s ominous.

 

We jump back to the farm. Martha is sobbing at the kitchen table with fear for her son, Jonathan and Jimmy are doing their best to comfort her. Jon tells Lois about the future that Hank Henshaw ruined. He says that Hank kills Clark and Lois in his opening rampage. He then says he was sent back by Dr. Luthor and Lois is flabbergasted to hear that Lex is helping. She demands to know why he didn’t say any of this sooner. Jon says that he basically got lost in the moment. Lex sent him back in time and the last thing he saw was Lex getting vaporized. He appeared in the skies over Metropolis and was just awed by how happy and peaceful the world was. He ended up at the Poundcake Palace and saw Clark and Lois enjoying their meal and each other’s company. He says he’d never seen two people so happy, and he just… wanted to pretend that this was his life for a bit. Lois caresses her son’s face, and Jon says that he’s going to fix this. Lois asks how, and Jon says he’ll do it by saving his dad. And Lois will stay at the farm where it’s safe. Lois is not okay with her newly discovered baby flying off into danger and uses the most dreaded of parental techniques, using his full name to try to stop him. “No, you come back here right now, Jonathan Kent!” but Jon flies off. She should have thrown in the first name. … It’s Samuel, after his other grandpa. Lois runs out and watches him fly off into the distance before shouting at Pa that she needs to borrow the truck.

 

If this wasn’t such a dramatic moment, I think Lois would have seen herself in a mirror and realized that she’d taken the exact stance that her father took when he scolded her. We all copy our parents at least a little.

 

In Metropolis, Kara handles the drones. She’s clearly more powerful than them, but it’s two on one so she’s having trouble focusing on one without the other stepping in. She gets knocked into a building. Hank, meanwhile, is beating on Clark and screaming his frustrations into the night sky. He claims to have given everything to become who he was, but Superman just floated in and took it all away. He hits Clark with a rocket enhanced punch, but then Clark hits back and sends him flying. Clark’s punch shattered the material around Hank’s felt eye, revealing the cyborg skull underneath. He screams in fury and attacks Clark again, catching him by the head and slamming him through several buildings. He sees his face in the broken glass, nice visual metaphor, and says after all of that, look at what he’s become. He slams Clark into the ground.

 

Clark yells at the civilians to run. Hank rips the Daily Planet’s Planet from the roof and mockingly tells everyone to look at Superman and see how much they matter to him. He lobs the planet at Clark; Clark catches it before it can crush a kid, ending up in an Atlas pose. Hank notices the pose as well and mockingly asks if the weight of the world is too much for the hero as he punches the Planet, trying to crush Superman and the kid under it. The kid gets grabbed and moved to safety by Superboy, who then flips around and hits Hank with a Kamen Rider style flying kick. Sending him flying backwards. Jon joins his father and they put the planet back on the roof. Clark tells Jon to get back to the farm where it’s safe, with Lois. Jon then reveals that Hank kills Clark. Clark is stunned to learn that he wasn’t able to stop Hank, and Jon tells him no one was. We see how the timeline played out in Jon’s world. Clark is killed by Hank, smashed into the ground like refuse. Hank starts a reign of terror across the planet, and we see an infant Jon being held by Kara as Jon says that all they could do was watch. Clark flies over to him and the two argue over who is going to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. The El genes are strong in personality, not looks. The argument is interrupted by Hank flying in and decking Jon into the ground.

 

Hank screams, “Dad!? You aliens are breeding!” before slamming his fist into Jon’s stomach. I don’t know if saying Jon’s mother is Lois would help or hinder this situation, as Hank and her used to be friends. Hank is infuriated that Superman gets to have a family while he never will. He picks up Jon and flings him around to slam into Clark, as he’d flown over to help. Father and son hit the pavement and Hank kicks Jon aside. He grabs Superman’s head and slams his face into the ground a few times before flying upwards, holding Clark’s head. He admits that he couldn’t wait to kill Superman in front of the world, but he’s not much more excited to kill Superman in front of his son. He starts electrocuting Clark, but Kara flies in, screaming at Hank to get away from them. She hits him into the ground. Kara flies down and helps Clark to his feet. Jon gets up and tells them both to get out of here, especially Kara.

 

Hank gets up and the Supers stand together against him. Clark once again tries to talk him down, saying that Hank is better than this. Because he’s full crazy right now, Hank agrees that he is better than Superman. He claims the world as his, not Superman’s and to show him that, Hank uses his technopathic powers to fry the controls of a plane, helicopter and train. Kara and Jon fly off to protect the city, and Clark stays to fight Hank. Hank summons the broken parts of his robots. Like the one that attacked Project: Caliban, the LexCorp robots are designed to breakdown into smaller units. Hank turns the two robots into six drones that he uses to shoot plasma beams at Clark. Clark destroys them with his heat vision as they fly around the skyline. Hank activates his built in thrusters to chase down Clark, claiming to be faster, stronger, and just better than Superman. He slams a fist into Clark’s stomach, sending him skyward, before flying above him and shotting him with a double palm laser. The explosion is big enough for Lois and Jimmy to see from the highway. They traveled 200 miles in about 10 minutes, so Jimmy’s hero name is Leadfoot.

 

Clark drops to the city and lands in the park. Hank mocks Superman, asking if he really needs the people to love him that badly. They’re not even the same species after all. Clark tells Hank to back off, the people didn’t do anything to him, they don’t deserve this. Clark and Hank are surrounded by more of the LexCorp robots and the scene looks eerily familiar to how Clark is supposed to die. Hank says that people don’t get what they deserve, but Superman is going to get what’s coming to him. He rips off his LexCorp crest and reveals he’s powered by a heart of Kryptonite. Clark’s body immediately starts reacting to the radiation, green veins forming on his skin as he screams in agony. Hank says one of the coldest lines of this series, “You’re going to wish they’d loved me when they had the chance.”

 

We jump to the LexCorp building. Slade helps Lex to walk as they leave the elevator, the mercenary poking at Lex asking, “It’s not just a blip now, is it?” Lex asks if they’re even yet, and Slade says they’re getting there. The Kent’s truck then barrels through the front door, Lois at the wheel now. She leaps from the truck before it’s completely stopped, and channeling all the rage of the (future) wife and (future) mother of Supermen that Lex put in danger, gives Lex a fly punch to the face. Lex goes sprawling, Slade letting him fall and saying that now they’re even. She lifts him up and demands that he shut Hank down. Lex refuses. He says that Lois is so entitled, she thinks she can do whatever she wants, because she’s got her super boyfriend backing her up. Bro, if you think that Lois wouldn’t punch you in the face for being a sociopathic asshole before she met Clark, I’ve got bad news for you. He insists that everyone else needs someone to protect them from Superman. After the building shakes from the fighting outside, Lois asks if he really feels safe right now, and who he thinks Hank is going to go after once Superman is dead.

 

Kryptonite has really shifted the fight in Hank’s favor. He slaps Superman around, who can’t do much more than groan in pain and grow crystals on his body. Hank slams Clark into a building and mutters that he’s not having fun anymore, so now it’s time to die. He opens up his palm laser, which is now Kryptonite infuse. Before he can unleash his attack, he screams in pain as energy surges around him. He realizes that Lex is trying to hack his system and he zoom away. We see Jon helping the plane touch down just before Hank flies by, his Kryptonite on full display. Jon looks like he just watched death himself go by.

 

At LexCorp, Lex says that he is just three firewalls away from getting control of Hank’s body. Hank arrives, his sonic boom shattering the windows. Lex runs from the computer and hides behind Lois. Hank recognizes Lois and pauses. Lois asks him to stop… but Hank refuses. He prepares to fire, but then gets hit by a steel beam. He turns and barely dodges another. He uses his telescopic robot eyes to see Jon near a construction site, preparing to lob more debris at him. Hank is impressed that Jon thought to stay away from the Kryptonite, calling him a “clever little vermin.” He super speeds over to Jon. Jon tries to hit him with a beam, but Hank is too fast. He slams Jon into the ground and says Jon isn’t clever enough. Jon is able to dodge Hank’s and tries to heat vision Hank, but Hank blocks it. Jon isn’t nearly as sick as Clark from the Kryptonite exposure, most likely due to the human in him. Kara zooms in and knocks Hank away. She helps get Jon up and tells him that Jon can’t beat Hank on his own, they need to coordinate. Jon reveals that he’s got a suit of anti-Kryptonite armor that he’d been waiting to bust out for some reason. He says it’s experimental but should give him an edge. Kara says ‘resistance’ isn’t enough against Kryptonite, Hank is too strong. Jon tries to leave her, anyway. Kara, frustrated by Jon’s distance demands to know what she does in the future that is so bad that Jon won’t look her in the eye or stand beside her in battle. Jon, realizing that he was sending the wrong message to Kara this whole time, tells her the truth. With his parent’s dead, Kara took over raising him. We get a montage of Metropolis getting destroyed as Kara and baby Jon watch, followed by a few quick scenes of Kara raising Jon, teaching him to fight, to appreciate nature, and then dying when she faced off against Cyborg Superman, left as a broken corpse covered in Kryptonite shards. Yes, Kara went full Future Gohan. So Jon has been keeping her at an emotional arms length because the thought of losing her again so soon was tearing him up inside. Kara says that Earth is Kal-El and Lois’ home, that it’s not really hers, but Jon is her family and she’ll fight to defend him. They need to fight together to win and Jon finally accepts that.

 

Hank drags himself from the building he collided with. He scans the area for a few moments before locking onto Clark. He hasn’t recovered at all from the Kryptonite exposure and is still writhing in pain. Hank zooms over after muttering, “time to get back on mission.” He slams Clark into the ground a few times before getting hit with a double punch from Kara and Jon. They split bits of the armor between the two of them in the hopes it’ll give them an edge. Hank asks if they’ve come to die with Dear old dad and tells them to wait their turn. He fires a Kryptonite beam at them, but they’re fast enough to dodge. Together, Kara and Jon disarm Hank, literally. Unfortunately, with his technopathic powers, he’s able to draw robot parts to him that he slams into himself. His metallic shell seems to mutate, incorporating the parts into himself and making him more monstrous. He does a scan, realizes they’re wearing armor and starts targeting it specifically. He slams Kara to the ground and knocks Jon away from him. He realizes that Jon loves Kara, and he’s going to bury the metaphorical knife into Jon’s heart by killing her first. He says that “We all die alone.” Jon, furious and scared, charges Hank. Hank turns and catches Jon by the face, saying, “here, let me show you.”

 

Clark regains consciousness and sees Hank holding Jon by the face. He screams, “No!” tries to get up but falls over. We see inside Clark, into the biotechnology within him that gives him his powers. It’s like an electric cell wrapped up along with his organic cells. It flares with energy but then dies from the Kryptonite poisoning. Hank morphs his arm into a gun and says its time to finish this. Seeing his son in danger sends a rage through Clark like he’d never felt before, causing his power cell to flare to life. It shatters the Kryptonite crystals forming on him and Clark is able to super speed over to save Jon. He rips off Hank’s non-gun arm and gets Jon to safety. He and Hank clash. Clark screaming that he won’t let Hank hurt his family or his world. Hank accuses Clark of stealing his future. Clark counters by saying that the future belongs to everyone, and he’s taking it back. He slams his hand into Hank’s chest, rips out the Kryptonite heart and shatters it into pieces. Hank drops, but so does Clark. We see inside him to his energy cell, and we see that goes black. He drops to his knees and his vision blurs.

 

Hank, who is a sore loser, refuses to go down easily. He’s got enough power left to trigger the warhead that Lex implanted in him as a final failsafe. Hank’s stunned to see Jon is up and helping Clark to his feet. He demands to know why Jon isn’t affect by the Kryptonite like the others. Clark shrugs and says that Jon’s mother is from Earth. This seems to really upset Hank, who throws up oil upon learning that Jon’s human as well as Kryptonian. Finally getting a good look at Jon and not being blinded by rage, he realizes that Jon is too old to Clark’s son. Clark at this point is in his mid-20s, we’ll say 24-25. Jon’s at minimum 16, so ya, those numbers don’t mesh. Jon reveals he’s from the future and that he came back to stop Hank. Hank has a vision like before, of him in a space suit looking out to the stars. He says that he was supposed to be the future, to lead Humanity forward. His vision self turns and sees a wave of Kryptonian hybrids flying up from Earth and realizes that humanity chooses the aliens over him. Hank starts crying as he realizes that they’re the future now and shuts down before the bomb can go off. Jon tells him that they did it. Jon sees Kara get up and rushes over to hug her. Jon’s watch starts beeping. He tells Kara that it’s running out of power and that he needs to return to the future. But he’s not ready to go yet. Kara tells him that he has to go, but she’s excited to see him in the future. I’ve got a mental image of a very confused looking baby Jon listening to Kara tell him all about all the stuff his variant did when he went back in time.

 

Clark and Lois say goodbye to Jon, hugging their boy and thanking him for all he did. Jon tells them that he loves them both so much and prepares to go. Lois grabs his hand and asks how he knows  he can go back and that things will be better? Jon just shrugs and says that it’ll be because they’ll be there together before vanishing in a flash of light. Lois helps Clark to Pa’s truck, he asks her how bad it is because he doesn’t have his glasses. Lois thinks he’s making a joke and laughs, but tells him the truck is pretty banged up. Clark says that Pa will be so disappointed, but Lois laughs again and says that he’ll just be happy they saved the city. She kisses him and adds that they saved Superman. Clark, clearly scared, tells Lois that he’s lost his powers. He can’t ‘feel’ them anymore. He thinks he pushed too hard during the fight and something broke inside him. He says he can’t protect them or be Superman for her anymore. Lois takes a moment to process that before hugging him, saying that they didn’t save Superman, but they saved Clark, and changed the future. Right? It starts raining.

 

We flash forward to the future. Metropolis has gone full Cyberpunk Dystopia with, shocking no one, LexCorp branding on all the buildings. The city is patrolled by an army of robotic drones modeled after Superman but with bright yellow glasses for eyes. We join High Commander Lex Luthor as Slade and some Eradicator drones bring a rebel to him.  Lex has gone through a major makeover, adding a lot of cybernetics to his body. Lex greets Jonathan Lane and gives his regards to Jonathan’s mother. He goes over and crouches down next to Jonathan, saying that he heard that the Superboy is trying to go back in time. That doesn’t work for Lex, though, and he’d like to know where Jonathan got that idea. We get a good look at Jonathan’s face, and this version has a scar over his left eye.

 

Looks like the future took a lateral move. From rampaging Cyborg apocalypse to evil corporate dystopia. Shit.

 

Ya know, going into this episode, I never considered that they were going to go with a metaphorical Death of Superman. Which is weird. I’ve been watching Superman related media for going on thirty years at this point, I’ve seen him on the big and small screen, in live action and animation. In just about every version of the story that I’ve seen, there is an episode or at most a short string of episodes that covers what happens if Clark loses his powers and can’t be Superman anymore. It’s a staple of the mythos of Superman, and I never once considered it. I assumed Clark was going to die in this fight and the rest of the season was going to be Jon trying to Mulligan a way to save his father. But, nope, Kryptonite poisoning so bad and then Clark overworking his powers until they burn out. That’s brutal. My only complaint about this Cyborg Superman arc is that it is INCREDIBLY rushed. Hank Henshaw as Cyborg Superman is introduced in episode 2, has maybe ten minutes of screen time across episodes 3 and 4, and then goes full psycho by 5. That’s an entire SEASON of content in less than half the episodes. My God, do I HATE the 10-episode season that is now industry standard. If we just added five episodes to this season to bring it up to 15, that could have included a few episodes to show us Jon’s future and the future of this new Jonathan variant, included an episode just about Hank and showing how he’s losing it as his metal body and new powers are socially isolating him to an insane degree, and give us more set up on the villain that steps up next, no spoilers beyond it’s not Hank. It makes me so angry because those extra episodes could have added weight to everything that was happening. Jon’s desire to save both his biological parents as well as his aunt who was the mom that stepped up, Lois’ anxiety about the future, Hank’s deteriorating mental state as the inhumanity of his existence makes him lose touch with reality, and Clark just trying to save as many people as he can, all of that could have been enhanced with more episodes. Despite this, Hank really does carry the episode. His crazy lines and self-loathing even as he revel in the powers he’d been given is all great. Some felt that giving him a heart of Kryptonite made him too much like John Corbin aka Metallo… but come on, an anti-Superman cyborg built by Lex is going to have Kryptonite powering it, it’s like Lex’s main gimmick. And, Metallo and Cyborg Superman cover similar enough story beats that merging them is probably the best call. And given the choice between the two, I’ll go with Cyborg Superman as he’s just the more visually interesting character. Metallo as he’s been presented in most media is a robot man, that’s kind of it. He might have some fancy weapons but he’s mostly going to run up and punch at Superman. With Cyborg Superman you get him using a corrupted version of all of Superman’s gear. It’s so cool! Lois was great in this episode, just for punching Lex in the face again. So ya, Clark’s powerless, Jon is gone and the future has changed but not necessarily for the better. Bet you’re wondering how they’ll fix this? We’ll find out next time. Have a goodnight, everyone! And stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 24

Clark + Lois = Golden Retriever son 

Last time on My Adventures With Superman, everyone had an… interesting day. Jimmy spent the day at WORMS (The World Organization for Romantic Matchmaking Science) as part of an ill-thought-out plan to try to make Kara jealous. He seems to hit it off with his date Dolores aka Gigi, that is until she exposes him to some chemicals that turn him into a wolfman. Lois informs Kara what’s going on with Jimmy and they put her on a dating app so Kara can beat Jimmy at this ‘contest.’ Upon learning that Kara is still pretty much a blank slate, the two end up at the Mall. They have a musical number that shows Kara is excited for the future while Lois is anxious as hell. Clark tries to have a peaceful day at home with his miniature farm but keeps getting called away to deal with emergencies. The first is to a dog adopt-a-thon on a yacht, which he doesn’t mind, the other is to deal with a LexCorp robbery. He ends up saving Intergang from Captain Hank, who tries to take MAWS Team Rocket with extreme prejudice. Clark keeps him at bay until Hank tries to laser slash everyone. At that point, Slade steps in and tells Hank the boss wants to see him. Jimmy gets turned back to normal by the WORMS CEOs Zazzala and Tazzala, but is then kidnapped by Gigi, who is the supervillain Giganta. She grows fifty feet tall and pulls a King Kong with Jimmy, climbing up the Daily Planet building. With the Zalas help, Clark frees Jimmy from Gigi and brings him home. At the apartment, Lois tells Clark that she’s feeling anxious for the future, and they agree to have breakfast tomorrow to talk about their life plan. Lex rips Hank a new asshole for that PR fumble, reminding Hank that Lex owns him. And finally, we cut to the future and a Superboy is outfitted with some tech by a future Bald Lex before being sent back in time. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

The episode opens with Clark arriving at Lois’ place to pick her up for their brunch date. She opens the door and looks extremely harried and needs to take a moment to remember she needs shoes to go outside. Clark starts to ask what’s up, but Lois cuts him off, saying to keep quite as otherwise he’ll wake Kara. Kara, it seems, lives with Lois now and is at the moment sleep flying just over their heads. A side effective of Lois getting Kara onto the dating apps is that Kara has no idea what she’s doing, so she’s asking Lois 10,000 questions about it. It’s leaving her a little frazzled. Clark gently lets her know that it’ll be okay, they’re going to go have breakfast at her favorite place (Poundcake Palace!) and discuss their future and everything will be alright. It’ll be alright because they have (“poundcake!” According to Lois) each other and there’s no Superman business to get in their way. Lois affectionately tells Clark that she’ll always have her Superman, but they both agree, no Super Business today. They head out and leave Kara to her dreams of petting dogs.

 

They walk down the street arm in arm when Jimmy calls Clark. He’s on a date with another WORMS scientist, because Jimmy is both optimistic AND dumb. He says that the woman he’s seeing is great, but she sprayed him with a mysterious chemical and he might need their help. Lois forcibly hangs up Clark’s watch on Jimmy, because she’s not missing her poundcake, dammit. Jimmy’s Flamebird watches come with a nifty holographic chibi display, so Lois has to metaphorically crush Jimmy to hang up on him.

 

They make it to the restaurant and start getting comfortable. They’re feeling pretty cocky at this point, having dodged their respective roommates and made it to the restaurant without any funny business. Clark loudly proclaims that they can handle anything the future throws at them… right before a red-blue blur drops from the ceiling, grabs all their cake and leaps back up again. They both look upwards and see a Korean boy in a Superman suit hanging from the chandelier. He quickly eats the carbs before happily saying, “Hi mom! Hi Dad!” and dropping down to sit with them, asking if they’d ordered yet.

 

Superboy is very… high energy. He quickly pages through the menu before deciding they should have one of everything and races away to get it. Lois is freaking out as this teenager (that is obviously their son due to his looks and superpowers) is basically all of her stress dreams of late in human form and begs Clark to tell her what they should do. Superboy rejoins them and finally introduces himself when they ask what he meant by ‘mom and dad.’ This is Jonathan ‘Jon’ Kent, their son, from the FUTURE! He says it like he thinks they should know who he is, despite the fact he very obviously travelled back to a point before his own birth. Jon is so excited to be here, he says it’s “Slamming!” He quickly zooms around his past parents, asking them a lot of questions, like what books do they like, why does Clark wear glasses and where do they hang out. He pulls out Lois’ compass she got from her dad during the season premier, and when Lois asks how he did that he says he saw it with X-ray vision and is a great pickpocket like his mama. He hands the compass back to Lois. Her brain is kind of broken at seeing this 15–17-year-old son, but before she can ask him any questions, they’re joined by Jimmy and Kara. Jimmy got covered in porcupine quills by his last date, and Kara seems to have gotten so many matches on CrushRush that she broke the app. Jimmy and Kara finally notice Jon, who introduces himself to his Uncle and Aunt. They’re both excited to meet him, Kara telling Clark that he and Lois did their bloodline proud, and Jimmy gets distracted by finally processing what Kara said about breaking the app. He pokes Lois one too many times with his quills, causing the extremely stressed-out Lois to scream in outrage. She panics their server, who spills a bunch of bread, and Clark asks if they can take it to go.

 

The group heads to STAR Labs. Jimmy gets his quills pulled out by a scientist while Jon examines everything, he can get his eyes on. The kid has got a huge amount of Golden Retriever energy. “Can I touch this? I’m touching it! (Zap) Ow!” Clark, realizing that Jon might be overstimulated here suggests they go outside. Jon zooms over and shouts “I love outside!” There is a news report about unexplained tremors around the city. Jimmy is convinced he knows what the tremors are about, but he’s distracted by another quill being pulled out. And that, kids, is called ‘Foreshadowing.”

 

 Outside, Jon apologizes if he’s been a bit much, he’s just excited to be here. He says while scarfing down a huge load of bread. Clark tells him not to worry. He calls Jon ‘Kiddo,’ but the pause is just long enough that I’m convinced he was about to say ‘Son,’ but remembered Lois is freaking out. Lois is still trying to find an explanation for this besides that Jon is her son from the future. Clark points out that Jon is a flying pickpocket. I’d have mentioned he’s a Kryptonian that looks Korean, but maybe it’s better to focus on his skillset. She asks if they should really just take his word on it, and shouldn’t Clark need more evidence? And in one of the funniest moments of the season, Jon sees Lois standing with her arm outstretched. He rips his loaf of bread in half and hands her a piece. And in perfect sync, the two gobble up their bread in one big bite, then dust off their hand on their shirts and lick their lips clean. Clark says, “Not Really,” and Kara has a much blunter, “No.” Lois tries to escape the situation by saying that she needs to write up a story for the Planet. Jon doesn’t want her to go, so begs her to take him with her. Lois finally asks a question that I’m sure has been eating at her all day, “Why are you here, Jon?” Kara tries to distract Jon by offering to show him some Kryptonian wrestling moves, but he’s not super into it. Clark suggests doing ‘normal’ stuff, and Kara is positive that she knows of something normal to do. They head to the mall, much to Lois’ exasperation.

 

We cut to LexCorp tower. Hank is laying in his repair pod getting his body calibrated. He’s watching a news report about himself, as the man is a bit vain. Shocking, I know. The report talks about how Hank used to be a well-respected and decorated Astronaut, with an aspiration to lead humanity to a brighter tomorrow. Hank has a vision or flashback of himself working on a satellite while watching the sun rise over the distant Earth and looks hopeful as well as mesmerized. A stark difference from the man with a metal jaw. He remembers Lex scolding him and saying that he’s making people scared of him. Lois comes on the report, saying that Hank isn’t a hero and she’s not sure he can go back to the ‘maverick’ he used to be. In an extremely well-designed shot, we see Hank’s face in profile, his glowing red eye blinking as he mentally winds back Lois’ clip to “Hank is not out hero,” over and over again. I have no idea why famous print journalist Lois Lane is on TV, but we’re moving past that. Furious, Hank activates his laser palms and cuts up the place, including a photo of himself.

 

Back at the mall, we see a shopping montage of Clark, Jimmy and Jon bonding. They’re all massive dorks that get matching jackets and pose with them. Jon tries to give Lois a jacket too, but she looks behind him, sees a ‘mommy and me’ display and panics again. Jon gets distracted by roller shoes, which blows this flying boy’s mind, and Jimmy gets him a pair. Kara tries to join in on the fun, but Jon seems to be deliberately avoiding interacting with her. Jimmy also buys Jon a Superman plushy, and we see with the Flamebird cash counter that Jimmy is in the red for about $1500. The fun is interrupted by another tremor. The quake Is big enough to cause a giant toy cat to fall from the ceiling. Lois screams for the folks to look out, but Jon leaps into action, saving everyone by catching the cat mid fall. This seems to make it click for Lois that this is her boy, as she mutters Jon is ‘Just like Clark.” Her smile suggests she’s happy to accept this info… but she’s now even more concerned about why he’s here.

 

We shift back to LexCorp. Lex is working on something, while Slade is angrily watching something on his phone. Seems like his encounter with Hank last episode left him with a broken right arm. He still tries to do his job and draws his left sword. Hank tries to be playful, calling Slade “fido” for being a good attack dog. Lex reminds Hank that they ‘agreed’ he’d stay in his quarters until further notice, and draws attention to his control remote for emphasis. Hank glares for a moment, and then apologizes. He tries to be humble with Lex, but Lex keeps verbally stabbing him. Making Hank say that Lex is the one in charge, and that he’ll never forget he owes Lex everything “again.” Lex accepts the apology and dismisses Hank. Hank leaves, but stares at one of the robot drones. Once alone, Slade tries to make Lex see that that was the most insincere apology ever. Lex is blasé about the whole thing, thinking a ‘firm hand’ makes that ‘type’ fall in line. Slade scoffs at that and says that he is of that type. Slade knows that Hank isn’t going to stop after trying to kill Slade yesterday. Lex keeps insisting that he’s got it under control. Unbeknownst to them, Hank uses his thermal vision to see into the room and targets the remote.

 

At the mall, Jon wants to keep up the shopping. Lois needs a break, though, and fakes a call from Perry to try to get out of family time. She tries to ditch them, but Jon begs to see the Daily Planet. Lois looks like she’s going to say no, but sees both her son and her future husband’s hopeful looks and relents. They all pile into her cubical at the Planet, which is stifling so Lois shouts she needs some air. They head to the roof and eat ramen together. Jimmy talks about how nice it is to be five best friends on the roof, but Kara cuts him off and asks Jimmy to take a photo of her holding the Daily Planet’s Planet for her dating profile. Clark senses the hostility here and offers to do the photo for her, but she insists Jimmy do it as he takes the best pictures and the dating was his idea. She then lifts the actual planet, which makes Clark panic and he yells at her to put it back. Lois and Jon share a laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Lois notices that Jon is also eating the spicy ramen, and Jon laughs and says he must get it from her. He calls her mom, which makes something break in Lois’ brain again. Jon looks disappointed, as he’s been paying attention and knows that Lois isn’t processing this all super well. She tells him that he’s great, super even, it’s just hard to wrap her mind around. Lois vents to Jon about her anxieties about the future and the feeling that she’s locked into a future she can’t control. Jon says he doesn’t believe in fate, and that the future is there’s to shape. A bold thing for the boy whose entire existence is predicted by Lois Lane having a child with Clark Kent, which hasn’t happened yet. Still, hearing that seems to make Lois feel a bit better. She asks again why he’s there, but they’re interrupted by an explosion downtown. Clark zooms away. Kara goes to follow, but Jon asks if maybe she can sit this one out so he and Clark can have some father-son time. Kara reluctantly agrees. Jon dives off the roof, giving Lois a minor heart attack, and Kara zooms away. It’s only at that point that Lois and Jimmy realize they’re locked on the roof with no way down since their ride flew off. Jimmy posts a video on Flamebird asking for lockpicking tips.

 

We join Clark and Jon looking at a construction site that is covered with dinosaur people. Jon laughs, saying that he thought that the past was just wobbly. Clark is shocked by the dinosaur people that live below the earth’s crust, and wonders what else is Jimmy right about. Jon calls them the Subterranosauri. He says they’re all super cool, super reasonable, and that he’ll have this wrapped up in five minutes. The dinopeople are rampaging around the construction site, attacking people, breaking machinery and throwing girders around. Clark is less than convinced, but Jon insists. They fly down and Jon tries to introduce himself to a big red rex. The rex roars at Jon, and he thinks that means the Rex’s English isn’t very good. He tries to remember how to greet in Subterranosauri, but gets tail whipped into some concrete for his trouble.

 

Jumping back to LexCorp, Hank goes into Lex’s lab again. Lex tries to blow him off, but Hank insist he make time. Hank threatens Lex, Lex tries to get him to back down with his remote, but Hank mentally blows it up. Lex tries to run, but Hank activates two robots that grab Lex. He screams for Slade, who comes in, but isn’t feeling super protective after the last few days. Lex pleads for his life, offering Hank whatever he wants. Hank admits that he wants his life back. Sensing an opening, Lex turns Hank’s fury on Superman. Hank puts him down and Lex tries to weasel Hank into an alliance, but Hank super flicks him into a wall, saying there is no “we,” anymore.

 

Clark helps his son out of the debris he was launched into. Jon is super confused by all of this as in his time the Subterranosauri are humanities allies. Clark tells Jon to help the civilians while Clark handles the dinosaurs. He super breaths a bunch of the dinos back towards the hole they crawled out of. Jon tries to get people to evacuate by just yelling, but Clark advises him that he needs to make everyone feel safe if he wants to help them. He lands and grabs a little girl that was cornered by the dinos. He tries to fly her away, but she’s afraid of heights, so he instead super speed roller blades them away. Clark tries to fight the dinos while not letting the building collapse. Big Red throws a crane cable at him, but Clark freeze breaths him in place. Clark and Jon meet up and agree that was slamming. The bonding is interrupted by the arrival of Tyrannko, prince of the Subterranosauri. This one speaks English for some reason. Tyrannko pontificates about the injustice that the surface dwellers have dealt to the Subterranosauri. Jon, who is geeking out a little, steps in and convinces Tyrannko that humans and dinos can live in peace. He’s got that Kent verbal magic.

 

Tyrannko shakes hand with the mayor and peace is forged between humans and Subterranosauri. Clark and Jon hang out with Big Red Rex and Clark asks about the future with the Subterranosauri. Jon says they’ve been allies for like twenty years, from his perspective, and then realizes that he’s the one that made peace with the dinos. Some chicken and egg time travel right there. Clark smiles at his son’s excitement about being a hero and tells him that this is what Superman is all about, making a Brighter Tomorrow. He then says he knows just the place to get patched up.

 

We jump to everyone hanging out at the Kent family farm. In the most unrealistic moment of the series, Jonathan and Martha walk away after getting their son and grandson checked out. Those two would be glued to Jon until he left, you’d have to pry them off of him. But whatever, Jon and Clark are patched up, Jimmy is exasperated that he missed the subterranean dinosaur people, and Kara is just hanging out astride a white horse. That’s a comic reference, by the way, in the Silver Age Kara briefly dated a White horse that took human shape. The Silver Age was weird. Clark offers to tell them everything over dinner. Clark offers to play catch with Jon beforehand, and Kara very much wants to show her nephew Earth Catch, but Jon says he wants to help Lois with her story.

 

Lois doesn’t look up from her writing to ask her son how to spell Tyrannko’s name. She lets him have a look and Jon speed reads the story, saying that it too is Slamming. He mentions that Lois is just how he imagined her. Lois picks up on the word choice there and asks why he’d have to ‘imagine’ his mom. Jon tries to back peddle on that comment and searches his jacket for something. Lois had pickpocketed what he was looking for, a picture. It shows Clark, Lois and an infant Jon. She smugly mentions she’s a good pickpocket herself. Jon apologizes to her, saying that he knows it must be weird to become a parent like this, but thanks her for the day. He says he really needed it. Lois realizes that she did too.

 

Good news, Clark, she’s less against having kids now! A step forward.

 

Jon helps raise the family truck so Pa can do some work on it while Clark and Lois watch. Clark says that if Jon is there future, its better than he’d hoped. Lois admits that maybe it won’t be so bad. They’re then interrupted by Kara demanding their attention. We see a news report of Metropolis being burned to the ground. Hank has completely lost his mind. He calls out Superman, demanding that he face Hank or suffer the consequences. He tells Clark to come and fight for the city. Clark and Kara super speed away. Jon comes in, saying that he thought he had more time. Lois demands to know what he means. Jon tells her that in his future, Lois and Clark are dead and he was sent back in time to stop Cyborg Superman.

 

Well, that was a sweet episode that took a dark turn right at the 19-minute mark. I will note that my biggest complaint about this season is that the pacing is WAY too fast. From this point onwards we’re going to be racing between plot points to cover everything that the writers want to get to. But more on that later. I liked the introduction to Jon. He’s a fun character. His inquisitive nature and high energy make him almost like a Flash, he’s constantly moving from one thing or thought to the next. Design wise I think they found a nice balance between Clark and Lois for him. He’s like Clark drawn with Lois’ proportions. So, he’s smaller than his dad, but you still see Clark in his eye and face shape. Highlighting that he has some of Lois’ skills like pickpocketing along with Clark’s powers was a good way to drive home that he’s a bit of both of them. Seeing him hang out with his parents and just have a good time before the heavy stuff is just fun. Some folks question why he’d risk wasting time like this when Hank was out there. And the answer is the same as the question “so is Lois already pregnant with him if Hank is supposed to kill them both?” To which I say, ‘he thought he had more time.’ I wish we’d gotten some time in the future so we could have seen them set up their plan for how Jon is supposed to fix the future, and also how the timeline went without Jon’s intervention. I assume he was specifically sent back a significant amount of time before Hank snapped in his timeline. We’ll say 2 to 3 years at minimum to account for Clark and Lois to settle on their plans, get married, and have Jon as a honeymoon baby. A staple of time travel narrative is that the mere presence of a time traveler can radically alter events. Something about Jon being in the past caused a change that led to Hank snapping faster than he had in Jon’s timeline. Again, something that a little more time in the season would have helped. Also, come on, Lois was freaking out a lot just by the idea of settling down. If she had a positive pregnancy test or even a day late period right now she’d be in a panic death spiral. All of that said, Hank’s villain monologue there at the end was really good. Some folks questioned as to why Lex would build Hank’s body with the ability to hack tech, and I’m just like, guys, Lex’s key character trait is he is arrogant. Lex was fully capable of making a cyborg body that was incapable of raising a hand to him, just like he was capable of building an automatic failsafe into Hank that could have gone off if he tried to break away. But that wouldn’t work for Lex’s ego. He needs Hank to understand that Lex owns him. The remote device was more about letting Lex decide how and when Hank would be punished. It gave him an illusion of control over Hank that obviously Hank was happy to disabuse him of. If you want Lex to actually think about the consequences of his decisions, good luck with that. The man has gotten cancer multiple times because he carried a radioactive bit of rock in his pocket or on his hand and just assumed it’d never affect him. So, ya, Hank Henshaw is on a rampage, and it’ll be up to the Supers to stop him. It’s a tall order, but they’ve faced long odds before. We’ll see how they handle it next time. Have a good night, everyone and stay safe.

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 23

Dating is complicated enough without Mad Scientists being involved. 

Last time on My Adventures With Superman, the gang heads to Super Fest, a convention setup to celebrate superheroes, both real and fictional. Lois, working there against her will, immediately spies Winslow Schott, the Toyman that tried to get her dad captured by Waller, and goes to stalk him to prove he’s still a criminal. Kara expresses her obvious romantic feelings for Jimmy, but Jimmy rebuffs her, saying that he wants her to experience more of life before rushing into a decision. Shortly thereafter, a teen fan of Kara’s, Jessica Cruz, says that she admires Kara’s bravery and that spurs Kara forward to seeking out potential suitors to see more of what life has to offer. Jimmy is… less than thrilled. Clark faces off against a new mercenary villain, a Russian woman going by the Whip, who uses Kryptonite in her tech to weaken him. She also expresses her disappointment to learn Clark does superhero work for free. He lasts until Whip’s Kryptonite runs out, ties her up and leaves her for the cops. Whip seems to like a fella who’s so dominant as she whispers, “I love him,” as Superman flies away. Clark makes it back to the convention just in time to deescalate the snafu Lois found herself in after ripping off a child’s Teddy bear’s head to try to prove Winslow Schott is still a bizarre arms dealer. She then notices that his booth is covered in weapons, needles him as being a loser for just a minute, and that sets Winslow off. He activates his booth, transforming it into a not-Gundam. Before Clark can handle the situation, a different Red-Blue Blur knocks Schott outside and beats the tar out of him. It’s revealed to be Captain Hank Henshaw, rebuilt by LexCorp to be their homegrown Superman. Clark and the gang are shocked by this revelation but go about their day. And in the final moments of the episode we learn that Hank’s body is almost entirely mechanical, and he’s dead set on protecting Earth from Superman. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

We open with a commercial specifically made for Jimmy. It’s from the World Organization for Romantic Matchmaking Science (WORMS). The CEOs Zazzala and Tazzala, who are romantic partners as well as business partners (I’ll get to it in the closing paragraph), are pitching their dating app to Jimmy and swear that they can use the power of science to match him with his perfect date. We pull out to see that Jimmy is showing the promo video to Clark and Lois. Clark is mildly supportive of Jimmy trying new things, and Lois is looking at him like he’s batshit insane. Lois accuses him of publicly going on this App and promoting it through Flamebird to get back at Kara for taking HIS advice. Jimmy insists that it isn’t, badly, and that he’s just trying to make Flamebird a lifestyle brand. They bicker about Jimmy being an idiot, before Lois points out that Jimmy has an actual story he’s supposed to be looking into about a mysterious criminal called the Distortionist. They are kidnapping people and mutating people with gene manipulation. Jimmy says that it can wait, as he and Clark are going to WORMS!

 

Clark emphatically tells him ‘no,’ as he is planning on spending the day with Lois. He doesn’t have any Superman business at the moment, so he’s being a good partner and goes to make Lois breakfast. He cleans off the table and Lois sees that he kept the model farm he bought from Winslow Schott last episode. She is immediately freaked out to see that Clark had added two miniature figures of the two of them… with a cradle. She tries to be super chill asking about the model and if the figures are supposed to be them, while clearly panicking every second she looks at it. Jimmy cuts in on the awkward moment by insisting Clark come with him to WORMS. Dude, he’s in a committed relationship! Anyway, Clark agrees to drop him off, but that’s it. Because Clark isn’t metaphorically dense, just literally, he does pick up on Lois’ nerves and asks if she’s okay. She insists she’s fine but smiles like she’s being held at gunpoint.

 

We move onto Metropolis square where a purse snatching is stopped by Hank Henshaw. The captain takes the purse back and hurls the thief against a light pole. The woman tentatively asks if he’s Superman, and Hank introduces himself as Captain Hank Henshaw. A bystander asks if the guy is okay, and Hank says the THIEF got what he deserved. We see the guy drag himself a bit, so he’s at least not dead. The bystander says that Superman wouldn’t have done that, and Hank cuts him off and says that Superman should be tougher on crime. He flies off, waving, and Lex asks him over his built-in radio how he’s feeling. Hank says that it feels great.

 

Cutting back to the apartment, Kara super speeds in and asks if Jimmy knew that hotdogs come in Chili variety. Lois, who’d been napping on the bunk bed, gets up and lets her know that Jimmy is at a speed dating event to try to make Kara Jealous, and thus doesn’t deserve a chilidog. She takes it and scarfs it down as Kara asks why she’d be jealous of that. She’s a Kryptonian warrior after all, she’s as strong as she is beautiful. Her words. Lois decides to stir the pot a little inform Kara that Jimmy is just trying to prove to himself that he’s as desirable as Kara is, something she’s doubtful of. Kara thinks that this is a competition, then, a game that she can win. Lois suggests getting Kara on Crushrush, a dating app, so that she can ‘win’ at dating and make Jimmy her Earth mate. Perfect plan, I foresee no way this’ll just complicate matters further.

 

Clark and Jimmy arrive at WORMS. The boys are impressed by the scale if nothing else. A camera crew approach them and ask for their first impressions for their promo. Jimmy gives a glowing review while Clark… points out he didn’t sign a release for this and thus is allowed to leave. Clark waves Jimmy goodbye and heads out. Zazzala and Tazzala join Jimmy, where we learn that the two CEOs have broken up. Zazzala tells Jimmy not to worry about her romantic drama, and instead focus on finding his ‘soilmate.’ Terrible name. Jimmy is introduced to his first date.

 

Lois and Kara set up a dating profile for Kara. This proves difficult, as Kara doesn’t have a lot of opinions on things. Lois just marks her as “sporty” when she mentions her preferred Kryptonian marital arts, and that’s it. She doesn’t even have opinions of Ocean or Mountains. Lois realizes that Kara needs a few more earth experiences to fill out the profile. Kara asks if there are any more experiences they can have in the apartment. Lois’ eyes shoot back at the miniatures and the cradle, panics, and says they should hit the town. They catch Clark as he returns, lets him know about the change of plan, and leaves Superman alone with his miniatures. He sits down to work on the figures… but then hears there’s a fire on Metropolis’ Adopt-on-a-Yacht event, people AND dogs are in danger. He zooms over and puts the fire out. One of the dogs takes a liking to him, and Superman asks about their adoption policy. He immediately bails when he hears that they need his ID.

 

Back at WORMS we meet Jimmy’s date. She’s a statuesque tanned redhead named Doris, but she goes by Gigi. She’s extremely forward, saying that she’s deeply interested in Jimmy’s body… specifically how much Kryptonite he’s been exposed to and if he’s noticed any affects. Jimmy says no. Gigi says some loaded words about ‘changing’ people. Jimmy doesn’t seem to notice that she’s got a weird vibe to her, even after she sprayed the air with some chemicals, force fed him ‘chocolate’ and then took a blood sample from him. We cut to Jimmy in a confession booth where he says that everything is going great. His blurb reads “Jimmy Olsen, Oblivious,” as he starts growing hair on his wrists and claws.

 

Returning to Clark, he’s back at the miniatures and is adding one that will probably make Lois drop dead from a heart attack. He laughs at ‘Clark jr.’ for forgetting his mitt as he tries to slide a baseball mitt on the miniature, but is called away when he hears about a robbery at LexCorp. Not because he wants to help Lex, but because he’s worried about the bystanders, since Intergang is involved.

 

Jimmy tells Gigi that he’s supposed to be looking for the distortionist, and claims nothing gets by him. And only then realizes that Gigi has turned him into a Wolfman. He howls in surprise.

 

Lois takes Kara on the town, clearly hoping to take her to a museum or something classy like that… but they’re distracted by the Mall, which Kara insists they check out.

 

Intergang tries to flee from LexCorp but are attacked by Hank. He tracks down and quickly takes out Mist and Roughhouse. Silver Banshee unloads a sonic blast at him. She barely moves him backwards, but the force of her attack was enough to break some of the fake skin off his face and the contact out of his eye so it now glows visibly red. He tells her she’s going to regret that and charges. Clark intercepts the attack and says they need to calm down. Hank tells him to get out of his way.

 

We cut back to Jimmy at WORMS. He’s depressed that he’s a wolf now. He admits something felt off early, but he didn’t want to ruin the vibe. A producer lets him know that they can fix him, which does perk him up.

 

Hank and Clark clash, Jimmy interrupting by calling Superman to let him know what is up. This does show off the power disparity between Hank and Clark, as Hank is visibly trying to overpower Clark, and yet Clark is able to have this quick convo with Jimmy. Hank sees Siobhan try to run off and chases after her. Clark knocks Hank aside and stops Siobhan. He keeps getting in her way and insists she hands over the tech. Hank charges. Clark ends up having to juggle Siobhan to keep her from Hank, deal with Siobhan trying to struggle away from him, and Jimmy trying to chat about how WORMS is going. He’s truly a Superman. He finally gets Jimmy to hang up, takes Siobhan’s tech and helmet, and tells Hank that no body needs to get hurt. Hank gets up and says he disagrees. He opens up his palm and charges a laser blast but is stopped by LexCorp robots trapping him in a cage. Slade tells him to stand down and that Lex wants a word with him.

 

Lois and Kara are hanging out at a record store and Lois shows Kara her favorite band from her childhood, Black Canary. That’s a fun reference. Kara starts, I kid you not, a musical number about the future. She’s super excited about learning about Earth culture and experiencing new things. And Lois is apprehensive about the next step. She makes it clear that she wants to marry Clark and live life with him but is worried shifting the status quo will upset somethings. To which I say, Honey, it took your comic book counterpart like 50 years to learn who Superman is, status quos lead to getting stuck in a rut. The thing that makes me laugh is that there song is diegetic, so if you pay attention, you can see the random Metropolis citizens reacting to Supergirl and some lady singing about the future.

 

Back at LexCorp, Lex scolds Hank for screwing up. He’s been officially dubbed by the news as Cyborg Superman. Lex tells him that with the public against them, there will be no way to convince the public to side with them over Superman. Hank is blasé about the whole thing, asking who cares what the masses think, they have the power. He moves towards Lex, and Slade does his bodyguard job and stops him. Hank takes another step, and Slade activates his battle suit. He tries to attack Hank, but his swords can’t cut Hank’s metallic body. Hank smashes him around a bit before Lex uses his remote to freeze Hank in place, reminding him there’s no WE in this. Lex has the power, and Hank will do as he’s told.

 

Zazzala apologizes for what happened with Gigi and gives him an injection to turn him back, saying that she hopes this won’t affect his experience with WORMS or his review. Jimmy is initially very gracious, until his hands turn into puddy and stretch out. Zazzala apologizes, saying that she’s not WORMS chief biologist, so she may have done something wrong. Tazzala joins them, and the two reconcile (despite Tazzala not saying a word). Jimmy says that’s a cute moment but they need to fix his bones.

 

At the apartment, Clark adds a white dog to his model, saying that Lois will love him. He pitches a few names for the dog, Bark Kent, Snowy, and settles on Krypto right before Jimmy calls again. Jimmy gets zapped by Tazzala, which fixes his bones, but he asks Clark for his help. Clark tells him that he’s always willing to help in an emergency, but the keyword is EMERGENCY. The emergency then rears her redhead as Gigi comes out and swears that if she can’t have Jimmy, no one can. She sprays herself and reintroduces herself as Giganta as she grows into a fifty foot woman. Jimmy tries to play it cool, saying that they can still be friends. Gigi shouts at him that she came here to “FALL IN LOVE!” before grabbing him like that woman from King Kong and starts running down the street. Jimmy tries to call Clark, who starts to scold him, but then sees Jimmy go by their window and realizes that this is in fact an emergency.

 

Kara and Lois sit on a bench after their mall outing. Kara is excited as she’s got things to add to her profile, while Lois is still panicking about the future. Kara shows Lois all the potential mates that are displaying a fish they caught, and an exasperated Lois says they’ll all have fish! They see Giganta run by with Jimmy in hand, and a dejected Kara says that she doesn’t think she’ll find a date that big. Lois flatly tells her that that is not what winning looks like.

 

Gigi climbs the Daily Planet, because I guess she’s going full Kong and that’s as close to the Empire State Building as she’s going to get. She says she’ll make Jimmy gigantic too, and if he hates it then they’ll call it quits. It’s only then that Jimmy gets that Giganta is the Distortionist too. She says she’s not into labels as Superman flies in. Clark tries to grab Jimmy, but Gigi waves him around too much. Tazzala and Zazzala join them, they both have synthetic bug wings to help them fly, just to tell Jimmy that they are in fact back together. And to apologize about the endoskeleton thing. Giganta keeps climbing and Clark asks the Zalas if they could affect Giganta’s skeleton too. They agree to help and all three fly after the giant lady. They fly around Gigi to distract her and Tazzala injects her. This forces her to shrink and fall, Clark shooting down to grab her. As he carries her back to the top of the tower, she grabs his arm and talks about how gentle and kind he is. Clark cuts her off, saying, “I’m in a committed relationship.” Jimmy says that maybe he should get off the app, but Tazzala says they’ll add a WORMS Sponsorship to Flamebird if he stays. So, Jimmy’s back on board. They ask Superman for his thoughts, and Clark says that his appearance is not an endorsement, so gets his face blurred.

 

They all head back to the apartment. Clark finishes building the barn as the lady’s come in. Kara says that she has 75 potential mates that have all said “Sup.” She goes over to look through her matches and Jimmy goes to join her. Lois pulls Clark to the side and admits that she’s feeling anxious about the future. She makes it clear that she WANTS the farm, kids, and a dog, just not right this second. She says that she doesn’t want to lose what they have and shrink their lives down to a model farm. They’re interrupted by Kara and Jimmy arguing if Giganta counts as being greater than 75 potential dates because she’s as tall as 100 women. Clark says that he never made Lois breakfast, and to make it up to her, they’ll get brunch tomorrow and figure out their future.

 

We then cut to The Future. Metropolis is an apocalyptic hellscape that a boy in red and blue is running through. He enters a LexCorp building and we see this is clearly Lois and Clark’s son. He’s Korean with the Superman crest on his chest and Clark’s baby blues, there’s only so many people he can be. He’s joined by a bald Lex, as well as John Henry Irons and Jimmy in combat gear. Lex and John Henry get the boy outfitted with something over his shield as the robots burst in. Jimmy and John Henry are killed in laser fire as Lex affixes a time travel watch to the boy. He tells this Superboy that the only way he can help is to go back and make sure this never happens. He casts Superboy into the timestream, but not before he sees Lex also killed in laser fire.

 

Well, that’ll throw a wrench in things, now, won’t it?

 

Well… Jimmy is handling this like an adult. … Man, it’s been a while since I said something so sarcastic that it hurt. As I said last episode, I think Jimmy’s initial impulse to turn down Kara’s love confession was coming from a good place. She’s kind of a blank slate and really should experience a bit more of life before settling down. Hell, Lois’ filling out her dating profile highlights that with the fact Kara passed on all of the questions Lois posed to her. But, getting on a dating profile in the hopes of making her feel similar jealousy to how he was feeling? One of the most childish things he could have done. I love Jimmy, but he kind of deserved getting turned into a wolf and then having his bones turned to puddy. Jimmy is going to be eating some humble pie a few times this season. WORMS was a fun way to serve that up. On paper, a dating app that seems to specifically cater to scientists, tech moguls and the like sounds like a great idea. But then you remember that 90% of scientists in this universe could be described with the adjective “Mad” and you know that this is a recipe for disaster. If you didn’t recognize any of Giganta’s three names, then I’m happy to inform you that she is actually typically a Wonder Woman villain. The Showrunners expressed a desire to pull in a few baddies from outside Clark’s typical rogues gallery, so we’ll see a few more Wonder Woman staples this season. Tazzala and Zazzala are both based off incarnations of Queen Bee, an insect themed DC Villainess. If there names weren’t a hint, in the comics they’re actually sisters, with Tazzala being the original Queen Bee and Zazzala being the fourth incarnation. Before you react, I think this is a reference. Well, a reverse-reference. Sailor Moon was a wildly popular Shoujo (target audience are teen girls and young adult women) anime series that featured a squad of planetary themed heroes in Sailor uniforms fighting evil alien invaders. Two of the Sailor Scouts, Uranus and Neptune, were canonically a lesbian couple. Now, anime in the 90s was much more heavily censored than it is today, and there was basically no way that TV Execs back then would allow an out queer couple on TV screens. The problem was, Uranus and Neptune were big fans of PDA, so there had to be some explanation for why they were always leaning on each other, draping arms on each other and so forth. They made the very strange decision to make them ‘cousins’ in the original English dub. I feel like the execs didn’t have any idea how cousins act, but that’s just me. So, in summation, I think making the Zalas dating when in most media they’re related is a reverse-reference to that Sailor Moon dub. This show LOVES anime references, so there’s some weight to my idea. Lois and Kara at the Mall is really cute. They’ve got a good vibe, with Kara dragging the more grounded Lois around. Their musical number made me laugh the first time I saw it. The number was also nice that it highlights that Lois’ relationship anxiety is based off of speed, not desire. If you asked her, I think she would say that long term, she’s going to be Mrs. Lois Kent, will have kids with him and live on a farm like Clark would love. But she’s clearly thinking that would be more for them in their 30s, not their 20s. The rush is making her anxious. And I liked that a good chunk of the episode was just Clark getting to work on his miniatures for a bit. The man doesn’t get to relax very often, and miniatures does feel like something he’d be into. I could see him with a warehouse of Warhammer figurines. He doesn’t play the game, he just likes assembling and painting them. And it was funny to see the ways he got pulled away from his little fun with the dog yacht fire and then Intergang. Having him face off against Hank this early was a good way to show off their differences in approach. Hank is all hardball, make the criminals suffer, Clark is more of a light touch sort of guy. Which is why it’s good that Clark is clearly the more powerful of the two. The fight was extremely one sided even with Clark juggling Siobhan and her stolen goods around. I also liked the choice to make Hank’s lasers come from his hands. It makes him visually distinct from Clark, and highlights that as good as Lex’s tech clearly is, he can’t completely replicate Superman. The showdown with Giganta was a little anticlimactic, but at the end of the day she’s just an angry woman trying to find a date, not a rampaging cyborg. Even at 50 feet high she’s less of an overall threat. The bit of her starting to change her sights to Clark and him cutting her off makes me laugh every time. And finally, I liked that Clark and Lois agreed to talk things out at the end of the episode. It definitely seems like they’ve both had a lot of emotional growth since season 2 and learned that they can’t bottle up their feelings as much as they did last time. They love each other and have learned that they need to communicate to make sure they’re okay. Or else Lois might try to break up with Clark again because she for some reason thinks a long-distance relationship is hard for a man that can circle the globe in seconds. Shame that their planning is definitely going to be interrupted by their time traveling son. I already know how Superboy is going to introduce himself to his parents and you’re in for a treat if you haven’t seen it before. But we’ll talk about that later. Have a good night everyone. And stay safe. 

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social