Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 14

 Double the Dinobot, double the fun.

Last time on Beast Wars, Rhinox got an attitude adjustment. A bad one. After impressing Megatron by taking out the entire Predacon force by causing a rockslide to bury them, he gets the attention of the king lizard. On Megatron’s orders, Tarantulas kidnaps Rhinox and Megatron uses his new Transmuter to forcibly change Rhinox into a Predacon. Rhinox then spends the rest of the afternoon beating the crap out of the other Predacons to take over. He crushes Scorponok, gives Waspinator a concussion, forces a traitorous Terrorsaur into working for him, and captures both spiders in their own webs. He corners Megatron and starts pontificating on how he was Megatron’s biggest mistake. Megatron, injured and desperate, tells him he learned from Rhinox that Predacons gloat too much, and uses the Transmuter again to revert Rhinox back to normal. The other Maximals arrive, having waited around for a chance to save Rhinox, and get him out of there. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with a thunderstorm just out of the Predacon base. Megatron and Scorponok say a bunch off techno babble as they work on an evil science project. When the process is finished, Megatron reveals his latest work, a clone of Dinobot! The clone was created from a sample of Dinobot’s DNA that Megatron must have grabbed during one of their many battles. The clone has Dinobot’s mannerisms but is loyal to Megatron. He’s being tasked with infiltrating the Maximal base and shutting down their defense grid. He can’t transform, I guess copying the mechanical components of Dinobot would have been too much, but Megatron doesn’t foresee that being an issue. Megatron says that Terrorsaur’s job now is to eliminate the original Dinobot, and he’ll send in the clone.

 

Later, Dinobot is just kind of wandering around the perimeter of the Maximal base, lamenting his boredom. Terrorsaur flies in, transforms and starts attacking him. Terrorsaur and Dinobot exchange shots  for a minute before Terrorsaur reverts to Beast Mode and flies off. Dinobot reverts too and chases after him. Terrorsaur leads him into a cave. Dinobot transforms and tells Terrorsaur to come out so they can have a nice little chat. Terrorsaur says he’s got nothing to say to him, except goodbye. He flies out of the cave, shoots the entrance, and buries Dinobot inside. Terrorsaur reports in and Megatron sends the Dinobot Clone out.

 

Dinobot’s clone is able to enter the base without issue, finding Optimus working on some system repairs. He limps in, acting hurt, and tells Optimus that the Predacons are preparing an assault from Grid Omega. Optimus has Rattrap double check, Rattrap not seeing anything. Clone Dinobot insists they’re there and that convinces Optimus that they might be using cloaking tech. He proposes sending Cheetor and Rhinox to scout, they’re nearby, and wants Dinobot and Rattrap to search the area he saw them again. Dinobot insists that they need to head out a full counterstrike or they’ll be overrun. Optimus has faith in Sentinel, the ship’s security system, though, and doesn’t believe in fighting battles they don’t have to. Optimus orders them to get moving. Clone Dinobot heads out in a huff.

 

Clone Dinobot leads Rattrap into Grid Omega. Rattrap sarcastically asks where the Predacons are. Dinobot says they’re over the next ridge. Rattrap maximizes and wonders why Dinobot isn’t following suit. He says that Optimus said to find their position and that it’s easier to do that in Beast Mode. They come across a tree bridge over a lava river. Clone Dinobot tricks Rattrap into crossing first and then knocks the bridge over. Rattrap drops, but the bridge catches on a narrow part of the canyon. It burns a bit and drops the rest of the way, but Rattrap lands on a bit of lava rock and starts going down river.

 

Back at the cave, Dinobot digs himself out of the rubble and is thoroughly pissed off.

 

At the bases, Rhinox radios in that they haven’t found anything. Optimus orders Cheetor to scout further. Clone Dinobot drags himself into the base and tells him that he and Rattrap were ambushed, and Rattrap captured. Clone Dinobot rushes Optimus out of the base, saying he needs to hurry to save Rattrap. Optimus sets Sentinel to automatic and orders Clone Dinobot to take over the comms once he’s finished repairs. Once alone, Clone Dinobot prepares to deactivate Sentinel. He finds out that he needs to input a deactivation code to do so. He tries to just guess the code but is shocked when he tries. Sentinel scans him and confirms Dinobot’s DNA but doesn’t detect a Maximal energy signature so again tells him to put in a deactivation code. Clone Dinobot tries again and gets shocked harder.

 

Cheetor followed the scent trail to the laval river as Optimus joins him. They are worried he went over the edge but agree to keep searching. He’s a “pain in the circuits” but he’s one of theirs. Meanwhile, Rattrap is lava rafting down the river. He hits a particularly steep fall, Maximizes and leap frogs his way up and over to the side of the canyon. He sets a demo charge on a boulder and uses that to launch him into the sky. He meets up with Cheetor and Optimus, and he lets them know what happened.  Rattrap is amped up to get revenge.

 

Back  at the base, the real Dinobot arrives and deactivates Sentinel to get inside. Clone Dinobot thinks he figured out how to shut it down and tells Megatron that he’s shut down Sentinel and the Maximals are gone. He says he’ll arrive shortly. Dinobot comes in and he and Clone Dinobot do the mirror game until Clone Dinobot snaps at him. Dinobot Maximizes and backs his clone into a corner. Dinobot gives his clone a chance to transforms, so he can finish him off with honor. When Clone Dinobot reveals he can’t, Dinobot reverts to Beast Mode so he won’t dishonor himself by fighting an inferior foe. The two wreck the base as they brawl. Throwing and smashing chair and the like. Dinobot is knocked to the ground by getting hit in the head by a periscope and Clone Dinobot claims victory. But Dinobot opens his eyes and glares.

 

Later, Megatron approaches the base. Clone Dinobot comes out and sucks up to Megatron, learning that the rest of the Predacons are waiting to ambush the Maximals. Clone Dinobot flatters him some more and Megatron muses that he might clone the rest of his troops. Clone Dinobot ushers Megatron to the base. Megatron transforms, and Dinobot reactivates the perimeter defense, revealing that he is the real Dinobot. He Maximizes and they have a beam struggle. Dinobot’s laser eyes seems to overcome Megatron’s mouth laser, but his head starts smoking from the strain. Optimus fires a missile to end the struggle and announces that the fighting is over. Megatron flees, the Maximals firing at him the whole time.

 

Inside, Cheetor is impressed by how much damage the Dinobots did to the base. Rattrap still isn’t buying the clone story, asking Dinobot where the clone is. Dinobot says he’s gone for good, lamenting that fact because he was so handsome, but he was also quite tasty. He picks out a pit of Dinobot flesh from his teeth and flicks it at Optimus. I should note, Optimus, Rattrap, and Rhinox look disgusted, but Cheetor, the only predator in the group, gives him the thumbs up. Optimus says he’s disgusting and the credits roll.

 

As far as one-off plots go, this was one of Megatron’s better plans. Using a clone to sneak into the base and shut down the defenses, simple enough but effective. That said, not realizing that the Maximals would have a code to shut down Sentinel is kind of a dumb. Like, that’s a pretty big oversight, Megs. And it’s good for the Predicons that Clone Dinobot was able to get everyone to leave the base in a hurry, because he was kind of a terrible actor. Like, had Optimus thought about it for even a few minutes he’d have seen a few holes in the story. The Dinobot fight was fun too, using the base to try to get the upper hand on each other was neat. I do wish they could have maybe done a little less of Rattrap riding the lava and more of the fighting, as while Dinobot tricking Megatron was neat, I’d still have liked to see how Dinobot got the upper hand on his clone. The bit about him eating his clone is ghoulish, but still fits with Dinobot’s attitude, I think. He’s a predator through and through. Next time… we’ll see. Maybe we’ll do Guardians 3. Maybe we’ll do Secret Invasion. Maybe more of My Adventures With Superman. We’ll see. See you then.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero.

Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 13

 EVIL RHINOX!

Sorry, sorry, I know I said Guardians Vol 3 and Across the Spider-Verse this month, but I thought they’d already been released. Not putting them Vol 3 until August 2^nd is really screwing with my release timeline, Disney! So, because I’m out of My Adventures with Superman episodes to do, and because I was having fun with them before, back to Beast Wars.    

 

Last time on Beast Wars, The Maximals thought they’d won the titular Beast Wars. A spy camera they’d set up in the Predacon base seemed to show Megatron and his flunkies all killed in an explosion and attempted coup. The Maximals go over to the Darksyde, find it deserted and start scrounging for parts to repair their own ship. The only one who doesn’t seem super excited about this turn of events is Dinobot. He seems to have mixed feelings about his original crew and nemesis being dead. They get the parts and begin repairing the ship, but Dinobot says he’s going to stay on the planet. He’d rather rule a deserted world than go back to Cybertron where he’ll be treated as a criminal by either side, regardless of his alliance with the Maximals. He starts wondering the planet, and almost immediately finds Megatron and the Predacons hiding in a crevice near the base. They’d found the camera and faked their deaths to trick the Maximals into repairing their ship, intent on stealing it to fly up and reclaim the rest of the pods in space. Dinobot races back to the base, the Predacons in pursuit. The Maximals fight the Predacons off, getting an injured Dinobot on board but seemingly leaving Optimus behind when he’s shot down. The ship is too damaged to risk a landing. Megatron gets onboard but gets the stuffing kicked out of him by Rhinox and forced out the airlock. The scuffle damages the controls however, and the ship starts crashing. Thankfully, Optimus is able to fly up and do a Superman to help them touch down safely. Enough recap, let’s get to it.

 

We open on the Maximals hunting for an Energon deposit. They’d climbed up a ravine next to a river to try to find a new deposit, only for Rhinox to conclude that it’s ultimately too deep for them to access. Optimus says that at least they get to enjoy the view with this dead end. Rattrap whines that “what else do we got to look forward to” right before a missile hits. Ya just know Megatron was waiting for an opening line like that. The two sides start battling, Optimus attempts to fly up and get an aerial advantage but is shot down. Dinobot says they need to storm their position, Rattrap says they need to retreat, and Dinobot points out where could they possibly go? Megatron notices that this seems way too easy, but assures himself that he shouldn’t complain about good luck. Meanwhile, Rhinox is firing but missing the enemy by several feet. Cheetor tells him to shoot straight, only for it to be revealed that Rhinox was intentionally hitting the side of ravine to cause a rockslide and bury the Predacons. He says that there’s more than one way to skin a cat before they all revert to Beast Mode. He tells Dinobot to lead them out, Rattrap and Cheetor to help Optimus and he’ll cover the rear. Optimus praises his friend, saying that if he wanted to once they get off this rock, he could apply for and be a great leader of his own expedition. Rhinox says he’d rather leave that sort of thing to Optimus and that he prefers to tag behind and smell the flowers.

 

The Predacons dig themselves out, Megatron saying that he may have underestimated Rhinox and that he could find a use for someone like that. He gives Tarantulas an order. Rhinox lags behind the others in his rear guard position, and ends up getting webbed and poisoned by Tarantulas. He’s taken back to the Predacon base. Rhinox is held in heavy restrains to keep him in Beast Mode and in place. Megatron reveals a machine he calls the Transmuter. He says it took him megacycles to design but it’s worth the wait. The Maximals are on their way to save Rhinox. Rattrap is able to get patched into Rhinox’s comm and they’re able to hear him get hit with the Transmuter. The device, it seems, forcibly reprogramed him into a Predacon, darkening his rhino hide to more of a black and turning his gold highlights to silver. Megatron welcomes the newest Predacon. Oh no!

 

Outside the base, the Maximals are all horrified to hear that Rhinox has been forcibly reprogramed. Rattrap loses the signal. Cheetor and Rattrap are all for storming the base and freeing Rhinox, but Optimus tells them they’re taking this slow. They’ll get closer and into position, but will leave Rhinox with the Predacons for now. Rattrap asks if he’s got some bugs in his systems directory. Optimus just smiles and says that he thinks Megatron may have bitten off more than he bargained for with his plan, and then goes on to mock Megatron’s drawn out “Yeeesss.”

 

Megatron, after a tour, brings Evil Rhinox into his chamber intending to get information from Evil Rhinox about the Maximals’ base defenses. Evil Rhinox is snide to him as the hologram display shorts out. We cut over to Scorponok working on repairing the problem, and Evil Rhinox coming in to yell at him for Megatron. Scorponok tells him to cool it while he figures out what the problem is. He finds that a modem is missing from the computer and goes to check it out. While his back is turned, Evil Rhinox reveals he has the modem and crushes it in his hands. Rhinox then goes to a stack of computers and shoves them onto Scorponok, crushing him.

 

Megatron and Waspinator find Scorponok later, badly damaged. Waspinator is ordered to bring him to the restoration chamber. Waspinator does so, only to be hit by a swinging weight that Rhinox threw at him. This seems to really ring his bell and he starts flying around in circles in a daze. HE babbles about being Shrapnel of the Decepticons and that he must destroy all Autobots. Terrorsaur saw the whole thing and thinks this is… interesting. Megatron and Blackarachnia find Waspinator and when they hear his babblings, Blackarachnia dubs him wacko. Rhinox thunders down the hall, Terrorsaur confronting him and tries to blackmail Rhinox into working with him. Rhinox grabs shim by the throat and makes him understand that he works for Rhinox now, to which Terrorsaur agrees.

 

Later, Megatron is reviewing security data and finds both Tarantulas and Blackarachnia poisoned and caught in their own webs. He shrieks “What is going on around here!” The Maximals hear him from outside. Cheetor has finally figured out the plan, just leave Rhinox in the base to cause chaos. Optimus reveals that he assumed that the forced reprogramming would push Rhinox’s aggressiveness quotient right off the scale, he was right, and now Evil Rhinox is having fun being the agent of chaos. Dinobot and Rattrap then ask the question of, what are they going to do when Megatron figures out what is happening?

 

In the base, a recovered Scorponok explains to Megatron what happened to him. Megatron decides that he made a mistake reprogramming Rhinox and that it’s time to bring this experiment to an end.

 

The Maximals overhear this discussion… somehow? It’s not very clear. Regardless, they know that Rhinox is about to be taken out. The others want to go in guns blazing but Optimus still suggests caution. Going in now would mean four Maximals vs. seven Predacons, including Rhinox. He says they’re going to move in close but wait a little while longer. Long enough for Rhinox and Megatron to have their final dance as it were.

 

Megatron confronts Rhinox and calls him a traitor. Rhinox immediately confesses and says that they’re “Playing our song, Megatron. Care to dance?” Megatron calls in Terrorsaur and Scorponok to take out Rhinox, Rhinox reveals that Terrorsaur saw him attack Scorponok and do nothing, and so Scorponok switches to trying to kill Terrorsaur. Megatron, clearly annoyed by this, tries to remind his troops that Rhinox is the enemy. Rhinox takes both down and then shoots Megatron in the legs to disable him. He leaps down after Megatron. He declares himself the winner and then tells Megatron that making him Evil was the worst mistake he’d made. Megatron agrees that that was a mistake, and that, even now, Rhinox is teaching him a valuable lesson. That, sometimes, Predacons gloat too much. He then fires a laser from his T-Rex head, setting off the Transmuter that Rhinox was standing on and returning him to normal. Megatron prepares to kill Rhinox, only for the Maximals to attack. They destroy the Transmuter in the scuffle but are able to beat the wounded and disoriented Predacons back long enough to get Rhinox out. As the base shakes from the explosion, Terrorsaur tries to explain himself to a one-armed Megatron what happened. Megatron, exhausted from the day and extremely pissed off, just grabs him by the next and says that he’s very, very unhappy with him.

 

Later, the Maximals relax in a grove by their base, Rhinox sniffing a flower as the others relax around him. Cheetor asks him what it’s like to be a Predacon. Rhinox says it’s like being three gigabytes of attitude on a two-gig hard drive. He says its no wonder that they have personality problems as everyone, but Dinobot laughs.

 

This was a fun episode. As an adult, I questioned how Megatron was able to build a machine to essentially rewrite someone’s whole personality from the scraps and spare parts of a downed spaceship, but that’s a nitpick. The focus on Rhinox was neat, as I feel like he’s mostly been a support character up to this point. The fact he was able to defeat most of the Predacons at the beginning by using a rockslide against them was brilliant. And liked that Optimus said that he could be a leader if he wanted to. With Rattrap and Dinobot constantly fighting over who is in charge I felt like I was the only one that thought that Rhinox was a better choice than either of them. Evil Rhinox is an interesting concept. I liked the fact that changing him to be evil also required the complete overwriting of his loyalty as well as his gentle nature but not at all his intelligence. A brilliant mind stripped of loyalty, kindness or empathy is a recipe for a disaster for everyone else involved. Richard Newman, Rhinox’s voice actor, does a great job with the evil voice, being the same tone as Rhinox but just… louder, and maybe with a bit more of a sneer to his words. It’s not surprising as he’s played several villains in his career, including M. Bison for Street Fighter and Captain Ginyu for the Ocean Group dub of Dragonball Z. I liked how efficiently Evil Rhinox took everyone out as well. Like, he was there for less than a day, but he quite literally took out every single Predacon by the end. Heck, if he hadn’t stood on the Transmuter again, he might have really taken over the Predacons. I liked the meta humor in this one too, with Optimus mocking Megatron’s “Yeeesss” and Megatron acknowledging that Predacons can gloat too much. They’re just fun little pokes at their own franchise. So yeah. Next time. Two Dinobots?? See you then. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 5

Superman faces off against his most dangerous foe yet. His own lies. And Deathstroke.

Last time on My Adventures With Superman, Clark and the gang get their first real assignment. They’re sent to Amazo tower to get quotes from people about Amazo Tech CEO Dr. Anthony Ivo for a Most Eligible Bachelor article. The fact Cat Grant didn’t want to go do it herself really should have told them something. They arrive at the gala and Clark and Lois immediately butt heads on what they should be doing. Clark wants to follow the cards and get the quotes for Cat, Lois wants to ask some in your face questions, ya know, real news. Clark gets to talk with Ivo himself, Ivo attempts to bride Clark with an offer of introducing him to hot women if he forgets some incriminating things Clark heard him say to one of his Board members, and then insults Lois. Clark freaks out and gets thrown out. Clark and Lois bond a little as she sews up his torn jacket, allowing them to see that Ivo has a bunch of stolen tech weapons in a secret lab. He unveils the Parasite 1.0 armor and tries to kill his board member to get Superman’s attention. When Superman saves the member, he gets caught in the Amazo Panic Room, and Ivo uses it and the Parasite’s energy draining function to try to suck Superman dry. Lois and Jimmy are able to shut down the Panic room and Clark realizes that the Parasite will lose power so long as he doesn’t fight him. The suit hits critically low energy and basically sucks Ivo dry to try to keep going. Superman saves Ivo and turns him over to the authorities, but unfortunately in all that confusion someone steals all the tech. Clark and Lois have a moment, both admitting to thinking of tonight like a date before Clark walks her back to the Planet. Leaving Jimmy behind and feeling left out. At the Planet, Lois types up her story about the Amazon tech collapse, but then gets distracted by a magazine. Clark had earlier seen a tabloid article that Jimmy and Lois were going to research in talk about his flying escapade as a child and had hastily torn the story out, stuffed it in his pocket, but then been distracted by Lois so forgot to dispose of the magazine. Lois puts together a new timeline, finds the article in Clark’s pocket (he’d given her his jacket at the end of the night), and she rather angrily announces that Clark Kent is Superman. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Lois staring at her personal murder board, not getting any sleep. She’s staring specifically at a headshot of Superman she’d gotten and drawn glasses onto. Obviously, still not too happy about learning that her friend and love interest has been keeping secrets from her for several weeks at least. We jump over to Jimmy excitedly waking up. See, he’d gotten Lois and Clark to agree to go with him on a camping trip to search for bigfoot. He looks down from his bunk to gush to Clark, only to find out that Clark’s already gone. He assumes “jogging”, but I think we all know he’s doing the Superman thing. He gets an alert on his phone saying that he’d gotten a response video on Flamebird. Turns out, some dude has found his stream and is now going through all his videos and just shouting “NAH!” at them to ‘disprove’ his actually completely true conspiracy theories, like Atlantis being real.

 

We jump a few hours ahead to Jimmy making his way to the office. He calls Clark to remind him of the camping trip, but Clark is only half listening because he’s got Superman stuff to do. And because he’s nervous due to his decision to tell Lois he likes her. Jimmy tells him that he’s pretty sure she already knows, but he’s dead set on the idea that it’s not real until he says it. He notes that Lois has been staring at him a lot for the last day or so and that feels like a good sign to him. Oh, you poor dumb Superman. He gets distracted by a train going off the tracks and tells Jimmy to cover for him until he gets to work. Jimmy then calls Lois, also to remind her of the trip. She says she’s already packed but wants to know, hypothetically, if she listed off some dates for Jimmy if he’d be able to remember where Clark was at those times. She then notes a time that Clark ran off to get a bagel, disappeared for 20 minutes and then came back without a bagel. And then notes that he uses that excuse a LOT. Jimmy asks if she’s hungry and wants a bagel, but she says no and asks him to also cover for her while she’s doing her Superman research. Jimmy makes it into the office and is stopped by Steve Lombard. The big sportswriter says he needs a camera man for a special assignment and Perry gave him Jimmy. Jimmy looks at his boss’s office and just sees Perry drop the shade on his window. Jimmy is dragged off by Steve.

 

In town, a criminal crew, lead by Rory aka Heat Wave, are preparing to rob a pawn shop. They are all outfitted in the tech weapons, most of them with strength enhancing gloves like Roughhouse, but Rory sports a full suit of armor with flamethrower gauntlets. Their group is suddenly attacked by someone that moves like a blur. In seconds, most of the crew are captured by the blur. Rory beats a hasty retreat. We see just enough of the blur and then glowing red eyes to know that it’s not Superman… so who is it?

 

Sometime later, Lois arrives at the Daily Planet and is going over her notes on a plan to get Clark to tell her he’s Superman. She’s distracted once she gets to the Newspaper Morgue and sees a package waiting on the desk. Lamenting for the thousandth time that this is NOT the mailroom, she tries to move the big box, only to discover that it’s filled with Dumbbells for Steve. I speak as someone in shipping. Don’t. Order. Weights. Online. You. Asshole. Clark comes in and says he wants to tell her something, but noticing the reclosed box asks if she needs help with that and lifts the dumbbells like the box was empty. Lois immediately says she knows, back tracks and encourages Clark to tell her what he’s talking about. He says that he wants her help with a story and that it’ll be easier to show her than tell her. He goes to get something from the hall, throwing the dumbbells onto one of the cabinets and shattering it. Clark, buddy, you’re doing a terrible job today with the secret. He wheels in his own Murder Board, though he calls it an investigation board, and explains that he wants to do a story on the advanced weapons that Livewire stole and have since been circulated throughout Metropolis. While they know Livewire stole them, they don’t know who made the weapons. He wants to track down who did and expose them. Clark says that there’s also something familiar about those weapons, though he’s not sure why. He shows Lois an old dispatch scanner he dug out of the Daily Planet’s storage, thinking they can use it to hear reports of the tech weapons being used and then investigate. Clark really wants to pursuit this story and would like her help to do it. Lois suggests that maybe they should talk to Superman about them, Clark says that he’s pretty sure that Superman doesn’t know. She’s insistent that the three of them sit down to talk, obviously trying to force Clark to tell her he’s Superman, but he’s not biting, distracted by the idea that Lois is willing to help him with the story. He almost says he likes her but is distracted by the dispatch scanner saying a bus is out of control. He runs off, saying something about a bagel and quickly saves the day. Lois gets both an update on her phone about Superman stopping the bus and on the scanner. Clark comes back in, hears another alert, and goes back out to fix it. Lois decides on a “new plan” and throws on her coat.

 

Lois said earlier she’s 99% certain he’s Superman. Pretty sure after this we can bump it up to 99.9%.

 

We go to the street where Jimmy is suffering through time with Steve. While Steve pontificates about how he’s going to show Jimmy how to live, because he thinks they’re similar, Jimmy texts Lois and Clark for help getting him out of this but neither sees the texts. Steve claims Jimmy is the “Steve” of the group, that he’s a “lone wolf.” Jimmy refuses to believe this. Steve then lists how he’s separated from the other two and that he is a Steve. Steve tells him that being a Steve is great and shows Jimmy the Steve Code, words to live by. All we know for certain about the code is that Don’t Skip Leg Day is on there three times. They arrive at Metropolis Stadium and Steve runs off to get started. Jimmy begs Clark to send him a text about a fake emergency so he can leave, but obviously Clark doesn’t answer. He gets Steve’s phone and starts recording, only to discover Steve is Nah, the dude trolling his Flamebird account.

 

Superman flies around town saving people and cats, and Lois sprints behind him. She always arrives just after he leaves, so this strategy isn’t going well. She gets a lucky break when the Scanner says there’s a robbery in progress at the McGuinness Luxe Garage, the building she just so happens to be standing by. Superman hears the report and that tech weapons are involved and flies off. Lois calls out to him and tells him to hold it. She tells him that her “good friend” Clark has questions about the tech weapons and how she wants his help with that story. She asks, with an obviously suspicious look on her face if he knows Clark Kent. Superman plays it off, saying that Clark is that quite young man that works with her and Mr. Olsen, complimenting himself by saying Clark is thoughtful and upstanding. Clark, buddy, the hole you’re digging yourself in is turning into a chasm. Lois gets in close, saying that she’s not going to let Superman out of her sight until Clark can have a chance to talk to him, handcuffing herself to him while he’s distracted by her getting into his personal space. It’s just then that a car pulls up and Heat Wave and her crew get out of the garage. Superman does his best to fight them while handcuffed to Lois, the two of them basically doing a weird dance while he moves her out of the way. Lois kicks one of the goons in the gut, then is almost hit with a tech gauntlet, only for Superman to grab it and crush it. He gets a vision of flaming debris, a damaged cornfield and a man in a tank top looking horrified. He drops the gauntlet and tries to pretend he’s okay. They notice that Heat Wave’s gloves aren’t working, he zooms over to stop her. Heat Wave, upon seeing her getaway car drive off, drops to her knees and says she’s sorry and begs him not to kidnap her.

 

Back with Jimmy, he’s furious to learn that Steve is Nah. Steve is super excited about this and seems to not get why Jimmy would be upset. He says that he had to do voice over for the first few videos because he doesn’t know how to work a camera, and that today is going better than he’d hoped. Jimmy is even angrier at learning that Steve tricked him into blowing off work for this side project. Steve scoffs at his anger, pointing out that they also avoid doing what Perry tells them to do. He again calls them lone wolves and Jimmy freaks out. He screams that he, Clark, and Lois are the three amigos, the Three Musketeers! Steve then asks “D’Artagnan” what happened when he called his friends trying to get out of working with Steve. I give the dude props for the solid Three Musketeers reference. He says that they’re tight now, but things change and people get left behind. Jimmy refuses to believe that, gets an alert about the Bigfoot search and he storms off to hunt it with his best friends.

 

Meanwhile, Lois attempts to interrogate Heat Wave. She tells the big woman that she hates two things “Secrets and liars” while giving Clark a side long look. She demands Heat Wave tell them what she meant by kidnapping, or Superman is going to go wild on her. Superman says that he won’t. She then says she’ll go wild on Heat Wave. Superman says she shouldn’t threaten people. So she settles on her “or else” being Superman will worry excessively about her welfare. Heat Wave tells them that SUPERMAN has been kidnapping everyone that has the tech weapons, her crew, members of the Gazzo crime family as well as random pickpockets and bag men. She was trying to steal a ride out of town before she got caught too. She says that only Superman could move that fast, and that she’s not going down that easy. Her suit finally powers on and she hits Superman with a flame attack, Superman just barely getting Lois behind him. Heat Wave leaps away. Lois asks what they can do now, and Superman tells her that first they need to head back to the Daily Planet. As they fly off, the man that actually attacked Heat Wave says that the two targets are going on opposite directions and asks for advice. He’s told to focus on getting the tech back.

 

Superman drops Lois off at the Planet. She asks what they’re going to do and Clark says that he’s leaving her here because it’s too dangerous for her. Lois says that she won’t let him go, but Superman snaps the handcuff holding to them and starts flying off. Lois screams after Superman not to do this, finally shouting Clark once he’s too far to hear. Or so it seems.

 

Heat Wave has been chased by the man in Black and Orange to a construction site just off the highway to Bludhaven. Her flames seem to stop him and draw Superman to where the fight is. She still thinks Superman is after her and tries to burn him. He forces her arms down and says he’s just trying to help. Heat Wave creates a fire tornado to try to get him. The man in black, watching from a crane, is finally confirmed to be Slade Wilson. He’s advised by his handlers to take out both the final target and Nemesis Omega. Said Handlers appear as holograms behind him, they’re a man referred to as the General and Amanda Waller. They were with him during Livewire’s interrogation, forgot to mention that. Waller says that the suit is operating at optimum efficiency and that integrating the recovered tech improved it. He calls in ‘support’ and goes to fight.

 

Heat Wave knocks Superman back with a fire fist before being hit with the freeze ray. Agent Wilson walks in, flanked by two robots. The General tells Wilson to take him out. Superman heat vision cuts the arm off one robot but is knocked around by the other. Waller, observing, notes that Superman seems weaker than they anticipated. Superman finally realizes that the tech is the army’s and that they’re the ones kidnapping people. Wilson leaps behind him and slices his neck with a pair of plasma katanas, saying he has a Super Brain too. Superman asks them why they’re doing this, and the General walks up, saying he can stop playing dumb and that there’s no one here to swallow his lies. Superman has another flashback of this man as the tank top soldier from before. He asks who this guy is, and the General says that he’s the one keeping the Earth safe. One of the robots swings the severed arm like a hammer at him, cutting through the hologram. The General tells him machines to keep hitting Superman, banging him into the ground. Superman finally catches the hit and slams the robot down again. The other robot grabs him and throws him through a wall and into the active bridge. Superman slices it to pieces with heat vision. Wilson rushes him, digging his swords into the sides of Superman’s neck. Superman throws him off, Wilson swings around, slicing the bridge supports while trying to cut Superman. The bridge starts collapsing, Superman shouts “NO! People need help!” and throws Wilson back. He catches the falling bridge and lifts it back up. Wilson combines his swords into a rifle and prepares to shoot. Waller tells him to fire the shot but The General calls him off. He doesn’t want civilian casualties. Waller gives the classic “kill 100 now to save billions later” line. The General tells her to back down and she does. He orders Wilson to retreat and says he’ll be seeing you, Superman. Superman heat visions the bridge back into place and then flies off.

 

Superman flies back to the Planet and sees Lois still waiting on the roof for him. He flies around and changes into his street clothes. He joins her on the roof and Lois, distraught, hugs him and says she was so worried about him. She notices the cuts on his neck from Slade’s blades. Clark tries to, stupidly, say that they’re cuts from shaving. Clark, 1. The cuts are too far down your neck for that to be believable and 2. Are HUGE. Lois tells him to stop lying to her. Clark tries to play dumb, and Lois hits her limit. Deciding not to give Clark an out, she says they’ll do this the hard way and jumps off the side of the building. Clark catches her and she angrily starts hitting his chest for lying to her. When he puts her back down on the roof, they have a big blow out, Lois angry that he lied to her face for so long and refusing to trust her with what he’d been up to, and Clark furious that she’d risk killing herself to force him to talk and accusing her of wanting to publish all his secrets. Lois tells him that she said that before knowing Superman was him and is clearly hurt, he still thought she’d do that. She tells him that whatever they were, they’re done now and storms off, ironically as a storm starts.

 

Jimmy waits at the bus stop for his friends until 9 pm and decides that if they’re not going to make time for him, then he’s done with them too. He heads out into the woods and starts his investigations. He is almost immediately attacked by a giant creature of some sort, something that looks like a giant gorilla. Well… crap.

 

I’ll start with the villain of the week. Now, I personally feel like Deathstroke is overused. He’s a cool character, don’t get me wrong, but he seems to work his way into every DC project of the last decade. It makes sense, he’s like the Doctor Doom of DC, having seemingly outgrown his original team of heroes. That said, I suppose if I was outfitting a soldier with an experimental suit of armor and weapons to fight the God Damned Superman, Slade Wilson is the man for the job. The combination of the plasma swords, his enhanced strength and speed, and the robots for back up make him especially deadly. It’s interesting to see how his handlers’ handled things. Amanda Waller, like in all her incarnations, is very much an “ends justify the means” sort of woman, whereas the “General” seems to want to put Superman down with as little collateral damage as possible. These competing philosophies are going to buttheads sooner rather than later. This is the first time that we’ve heard many details on Zero Day and confirmation that Superman is Nemesis Omega. From context, it seems that Clark’s landing in this universe was chaotic. Most stories I’ve seen seem to suggest Clark landed on the Kent Farm with little fuss. Maybe some kryptonite raining down with him, but that’s about it. I’d wager that with a name like Zero Day, Clark’s landing is more like in Smallville, where Clark’s pod came with some much kryptonite raining down that it caused mass destruction and death. But I guess we’ll see where this goes. Heat Wave is funny too, the fact her suit never seems to work right is a fun sight gag. Okay, I’ve delayed long enough, let’s talk about the breakup. I’ve already seen folks dog pile on Lois for her reaction here. While I wouldn’t say she’s blameless, if you remember the context from the previous episode, I think you might get why her last straw was Clark telling an “I’m fine,” lie. Forgot that context? Her mother died when she was young, her mom was extremely sick before she died, and ma and pa Lane kept how sick she was from Lois. Care to guess what little white lie a child might be told in that situation a lot? “I’m fine.” “It looks/sounds worse than it is,” “I’m okay.” With that context, I very much get why her friend/love interest saying “I’m fine” while having cuts that look like if they were much deeper would have taken his head off is too much for her. I also get Clark being scared to tell her given how vocal she’d been about her dislike of Superman and the fears that as ambitious as she is she might say something she shouldn’t about him in an article. They both really should have taken a breath, separated, and come back to talk later, but obviously that didn’t happen. I will say, Lois not taking the reveal well is a unique spin on their relationship. Most I’ve seen either see her surprised but happy upon learning the truth, or perhaps she was angry at first, but she’d found out earlier and kept it to herself long enough to cool off by the time Clark tells her. At the end of the day, they’re two stubborn young people that let flaring emotions make them say things I’m pretty sure they’ll regret. I’m just glad Clark didn’t try to pull the “I was trying to protect you from my enemies” line. I don’t care who says it, 9/10 a love interest is safer knowing to look out for costumed psychos than being surprised when they get kidnapped. Shame Jimmy wasn’t there, he might have been able to get them to cool off. Speaking of Jimmy, I think his subplot was well done. I think most of us can empathize with feeling squeezed out of a relationship when a friend is in a new relationship, even more so when it’s both your best friends testing the waters. He’s feeling insecure and Steve obviously fed into it with his trolling, and it really sucks it all went down on this day where Clark and Lois are dealing with some shit. I hope everyone can say they’re sorry in the following episode, but we’ll see. Next time, back to Beast Wars, see you there.

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Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 4

 He. Called. It. The. Parasite. WHY??

Last time on My Adventures With Superman, Clark and company go the Superman story scooped by Cat Grant, Steve Lombard, and Ronnie Troupe. Lois was extremely annoyed by this but Clark tried to use this as an opportunity to redirect his friends into investigating another tech weapon situation. Local smalltime gang Intergang, Kyle and Albert, used their tech to free their boss/sister Siobhan McDougal from lockup. Clark and Co investigate, Lois admitting to Jimmy that this is part of plan to find Superman by following the crime. After investigating the jail cell Siobhan was in, they discovered that Intergang decided to rob a bank to gain respect. They use a freeze ray combined with their invisibility, strength enhancing, and sonic scream tech to break into the vault. Clark uses an ice wave to swap clothes and comes back in as Superman. He is able to stop Intergang once the freeze ray starts overloading thanks to his newly acquired heat vision. Because Lois and Jimmy stayed behind to help people get out of the wave of the ice wave, Superman decides to trust Lois with an interview. He flies her to the Daily Planet roof to talk. He basically can only tell her that he doesn’t know what he is, what his powers are from, but he assures her that he’s there to help. He leaves and comes back as Clark. He excitedly asks Lois what she thinks of Superman and she, to his shock, says Superman is a liar. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open at the Daily Planet; Lois loudly complains about the interview with Superman. See, while WE know that Superman answered all her questions with as much honesty as he could, from Lois perspective he gave her several nothing answers and then a campaign slogan. Yeah, I can see her being annoyed by that. She rests her head on Clark’s shoulder and asks who IS Superman. Superman, and by that, I mean Clark, says that maybe Superman is just a nice guy with powers trying to help as people as he can. Lois laughs and gives Clark a shoulder bump, saying that’s what HE’D do with powers, but obviously Superman has an agenda, because he’s not Clark. … She’s going to feel really silly about this assessment at some point. Jimmy arrives with a stack of magazines. Turns out, Lois’ new strategy is to investigate the “Superman is an alien” angle. And because no reputable news source believes in aliens, they’re going to dig through tabloids. … Again, knowing that Aliens are in fact real in the DC universe just makes all the skepticism all the funnier to me. Lois believes that they’re close to an answer, together they will find the answer. “Together we will-” she beings before Perry, who’d walked in during the angle change of that shot cuts her off with “Come upstairs with me.”

 

In Perry’s office, he tells them they’re not in trouble for being in the newspaper morgue. In fact, he’s got a big opportunity for them. Because they keep begging to be real reporters, he’s giving them a shot. He shows them a picture of Dr. Anthony Ivo, CEO of Amazo Tech, builders of all the advanced tech we’ve seen in this show, from robot cleaners, the various hologram displays and so on. Clark points out that he’s accused of clearing out a low-income housing area to build his corporate HQ using mob connections, and lots of corporate espionage, but Perry tells him without proof they can’t talk about that. They’re doing a “Most Eligible Bachelor” article for Ivo in the paper and Cat Grant… doesn’t want to go, (which I think should tell them something,) so Perry’s giving them the assignment. He stresses it’s just for tonight, but that can’t dampen Jimmy and Lois’ enthusiasm. He tells them to dress up for the black-tie event and tells Lois specifically to impress him.

 

That night, they meet in the newspaper morgue. Jimmy shows off the various cameras he’s bringing to the gala, knocking over the tabloids as he does. Clark picks up the magazines, only to find the Metropolis Star. This magazine is important because its front-page story is “15 Year Anniversary Of The Kansas Flying Boy!” Figures that one of these tabloids would have the one completely true story on its cover. He quickly opens the magazine and rips out the story and stuffs it in his pocket as Jimmy finishes explaining why he’s bringing a UV light. Lois arrives and shows off her outfit, befuddling Clark something fierce. They get swept up in the romance of the moment, saying that this moment is almost like a date. Well, they almost say it, before Jimmy “third wheel” Olsen slides in and says it’s an awesome night out with three best friends. Dude, read the room, you KNOW there’s a mutual attraction here and you just keep killing moods.

 

They arrive at the party, Jimmy immediately peeling off to get some canapes. Clark wants to get started on interviewing people for the article, but Lois tosses the notes and points out that the CEO of Galaxy Communications, the Mayor, and her opponent in the next election. This is a gathering of the most corrupt and powerful in Metropolis and Lois refuses to just ask questions for a puff piece. Clark reads the first of Lois’ prepared questions, “Do you have a comment on your recent bribery charges” and rightly points out questions like this are gonna get them thrown out. Lois thinks that this’ll impress Perry, Clark tries to point out that that’s probably not what will impress Perry but drags Clark after her. This, by the way, I think is adorable, Lois lugging Clark around like the big emotional support animal he is to her. Oh, and they totally forgot about Jimmy, who comes back like two seconds after they left.

 

Lois gets in the face of a senator asking about him taking bribes, but he walks off. Lois drags Clark after him. Jimmy almost catches up but is pulled aside by Stephen Root. Well, not by Stephen Root but by a character played by Stephen Root. Look him up, you’ve seen him in something. Anyway, Stephen Root drags him off to take photos of him and his grandchildren. The Roots are all impressed by Jimmy’s cameras and UV light, so he’s having a great night. Lois and Clark are not having a great night, as Lois’ extremely blunt questions are putting people off. Clark brings her cake and suggests going back to Cat’s questions. He wants to stick to the assignment and build up to the big stories. She’s insistent they do something that matters, but Clark says he’s going back to the questions and that he’ll cover the next person that comes in. The next person who comes in is none other than Anthony Ivo. The bookish, sweater wearing old nerd of most series has been altered into a tech bro that is REALLY trying to be Tony Stark. He hypes himself up as he rises on stage and is just a general prick. He thanks his assistant, Alex, a ginger in glasses that looks super pissed to be there, for setting up the spread. Ivo tells everyone to be prepared for his big announcement later tonight. Lois tells him that Ivo is all his.

 

Ivo meets with Curtis, one of his board of directors. Curtis tells him that the vote is happening tonight and that whatever Ivo is going to unveil won’t change anything. Ivo pulls him aside and insists that his new product will change everything, but Curtis says it won’t. Ivo is broke and the Board is going to vote him out. Ivo grabs him and tells Curtis that his latest product will make all the money problems go away and redefine humanity, so he just needs to keep the rest of the board happy until the end of the night. Clark walks up looking to get the interview going. Ivo, realizing that what he just said could be bad for his image, promises to give Clark all the details for the bachelor article and if Clark forgets what he might have overheard, he’ll set Clark up with one of the most eligible bachelorettes. He sees Lois and specifically says not one like her, which is the wrong thing to say to Clark Jospeh Kent. Oh, and he also says some other vaguely misogynist things, like how he’d rather talk to a “bro” like Clark than Cat and stuff like that. Clark starts grilling Ivo about the allegations he was talking about earlier, the displacing a community to build his headquarters and the espionage allegations. Ivo laughs it off and says that he’ll see Clark escorted to the press section. He’s immediately grabbed by goons and allows them to throw him out. Think about that, Clark is literally thrown into the garbage, by choice.

 

Lois followed Clark down and teasingly said that she probably shouldn’t let him back in. He doesn’t follow the cards or the assignment, and according to Clark he doesn’t even fit the dress code anymore due to his torn coat. Lois tells him she can fix that, taking off her outer jacket and revealing she’s got a sewing kit. She’s damaged a lot of clothes looking for leads, so she’s always prepared for spot repairs. Lois is rather impressed by Clark’s physique, as Clark is by hers, and she sets about fixing the tear. Her dad suddenly calls but she ignores it. She explains to Clark that she and her dad don’t talk due to Sam Lane being the stereotypical emotionally distant army dad that he is. She seems to hold the fact he’d kept how sick her mother was before her death against him the most. She says that she doesn’t want to share her screwups with him. We learn here that part of the reason Lois is so driven to become a real reporter is basically to show her dad that she can do work that matters. Clark tells her that while she has almost gotten him killed multiple times since he met her, she did change his life for the better. He begins to tell her he’s Superman, but she cuts him off by saying that it’s Superman’s fault she’s been off lately. She knows he’s keeping something from her, and she hates being lied to. They’re interrupted by a scientist lady running out of a secure room, crying.

 

They go to investigate, but the door is locked. Clark breaks the security lock, pulls it again and says that it must have just been jammed. They go in and find a whole bunch of the alien tech that Intergang and Livewire were using. They find Ivo suiting up in some kind of device, his assistant Alex telling him that this is a bad idea. The machine he’s using is still in prototype and it was shown to make test subjects extremely aggressive. Ivo tells him to shut up and say that this thing will show up Curtis, the “baby” reporter, and everyone. He rises to the stage again to show off his device, the Parasite 1.0. Ivo, terrible name. He activates the suit, causing a weird, fleshy substance to cover him head to toe before hardening into armor.  He claims that Metropolis is amid a crimewave, and that Superman can’t be trusted.  He promises that the Parasite can help anyone become their own Superman. He grabs Curtis to demonstrate and dangles him out a window. Lois and Clark arrive in time to see this, Clark slipping out with the crowd to do the Superman thing. Jimmy finds Lois, and the two end up trapped in the ballroom when the security doors shut.

 

Clark races to the ground floor and does the open shirt thing to show off his logo. He flies up and catches Curtis as Ivo drops him. He flies up and drops Curtis off and faces off against Ivo. Ivo orders Alex to begin. Alex hits a button and activates a network of robotic probes that fly around and form a cage around the room. Ivo says that Superman is going to show them all how his Parasite works. He claims the Parasite makes him as powerful as Superman. It can absorb any energy and redirect it back to the target. He says kinetic energy specifically, but he seems to also be able to redirect Clark’s heat vision at him. He takes punch from Superman and sends him flying back with a tail he just grew. The suit comes coupled with the “Amazo Panic Room” the probes I just talked about, which can also draw energy from the target and power the Parasite for longer. I should note that with every hit of energy the Parasite takes, it seems to get noticeably bigger and more lizard-like in appearance, growing a tail and stretching out Ivo’s neck with each upgrade. Jimmy and Lois see that Alex is controlling the show from the control room and go to stop him. Ivo, seemingly driven mad by the Parasite, attempts to throw people into the Panic Room barrier to drain them for energy, but Superman stops him. Ivo grabs Superman and throws him into the wall, draining him of his strength. Jimmy and Lois enter the control room. Alex tries to stop them, but Lois punches him out, and apologizes, saying his life seems hard. Jimmy uses his UV light to find which of the buttons Alex pushed, and they push it, disabling the Panic room. Ivo sees them in the control room and shrieks that they Cheated and goes to attack.

 

Superman knocks him aside, saying this isn’t a game. Ivo accuses Superman of being afraid that Ivo is better than him. He tries to attack Superman several times but Superman dodges and notes that as he doesn’t fight back, Ivo’s suit loses power and shrinks. He realizes that he doesn’t have to fight Ivo to stop him, and just keeps dodging until Ivo drops down to the suit’s original form. Ivo tries to strike again, but the Parasite runs out of juice and starts trying to drain the only source of power available, Ivo. The suit constricts around him, clearly breaking Ivo’s bones as it absorbs his strength. Superman rips Ivo clear, to find that the suit drained him of his vitality, severely scared him and left one of his eyes darkened. Superman flies him down to ground level and gives him over to the EMTs. Ivo demands to know what Superman’s angle is, why he’s doing this. Superman shakes his head and asks “is it really so hard to believe that some people just want to help?” They take Ivo away.

 

Superman switches back to Clark and leads everyone to the lab. He knows that the only explanation for all that tech is Ivo got it from his criminal connections. But they’re too late. Turns out, during the fight someone slipped into the lab and stole all the tech. Clark vents his frustration to Lois, who ends up kissing him on the cheek, saying it’s cute to see him obsess over a story. She leans back and says that she spent all night wondering if this counted as a date before shivering a little from the cold. Clark gives her his coat and asks what she decided on. She gives him another cheek kiss and tells him to walk her back to the Planet. Jimmy comes over, excited about the photos he took, only to see Lois and Clark walk off without him, leaving him feeling a bit left out.  

 

At the Planet, Lois finishes her exclusive on the collapse of Amazo tech in the newspaper morgue, still wearing Clark’s jacket. She sends the story in, notices the magazines still on the floor and goes to clean them up. She notices one is open and has pages ripped out. She goes over to their murder board, tears it down and starts over. Her new board is simply a Now side, filled with pictures of Superman, a Then side, filled with articles from the Metropolis Star, and a missing link in the middle. She’s frustrated by this situation again, goes into her pocket for something and finds the page Clark ripped out. The piece starts coming together, all the miraculous saves, all the moments where Clark has shown unusual strength, and finally she just kind of thinks about Superman and realizes he’s literally just Clark without his glasses and his hair styled. She rather angrily announces that Clark Kent is Superman. Ho damn.

 

I think this is another very well-done episode. Framing the conflict of the week around an opportunity for Lois and Clark to get closer to each other, and inadvertently push Jimmy away, was a good drama choice. We got good insight into both of them as reporters, Lois being the more in your face of the two but Clark doing the research and not being scared to use it in interviews when he feels it necessary. I think the comments about Lois’ father will probably be important. In my experience, Sam Lane isn’t brought up unless he’s going to be making things difficult for Lois at some point. The update to Professor Ivo, an evil old college professor in most continuities that I’ve seen, to a Tony Stark wannabe Tech Bro feels like a modern interpretation of his character. He’s a toxic asshole that clearly doesn’t completely understand the tech he’s using or marketing as his own. Had he listened to Alex he might not have been turned into a pretzel by the end. Sidenote, not the biggest fan of handsome villain gets made ugly by their reckless use of powers trope. It feels… ableist. But who knows, maybe Ivo will recover a bit before his next appearance and I’ll feel better about it. The transformation of the Parasite is probably even more drastic than Ivo’s reimagining. The Parasite is usually one of several human characters that gets exposed to unusual or alien chemicals that turn him into a monster that needs to feed off the life energy of others and can steal the powers of metahumans and aliens he touches. Turning him into a suit of armor is… a choice. It seems like most of this season is focusing on the alien tech as the route of all powers, so taking some of that tech into the power draining monster and combining it with one of DC’s villains capable of making it does make sense to me. Most Parasites are… not the sharped knife in the drawer, if you know what I mean. I believe the old Animated Series had him be a janitor that got covered in chemicals. I assume that Ivo will return and debut his Amazo Android, that copies powers used against it, later once there are more interesting powers to copy and combine beyond Clark and Livewire. You may be wondering why I drew specific attention to Alex’s hair. Do you know who the biggest character tied to Superman who had red head and whose legal name is Alexander is? Lex Luthor. Yes, I’m saying that I think this assistant is Lex Luthor getting his start just like Clark and co are. Crazy? Maybe. But there’ve been crazier interpretations of Lex. Looking at you Smallville. Finally, I liked that Lois figured out Clark’s identity on her own. Often, they just have Clark tell her and that feels just less interesting than the investigative reporter investigate a situation. Combining the weird coincidences with Clark always disappearing right before Superman arrives and the circumstantial evidence of Clark hiding a magazine article from her is all in her wheelhouse. There’s also the nice bit of blending plotlines here, in that while Clark got closer to Lois in this episode, it was that increased closeness that ultimately gave her the last piece to fit the story together. The fact she seems legitimately angry with this discovery does not bode well for the big blue boy scout, but we’ll see more of that later. Next time, Lois tries to get the truth out of Clark or Superman while a new enemy gets to work. 

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Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 3

 Super weapons in the hands of morons. Not good.

Last time on My Adventures with Superman, Clark decided to learn a little more about his heritage. Faking sick to get out of work, he returned to the Kent farm to dig up his crashed ship, much to his ma Martha’s dismay. He activated an AI hologram of a bearded man that if you know even only the basics of Superman lore can deduce is Jor-El, his biological father. Jor-El’s hologram can’t speak English but shows Clark a vision of their home world’s destruction, their sun being turned from yellow to red and a massive war that seemed to consume the planet just after Clark’s pod launched. The AI gives Clark his Superman suit, which Martha then modifies slightly to give her seal of approval to. Meanwhile, Lois and Jimmy tried to find the crazy lady that tried to kill them with Robots, believing finding her will lead them to Superman. From Jimmy’s suggestion they found the downed boat she stole and then a trail through the sewers. They interrupted a meeting between the woman, Leslie Willis, and a Black Ops operative trying to get the stolen tech back. Leslie showed off she’d gotten a harness on from that weapon stash that gave her electrical powers. She fought the Black Ops agent while trying to set off bombs she set up in the sewers but is ultimately thwarted by the arrival of Superman. He’s able to get the crystal out of the harness, taking away Leslie’s powers and then cleans up the damage. Lois and Jimmy submitted their story on the events. Lois then went over to Clark’s apartment to tell him what happened, they almost kissed, but are interrupted by Jimmy who informs them their story was scooped by Cat Grant, Ronnie Troupe, and Steve Lombard, much to Lois’ fury. Leslie was taken into custody by the Black Ops agent and tortured for information on the stolen weapons, which she gave away to every criminal in Metropolis, and on “Taskforce X, Zero Day and Nemesis Omega.” While not said outright, it’s heavily implied in episode, and revealed in the credits, that Black Ops is in fact Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke. Leslie is NOT in for a good time. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open on a blimp crashing into a building and the pilot almost falling to his death. Superman flies in and saves him, and then catches a steel girder that was launched from the blimp in an explosion. Lois runs in and asks for a comment, but Superman obviously doesn’t want to talk. He flies off to help with the blimp clean up and Lois runs after him.

 

Meanwhile on Stryker’s Island, two goons are breaking in. They’re Mist aka Kyle and Roughhouse aka Albert. Kyle has a breastplate from Leslie’s stash that lets him turn invisible, and Albert has a pair of gloves that let him have superstrength. They’re looking to free their sister, Siobhan (pronounce it like Sha-bon) McDougal. They find her a second later, and free her, explaining a scary lady gave them these crazy weapons. They give her a helmet that lets her unleash sonic blasts. She puts it on, using it to blast back the guards and blowing a hole in the prison to escape.  

 

We’re shown the exterior of the Daily Planet as Superman flies in. He switches to his Clark clothes, holding a cup of coffee while muttering to himself about how late he is. He sees Lois and is about to call out to her when his vision starts flashing red and he starts getting a headache. She runs into him, and he gives her the coffee. It’s from her favorite coffee shop, from across town, that Clark said he got during a jog. My man is not hiding his identity well at all if Lois was listening with her full attention. She thanks him for the coffee, saying she needs it after chasing Superman across town all morning and getting nothing. Clark says that maybe Superman doesn’t want her to record all his secrets and publish them, to which Lois announces that Superman doesn’t know that’s her plan. She has Clark “pretend” to be Superman to show him how easy it is to do an interview. Clark flubs pretending to be Superman but when Lois asks for the interview, he sincerely says that if it was within his power, he’d do anything for her. They’re interrupted by hearing Jimmy yelling at someone to get back. They make it to the Newspaper Morgue to see that they’re getting scooped by the Daily Planet’s top news team, Steve Lombard from Sports, Cat Grant from Human Interest/Gossip, and Ronnie Troupe investigative journalist and the only one not enjoying this. Ronnie explains that Perry assigned them the Superman story and told them to use the info that Lois and company gathered to help them with it. She’s trying to be the adult in the room while Steve keeps using the term scoop like it means steal. Ronnie promises to give them credit for their work when the story is finished and they leave, Cat popping back into tell them the copier is broken and she needs it fixed by lunch. Lois is dejected at first but then rallies, saying that they just need to scoop the scoop team. Jimmy’s down for it, thinking they can post the story on Flamebird and get him to seven followers. Clark tries to convince them to look at a different story instead, and Lois asks him what story could be bigger than Superman. Thankfully, the cable news has the breaking news story of Stryker’s Island break out. Jimmy notes that the tech they’re using is the same kind that “Livewire” used, that being the name he dubbed Leslie Willis. Clark vows to track down those criminals and stop them… quickly realizing that sounds super weird to say out loud out of context to his friends. He pivots to turning his statement into investigating the story for them to show Perry. Lois agrees to it. When Clark walks off, Jimmy comments that he’s surprised she dropped the Superman story so easily, to which Lois says, “Who says I have?”

 

We jump over to the old gym that Siobhan and her crew are hiding out in. Kyle shows her the last weapon they got from the Crazy Lady; a freeze ray that can freeze objects solid in a flash. The button sticks, though, so Albert has to smack it to turn it off. With their new ice gun, they plan to make the biggest score of their lives. They chant Intergang forever in celebration.

 

Clark, Lois, and Jimmy arrive at Stryker’s Island. Clark wonders how they’re going to convince the staff to let three interns in. Lois says she can, but Clark has to promise not to get upset. Why? Because she stole Steve, Cat and Ronnie’s press passes. Clark is, obviously, upset, but Jimmy is onboard. Clark says he won’t go along with this, so Lois says fine, they can go back to the Daily Planet and brainstorm Superman interview ideas. … They head into the Warden’s office, Lois introducing herself as Cat, Jimmy as Ronnie, and Clark, sullenly, claims to be Steve. The Warden goes along with the interview, explaining that Siobhan and Intergang are a group of terrible criminals, meaning they’re bad at being criminals, showing them a video of Intergang being terrible at a convenience store heist. Albert seems incapable of using codenames for the group and Siobhan gets caught on camera with her face exposed. Very, very bad criminals. Jimmy tries to get the warden to let them investigate the cell, to which she says no to, but is interrupted by a call telling her that the Daily Planet reporters just arrived. The trio run off, and try to make for the exit, but then notice the damaged wing of the prison that Kyle and Albert broke through. Lois reveals she stole the Warden’s access card, getting a chuckle out of Clark and a “Oh just make out already” moment from me as she gets him to say that he approves of theft just this once.

 

They get into the cell, Jimmy and Lois looking around while Clark stands guard. He looks at the hallway, his vision going red again and giving him a headache. Lois finds a flyer for a security company, A Security System, with times written on it. The Warden arrived with security, though, so they have to bid a hasty retreat. Away from the prison, they regroup and try to figure out what the numbers mean. Jimmy shows them the picture he took of a schematic for a bank on the back of a cat poster. They realize that they’ll be going after the Metropolitan City Bank, the biggest bank in town, to get their gang some respect. They realize that with those times, the heist is going to go down in the next fifteen minutes.

 

We cut to the bank, where Intergang disables the security cameras, freeze most of the people in it and break into the vault with a combination of icing it over and using Siobhan’s scream to crack it open. They celebrate stealing the cash, Kyle being the only one to want to grab the money and run. Siobhan encourages her brother to relax, as this is a heist that they can revel in. Outside, Clark tries to get Lois and Jimmy to hide while he goes to “call the authorities” aka change into his costume. He’s stopped when Lois says that she and Jimmy are going to go get captured. She then explains about the whole getting kidnapped to get to Superman plan, Jimmy saying it worked with Livewire when Clark is skeptical and Clark yells at them both upon learning that was on purpose.

 

The one unfrozen security guard tries to stop Intergang, but Siobhan blows her away with a scream and Albert uses an ice blast to cause a further distraction. The ice beam cuts through to the outside, separating Clark from Jimmy and Lois and letting him change. He flies in as Superman and tells them to take cover. He enters the bank and does battle with Intergang. He’s stronger than Albert, but Siobhan’s scream keeps him busy long enough for Kyle to set up the ice ray and fire at him. The ray starts malfunctioning again after Superman gets hit by another sonic blast. Albert goes to hit it to fix it, with the gloves on this time, and breaks the whole thing. It causes the device to overload, releasing a crystal that freezes everything in sight. It freezes Superman and Intergang and starts spreading outside. Superman sees the ice getting close to Lois and Jimmy as he’s almost frozen over, causing his latent heat vision to finally go off. He melts himself free and destroys the machine’s power source. He gets a vision of robot soldiers attacking something. Superman gets Intergang taken care of when EMTs arrive, he tells them to look after the people in back. As he leaves, we see the other EMT is in fact Slade, and he makes eyes at the Intergang members.

 

Outside, Superman tells Lois and Jimmy that Clark is fine, that he saw him run to safety when he flew in. He offers to give Lois that interview she wanted. Ronnie, Steve, and Cat arrive to try to scoop Lois again, but Clark picks her up and flies off to give her the exclusive. He flies her to the Daily Planet roof and the interview starts. Superman tells her that he’s giving her the interview because she and Jimmy stuck around to help during the freeze ray and wants to thank her for it. She asks several questions, all of Superman’s answers being I don’t know or some variation. He says that he’s here to help Metropolis and that’s what matters before flying off. He races around to the roof entrance, changing in route and messes up his hair before running to Lois. She apologizes for putting him in danger, and reveals she got the interview. Clark asks her what she thinks of Superman, to which she says, “he’s a liar,” to his shock.

Alright, so we’ve seen just how destructive these weapons of unknown, probably Kryptonian origin, can be. The freeze ray alone nearly made a new iceshelf in the middle of the US which, we probably do need because global warming, but its placement is not ideal. I do feel the running gag that this version of Intergang is extremely bad at crimes is just to highlight that these weapons are incredibly destructive even in the hands of people that don’t know how to properly use them. I’ve heard some people complain that Siobhan McDougal is another character that has gotten her powers through this tech, like Livewire, but I’ve seen Siobhan AKA Silver Banshee get her powers from implied chemical accidents to being a literal banshee, so I don’t see the problem with hers being tech based this time. “It feels samey” some say, to which I say, read an older comic. 19/20 powers are from industrial accidents. Also, loved the running gag that Albert seems incapable of using codenames. They repeated it just enough that it didn’t get irritating. I also liked seeing the whole team being on a story this time. Having Clark being the squeaky third wheel, trying to keep them from doing unsafe or illegal things is just perfect for the big blue boy scout. As is him cracking a little when Lois stole the ID card. The bit where Lois and Jimmy pretend to be Cat and Ronnie, while Clark is super dejected to just say “Steve. Sports” is one of my favorite bits thus far. It was also nice to see Clark get his heat vision. It’s a Superman staple and he just feels incomplete without his literal burning gaze. The vision of the robots is interesting. I wonder if those were Kryptonian war machines… or… well, there’s one famous interstellar robot villain of Superman’s that I can think of, and Brainiac would be a hell of a finisher for the first season, all I’m saying. I have no idea what Slade might end up doing with Intergang, but it can’t possibly be fun for them. The interview at the end was rather interesting. I liked that Clark did answer honestly and to the best of his ability, but his utter lack of knowledge on his own past and powers puts Lois’ journalistic back up. In most continuities, Lois I think would be quick to trust what Superman said as honest. The fact she’s assuming not answering is a deliberate lie is interesting and probably suggests something about this Lois’ past. Maybe she’s been lied to by omission before? Who knows. Clark’s face, though, at hearing his alter ego be called a liar is priceless and I’m so glad I got to see it. Next time, Dr. Ivo unveils his latest product. No it’s not the Amazo android. 

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Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 2

 Superman's about to get... THUNDERSTRUCK. I'll show myself out.

Last time on My Adventures With Superman, Clark Kent was just a normal man having a normal day. Well… not really. He began his job as an intern at the Daily Planet with his best friend and amateur photographer Jimmy Olsen when he met Lois Lane. Lois, also an intern, lies to the two newbies about getting the okay to investigate a story about stolen military hardware in Metropolis. With the help of Flip Johnson and her “Newskid Legion” aka the Planet’s newspaper delivery kids, they found the warehouse where the robots were being kept but like 2 hours too late. Clark learns that Lois lied to them after getting a call from their boss and he leaves. Lois and Jimmy discover the thieves trying to ship their robots out of town, and one of them activates a robot to kill them. Flip sees this happen and runs to Clark and lets him know. Clark flies in to save the day. Disguised in a dockworkers uniform, Clark beats back one robot, only for the head thief, a woman named Leslie Willis, to activate four more. Lois saves Clark by shutting down three of the robots, almost gets killed by the fourth, only for Clark’s powers to kick into overdrive and him to punch the last robot into orbit. The three are able to keep their jobs because Perry is feeling generous and or too annoyed to do the paperwork to fire them. Lois vows to get to the bottom of the “Superman” and Clark and Jimmy agree to help. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

The episode begins with Clark, his ma, Martha, and his pa, Jonathan, digging something up in their field. Martha explains to Clark that whatever this thing in the ground is, it’s what brough Clark to them, and Jonathan says that he’s pretty sure all the answers to Clark’s past are in there. Clark stands on the thing in the ground, and it activates these pillars to rise out of it. He touches one and sees a hologram of a bearded man in armor and an eyepatch. He starts talking to Clark in a language no one understands. But some words that stick out are, “Jor-El,” “Krypton,” and “Kal-El.” As the man speaks, the ship seems to react, drawing the pillars towards Clark and the ship beginning to open. Martha is almost dropped inside with Clark, causing him to race over to save her. Clark losing contact with the ship seems to turn it off and the hologram disappears. Clark quickly covers the ship over again and tells his parents he doesn’t want to do that again. Jonathan isn’t sure if just burying Clark’s past is a good idea, but Martha agrees with the boy, saying they can’t be sure what all that means. They both reassure Clark that he’s still their son even if he came from space. He asks again “who am I?” before we cut away.

 

Back in the present, Clark and Jimmy arrive early at work to find out that Lois has claimed the Daily Planet’s Newspaper Morgue/Boiler room as their office. She’s set up a murder board, you know one of those boards where you put the articles and clues up with thumb tacks and tie together with string or yarn, about Superman. Jimmy claims to already know who Superman is, much to Clark’s horror, but Jimmy just throws up a weird sticker that looks like a cross between a bird and a UFO. They do the thing of “is that a plane?” “It looks like a bird” and Jimmy reveals that’s the logo for his streaming channel, Flamebird. He shows them a video he recorded of him announcing that the Superman is an alien, only for Clark to come in from their bathroom and ruin the shot. He brags about his five-follower stream and asks Lois to follow him. She says no and says that they need to back up their conclusions with facts. Facts like, finding someone who can run DNA off the coat she thinks Superman wore at the dock. Clark spies one of his hairs on it and pales. He asks if maybe they should follow another story instead of this one that the Editor in Chief, Perry, has clearly stated that he hates. Lois gives an impassioned speech about wanting to find out more about this guy who flew in from the sky to save them just because it’s right. Clark agrees that he wants to know who that person is, fakes a stomachache and runs off. Lois grabs Jimmy and tells him they’re going to follow a lead. By finding the woman that tried to kill them.

 

The woman in question, Leslie Willis, is trying to keep a low profile but is clearly being followed. She leads her pursuers into a back alley, beats them both up and then steals one of their earbuds to talk to their handler. She tells the person that she’s tired of being followed by these goons and that “flying freak.” She says to meet her at the city bistro at noon or their tech is gone.

 

We shift over to the Kent farm, where Martha was about to start cooking pie. Clark arrives and Martha is overjoyed to see her boy, but senses something is up with him and asks what happened. Clark explains how he used his powers to save his friends. He stresses that they don’t know it was him… but that there’s this girl, Lois, who is great, that wants to know more about “Superman” and that Clark wants to know more too. He wants to dig up the ship.

 

At Metropolis Park, Jimmy asks Lois for more details about her plan to find the person that tried to murder them. She figures that, since Superman flew in to stop her, that if they find this lady again it’ll just be a matter of time until Superman does it again. It’s an insane plan, but the general idea that Superman will show up to stop a villain is sound. Jimmy has an idea of where to look, but Lois is only half listening. They have an argument over if Lois is his “boss” or not based on seniority before Lois starts fretting about Clark being sick. Jimmy picks up on the fact that Lois is maybe a bit too interested in Clark’s wellbeing and accuses her of liking him. She denies like-liking him, (we really need a better word for like as in attracted to in English) Jimmy saying that she can text him and gives her Clark’s number to put her money where her mouth is. Jimmy then reveals his plan to find the scary lady. Namely, he got pictures of the boat she stole and that the boat will have most likely ended up at the salvage dock. Lois tells him that this isn’t how she would have done it, but congradulates him on having a good idea. They start searching through boats.

 

Back at the farm, Clark is digging up his ship while his parents watch from the crater’s edge. Martha is apprehensive, but Jonathan jokingly says “He’s just digging up his childhood spaceship. Most natural thing in the world.” When his wife gives him the “look,” Jonathan feigns stomach issues and runs off. So that’s where Clark learned that technique. Clark and Martha realize that the ship seems to have grown somehow in the 15 years since they last dug it up. Clark says that he must investigate this to figure out who he is. Martha says that she knows who he is, her son, as Clark vanishes into the ship. He appears in a digital space. The bearded man appears before him again and seems to react to the things he says even if it’s still in a language that he can’t understand.

 

At the boat yard, Jimmy and Lois find the boat, and a trail leading to a sewar pipe that the woman cut into. She left a trail further in and they plan to follow it. They realize that the woman probably stole more tech than just the robots too. Jimmy takes a selfie with him and Lois, telling her to “Smile for Clark.” Flustered, Lois tells him to stop doing things like that or at least let her approve the pictures first. They seem to completely miss the package of C4 above them.

 

In the ship, the man tries to talk to Clark, but the language barrier is too much to overcome. Clark tells the man that he wants to understand, but he has no idea what any of this is about. The man activates some kind of program and shows Clark a vison. He sees a yellow star get hit with something and turn red. He sees a planet being destroyed by war, a woman holding a baby, and the man taking the baby, putting him in a pod and sending him off before the planet is destroyed. As Clark processes the fate of his home world and his, not stated out loud but clearly, biological parents, he’s taken out of the vision and has a Sailor Moon style transformation sequence. His clothes get transformed into his iconic blue and red suit and cape. It also styles his hair for some reason, but I have no idea why. He comes out of the pod and flies over to his mother. He tells Martha that he’s still the same, her son, to which Martha agrees but says he’s something more now too. A “Superman,” as that Lois girl put it. She wants to make a few adjustments to the outfit before she sends him off, though. She specifies shorts, which makes me think she’s just uncomfortable with her baby’s booty being on display in that tight outfit. Midwestern moms gotta mom.

 

Jimmy and Lois discover that the next section of sewer is completely lined with explosives. They see a manhole cover above and decide to make a break for it. Above, Leslie meets up with the handler of the previous two goons, someone she pegs as Black Ops right from the start. She tells him that she’ll hand over the tech if he takes her off their weird hitlist. He shakes his head at her belief that she’s the smartest one here and accuses her of not even comprehending what she stole. She reveals that she’s got explosives planted and that if he doesn’t want them to go off, he’ll deal. They’re about to get into negotiating when Lois and Jimmy pop out of the manhole. She goes to set off the bombs, thinking they’re with the guy, but he knocks the detonator out of her hand and reveals he is black ops and he’s sick with stun batons. She then reveals her ace, that she’s got on one of the devices she stole. The harness she’s wearing gives her electrical powers and she blasts him away. Lois tells Jimmy to take photos while she goes for the detonator.

 

Back at the farm, Martha has finished the modifications on Clark’s costume, the iconic red trunks, and a belt, assuring her son that she barely recognizes him in it. I call bull on that assessment. I too have a Midwestern mom and they can spot their children in a Where’s Waldo crowd regardless of what they’re wearing. Jonathan comes in with Clark’s phone, saying it’s been ringing. After complimenting Clark’s new duds. Jimmy seemed to have either intentionally or butt dialed Clark and now he knows his friends are in trouble. He flies off.

 

At the Bistro, Leslie is unleashing huge blasts of electricity in her bid to kill the Black Ops guy and Jimmy and Lois. She almost blasts Jimmy but Black ops knocks her hand away at the last second, causing her to blow up a parked car. She attacks Black Ops, but he keeps batting her blasts away. Lois gets her hands on the detonator in the confusion. Leslie, electing for a different tactic, uses powers to grab a truck in an electromagnetic grab and throw it at them. Black Ops dodges out of the way, but Lois and Jimmy aren’t remotely fast enough. Thankfully Superman flies in and grabs the truck. Superman sets the truck down and asks if they’re alright. Lois asks if he’s got a comment for the Daily Planet, but before he can answer he gets blasted by lightning. Leslie accuses Superman of causing all her problems lately and blasts him some more. I feel like she should remember that this all started when she ROBBED the MILITARY, but whatever. Jimmy warns Superman about the explosives in the sewers, giving him just enough time to take a lightning blast that would have set them off. She goes to finish him off, but Black Ops throws a taser at the crystal in the back of the harness. This seems to cause it to go into overdrive, making Leslie form an electromagnetic bubble around herself, burning most of her clothes and causing blue lines to form on her skin. Superman flies into the bubble to try to stop Leslie, but he starts getting hit with lightning almost immediately. She takes note of him and swears that if she’s going down, she’s taking Superman with her. She flies over to him, intending to fry him with lightning. He tells her he’s just here to help, pulls her in, getting shocked the whole time, and rips the crystal from her back. He gets a vision of warships flying and fighting in space and some kind of portal opening. He sets Leslie down and asks Lois if she’s okay. She says she is now. Superman then flies about and does his best to fix what he can around town. Putting cars back on the road, fixing billboards and otherwise doing his best to reduce the cleanup from this encounter. Jimmy gets a photo of him helping.

 

Jimmy and Lois present his picture of Superman to Perry, who immediately calls for them to stop he presses for the new front-page story. Lois follows Jimmy’s Flamebird stream, and Jimmy tells her he’ll only accept it if she calls Clark. Lois says she’s worried he might be interested, Jimmy tries to encourage her, and then Perry reminds them they’re still in his office. They try to tell him the full context, but he says he doesn’t care and orders them out.

 

Back at the apartment, Superman flies in and his phone goes off. He answers, it’s Lois and she asks to come in. He quickly changes back to Clark, cleans up the apartment and lets her in. She explains what happened today, and how excited she is at finally having submitted a real story. Clark compliments her, saying that he thinks she’s extraordinary, smart, and funny, and driven and funny. They clearly are about to kiss when Jimmy comes in, killing the mood, and shows them that Flip gave him an advanced edition of the paper. The Superman story is cover… but it’s credited to Cat Grant, Ronnie Troupe, and Steven Lombard. What??

 

Meanwhile, Leslie Willis wakes up in a holding cell, strapped to a table. She’s still got the blue lines all over her body and they seem to crackle with energy. Black Ops starts talking to her, revealing they took care of all her bombs. Leslie, smug despite her situation, reveals the bombs were a distraction while the rest of the tech was taken away. She sent the location of her stockpile to every crook in Metropolis, and by now they’d have taken everything. He says they’ll get it back and asks Leslie what she knows about Taskforce X, Zero Day, and Nemesis Omega. She doesn’t know, and he starts blasting her with a shock collar. She repeats she doesn’t know. He asks about the flying man, and she says she thought he was with them. Leslie asks who they are, and Black Ops says they’re the “good guys” and she needs to tell them everything she knows about Superman.

 

I think this was a solid follow up to the previous episode. It’s amazing how a little detail like Jor-El not being able to speak English obfuscates just so much about Clark’s past from him. Such Superman staples like Krypton, the house of El, and even Clark’s Kryptonian name of Kal-El are complete mysteries to Clark simply because this time his father didn’t bother to or couldn’t learn English. Also, very interesting redesign on Jor-El. The patriarch of the House of El looks more like a military commander in this go round than scientist in my option. The detail about their sun seemingly forcibly being turned red makes me wonder if the Kryptonians in this version of the universe actually had all the awesome power of Superman until just before their planet’s death. That would certainly be an interesting change. I liked the introduction of Martha and Jonathan Kent. From this episode it seems that Martha is going to be the one most often to worry about Clark, where Jonathan seems to have a much more laid-back attitude than in other incarnations. Imagine Man of Steel’s Jonathan making a crack about Clark digging up his spaceship. You can’t, can you? I also liked that Martha made some modifications to Clark’s super suit. Making the suit more comfortable and functional is just something a mama like Martha would do. Jimmy and Lois’ subplot about trying to find Leslie as part of a roundabout way of finding Superman is pretty good too. This version of Lois and Jimmy have good chemistry too, they’ve got a sort of bossy older sister and teasing little brother vibe. I like that while Lois still thinks most of Jimmy’s conspiracy talk is nonsense by the end, she deems it worthy of support by following his stream. Using Leslie Willis aka Livewire as the first true villain Superman faces off against was a pretty good idea, I think. Her electrical powers make it so that she can cause Superman pain, regardless of his typical invulnerability, and can cause a LOT of damage in an area. It also feels like a nod to the older Superman: The Animated Series. Livewire was an original character for that show that was later introduced to the main DC canon. This version of Leslie is substantially different from the classic version, being an already hardened criminal and thief instead of a shock jock that badmouthed Superman for ratings. Also, blaming Superman for a situation that she herself created by bad choices? Classic Superman villain. This said, while their interpretation of Livewire is different, their version of Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke is probably even more so. The grizzled war veteran that usually sports a beard or at least stubble, missing one eye and probably has a cigar in his mouth is instead this pretty boy with one eye covered by his bangs. Like, don’t get me wrong, this is a cool new look for him, I was just shocked when I realized that that was Slade, and that he was being played by Chris Parnell. It’s just odd to hear Jerry from Rick and Morty not being a loser, ya know? The stuff he hints at, Nemesis Omega and Zero Day sound ominous, can’t wait to see how that turns out. Okay, I think that’s everything. Next time, Superman faces off against terrible criminals. Meaning they’re bad at being criminals. See you then.

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