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.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/86725455
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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