What was Zero Day?
Last time on My Adventures with
Superman, Clark developed Super Hearing. Clark spends most of the episode
exhausting himself, using his hearing and speed to try to save as many people
as possible. Roughly 48-72 hours of Supermaning left Clark exhausted and
behaving slightly erratically. He heard that Mist has escaped wherever he’d
been held and was causing trouble in Metropolis. Clark tried to stop him, but
tracking a dude that can be invisible is tough. He caused a major car accident
saving Mist from getting hit by a truck, causing the public to start to turn on
him. Because from their perspective he dived in front of a truck for no reason.
He finally cornered Mist, who tells him that Siobhan and Albert are still being
held at a black site and are about to be moved. He begged Superman for help
saving his family, Clark agreed due to the illegality of holding people without
trial. Meanwhile, Lois dealt with learning that their is a chance that her
Clark could become evil but is quickly distracted by her latest job. She and
Jimmy are assigned by Perry to help visiting journalist Vikki Veil with a
Superman article she’s working on. Vikki is quickly revealed to be an
anti-Superman type, so Lois and Jimmy take her to interviewees that have
glowing recommendations. Vikki, though, went to speak with Ivo’s old assistant
Alexander, who hates Superman with passion. Vikki writes a hit piece that
unfortunately corresponds with Clark’s car accident. Clark arrived at the base
and goes to free the villains from a plane, only to be attacked by the group.
Ivo the Parasite, Silver Banshee, Heat Wave, Roughhouse, Livewire, and
Deathstroke rush him. The five others overwhelm Superman with attacks and Ivo
runs in to drain him of his strength further. It’s also revealed that Mist has
one of the Taskforce X collars on, making all this a set up. Clark is defeated
in the park and taken, Jimmy and Lois arriving too late to do anything to stop
it. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it.
We start with Lois and Jimmy
frantically searching for Superman. According to Lois, they’ve got just about
the whole Daily Planet staff looking for him or at least keeping their ears
open for rumors about him. Jimmy’s keeping an eye on his Flamebird stream, but
no one is posting new info there either. Flip Johnson and the Newskid Legion
arrive to help Lois and Jimmy search, having pooled their money to get Walkie
talkies and make missing posters for Superman. Lois tells her that it’s too
dangerous and she should go home, but Flip is insistent that they help. The
woman of business says that Superman makes the city feel safer and after he
saved her several times, she owes it to Superman to look for him. Helping
Superman makes her feel less small. Lois agrees to let them help and takes a
walkie.
Superman wakes up strapped down in
a metal stockade in a room full of red light. He’s shocked a moment later as
the General walks in. Superman asks where he is and gets shocked for it. The General
tells him that he’s not going to punch his way out of his confinement and
demands to know dates and numbers. Superman is super confused by this question
and gets zapped again. The General wants to know when the next invasion is and
how many are coming this time. Superman still has no idea what he’s talking
about, and the General is growing irater. The General activates a holographic
recording of Zero day, saying that he and Superman were both there when it
happened.
The hologram shows an army camp set
up under a giant archway. We learn from the CO that the archway arrived on
earth 72 hours ago and has been dormant sense. A younger Amanda Waller notices
that the General, whom she refers to as Sam, is missing and goes to get him. She
finds him in a tent talking to someone on the phone. Given who I know
who the General is at this point and how he’s talking, he’s speaking either to
his wife or an infant daughter. Waller grabs him and scolds him for hiding in
the command tent to make a call on a top-secret mission. Sam shrugs and tries
to play it off as no big deal. Then the attack happens. The arch way opens a
portal into deep space. Through the hole we can see an armada of warships lead
by an armored being in a cape. The war ships launch dozens of small pods that
land and transform into attack robots. All of them have a distinct emblem on
their chests, a V made of three interconnected circles. The robots start
shooting up the place, large units land and wreck tanks and the leader fires heat
vision blasts from his helmet. He almost shoots Waller and Sam, but an
explosion occurs on their end of the portal, knocking him back and
destabilizing the wormhole. When the wormhole shuts, the robots power down. Sam
and Waller seem to be the only ones that survived.
The General tells Superman that
after this, he formed Taskforce X and adapted the technology left behind for
their use. He made the “hard calls” to make sure Earth was ready for his
return. Someone watched Invincible recently, it seems. He calls Superman
a weapon and demands answers. Superman starts crying, saying that he doesn’t
know and asking why “they” (I assume his bio parents) would do this.
In Metropolis, Lois and co are
looking for Superman. Lois and Jimmy are at the docks and found nothing, Flip,
and her crew at the shipping yard, also found nothing. Lois is clearly freaking
out, Jimmy asks her what’s up and she explains she’s feeling like crap for not
believing in Clark when he needed her. The “normal” she said to him is eating
at her conscience it seems. Jimmy tells her that they’re going to find him.
Back at the black site, Ivo is
having a nervous breakdown in his cell, demanding he get to kill Superman like
he was promised. Siobhan in her cell with her boys tells him to shut up, while
Albert comforts Kyle. Kyle, I assume, is not feeling great about leading
Superman into being caged like them. Leslie is playing with a quarter she snuck
into her cell, and notices that she’s conducting electricity without her
harness. She looks at the camera in her cell and then looks away quickly. We
cut to Amanda Waller’s office, where she’s monitoring all the camera feeds. She
tells the General as he enters that Superman’s power level remained stable
during the interrogation and thinks the Parasite collar and Cadmus Omega Field
are working to keep him powerless. She congratulates Ivo for living up to his
own hype and says that she thinks they can get a little more use out of him
before he completely loses his mind. The General is clearly having issues with
torturing Superman for information. He points out something I’ve been muttering
at my screen for like a month now, that Superman is too young to have been
involved in Zero Day, at least if his kind ages at the same rate as humans.
Waller isn’t interested in the ethics of torturing someone that might not be
involved with Zero Day and says they should execute Superman now. The General
insists they need information. Waller suggests turning Superman over to Ivo if
the General doesn’t think he can execute him himself, but the General shouts
that down. Waller asks him if he’s having doubts about something “real” or
because Superman reminds him of “her.” They don’t elaborate on the ‘her’ but
assume either a late wife or a daughter who doesn’t talk to him anymore. The
General says they’re keeping him alive for questioning, it’s his call, not hers
and dismisses her. Waller leaves, but hits something on the desk as she goes.
Leslie’s camera powers down and she
rips her collar off. She frees herself and then Ivo, asking him if he wants to
take down Superman. Ivo gets his Parasite armor on and rushes through shoulders
to get Superman’s cell. He demands a rematch against him, the beatdown of the
century. Superman doesn’t want to fight, but Ivo isn’t interested in that. He
says that Superman doesn’t hurt him, this time, he hurts Superman. The General
sees the fight break out and calls Code Orange to his team. Parasite beats the
crap out of Superman. To keep himself going, he rips into the bases electrical grid
and drains electricity to mutate further. Superman, dazed, tells Ivo that he
doesn’t want to fight him, that he doesn’t want to fight anyone. Ivo tells him
that he guesses he’s going to die. Before he can attack, the General and Slade
with extra guards arrive. Ivo stabs his tail into a light and mutates into a
giant insect monster. The rest of Taskforce X’s prisoners arrive looking for
payback. The group knocks back most of the General’s troops, Livewire getting
in close to Wilson and puts his eye out with an electrified stab. Superman
starts hearing Lois calling out to him and is able to pull himself out of the
hole Ivo slammed into and out the ceiling. With Superman gone, Livewire decides
to use Ivo to cover their escape. She supercharges him, turning him into a
giant Kaiju. As the base crumbles around them, the villains escape out another
hole.
Superman drags himself out of the
Taskforce X base, which is apparently in the Metropolis sewers, as Flip was
riding by. She radios into the others and tells them to meet her at the Newskid
club house. I’m not sure how a ten-year-old moved the 200+ pounds of Superman,
but she must have. We cut to the clubhouse, Superman sitting in a corner. Jimmy
and Lois arrive. Clark tells them about what he saw. He believes now that he
was made for destruction and that he came to Earth to kill them all. Lois tells
him that she won’t accept that and that he’s not a weapon, he’s a person. Their
talk is interrupted by Parasite bursting from the underground, demanding that
Superman come out or he’ll make him. Superman goes to face Parasite. Lois tries
to stop him, saying he can’t fight the Parasite in his condition, but Superman
says he must try.
Superman flies to Parasite and
tries to convince him to leave the citizens alone. Parasite says no, knocking
Superman around and then draining him and the city’s power grid even more. Lois
obviously is freaking out at what she’s seeing and asking what they can do to
help. Jimmy, seeing his 5 million viewers count on Flamebird has an idea. He
and Lois stream to the city the situation, that they’re Superman’s friends and
that he needs help to protect them. Lois’ impassioned speech convinces the
whole city to start shutting down their buildings to starve Parasite of energy.
Superman also hears the speech via his super hearing and rallies. Power starts
cutting out around the city as Clark stands up. The Parasite visibly shrinks as
his energy gets cut off. The two of them brawl, Ivo blaming Superman for turning
him into a monster, saying he’s not even human. Superman tells him that he
chose to be a monster as he catches Parasite’s hands again when he tries to
slam down on his again. Ivo asks him “what does that make an alien freak like
you?” Superman’s eyes turn blue, and he uses his X-ray vision for the first
time to see the physical body of Ivo within the Parasite’s chest. He charges up
and slams through Parasite’s chest, saying “don’t you read the paper? I’m
Superman.” He pulls Ivo from the Parasite as he does so. The whole town
celebrates as the sun comes up and the Parasite turns black and dead.
Superman flies to the Daily Planet.
Jimmy hug-tackles him and says he’s never letting Clark go again. He then
notices Lois waiting, so backs off. Clark says that he heard everything that
Lois said, she says she meant every word and then punches him in the arm,
saying to never scare her like that again. She tells him she loves him, Clark
flies at her and lifts her into the sky, kissing her and saying he loves her
too. Jimmy, wanting to give them space, grabs Lois’ purse and heads out. On the
walk down from the roof, he notices a green glow and pulls out the orb.
Back at Task Force X’s base, Amanda
Waller tells The General that he’s being relieved of duty as the leader of Task
Force X. According to their governing body, Checkmate, Amanda is now in charge,
and she’s focused on taking lethal action against Superman. She gives the
General Ivo’s last weapon, the Omega Canon, saying that it should weaken
Superman enough for the General to kill him. Oh, and Slade is still alive,
wearing an eyepatch to cover his burnt eye socket. Well, that’s a dark way to
end an episode.
Damn, this was a good episode. We
finally got to see what Zero Day was, after having it teased all the way back
in the second episode. The invasion was intense, with that faceless armored
Kryptonian leading an invasion fleet of Drones, it was chilling. For those who
didn’t recognize the symbol, the three connected circles in a V-shape are the
logo of the one and only Brainiac. I’m not sure if the armored Kryptonian is
supposed to be his latest body or if that was minion of some kind, but it’s
clear to me at least that Brainiac has something to do with why Clark was sent
to Earth. Also, with the reveal that his first name is indeed Sam, it’s
basically confirmed that the General’s full legal name is Samuel Lane, father
of Lois Lane. So, the meet-the-parents part of Lois and Clark’s relationship is
going to be even more awkward than for your average couple. The villain’s escape was basically inevitable,
but it’s cold blooded that Waller set it in motion. She was clearly displeased
at letting Superman live this long, and her ends justifies any means mentality
meant she’d not sit for keeping him alive long, but hitting the button is a low
for her. And I liked that Lois and Jimmy got Metropolis itself in on helping
Superman. Starving Parasite as part of a way of showing that the city loves
Superman and believes he’s fighting for them is just a nice touch. It was also
nice to see Superman once again choosing to stop Ivo but let him live instead
of justifiably executing him. Using his X-Ray vision to pinpoint him target Ivo
is just a perfect Superman thing to do. Ending the episode with the happy
moment of Superman and Lois saying they love each other, the dark moment of
Jimmy seeing the recording of the evil Supermen, and darkest moment of the
General getting his new weapon and mission to kill Superman is tonal whiplash.
But the good kind. And we have one more episode to see how that all shakes out.
Next time Guardians 3, definitely.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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