Friday, July 26, 2024

Viewer Log: My Adventures With Superman ep 19

 The Machine that is Empire is coming.

Last time on My Adventures With Superman, Brainiac got into Clark’s head. Using a device called the Black Mercy, Brainiac began to scan and manipulate Clark’s memories. Why? To find his weakness and repress Clark’s persona with it so he can possess Clark’s body. He admits that Kandor Station is dying, and he needs a new body to store his AI.  Clark does his best to resist, but Brainiac keeps finding the nerve to push to push him down farther. Meanwhile, Kara meets up with Jimmy, Lois, Mallah and the Brain and agrees to help free Clark. She arrives in the throne room in time to see Brainiac tinkering with Clark and to get verbally abused some more by her robot father. Having had enough of this, Kara battles Brainiac, severely cracking his skull. Unfortunately, he’d just succeeded in pushing Clark’s mind into the Black Mercy’s simulation of a life on Krypton. Brainiac possesses Clark’s body, adding black armor and his trinity crest on Clark’s chest. Jimmy tries to stop Brainiac by threatening him with Kryptonite, but Brainiac just vents the room into space. Jimmy, Lois, and Kara are blow out into space, while Brainiac and the Kryptonite sphere warp away. Mallah and the Brain pick them up. Lois reveals she stole the Black Mercy and immediately slaps it onto her head to go after Clark. Well, crap. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

We open with Clark, or should I say Kal-El, in full house of El armor. He’s attempting to befriend an alien creature by bringing it food. Before he can really talk to it, though, his mother arrives and laser beaming the creature, the sun eater, back into it’s cage. Kal-El says that he was trying to communicate with the sun eater as it’s the last of it’s kind, they can learn from it and he could maybe make it feel like it’s not alone. Lara Lor-Van then tells her son that his kind spirit is a weakness. As she says ‘weakness’ her voice warps into Brainiacs, which makes her caressing Kal-El’s face all the creepier.

 

Meanwhile, we find Lois stumbling out of her crashed ship on the outskirts of Kandor. Jor-El leads a security force to face her, demanding to know who she is. Lois admits to having Amnesia. Oh great, that plot.

 

Back at the ship, Jimmy tries to wake Lois up, but her mind is trapped in the Black Mercy along with Clark’s. What’s worse, the only way to get them out is to get Brainiac to release them, according to Kara. Jimmy vows to stop Brainiac. Kara tells him it’s hopeless, but Jimmy says they have done Hopeless before and they came out on top, The ship warps into Metropolis airspace, Jimmy tries to get a signal to let his fans, the birdwatchers, know about the coming of Brainiac. Unfortunately, a Taskforce X robot slices the Jump Ship in half with a laser. Jimmy and Lois drop on the back half of the ship as Kara watches in horror. She tells Mallah and the Brain to warp out of here and then dives after them. She’s able to nab Jimmy and Lois just before they hit the ground. A moment later, a Red Sun Omega Field emitter disables Kara’s powers.  Waller, Lex Luthor, and Slade arrived with goons. Waller deems them enemies of the state and arrests them. Jimmy tries to warn her about the alien invasion, but Waller just says they’ll show Superman the same welcome when he arrives and has them taken away.

 

In the Black Mercy, Lois still has amnesia and can’t tell Jor-El and Lara why she’s there. They know that she’s Lois Lane and that she isn’t a memory. Lara says that’s not possible, as the Black Mercy can’t house multiple minds. Jor-El isn’t sure, either, but they agree she can’t see Kal-El or that’ll derail the simulation. Jor-El says he’ll try to figure out how she got in so they can delete her and Lara will distract Kal-El. Lois is alone in her cell for exactly thirty seconds before Kal-El arrives. He was concerned that she hadn’t eaten and so brought her Kryptonian cake, based on the logic everyone likes cake. He eats some to prove it’s not poison when she demands to know if it’s poison. Kal-El says that he’s not the one to do interrogations, as he’s been deemed weak by the Kryptonian government, which is why he’s in the Hall of Science. They shake hands and Lois suddenly remembers everything. She tries to tell Kal-El who he is, but he can’t believe the Brainiac Computer system did this to him. His AI parents arrive and try to separate them. Lois seems to be getting through to Kal-El, Lara says they need to delete her, and Jor-El uses a command phrase “Mortigi Kodon” and Lois disappears in a flash of light. For a moment it looks like she’s going to be deleted in cyber space, but she shouts that she’s not leaving without Clark and then finds she’s back at her wrecked ship, Jor-El and the guard robots flying before her. Jor-El seems pissed to find her there so assumedly he knows what’s going on too.

 

In meat space, Lois, Jimmy, and Kara are being transported in an armored carrier. Jimmy is handcuffed to the floor, Lois strapped to her seat and Kara’s in a full harness like Clark was last season. All under an Omega Field, of course. Jimmy apologizes to Kara for leading her into this. Waller’s transport, driven by Slade, is stopped by a collation of reporters, led by Vicki Vale and Perry White. Waller demands to know what they’re doing interrupting her military mission, only for Perry to say that Jimmy livestreamed his arrest to the world and that’s a violation of the fourth amendment. While Vicki and Perry distract them, the lone wolf Steve Lombard runs up and opens the back with some bolt cutters. Steve explains that Flamebro’s have to stick together and after seeing Jimmy’s arrest he decided to say… nah. He sets Jimmy and the others free, and Jimmy asks how he plans to deal with Waller. Steve’s plan? To not deal with her. They all pile into his wolf themed van and he announces, “Steve out!” as he drives away. Waller orders Slade to go after them, and he almost does, but then Brainiac shows up in Kandor. Dude has great dramatic timing.

 

Swapping back to the Black Mercy, Lois is imprisoned again. But she’s been able to tell Clark everything this time. He’s skeptical, but hey, the information has been passed on. Clark asks why she’d do all of that, travel to Krypton from Earth in order to try to save him. She’s sheepish about that information, which gives time for Jor-El and Lara to interrupt them. Kal-El is ordered out, and the AI parents reveal that their attempted deletion just brough the simulation back to when she arrived. Lara suggests just going back farther, but Jor-El says that the simulation is barely holding together as it is and pushing back would further damage their world. Lois realizes that they can’t get rid of her and smiles evilly. Lois vows to be so much more annoying if it means getting Clark out. Kal-El comes back in with cake, and Lois quickly screams that these aren’t his real parents and Jor-El resets the simulation.

 

We’re shown a montage of Lois repeatedly sneaking into the Hall of Sciences and talking to Clark, only for Lara or Jor-El to arrive and reset her again. First time she gets to the lab and tells Clark his human name and that he’s her boyfriend, reset by Lara. She then tries to hide in a bush outside the lab to ambush Clark when he’s alone, but Jor-El found her and reset them. The third time she gets reset, but runs at Clark and tells him that he needs to remember her, Lois Lane, reaching out and touching him before the reset. We then find Jor-El at the crash site. He finds it empty. This time they can’t find Lois, having searched the whole area outside the Hall of Sciences. They go to the lab to see if they’re there. Meanwhile, Lois tells Clark everything again and he once again asks why she’s doing all this for him. She finally admits that she did all this because she’s desperately in love with him and that she wants him to come home to her. It’s then revealed that they’re still at the crash site, Lois touch having jarred something in Clark’s head earlier and he came to her instead of her seeking him out. Kal-El remembers her name then.

 

In the van, Jimmy is trying to think of a plan to save the day. Kara is despondent, saying that they’ve no hope with Brainiac controlling Clark’s body. Jimmy says that they have him, Steve and Kara, but that just makes her more upset. She says that she’s spent her whole life as Brainiac’s puppet and will only be beaten by him. She says she’s a failure, not a warrior. Steve cuts in, then, to point out that her cousin, Superman, gets beaten up all the time and keeps getting back up to fight the good fight. Being beaten isn’t a failure, it’s part of being a hero. Jimmy tells her that she gets to decide who she is and asks her what she wants to do.

 

In the mindscape, Kal-El remembers his life on Earth but it’s being jumbled with his life on Krypton, and he doesn’t know what’s real anymore. Lois says she’s real, but Clark says she isn’t, because the real Lois Lane wouldn’t come for him. This pisses Lois off and she lists all the things she did to get back to him, and, weirdly, it’s admitting to stealing a spaceship that convinces him that this is the real Lois Lane. They’re interrupted by Jor-El, who says it’s time for him to regain control. He throws Clark back and goes to hit him again, but Lois super speeds over and hurls him back. Hot damn.

 

In Metropolis, Brainiac-Superman flies out and announces to the world they can either join the Kryptonian Empire as a vassal race, the Jewel of the Empire, or be destroyed. Waller orders her soldiers to light him up. The rockets they fire do nothing, and the Taskforce X trio of Deathstroke, Damage and Atomic Skull are all knocked out with one strike. Brainiac announces that “It is to be fire then,” and prepares to heat vision them all, but Kara flies in and knocks him aside. Brainiac asks if she thinks saving the world will make her a hero. Kara says that doesn’t matter, that he used her to burn planets and because of that she WILL defend this one. The Kryptonians clash, causing a huge shockwave. As they fight, Lex brings the Metallos and their new Kryptonite power cores online. Kara and Brainiac-Superman’s brawl is interrupted as they start growing green crystals and need to dodge Metallo laser fire.

 

Inside the Black Mercy, everyone is marveling at Lois apparent Superstrength. Clark explains it, saying that this is his mind and, in his mind, Lois is nothing short of superhuman. Lois apologizes for pushing him away, saying she got scared and tried to force him away. She says she called him superman not for what he does, but who he is. They kiss and Clark’s uniform becomes his Superman suit. Brainiac asserts control over his AI doppelgangers and tells them they’ll never escape. Lois and Clark try to fly away, but they hit the edge of the simulation. Lois and Clark just keep bashing the ceiling until the cracks spread. They give a speech about how Brainiac thought that locking Clark up would be the end of it, that because Brainiac is alone, that means Clark was and that without him everyone else would crumble. Lois and Clark vow to stop him as they shatter the heavens and escape the Black Mercy. In meatspace, the Black Mercy dissolves on Lois’ head as she wakes up and then runs outside of the van to find Clark.

 

Outside we see Brainiac-Superman being chased by Metallos when he has a sudden stroke. He gets hit and starts dropping from the sky. In Kandor, Brainiac’s main body reawakens and he screams in frustration. He says that for this insult, this defiance, he’s going to take the whole planet from Kal-El. He activates Kryptonite shielding, a coat of white paint essentially, to himself, Kandor and his drones. He sends his army to battle the Metallos, the more advanced Kryptonian robots plow through the Metallos now they’re immune to Kryptonite. Waller orders Luthor to find a work around. Brainiac orders the Archer beam to be powered up and readied to fire. The beam is fired, but Kara flies in and takes the blast. She survives the hit but from the smoking body and bruises on her that hit hurt. Brainiac orders another shot fired. Kara prepares to be obliterated, when Clark rushes in and blocks the second shot. His Brainiac armor morphs into an armored version of his suit. Kara tells him that Brainiac must be stopped and they agree to do it together. As they fly up, Brainiac waves his hands and takes over the Metallos. Luthor tries to stop him but he’s been hacked. Brainiac announces that he’s won, that he’s stolen their weapons and felled their champions. He has found Earth wanting and will now destroy it. As the Archer Beam charges up for another shot, Lois asks where Superman is. The episode ends on Kara and Clark laying broken beneath the Archer Beam.

 

Okay so… this should have been two episodes. I like both the A plot of Lois and Clark in the Black Mercy and the B plot of motivating Kara to stand up to Brainiac, but doing both together made both plots feel thin to me. We really needed more of Clark’s POV in the Black Mercy. It is supposed to be the perfect mind trap, an idyllic world based on the victims desires. In the Justice League: Unlimited version of “For The Man Who Has Everything,” Clark is living in a dream world of a living Krypton with a Lois-Lookalike wife and a son, a normal man with his family, and so him escaping that fantasy to be a hero is heart breaking. Meanwhile, we just see Clark’s AI parents being mean to him. Not nearly as compelling of a story. We needed to get some glimpses of why Clark would want to stay here, to make the decision actually difficult instead of a no-brainer. I will say, I do like Lois trying to get to Clark. That short montage was funny, with the AI El’s cutting her off constantly and seeing how she tries to explain the situation in under 30 seconds. Funny stuff. But again, it feels rushed. And the amnesia subplot just ate up 4 minutes of time. Such a waste. And They could have done more with the psyching Kara up and the Brainiac invasion. It also feels extremely rushed. One minute she’s having her darkest moment, the next she’s rallied because Steve and Jimmy told her to woman up. It just feels like something is missing. If I could have my way, episode 9 would have been catching up with what happened in Metropolis and getting Kara into a fighting mindset to battle Brainiac, and then episode 10 would have been the Black Mercy mindscape, and then the finale taking place in episode 11. I think it would just fill things out a little better than they ended up here. But that’s my opinion. Next time, the finale. See you there.

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