Superman and Supergirl to the rescue.
Last time on My Adventures With
Superman, Lois did some psyche diving. Using the Black Mercy memory scanning
device, Lois entered Clark’s mind to try to bring him back and get Brainiac out
of his body. After a brief bit of
Amnesia, she found Clark but had a devil of a time convincing him of anything.
In part because Brainiac had AI copies of his parents guarding him and
resetting the simulation when she got close. Eventually she was able to wear
Kal-El’s defenses low enough to talk to him and convince him of the truth. Together
they beat back the AI parents and their robot guards and broke through the Black
Mercy’s simulation back to their bodies. While that was going on, Jimmy and
Kara were briefly arrested by Waller and taken into custody along with Lois’s
comatose body. They’re freed thanks to a distraction by Perry White, Vicki Vale
and the reporters of metropolis, and Steve Lombard’s bolt cutters. Jimmy and
Steve are able to raise Kara’s spirits and convince her to defend earth to make
up for failing the alien worlds Brainiac destroyed. Which is good because
Brainiac arrives a few minutes later and with Clark’s powers is able to wipe the
floor with Taskforce X. Kara only has to hold him off for a few minutes before
Clark gets his body back. Brainiac, being a sore loser, vows to destroy Earth
as recompence for this insult once he’s in his own body. He activates shielding
on himself, his station, and his drones to protect from Kryptonite radiation
and powers up his Archer Cannon. Kara takes the first shot from it, and while
she survived the hit, it was just barely. Brainiac fires another shot, but this
time Clark blocks it, his black Brainiac armor morphing into an upgraded form
of his Superman suit. The cousins agree to try to stop Brainiac together.
Brainiac decides he’s had enough of this and uses his AI to hack Taskforce X’s
Metallo robots and uses their Kryptonite radiation to disable the champions of the
house of El. He declares victory as his cannon warms up for another shot and
Superman and Kara lay broken before him. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.
We open with Brainiac announcing
that Earth has been deemed in rebellion to his empire and that he will now
destroy it in order to show the galaxy the price of rebellion. Hank Henshaw and
a squad of jets rush Kandor, but its shields block their rockets and then shoot
the jets down. That’ll probably be really relevant next season, FYI. Waller
tries to call in any of her agents, but her point man Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke
is out, and she can’t raise anyone else on radio. She demands that Lex disable the Metallos but
he can’t get control back. She berates him for losing control of the robots,
but he counters with she shouldn’t have asked him to build an invincible army.
Waller prepares to go out fighting with a pistol. Luthor, instead, runs like
hell in the other direction. Can’t really blame him, unless the dude is in his
warsuit he’s just a nerd with a grudge against an alien demigod.
We cut over to Lois, Jimmy and
Steve trying to get away in his van. They’re stopped by a Metallo, but it’s hammered
aside by… John Henry Irons. He’s gotten his mech suit back and is clearly
enjoying taking out some frustration on the robots that ruined his career. He
tells the others to keep going and not to worry as he has backup. What back up?
Basically, all of Superman’s enemies from last season sans Parasite. Livewire,
Heatwave, Silver Banshee, Roughhouse, and Mist have all decided to help. Roughhouse
also says the “main man” is got them all together, but to my disappointment, he
meant General Sam Lane and not Lobo. What? That’s like hearing someone claim
they brought the best at what they do along and it’s anyone besides Wolverine.
Anyway, Sam saves Waller from a Metallo and offers her a sun cannon. She almost
pulls it on him but instead vaporizes a Metallo. Sam radios his cavalry and
tells them to help Superman.
Superman introduces his former enemies
as his friends to Kara and then has Kara explain the plan. It’s basically to
rush Kandor and get to Brainiac in the control room. Disable him, disable the
station. The hard part for the El’s is getting through the Kryptonite robots,
but Banshee says to leave the robots to them. For some reason the show seems to
forget that Intergang’s gear (Banshee, Roughhouse, and Mist) is also Krypton
tech and thus is vulnerable to Kryptonite, but I guess maybe their stuff is
more human based designs? Who knows. Superman and Kara fly after them. The
attack begins with Heat Wave and Livewire rushing the robots. Heat Wave melts a
bunch of them while Livewire throws up an electromagnetic barrier. That’s to
cover her and the rest of the attack team, who were made invisible by Mist. Heat
Wave is dropped by Kryptonite shot and Livewire is told to drop and go after
her by Irons. Then he and Intergang fly forward and start taking out Metallos
left and right. Lex really over sold how strong his robots are, invincible my
ass. Mist and Roughhouse take out the last line of bots and Superman and Kara
fly into the throne room.
Superman and Kara face off against
Brainiac. Kara offers surrender to Brainiac, but he laughs and says they’re
only here because he let them come. He then
initiates the Eradicator Override. This triggers whatever implant is in Kara’s
head, making her scream in pain before passing out. Brainiac decides to
monologue for a bit, revealing that despite what he’d said to Kara growing up
and to Clark, Krypton as a whole were growing tired of war. Whatever force they
were fighting (Apokolips and Darkseid seem most likely at time of writing) was
beating them, badly, and they were tired of their children being slaughtered.
He reveals that Jor-El brokered a secret peace talk with their enemies and had
reached a ceasefire. This infuriated Brainiac, as he was quite literally
designed for war and the idea that they’d decommission him terrified the AI. In
retribution, on the eve of the ceasefire’s reveal, he unleashed Krypton’s
doomsday weapon on itself, destroying the planet and everyone on it. Clark is
obviously horrified to hear how and why his people, his family died. Brainiac then
tells him that Jor-El discovered his plans and without much time to act had his
son and niece launched from Krypton just before the planet was destroyed,
leading us here. Brainiac tells Clark
that he won in the end, as he claimed Kara, and now Superman will have to
choose between saving Earth or saving Kara. He then activates Kara and has her
attack him. She hits him with heat vision and then starts pummeling him.
Jimmy, Lois and Steve watch from below
and realize that Kara’s probably being controlled again, and they need to help.
Steve asks how, as this is a much taller order than turning off the lights or
posting a video. Jimmy and Lois answer by… stealing his van. Not cool, guys!
Superman is obviously in the same
bind he was in the last time he fought Kara, namely that he doesn’t want
to fight her, and even if she’s smaller than him Kara still hits with the force
of a freight train. He grapples with her and tries to talk her down. Brainiac,
watching from Kandor and apparently aware of the “I know you’re still in there!”
trope, decides to further weight the odds in his favor by unleashing more
drones and missiles to keep Superman from talking to Kara. He’s blasted back
and now has to dodge the explosives, the drones and an enraged Kara. Clark
flies away, doing his best to outmaneuver them. As he flies, he remembers their
fighting in the previous episodes, as well as how he and Kara bonded, and how it’s
all Brainiac’s doing. He has a moment of clarity remembering himself flying over
Kansas as a child, opens his eyes and resolves to bring Kara home. He flies
through the cloud cover and into the sun. He then dodges around the explosive
shots, grabs Kara and lets the shots destroy the drones. He tackles her down to
Metropolis’ town square. He and Kara keep battling as Jimmy and Lois reach them.
Superman keeps trying to get through to her but Kara just heat-visions him
again. They grapple again, but then Superman pulls her into a hug. He tells her
that she’s stronger than he is. Brainiac, still watching, says ‘Lies’ and makes
her break the embrace. We get a vision inside Kara’s mind where she’s a child
with Brainiac looming over her, gaslighting her by calling her weak and useless
and telling her that without him she’s completely alone. Jimmy, who can apparently
also hear this, tells her that Brainiac is lying and that he’s there for her.
He and Lois both hug-grab Kara and try to hug her back to normal. Clark gets in
on the hug, telling Kara that he knows what being alone is like, what it’s like
to want a home. He then says home isn’t a place but the people who love you and
begs her to come home to them. She screams in rage and Brainna launches more
missiles at them. Kara breaks free of Brainiac’s control, using a supersonic
scream to detonate his missiles. The theme song starts playing and then Kara
and Superman fly out to Kandor and push it skyward. Brainiac activates a shield
to stay in place but the Supers crack through it and fly Kandor towards the
sun.
They launch Kandor towards the sun
and watch it fall into the sun’s gravity well. Brainiac, again, sore loser, activates
his Black Zero Protocol (Personally I’d have called it Emerald Zero Protocol
but whatever). He infuses Kandor and himself with Kryptonite, making himself
and the whole station toxic to Kryptonians. He warps the ship past the Supers
and points the damaged Archer Cannon at them. Clark rightly points out using
the cannon again with Kandor in this condition will destroy them all. Brainiac
agrees, saying that he’s been too damaged to survive, but if the Empire must
fall, it’s children will die with it. He fires a Kryptonite infused shot, Kara
knocking Clark out of the way and taking the hit. She falls into the sun,
Kryptonite toxic veins spreading through her body. We get a brief flash of Kara
as a child falling into the sun as child Clark flies after her. She’s surprised
he came after her, but he says they’re family, so of course he would. He thinks
they are going to be trapped by the suns gravity though. Kara then notices that
the sun is purifying their bodies, burning out the kryptonite in their systems.
Clark is shocked by this, but Kara reminds him they are Kryptonians and the sun
gives them power. Supercharged, the children of the house of El fly forward
together, getting colored auras for their super punch. Kara gets red and
orange, Clark gets blue and white. During the super punch, Kara’s armor shifts
from Brainiac’s black to the Supers blue and red, officially becoming Supergirl
in my mind. Brainiac demands that Kara comply, but Kara shouts back ‘not anymore!’
They take another Kryptonite infused shot, fly through it and destroy Kandor.
Brainiac, for the third time a sore loser, survives and roars that they will die
with him. He rushes the El’s with a Kryptonite infused blade for an arm.
Supergirl rushes him and they have and anime punch moment. Brainiac slices her
with is blade, giving her an infected cut on her face, but she obliterates his
body, ripping his AI core out of it. She watches Brainiac’s body fall to the
sun. Clark grabs her and somehow, they hear the cheers of everyone from Metropolis
back on Earth. Kara says they’re cheering for Kal-El, but Clark corrects her,
saying they’re cheering for them both. Kara says she didn’t know, because she’d
never saved a world before, and then passes out.
She wakes up in the Kent farmhouse
in some of Martha’s old clothes, Brainiac’s AI housing on her nightstand. She slips down to find Jimmy and Lois passed
out on the couches in the living room, a “welcome home Kara” welcome basket on
the table between them. Clark comes into the house and finds her. He tells her
she’s been asleep for a few days and asks if she’s okay. Before she can answer, Ma and Pa Kent come in and
ask her if she’s alright and if there’s anything they can do to help. The Kents
are 2/2 in adopting aliens they’ve met, it seems. Clark says he has a surprise
to show Kara before Lunch. He takes her outback and shows her a baseball. She’s
not super impressed, until Clark teaches her how to play catch and it’s clear
he wants this to be a bonding exercise for them. She vows to learn catch, to
master it and then win it. Clark says you can’t win at catch, to which she says
you’re doing it wrong if that’s true.
Over the credits we get a wrap up speech
from Clark and the others. Basically, the Earth was attacked, but Superman,
Supergirl and their allies fought them back. The fight brought out the best in
some, the worst in others, but the heroes will always be here. We see Sam Lane,
Perry, Ronnie Troope, Steve Lombard, the News Kid Legion, Cat Grant, Vicki Vale,
and John Henry Irons over with the Kents for a BBQ. Then Jimmy, Mallah, the
Brain and Kara helping rebuild Metropolis. Perry shows off his exclusive “My Adventures
With Superman” article to Vicki, who counters with her “Scooped! Exclusive with
Supergirl” article. Then a news report that General Amanda Waller is MIA. And
then Lex and Slade looking at the opening of the Lex Corp tower in Metropolis.
And finally, Lois and Clark meet at the top of the Daily Planet. Lois says she wants
to talk about the job offer, Clark cutting in to say he’s been researching
apartments in Gotham with roof access. He’s perfectly willing to fly out to
Gotham to see her as much as he can. Lois is moved that he’d be willing to do
that for her, Clark taking it a step further by promising that regardless of
where she goes, she just has to say his name and he’ll be there. She then says she
turned Vicki down, as she wants to be the first Lois Lane, not the next Vicki
Vale, and she’s going to do that at the Daily Planet with the man she loves.
Clark picks her up, flies her up and kisses her, to show his excitement. Kara
and Jimmy then join them with to go containers and Lois excitedly shouts, “Soup
on the Roof!” The episode ends with Clark and everyone vowing to protect Metropolis,
regardless of what comes next, only to hear someone cry for help. Clark and
Kara suit up as Superman and Supergirl, coming back to tell the humans there’s
a fire in the plaza. Jimmy and Lois want to come along, for a newspaper article,
so they fly off as a group into the sunlight.
If you read that and say ‘that
feels like a series finale’ you’d be correct. My Adventures With Superman
was only greenlit for a two seasons run, ten episodes each. It’s since been extended, with seasons three
and four greenlit, season 3 being in production at time of writing. Apparently,
the writers want to give us a “the story is over, but the adventures continue”
style ending just in case the show didn’t do well enough to get renewed. Considering
HBO’s decision making in the past, and the history of solid shows being axed
early for stupid reasons, this was a warranted worry. (Looks daggers at Young
Justice being cancelled because it’s toy sales were doing too well.)
That said, confining Superman, who has
kept a cultural relevancy since 1938, who has had thousands of comic appearances,
more than a dozen movies (counting animated appearances) and at least one show
(be it radio, live action or animated) a decade for the better part of a
century to just twenty episodes seems silly to me. It’s a Superman story, you’ll
get at least a 25 episode runs worth of merch and views if you’ve got the right
team on it. I will admit, there was a time when I was largely neutral on Superman.
The Snyder interpretation soured him in my eyes for a long time, and it took
going back and seeing other interpretations of the character to remind me of
how important he is. Superman is the best of us, the one to set the example and
do what’s right to protect as many people as possible. He fights when he must
but prefers to at least try to talk to his enemies before then. He’s a god in
just about every sense of the word but is willing to take the time to help cats
out of trees or to just spend some time talking with someone who’s having a
rough day. The world needs Superman, I think, more than ever, and I’m beyond happy
that it looks like we’re shifting back to the “good man” power fantasy that is Superman
than the grimmer version of the 2010s. To be clear, I think Snyder is a
perfectly fine person, I just hate how he handled his DC films.
Overall, this was a solid finale
for My Adventures With Superman season 2. The fight for Metropolis and
Kara’s mind was extremely well done. Brainiac having three or four contingency plans
is both accurate to the character, as being an extremely intelligent being is
true of all of his forms, as it is of the medium they’re emulating. You never
just ‘beat’ an anime villain, no you’ve got to fight their base form, their powered-up
form, and last-ditch effort “I’m taking you with me!” final form. Just google Goku vs. Freeza to
get a better idea. Anyway, him using Kara as a doomsday weapon against Clark,
only to fall back on a Kryptonite infused cannon, only to finally settle on
trying to cut someone’s head off, is very on brand for Brainiac. The robot doesn’t quit so long as power runs
through his system. And having Kara destroy his body but save his AI housing
allows for the potential of his return in case the writers ever want to do more
with him. Having Clark and Kara team up with the sun enhanced super punch to
stop Kandor was extremely well done. Multiple Superman stories have shown that
a Kryptonian can irradiate themselves with enough sunlight to be immune to
Kryptonite, if only briefly and the supercharging can have serious side effects,
but this is the first time I’ve seen it give Superman a super mode. Super modes
are a staple of Anime, usually involving a character being engulfed in an aura
of power, which is indeed a nod to the legendary Super Saiyan of Dragonball
Z fame. I also liked bringing Superman’s rogues gallery in to help save the
day, as the Kryptonians really couldn’t handle this and Clark currently only
has one super friend. As good as Irons is, he’s not Justice League level back
up. Makes me wonder how they villains will be used going forward as at this
point, his only rogues that hate him are Dr. Ivo aka Parasite, Lex, and Taskforce
X. The wrap up was nice too. I’m glad they didn’t need it, but I always prefer
an ending to a series, even if it’s the “the story is over, but the adventures
continue” style ending. Truth be told, that’s my favorite kind of ending. I’ll always
take that over a cliffhanger that might never be resolved. And while this
ending tied off a lot, they did leave a few plots dangling. Lex is still going
to be a threat to Superman, that’s a universe staple. Waller is missing but
presumably still active. Brainiac could always come back. And you have the innumerable threats that
could come from space, which include some pissed off surviving Thanagarians, an
equally pissed off Green Lantern Corps, Mongul and his War Moon/World seeking
challengers, the main man Lobo looking to party, and Darkseid looking to finish
his deal with Krypton. I know, they haven’t outright said the Enemy was
Darkseid and the New Gods of Apokolips, but only so many things could threaten
a Krypton filled with Supermen and Superwomen, and that rocky SOB is at the top
of the list. So, yea, fun finale. I’ve got a few ideas of what we’ll do for the
rest of the month, I’ll let you know soon. Have a good night.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/108953068
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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