New Superboy and Supergirl just dropped.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
A blog about superheroes. I'm going to cover as many different franchises of film and television as possible. I'll also be covering major topics tied into the superhero/comic book movies and television. I do requests.
New Superboy and Supergirl just dropped.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/u2761062/posts/viewer-log-my-ep-168263491
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
The contest of champions begins!
Last time on My Adventures With Superman,
the team tried to get used to the new normal. Clark put on a brave face as
everyone went to a gala to celebrate Kara, Jimmy and Lois. He was supposed to
be honored too, but he feels like he’s not worthy of it as he’s not Superman
anymore. Jimmy, being an idiot, brings a date to the event, Princess Marina
Maru. The stupidity of this decision is highlighted when Maru reveals herself
to be Dr. Poison, an eco-terrorist that is going to turn everyone at the party
into animals for… reasons! Clark is separated from the group because he was
keeping busy babysitting the News Kids, who ran off. He has a vision of a
Kryptonian temple that gets set a blaze right before the fighting starts. Clark
and Lois keep the kids safe, though Clark is shot in the arm and Lois gets hit
with the gas and turned into a cat. Jimmy, transformed into a turtle, gets in
close to Poison, and rips off her gas mask, turning her into a dog. Kara flies
off and stops Poison’s B-team from poisoning Metropolis’ water. Poison nearly
escapes, but she’s stopped by B-1Z. He came to the gala hoping to see Superman.
Jimmy realizes that he’s in love with Kara but being stupid about it. While that
should make Kara happy, she’s upset that Jimmy told Poison that, not
her. Clark is upset that he wasn’t really able to help and wonders who he even
is now that he isn’t Superman. Before Lois can make him feel better, they all
get kidnapped by Mr. Mxyzptlk. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open with the Gang being brought
into a weird alien landscape. And for some reason they’ve all been put into
beachwear. No this is never addressed beyond the fact they all realize that
they were in suits and dresses before being kidnapped. They appear to be on a
huge expanse of desert that feeds into a sun that is sitting directly in the
center. A disembodied voice welcomes the champions and tells them that the
contest has begun. Before they can ask too many questions, they see that
mischievous little imp Mxyzptlk. He informs the gang that he’s brought them
here to be a part of his divorce proceedings. He then summons his soon-to-be ex-wife,
Ms. Gsptlsnz aka Glitzy. Where Mxy is a short blue imp, Glitzy is a tall pink
imp. They balance each other visually. Lois points out that that intro answered
nothing, and Jimmy is more shocked at hearing Mxy has a wife. Mxy explains that
their species settle divorces with a contest instead of a lengthy courtroom proceeding.
He introduces his team as Gullible Superman, Jimmy Lamebird, Question Mark Kara
and Fun Lois. I enjoy that he still holds Lois in the highest esteem after the
incident with the League of Lois Lanes, and that he uses the evil Lois drawing
from Jimmy’s comics to represent her. He explains that each team has to compete
to get a key that will unlock the next area and allow them to move forward
towards the sun. The team that wins determines his and Glitzy’s stuff. Kara asks
what happens if they refuse. Mxy morphs into the demonic form he showed off in
the first season and snarls that if they fail, they’ll never see their home
universe again. Clark, Jimmy, Kara and Lois ask in order: So, we’ll be trapped
here? Forever? Do you think you’ll get away with this? And who is on Glitzy’s
team. To which Mxy answers, Yes, yes, oooohhhh yes, and not to worry about it.
They have The Superman after all. Then Clark admits that he’s lost his
powers. Mxy is devastated to hear this, determining that Clark Kent is useless
to him.
We’re then introduced to Glitzy’s team:
General Lois Lane, Good Lex Luthor, Scion of the House of El Kara and…
Flamebird Jimmy. Jimmy points out that her Jimmy is just him, until Flamebird
Jimmy does an action pose shouts Flamebird ON and gets into an armored suit.
Some folks have dubbed this Power Ranger Jimmy, but I disagree. He’s the only
one in a masked costume and the only one posing, he’s Kamen Rider Jimmy. After
the intro, Mxy petitions the mysterious voice that is arbitrating these games,
saying that he was tricked into picking a powerless Superman. Glitzy argues
this is a ‘buyer beware’ situation. The voice sides with Mxy and both Karas are
grounded.
The first game begins, a bunch of
floating T’s form bridges to the first set of keys. They just have to run
across and be the first to grab the key. Easy? Deceptively so. Clark notices
that there are these floating rocks with sand flowing out of them just before
they start the race. Both teams do their best to run, but Glitzy’s team try
their best to interfere with our heroes. Scion Kara throws a brick that hits
Kara in the head, stunning her. Lois asks Clark how unbelievable it is that Glitzy
is trying to get under her skin by pitting Lois against a version of herself
that is basically her dad. Clark, not used to running in flipflops or at
conventional speeds, brings up the rear of the group and is the one that nearly
falls into the void when the Ts start falling. They all hurry across the
bridges and make it to the key… but they tie with Glitzy’s team, so Mxy’s a
dick about their completion time. And, to be fair, team Glitzy does take a
better group shot. They’re standing together, FB Jimmy posing as explosions go
off behind them. It’s like an action movie poster. Mxy yells at them to win the
next game before portaling them to it.
They break the groups by gender.
Glitzy oversees the women, Lois, Kara, Lois and Kara are going to have to climb
S’ivaan Mountain. The mountain will sink as the time elapses, and anyone who doesn’t
make it to the top on time to claim the only key of this round will end up in
the manticore pit. Glitzy portals them to the base of the mountain and start
the race.
The boy challenge pits Clark and
Jimmy against Lex and Jimmy in an underground ruin. They need to find five portal
keys, put them together and then leave to get the key. Jimmy asks if that is
all they have to do, Mxy confirms, yells at them to win and portals away.
Kara isn’t particularly winded
running up the mountain, doesn’t notice is sinking and thus determines the challenge
to be not that challenging. Lois, much less used to this much cardio, is
gasping but agrees. Kara asks if she is somehow fated to become like Scion Kara.
Lois says not to worry, even though Kara was like to begin with. She’d already
met the League of Lois Lanes and that taught her to not think too hard about
alternate universe selves. The mountain starts to sink, so they all pick up the
pace. General Lois decides to remove herself and Lois from the board, grabbing
her swim suited self and telling Scion Kara to keep running before they drop
into the pit. Kara asks if their Loises are going to be okay, but Scion Kara
just scoffs. She stops scoffing after falling into a trap pit, but Kara pulls
her out, telling Scion Kara to be more careful as they run.
General Lois holds Lois to her as
they try to dodge the manticores. Lois asks if maybe they should stay put and
hide, but General Lois says that Lane’s are ‘doers not complainers.’ Lois says
she’s not complaining she just wants to be near where they fell in to help
their Karas if need be. General Lois says that if they fall, they fail, and
they can handle the consequences. Lois makes a snide remark about how different
they are, but General Lois lists off her life events: Mom died young, dad was
distance, all she ever did was work until she fell in love with a superman of
her dreams and had a swell time on adventures. So, ya, similar backstories. She
says that her Clark lost his powers and then died, so she ended up like this. Lois
is stunned to hear this, but then has to deal with Manticore. Kara and Kara
race for the key, Scion Kara shove Kara off the side and into the pit. She
falls right in front of the Manticore, but the three women get portaled to the
top after Scion Kara gets the key. Kara accuses her Variant of cheating, but
Scion Kara says that she won and that’s what matters. She also advices Kara not
to pretend like she wasn’t tempted to do the same.
Back with the boys, Clark notices
more of those black crystals bleeding sand. Jimmy finds a key, but it turns out
its for the Lex-Jimmy Team. Lex and Jimmy start arguing over if one of them is
deliberately hiding the other team’s keys. Clark, ever the peacemaker, suggests
that they pair off to make sure everyone is honest, Clark with Lex and Jimmy
with Jimmy. They agree with it, FB Jimmy being the most enthusiastic. Clark
asks Lex about what happened on their earth for him to join up with Jimmy, Lois
and Kara. Lex says that ‘mistakes’ were made, that he made a mistake.
Superman died and then a group called the Hunger Dogs attacked earth. FB Jimmy
says that ya, losing Clark sucked, but now they have Lex, everything is working
out. He’s a superhero now in his own right, so everything is fine. Totally fine.
Awesome even. Flamebird Jimmy isn’t totally in denial and repressing his grief
at his oldest and best friend dying. Whatever gave you that idea? Mxy starts
booing them for being boring, he portals them back to the start and releases
the Hell Hippos to liven this up. The boys quickly put in their four of five pieces,
but both are missing the last one. Turns out there’s only a single key and Mxy
has it. Jimmy tells him to give it to them, as they’re his team. Mxy refuses,
saying it’s more fun watching them scream before dropping it. Lex and Jimmy
wrestle for it. Clark tells Jimmy to just drop it. Jimmy refuses, but Clark
points out that he’s not Superman and they’ll die if this goes on for too long.
Jimmy hands it over and Lex and FB Jimmy run out. They leave Clark and Jimmy
behind, and it looks like they’ll be eaten by hippos, but Mxy portals them
away.
The quartet reunites and gets
chewed out by Mxy for losing. Glitzy pats her Jimmy on the head for his good
work. Jimmy mentions how Mxy saved them from the Hell Hippos, and then Lois
points out that Glitzy saved them before the Manticores got them. She’s
confused as to why they’re saving them. They get teleported to a maze of ice.
He tells them they just have to pick a path and follow it. Lois asks how they
can find the right one, and Mxy advises to just pick the one that feels right and
to not let the trail grow cold. Kara swears to one day crush Mxy… humanely.
Flames kick up, separating Clark and Lois, but Jimmy and Kara stay together. An
ice wall seals them off, and Clark punches it, leaving his hands bloody in frustration.
He sees a projection of his childhood-self flying across the ice. The kid Clark
transitions to him as Superman flying with Lois, he asks himself who he is now
that he’s not Superman. He follows the image to a room with a floating mirror;
Superman reflected back at him. He asks if that is still his path, and as he does,
he starts to get covered over in ice.
Lois sees just tons of versions of
herself reflected in the ice, most are her in different outfits, but she does
see the older Lois that leads the LoLLs as well as General Lois among them too.
She doesn’t consider any of them as her one true path and keeps walking. She
then is shown dozens of images of her alternate selves clutching Clark’s dead
or dying body to her. She refuses to believe that those are real as she too is
frozen over.
Jimmy tries to make small talk with
Kara, saying that FB Jimmy is pretending everything is alright when he’s
clearly spiraling. Kara sees her Scion self in a mirror and wonders if that is
their fate. She starts to freeze over. Jimmy says that’s not true, and while he
still thinks Kara can do better, he’s decided to do better. He announces that
he’s going to change and that breaks the ice off of Kara. She asks him to
repeat that, and he starts to talk about changing for her, but Kara cuts him
off. She says that Scion Kara made her believe that maybe she would inevitably
end up like her, like how Brainiac modeled her to be. She realizes that she’s
not one thing, she contains multitudes. The game is a lie, there is no
one ‘true’ path. She announces that the future is theirs to shape, and as she
does all the ice breaks, and they get teleported outside again. Lois asks what
happened, and Kara starts to say how the future is theirs, but Mxy cuts them
off. He congradulates his team and reveals that Team Glitzy failed that challenge.
All the keys fly away from their
holder and into a set of locks within the star at the center. A pattern forms,
but a single key is still missing. The final game is a race; everyone is paired
off in floating pink balls and is told to run the track. Glitzy loves the little
hamster balls and asks if they can keep them. Mxy mocks her, saying, “You always
do this. You get attached. They die. You’re sad!” She yells that her empathy
makes her likeable and tells them to get ready. But the teams have all noticed something
is up. They note that it doesn’t seem to matter who wins the keys, just that
someone does, that all the keys have been gathered in one place, and the one
that’s really bugging Lois, “Who is that guy!” We pull in on the sun, and within
it is a bearded man that seems to have been turned to stone at the exact moment
he was struck by lightning. Mxy says that beings of the 3rd dimension
can’t comprehend it. Kara is pissed and she pops the bubbles, demanding he
answers.
Well, the game is up, so Mxy and
Glitzy spill the beans. The thing they’re competing for is called the Cosmic
Anvil. Whoever wields is can reshape reality as they see fit. It has a curse on
it that presents higher beings like Mxy and Glitzy from just taking it, so that’s
why they forced their teams of mortals to compete for it. Glitzy mutters to Mxy
and he tries to sweeten the deal by promising that the winners can use the anvil
to reshape their own universe. He tries to egg them on, telling Lois that she can
make whatever future she wants and that Clark could get his powers back. FB
Jimmy says that they could bring Clark back. Clark asks if he means bring back
Superman, but General Lois says no. She says that Superman losing his powers
was tough, but it was losing Clark, the man, that made things fall apart. Lois
is willing to play to help them, but Clark points out they can’t trust Mxy to
hold up his end of the bargain. General Lois says that it might be worth the
risk, so Clark asks what the risk for the losers is. Mxy says that
losers get turned into a trophy for his beloved wife! Ya, they were just
pretending to be on the outs to mess with them, it was like a roleplay for
them. He suggests a Ficus.
Clark says that they can’t play Mxy’s
game, that whatever he wants to use the Anvil for would be extremely bad for
everyone. Lex is confused when Clark says he’s ‘dealt’ with Mxy before, asking
why Mxy would care about a reporter. Clark takes off his glasses… but Lex doesn’t
get it. Lois quickly styles his hair, I bet she’s been wanting to do that for a
month, and then it clicks that Clark Kent is Superman. He asks if the others
already knew, which I mean ya. Jimmy = Best friend. Kara = Cousin. Lois = Lover.
Did you really even need to ask bro? Lex says he regretted not listening to
Superman when he had a chance, and he’s not risking that again. They all refuse
to play. Clark notices that the sand has almost completely bled out of the crystals.
Mxy gives them the ultimatum, “PLAY OR DIE!” And Clark calls his bluff. He says
they’re not playing, so Mxy should just kill them. It’s not like anything is
stopping him… right? Before Mxy can do anything, the sand runs out. The disembodied
announcer says that the time has run out and there is no winner. His seal
remains in place. He congradulates the challengers and tells Mxy to burn in
hell. That one was out of left field. Kara is confused, and Clark reveals he figured
out the crystals were sand timers. He knew that the game was almost up, so he
wasn’t worried. Mxy starts freaking out about losing the Anvil, and so Glitzy bails.
Lois asks who the guy is that was turned to stone on the Anvil. Mxy just says
that is a sore loser before portaling them back to Metropolis. Jimmy is
overjoyed to be back in his tailored suit.
The next morning, Lois and Clark
both jog separately when they meet up in the park. She asks how he’s doing, and
Clark admits that he’s doing better. After that fiasco, he’s starting to like
just being Clark Kent. He asks how she’s handling it, and Lois admits that it’s
been hard for her. It feels like they’re being hit by these potential terrible futures
over and over and they can’t keep up. Clark says that they aren’t terrible, just…
Before he can finish the thought, lightning strikes behind them, and who should
come out of the time stream by Jon! And he brought a friend this time! … I
thought about being coy, but come on, she’s Lois but with blue eyes, his
partner is his little sister Lara. Clark finally says ‘different’ when he sees
Jon’s scar and the second Kryptonian Korean child with the House of El crest.
That was a fun ride. Mxy is always
good for causing chaos. And he plays off his wife, Glitzy super well. I like
her redesign for this. While Mxy is often drawn with irregular proportions to
highlight his inhuman nature even when he’s more ‘human-like’ Glitzy is
typically just a hot red head. And personally, I find that design kind of lazy.
This version matches Mxy significantly better, they at least seem like they’re
the same species this time. I didn’t
know she was going to have New Jersey accent for this version, but I wasn’t
surprised when she did. Her team was also a fun alt-universe team. General Lois
and Scion Kara are both what the main universe versions are afraid they’ll
become. The General is an ‘ends justify the means’ grump, and Scion Kara is
ruthless. Flamebird Jimmy is what Jimmy would like to be, but he’s lost
an absurd amount getting there. What’s the point of being a Kamen Rider if Clark
isn’t there to geek out with him? Lex learned his lesson, which is good, but
like every Lex that does that, he’s already made a hellscape so that’s not
really helpful. The Hunger Dogs are a warband from Apokolipse, so this gives
credence to the idea Darkseid and his goons are potentially inbound for season
4. Fingers crossed on that renewal. The contests were fun, and I liked that the
story was all geared to getting Clark to see that he’s still useful even
without his powers. Is he correct that he can’t be as useful safeguarding
others without them? Yep, absolutely. But like General Lois said, it’s losing
the man behind the S that really screwed them. My only complaint is that we
leave the Anvil and the guy stuck on it hanging. A Chekov’s gun that doesn’t go
off bugs me. And that final shot of Jon’s return with a new edgy look and
little sister, straight aura farming. Obviously, him coming back again for the
first time isn’t ‘good’ but I like seeing the kid. He’s got some bad news for
mom and dad this time as well. But that’s the life of Superman for ya. We’ll
see what ruined the future next time. See you there. Have a good night and stay
safe.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/u2761062/posts/viewer-log-my-ep-168151940
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
Everyone tries to adjust to the new normal.
Last time on My Adventures With
Superman, Clark faced off against Hank Henshaw. The dangerously unstable
Cyborg Superman proved to be one of the hardest fights of Clark’s Superman
career, as he utilized a small army of robots and his technopathic powers to
wreak havoc across Metropolis. Kara and a late arriving Jon did their best to
help but were also quickly overpowered. Lois and Jimmy raced to Metropolis,
Lois leaping from Pa Kent’s truck and decking Lex across the face before
convincing the sore loser to try to stop Hank. For fear of his own safety for
what the cyborg will do to Lex after he’s done with Clark. This proved to save
Clark’s life, as Hank had revealed he was powered by a heart of Kryptonite and
the green rock was killing Superman. He sensed Lex’s hacking attempt and rushed
over to stop him. Jon reveals to Kara after trying to get her to leave again
that he’d been so cold to her this whole time was because he was still grieving
his Kara’s death. She took over as his mom after Clark and Lois died and her
recent death at the hand of Henshaw was still messing with him. She tells him
that they have to fight together to stop Hank, and Jon finally sees that as the
right call. They split pieces of his Kryptonite Shielding armor and are able to
do a lot of damage to Hank, but he replaces the arms they rip off and upgrade
them using his powers. He gets Jon in a head grab and prepares to execute him.
Seeing his son in danger causes Clark to dig deep and super charge his powers,
allowing him to temporarily be immune to Kryptonite. He saves Jon and rips
Hank’s Kryptonite heart out. Hank is a sore loser, though, and tries to set off
a bomb. Thankfully, he asks why Superboy doesn’t seem to be as affected by
Kryptonite as Supers Man and Girl. Clark tells Hank that Jon’s mother is human.
This seems to give Hank an epiphany that the future isn’t human supremacy but
coexistence with the children of Krypton and he disarms his bomb before
shutting down. Jon goes back to the future, but not before giving his parents
(all three) his love and assuring Lois that the future will be better just by
the nature that they’ll all be together. Unfortunately, we learn that
overclocking his powers like Clark did cause them to burn out, he’s basically
human now. Lois puts on a brave face and encourages him that they saved him,
and that’s what matters. The future is better off, she assures him. We see it
isn’t though, as now instead of Hank Henshaw’s evil future, we see an evil
Future Lex ruling the world, and a more edgy version of Jon is held prisoner
after he tried to take the time watch. Well… damn. Enough recapping, lets get
to it, shall we?
We open with the ending minutes of
last episode, Clark announcing to Lois that he’s lost his powers. We get a bit
of text that lets us know that this was a month ago for the characters. Clark
is pulled out of his flashback by Jimmy calling to him, he’d been staring off
into space. In the present, the Super gang are headed to an award ceremony.
Clark takes a pic of Jimmy and Lois, who’re up for an award for their reporting
on the Cyborg Superman attack. Jimmy tries to get a shot with Clark, but he
insists he’s fine, this is their night. Lois insists that Clark was nominated
too, but he points out that SUPERMAN was, he wasn’t. He says it’s fine, he’s
fine. Before they can discuss this more, Steve Lombard pulls up in his wolf
van, he’s playing chauffer tonight. He jokes asking who gets to ride up front
with him, laughs, and then says the back is for nominees only, so obviously
Kent is up with him. They head out. As they drive, Steve asks Clark if he
thinks Superman is going to show up. Seems like the gang has lied to the public
and said that Superman is ‘out of town’ for reasons unknown. Clark says that
he’s sure Superman wants to be there, and that he misses the city as much as
the city misses him. He laughs awkwardly. In the back, Jimmy and Lois both know
that Clark is going through an identity crisis, but don’t know how to help.
Lois asks how long it takes to open up after your worldview is shattered. She
resolves to talk to him tonight. Jimmy changes the subject and asks if Kara is
bringing a date to the gala. Lois says no, as Kara has been full-time Supergirl
for the last month… and then realizes that Jimmy is asking because HE is
bringing a date. He says that he’s contractually obligated to go on one more
WORMS date and he just so happened to pick the absolute worst situation to
bring one. Lois points out the stupidity of this, “You’re bringing a date to
the gala where Kara is receiving an award??” and when Jimmy is blasé about it,
she says she’s looking forward to his date turning him into an octopus or
something equally horrible. And Jimmy jinxes it by saying that nothing will
happen tonight.
We jump to the red carpet, where
Jimmy insists that nothing will happen tonight, right before he’s tackled by
Flip Johnson. Flip says that she and the other interns are being featured
tonight, and Perry said that they’re the squad’s problem for the night. We see
Perry toast them before he gets back to schmoozing. Clark offers to be primary
babysitter, Lois tries to tell him that he doesn’t have to, but then he
hiss-whispers, “I need something to do!” Jimmy offers to go find Kara, right
before she flies in. She’s in a very elegant blue dress and looks divine. Jimmy
keeps saying that she’s moved on, but Lois points out that Kara is dateless.
Lois draws Kara over to them, but before she can reach her friends, a car pulls
up and Jimmy’s date gets out. This is Princess Marina Maru… this is bad, but
I’ll save the reveal of why it’s bad for later. Cat Grant literally leaps over
the car to get a soundbite from Marina, as only Cat Grant can. Kara, realizing
that Jimmy brought a date, is furious and looks like she’s about to start
wrecking the place.
Lois is flabbergasted that Jimmy’s
on a date with an actual princess, but Clark just shrugs and says that Jimmy
has a boyish charm. Lois tells Clark that she hopes they can talk tonight, but
they’re interrupted by Flip setting another guest’s dress on fire. Clark rushes
over to corral the News Kids. Lois leans back on the car and immediately met
with Vicki Vale. She just comes into frame, like she’d been there the whole
time. Vicki, being cattier than Cat, mocks Lois for turning down the job offer
Vicki gave her for the Gotham Gazette to stick with her boyfriend. Lady, Clark
is an emotionally intelligent, kind, smart, and adorkable man in the body of a Midwest
farm hand. The amount of women that would rearrange their entire lives for that
could fill a city the size of New York. She says that Lois is wasting her
potential. Lois counters by saying they’re nominated in the same category, so
she’s doing fine. Vicki counters the counter by saying Lois is ‘co-nominated’
and that she can’t do anything without one of her ‘boytoys’ helping her out.
That pisses off Lois to no end, and she takes the bait when Vicki suggests
whoever wins the award is the better reporter. Lois, angry and not thinking who
might be overhearing, says that ‘what matters is what you can do.” Not the best
thing for an emotionally vulnerable and depressed Clark to hear, now is it?
He’s already had enough trouble wrangling the News Kids, as shown by Patti
being Patti and chewing on Clark’s head. Clark drags the kids over. I enjoy the
visual storytelling that he’s got to keep a closer watch on the three girls,
and he just knows Big Words will follow meekly. Lois sees he’s upset and asks
if he’s okay, but he continues to insist that he’s fine.
We shift focus to an ice cream shop
in Metropolis square. A kid drops their ice cream, and a hulking man behind the
counter gives him a new, bigger cone. It’s B-1Z! He’s working as an Ice cream
man now. Super fitting as Kryptonians love cold. B-1Z is taking a jug of Ice
Cream outside for some reason where he sees a news report about how Superman’s
been MIA for the last month and how Supergirl is up for an award. He smiles
when Superman on the screen and quietly says ‘my friend.’
Kara sits with her friends and asks
Jimmy to introduce her to his date. That he brought to this gala. Where she is
receiving an award. Kara is clearly about 1 nanometer of pupil dilation away
from heat visioning SOMETHING when she asks. Marina cuts in, saying that
Supergirl and Superman are greatly admired even as far away as her own vaguely
French sounding country of Markovia. Kara thanks her, but says that Superman
deserves the credit. Jimmy cuts her off, saying that Kara deserves credit, and
that sometimes the city doesn’t know how it feels about her, but… ya. He’s cut
off by Marina who says how nice Jimmy is to his platonic friends. … She has no
idea what is going on between the two of them, but is clearly loving stirring
the pot. Kara is visibly hurt by the conversation, but the gala starts. The 10
Anniversary Metropolis Humanitarian Gala I being hosted by Silver St. Cloud!
(Funny how we’ve had three of Batman’s exes on this show before Batman himself.
Four if you count Lois). She thanks everyone for joining them at the natural
history museum and says they’ve got a full night ahead of them. As Silver
speaks, we see Flip and the New Kids, clearly bored by this grown up talking,
slip away to cause mischief. And the much more troubling group of armed men
sneaking into the museum with barrels of mysterious fluid. The main three goons
of this squad are Fox, Vulture and Shark, the Terrible Trio, a D or E list set
of Batman villains.
Marina is extremely flirty with
Jimmy as the event gets started, something he is clearly uncomfortable with as
Kara is staring directly at them. Clark, being the good cousin-brother that he
is, tries to distract Kara by talking about the Blue Whale skeleton hanging
above them. He tries to get Flip to distract Kara with Blue Whale facts but
then realizes she and the News Kids ran off. He takes off his suit jacket and
goes to find them, promising to be back by the time Kara gets her award.
Outside, we see B-1Z super jump to the roof of the museum in his costume. He’s
extremely excited when Kara and Superman are introduced, but then extremely
crestfallen when he hears Superman can’t make it. Kara gives a sweet speech
about how grateful that she and Superman are for this award. She looks at her
table when she says that Earth is full of the “people she loves” (Lois shakes
her head as an ‘I’m sorry’ because Clark isn’t back,) and “friends I can count
on” (Marina is still extremely possessively flirty with Jimmy). This is going
to be a rough gala for her.
Fox, Vulture and Shark have gotten
into the security room and are preparing for whatever attack they’ve been hired
to do.
Vicki slips over to the table and
tries to interview Marina. She apparently extremely outspoken on “Freedom of
expression,” and has received threats about it. Lois looks up to the upper part
of the museum and sees the armed mercs entering the hall. She decides to
investigate. Vicki teasingly jabs at Lois when she walks away, and Lois claps
back because these two bring out the grade schooler in each other.
Speaking of grade schoolers, the
News Kids are running through the museum and laughing their heads off before
they stumble upon the mysterious canisters. They also find a guard tied up, and
Flip says they should probably tell someone about this. Shark sneaks up on them
and asks, “Like who?”
Clark searches for the children,
muttering to himself how nice super senses would be right now. He starts
hearing a mysterious muttering and tells Flip to stop being creepy. He has a
vision of the arctic and Kryptonian architecture, along with Kryptonian
chanting. The words are hard to make out, but you can clearly hear “Kal-El” and
“Rao.” Rao is the Kryptonian sun god and the name of their sun. He’s drawn out
of the vision by Flip’s screams.
Back in the main gala, Lois tries
to grill one of the security guards about how many goons are at this party but
the guard is staying silent. Frustrated and annoyed she asks to speak to
whoever is in charge, and Silver comes over, saying that that is her. She
compliments Lois on her work, but says that badgering security is kind of
bringing down the vibe. She adds that the extra security are part of the
Princess private detail, nothing else. Lois apologizes, telling Silver that
she’s in a stupid competition with Vicki and that got her keyed up. Silver
gives Lois some advice about how if you need a trophy to feel validated,
nothing will ever be enough. She advises Lois to just enjoy what she has with
the people she loves before walking off. It’s at this point that Lois realizes
that the person she loves is still MIA and that’s rather concerning.
Clark runs to the kids, undoing his
tie as he does, but not having his Superman suit underneath. He runs up as
Shark threatens them with a gun. Clark dives in the way, remembers that he’s
currently not bulletproof, but still takes a swing at Shark. We cut away and
are shown dress shoes on a downed man by blood covered glasses. We pull out to
see it’s Shark laid out on the ground and while Clark got clipped, he’s overall
fine. He ties off his wounded left arm with fragments of his shirt and checks
on the kids. He ask if they’re hurt, and Flip says He’s hurt, and wants
to know where Superman is. Clark can’t answer that, and they start running from
more goons. Lois tries to find them but is spotted by Vulture, who starts
chasing her. Lois runs incredibly fast for someone in heels and a hanbok dress.
She’s grabbed by Clark and pulled into the supply closet he’s hiding in with
the News Kids. Lois warns him about the man as Clark tries to shut the door,
but Vulture arrives and tries to force his way in. Clark says, “Ya, his friend
just shot me,” and Lois gasps in horror at the first wound she’s ever seen on
her boyfriend. Vulture shoves hard against the door, but Lois gets him in the
eyes with pepper spray. Vulture radios the others to send back up once they’ve
got their hands on the princess. Clark calls Jimmy via their Flamebird watches
and warns him that the goons might be after Marina, just as Marina takes the
stage as the keynote speaker of the event. … Where she reveals her status as
Dr. Poison and her plan to cause some eco terrorism to reverse the damage the
human race has done to Earth. She’s the second Wonder Woman villain Jimmy has
dated, by the way. Lois starts yelling at Jimmy for this very thing and Jimmy
mutters that he just has a type. The goons spread out the canisters as Dr.
Poison tells them to prepare to walk out of here on four legs or not at all.
She throws on a gas mask as the canisters go off. Her gas somehow causes people
to transform into animals, the first we see is Perry getting turned into a
bear. Kara sees Dr. Poison runs off. She chases after and catches her. Dr.
Poison is disappointed that the gas didn’t work on Kara, but warns Kara that
her other men are setting up more canisters to go of in Metropolis Dam and
that’ll infect the whole city. Jimmy tells her to go save the city and that
Poison is “my contractual obligation.”
Vulture busts into the supply
closet, but Clark and company slip into the oversized vents. Considering his
beefy shoulders they’re extremely huge vents. Gas goes off in his face and
Vulture starts to morph. Jimmy calls them and asks for ideas on how to stop Dr.
Poison and Lois suggests he use his Boyish Charm, whatever that means. More gas
goes off, and Jimmy laments being turned into a wolf, but the little legs he
starts to develop aren’t quite wolfy. Vulture catches up to the group,
revealing he’d been turned into a crocodile. Very odd. They all start crawling
away as fast as they can.
Dr. Poison, in her terrible fake
accent, tells her men to “GET TO DA CHOPPA!” but is interrupted by Jimmy. He
was turned into a turtle. Dr. Poison tells him that it’s been fun, but she
needs to bid him adieu. Jimmy says that surely she’s felt their… animal
attraction, and that gives her pause.
Vulture the Crocodile chases after
the group. Lois nearly falls through a grate, but that gives her an idea. She
turns and pounds on the vent shaft until it breaks, dropping the huge croc to
the poison filled room below. Unfortunately, Lois’ section breaks too and she
falls. Clark screams her name… but then a black cat jumps up and bites him on
the ear. Ya, Lois got turned into a cat. She tells them to keep moving and
leads the way.
Dr. Poison admits to Jimmy that she
only went on a date with him to get access to this event… which is weird
because she was the keynote speaker, but hey, maybe this was from an earlier
draft of the script that they couldn’t fix. Distracted by her rather elaborate
choreography of her apology, Jimmy nabs her gasmask with his turtle beak and
Dr. Poison turns into a dog.
Kara super speeds over to the damn
and stops the goons from releasing the poison. Shark, who I guess recovered and
got sent to the secondary site, radios the others to say that Operation Make A
Splash has failed. Dr. Poison tries to escape with her men on the roof, but
they’re stopped by B-1Z, who calls her a bad dog. Kara returns to the museum
and clears out the gas with her super breath. She sees an explosion on the roof
and flies up to investigate. She finds Poison and her men tied up in steel
beams. She wonders aloud who did this.
We cut to a bit later where all the
animalized people are in a line to get an antidote for their transformation and
to get dressed. Jimmy sits on the museum steps while Dr. Poison apologizes for
breaking his fragile heart. He says he fine. She doesn’t seem to hear him and
goes on to say that there are plenty of sharks in the sea and he’ll find true
love one day. Jimmy finally admits that he is already in love with someone, but
he’s been extremely stupid about it. Poison thinks he’s talking about her, but
Jimmy loudly says her name is Kara. Kara hears this… but doesn’t look happy.
Dr. Poison tells Jimmy to tell himself whatever he needs to be happy and bids
him au revoir as she’s led away on a leash.
Lois gets de-catted, and Silver
gives her the award. Lois is flattered by this, and thanks her. Because Vicki
is watching, Lois makes big show about not caring about the award and giving it
to Flip instead. But the second Vicki leaves she takes it back and rubs it
against her cheek, saying it’s soooo shiny.
Jimmy lies back on the steps, and
an angry Kara flies into his line of sight and demands to know what the heck is
going on. She’s extremely hurt that he could express his feelings to some rando
like Dr. Poison but can’t do that with her. He tries to say that he thought she
moved on, but she reminds him that she wanted to be with him and he’s the one
the spurned her. Kara’s clearly been feeling stressed about things, as Clark
has pulled back into himself and Jimmy hasn’t been there for her to talk to either.
Jimmy thought she wanted to be friends, and Kara asks how he can be her friend
when he hides when she needs him most. Jimmy apologizes, realizing that he
didn’t realize how she felt. And she sadly says, “You didn’t ask.”
Lois hugs Clark’s wounded arm,
oops, and excitedly says they did it. Clark isn’t happy though, as he says he
didn’t do anything. Lois saved the kids, Jimmy stopped Dr. Poison, and Kara
saved the city. All he did was get shot and hide in a closet. Lois reminds him
that she loves Clark Kent, and Clark says he’s no Superman. Lois tells him that
he needs to stop comparing himself to someone that he might not ever be again.
Clark angrily asks what he is supposed to do and be now if that’s true. Before
she can answer, Lois, Clark, Jimmy and Kara all fall through portals of energy.
Mxy’s back!
Well, that was a rough time for
Clark. Going from the Man of Steel to just a guy is a difficult adjustment
whenever Clark has to do it. Some versions temporarily enjoy getting to be
normal for a bit, Smallville Clark for example, but it rarely lasts more
than a few days before they’re pining for their powers and responsibilities
again. But, as sad as it is to see a Depowered Clark, I do like the fact that
the show makes it clear that he’s still heroic. Dude dived in front of a gun
without thinking to protect some kids is as heroic as you can get. But because
he can’t do any of the bigger saves that he’s used to as Superman, it feels
like he’s not doing enough. It’s also sad to see an open, emotionally
intelligent man like Clark fall in on himself with the classic deflection
phrase of, “It’s fine. I’m fine!” I feel bad for Lois in this one too, as she’s
split between worrying about Clark, worrying about Kara, and getting sucked
into another pissing contest with Vicki Vale. Silver’s little speech to Lois to
not get so sucked into these petty little contests was great. But I also loved
Lois faking humility to annoy Vicki just to immediately backtrack and talk
about how shiny her trophy is. Take that League of Lois Lanes. It might not be
a Pulitzer, but she’s on the scoreboard now! Jimmy is an idiot for bringing a
date to a gala celebrating Kara, even if it’s to let the episode happen.
Dumbass, dumb and ass behavior right there. I used all three words for
emphasis. That said, Dr. Poison was extremely funny with her pot stirring, and
then her weird acrobatics as Jimmy distracted her with his boyish charm. I
didn’t even try to describe it, it’s impossible to transcribe accurately for
me. She was putting on a contortionist show as she broke things off with Jimmy.
I liked seeing B-1Z again. He seems to be doing great, and having him help save
the day was neat. My only real complaint is once again the pacing, as we have
to cover this episode describing the fallout of Superman’s disappearance
without actually covering it. Another episode set in the month skip that shows
Clark drawing away from Kara and Jimmy deliberately avoiding her would have
helped drive the point home that everyone is kind of floundering with Clark
losing his powers. Oh, and Cat Lois was cute and we could have used more of
her. But, ya, that’s about it, next time we’ll have some Mxy shenanigans to
bring up the mood. That’s always fun. Have a good night, everyone and stay
safe.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/u2761062/posts/viewer-log-my-ep-168064365
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
It's a battle of the Supermen. The world shall tremble with their clash.
Last time on My Adventures With
Superman, the future came crashing into Lois and Clark’s relationship in a
big way. While on a date with the goal of figuring out their future, the date
is crashed by Superboy, Jon Kent, their time traveling son. Clark is clearly
excited by the existence of this boy, while Lois spends most of this episode
panicking. Jimmy, who’s latest WORMS date gave him quills, and Kara, she
crashed the dating app from all her matches, join the group and they try to get
to know Jon. Lois keeps trying to find an explanation for Jon other than what
he clearly is, a conclusion highlighted by this Korean Superboy eating bread in
the exact same way as his mother. They end up at the mall and do a shopping
montage, with the boys bonding, Jon seemingly avoiding Kara, and Lois being
anxious. A quake causes a toy advertisement to fall, but Jon leaps in and saves
everyone. Seeing Jon selflessly save people like that makes it click for Lois
that he is indeed her boy. But she’s very concerned as to why he traveled back
in time to see them. They end up eating ramen on the roof of the Daily Planet,
and Jon and Lois bond a little. Lois tells him her fears about the future,
while he insists the future isn’t set in stone and they can shape it. Their
meal is interrupted by another quake, Jon asking Kara to sit this one out so he
and Clark can bond. Father and son arrive at a construction site being attacked
by the Subterranosauri, a race of dinosaur people that live underground. They
fight off the raiders, but the fighting is ultimately stopped by Jon giving an
impassioned speech to their leader, leading to peace. The group heads to the
Kent Family Farm to get patched up. Lois finally admits to Clark that after
getting to know Jon, she’s not so afraid of the future, and Clark says it looks
ever brighter than he’d hoped. The moment is ruined by Kara telling them to get
inside. Hank, while this was going on, had finally snapped and destroyed Lex’s
control remote. He’s attacking Metropolis and dares Superman to face him. Clark
and Kara super speed away, and Jon looks horrified as he says that he thought
he had more time. Lois demands to know what that means, and he reveals the
truth. In his future, Clark and Lois are dead and the world is ruled by Hank
Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman. He came back to stop Hank. Enough recapping.
Let’s get to it, shall we?
This episode forgoes the opening
credits, diving right into Hank demanding that Superman face him, he eggs Clark
to fight like a hero and to die like one. Clark and Kara fly in and Hank
appears in a flash of green lightning. Clark, ever the mediator, tries to talk
Hank down. He says that they’ve all fought to defend the world, but Hank cuts
him off, saying that he fought to save earth from an invasive species. The
world that Hank fought to protect is gone, and he going to make Superman pay
for that as he dives at Clark.
We do get an opening credit “The
Death of Superman” shown over a black monument of Superman’s Crest that is
coated in blood. Well… that’s ominous.
We jump back to the farm. Martha is
sobbing at the kitchen table with fear for her son, Jonathan and Jimmy are
doing their best to comfort her. Jon tells Lois about the future that Hank
Henshaw ruined. He says that Hank kills Clark and Lois in his opening rampage.
He then says he was sent back by Dr. Luthor and Lois is flabbergasted to hear
that Lex is helping. She demands to know why he didn’t say any of this sooner.
Jon says that he basically got lost in the moment. Lex sent him back in time
and the last thing he saw was Lex getting vaporized. He appeared in the skies
over Metropolis and was just awed by how happy and peaceful the world was. He
ended up at the Poundcake Palace and saw Clark and Lois enjoying their meal and
each other’s company. He says he’d never seen two people so happy, and he just…
wanted to pretend that this was his life for a bit. Lois caresses her son’s
face, and Jon says that he’s going to fix this. Lois asks how, and Jon
says he’ll do it by saving his dad. And Lois will stay at the farm where it’s
safe. Lois is not okay with her newly discovered baby flying off into danger
and uses the most dreaded of parental techniques, using his full name to try to
stop him. “No, you come back here right now, Jonathan Kent!” but Jon
flies off. She should have thrown in the first name. … It’s Samuel, after his
other grandpa. Lois runs out and watches him fly off into the distance before
shouting at Pa that she needs to borrow the truck.
If this wasn’t such a dramatic
moment, I think Lois would have seen herself in a mirror and realized that
she’d taken the exact stance that her father took when he scolded her. We all
copy our parents at least a little.
In Metropolis, Kara handles the
drones. She’s clearly more powerful than them, but it’s two on one so she’s
having trouble focusing on one without the other stepping in. She gets knocked
into a building. Hank, meanwhile, is beating on Clark and screaming his
frustrations into the night sky. He claims to have given everything to
become who he was, but Superman just floated in and took it all away. He hits
Clark with a rocket enhanced punch, but then Clark hits back and sends him
flying. Clark’s punch shattered the material around Hank’s felt eye, revealing
the cyborg skull underneath. He screams in fury and attacks Clark again,
catching him by the head and slamming him through several buildings. He sees
his face in the broken glass, nice visual metaphor, and says after all of that,
look at what he’s become. He slams Clark into the ground.
Clark yells at the civilians to
run. Hank rips the Daily Planet’s Planet from the roof and mockingly tells
everyone to look at Superman and see how much they matter to him. He lobs the
planet at Clark; Clark catches it before it can crush a kid, ending up in an
Atlas pose. Hank notices the pose as well and mockingly asks if the weight of
the world is too much for the hero as he punches the Planet, trying to crush
Superman and the kid under it. The kid gets grabbed and moved to safety by
Superboy, who then flips around and hits Hank with a Kamen Rider style flying
kick. Sending him flying backwards. Jon joins his father and they put the
planet back on the roof. Clark tells Jon to get back to the farm where it’s
safe, with Lois. Jon then reveals that Hank kills Clark. Clark is stunned to
learn that he wasn’t able to stop Hank, and Jon tells him no one was. We see
how the timeline played out in Jon’s world. Clark is killed by Hank, smashed
into the ground like refuse. Hank starts a reign of terror across the planet,
and we see an infant Jon being held by Kara as Jon says that all they could do
was watch. Clark flies over to him and the two argue over who is going to
sacrifice themselves for the greater good. The El genes are strong in
personality, not looks. The argument is interrupted by Hank flying in and
decking Jon into the ground.
Hank screams, “Dad!? You aliens
are breeding!” before slamming his fist into Jon’s stomach. I don’t know if
saying Jon’s mother is Lois would help or hinder this situation, as Hank and
her used to be friends. Hank is infuriated that Superman gets to have a family
while he never will. He picks up Jon and flings him around to slam into Clark,
as he’d flown over to help. Father and son hit the pavement and Hank kicks Jon
aside. He grabs Superman’s head and slams his face into the ground a few times
before flying upwards, holding Clark’s head. He admits that he couldn’t wait to
kill Superman in front of the world, but he’s not much more excited to kill
Superman in front of his son. He starts electrocuting Clark, but Kara flies in,
screaming at Hank to get away from them. She hits him into the ground. Kara
flies down and helps Clark to his feet. Jon gets up and tells them both to get
out of here, especially Kara.
Hank gets up and the Supers stand
together against him. Clark once again tries to talk him down, saying that Hank
is better than this. Because he’s full crazy right now, Hank agrees that he is
better than Superman. He claims the world as his, not Superman’s and to show
him that, Hank uses his technopathic powers to fry the controls of a plane,
helicopter and train. Kara and Jon fly off to protect the city, and Clark stays
to fight Hank. Hank summons the broken parts of his robots. Like the one that
attacked Project: Caliban, the LexCorp robots are designed to breakdown into
smaller units. Hank turns the two robots into six drones that he uses to shoot
plasma beams at Clark. Clark destroys them with his heat vision as they fly
around the skyline. Hank activates his built in thrusters to chase down Clark,
claiming to be faster, stronger, and just better than Superman. He slams a fist
into Clark’s stomach, sending him skyward, before flying above him and shotting
him with a double palm laser. The explosion is big enough for Lois and Jimmy to
see from the highway. They traveled 200 miles in about 10 minutes, so Jimmy’s
hero name is Leadfoot.
Clark drops to the city and lands
in the park. Hank mocks Superman, asking if he really needs the people
to love him that badly. They’re not even the same species after all. Clark
tells Hank to back off, the people didn’t do anything to him, they don’t
deserve this. Clark and Hank are surrounded by more of the LexCorp robots and
the scene looks eerily familiar to how Clark is supposed to die. Hank says that
people don’t get what they deserve, but Superman is going to get what’s coming
to him. He rips off his LexCorp crest and reveals he’s powered by a heart of
Kryptonite. Clark’s body immediately starts reacting to the radiation, green
veins forming on his skin as he screams in agony. Hank says one of the coldest
lines of this series, “You’re going to wish they’d loved me when they had the
chance.”
We jump to the LexCorp building.
Slade helps Lex to walk as they leave the elevator, the mercenary poking at Lex
asking, “It’s not just a blip now, is it?” Lex asks if they’re even yet, and
Slade says they’re getting there. The Kent’s truck then barrels through the
front door, Lois at the wheel now. She leaps from the truck before it’s
completely stopped, and channeling all the rage of the (future) wife and
(future) mother of Supermen that Lex put in danger, gives Lex a fly punch to
the face. Lex goes sprawling, Slade letting him fall and saying that now
they’re even. She lifts him up and demands that he shut Hank down. Lex refuses.
He says that Lois is so entitled, she thinks she can do whatever she wants,
because she’s got her super boyfriend backing her up. Bro, if you think
that Lois wouldn’t punch you in the face for being a sociopathic asshole before
she met Clark, I’ve got bad news for you. He insists that everyone else
needs someone to protect them from Superman. After the building shakes from the
fighting outside, Lois asks if he really feels safe right now, and who he
thinks Hank is going to go after once Superman is dead.
Kryptonite has really shifted the
fight in Hank’s favor. He slaps Superman around, who can’t do much more than
groan in pain and grow crystals on his body. Hank slams Clark into a building
and mutters that he’s not having fun anymore, so now it’s time to die. He opens
up his palm laser, which is now Kryptonite infuse. Before he can unleash his
attack, he screams in pain as energy surges around him. He realizes that Lex is
trying to hack his system and he zoom away. We see Jon helping the plane touch
down just before Hank flies by, his Kryptonite on full display. Jon looks like
he just watched death himself go by.
At LexCorp, Lex says that he is
just three firewalls away from getting control of Hank’s body. Hank arrives,
his sonic boom shattering the windows. Lex runs from the computer and hides
behind Lois. Hank recognizes Lois and pauses. Lois asks him to stop… but Hank
refuses. He prepares to fire, but then gets hit by a steel beam. He turns and
barely dodges another. He uses his telescopic robot eyes to see Jon near a
construction site, preparing to lob more debris at him. Hank is impressed that
Jon thought to stay away from the Kryptonite, calling him a “clever little
vermin.” He super speeds over to Jon. Jon tries to hit him with a beam, but
Hank is too fast. He slams Jon into the ground and says Jon isn’t clever
enough. Jon is able to dodge Hank’s and tries to heat vision Hank, but Hank
blocks it. Jon isn’t nearly as sick as Clark from the Kryptonite exposure, most
likely due to the human in him. Kara zooms in and knocks Hank away. She helps
get Jon up and tells him that Jon can’t beat Hank on his own, they need to
coordinate. Jon reveals that he’s got a suit of anti-Kryptonite armor that he’d
been waiting to bust out for some reason. He says it’s experimental but should
give him an edge. Kara says ‘resistance’ isn’t enough against Kryptonite, Hank
is too strong. Jon tries to leave her, anyway. Kara, frustrated by Jon’s
distance demands to know what she does in the future that is so bad that Jon
won’t look her in the eye or stand beside her in battle. Jon, realizing that he
was sending the wrong message to Kara this whole time, tells her the truth.
With his parent’s dead, Kara took over raising him. We get a montage of
Metropolis getting destroyed as Kara and baby Jon watch, followed by a few
quick scenes of Kara raising Jon, teaching him to fight, to appreciate nature,
and then dying when she faced off against Cyborg Superman, left as a broken
corpse covered in Kryptonite shards. Yes, Kara went full Future Gohan. So Jon has
been keeping her at an emotional arms length because the thought of losing her
again so soon was tearing him up inside. Kara says that Earth is Kal-El and
Lois’ home, that it’s not really hers, but Jon is her family and she’ll fight
to defend him. They need to fight together to win and Jon finally accepts that.
Hank drags himself from the
building he collided with. He scans the area for a few moments before locking
onto Clark. He hasn’t recovered at all from the Kryptonite exposure and is
still writhing in pain. Hank zooms over after muttering, “time to get back on
mission.” He slams Clark into the ground a few times before getting hit with a
double punch from Kara and Jon. They split bits of the armor between the two of
them in the hopes it’ll give them an edge. Hank asks if they’ve come to die
with Dear old dad and tells them to wait their turn. He fires a Kryptonite beam
at them, but they’re fast enough to dodge. Together, Kara and Jon disarm Hank,
literally. Unfortunately, with his technopathic powers, he’s able to draw robot
parts to him that he slams into himself. His metallic shell seems to mutate,
incorporating the parts into himself and making him more monstrous. He does a scan,
realizes they’re wearing armor and starts targeting it specifically. He slams
Kara to the ground and knocks Jon away from him. He realizes that Jon loves
Kara, and he’s going to bury the metaphorical knife into Jon’s heart by killing
her first. He says that “We all die alone.” Jon, furious and scared, charges
Hank. Hank turns and catches Jon by the face, saying, “here, let me show you.”
Clark regains consciousness and
sees Hank holding Jon by the face. He screams, “No!” tries to get up but falls
over. We see inside Clark, into the biotechnology within him that gives him his
powers. It’s like an electric cell wrapped up along with his organic cells. It
flares with energy but then dies from the Kryptonite poisoning. Hank morphs his
arm into a gun and says its time to finish this. Seeing his son in danger sends
a rage through Clark like he’d never felt before, causing his power cell to
flare to life. It shatters the Kryptonite crystals forming on him and Clark is
able to super speed over to save Jon. He rips off Hank’s non-gun arm and gets
Jon to safety. He and Hank clash. Clark screaming that he won’t let Hank hurt
his family or his world. Hank accuses Clark of stealing his future. Clark
counters by saying that the future belongs to everyone, and he’s taking it
back. He slams his hand into Hank’s chest, rips out the Kryptonite heart and
shatters it into pieces. Hank drops, but so does Clark. We see inside him to
his energy cell, and we see that goes black. He drops to his knees and his
vision blurs.
Hank, who is a sore loser, refuses
to go down easily. He’s got enough power left to trigger the warhead that Lex
implanted in him as a final failsafe. Hank’s stunned to see Jon is up and
helping Clark to his feet. He demands to know why Jon isn’t affect by the
Kryptonite like the others. Clark shrugs and says that Jon’s mother is from
Earth. This seems to really upset Hank, who throws up oil upon learning that
Jon’s human as well as Kryptonian. Finally getting a good look at Jon and not
being blinded by rage, he realizes that Jon is too old to Clark’s son. Clark at
this point is in his mid-20s, we’ll say 24-25. Jon’s at minimum 16, so ya,
those numbers don’t mesh. Jon reveals he’s from the future and that he came
back to stop Hank. Hank has a vision like before, of him in a space suit
looking out to the stars. He says that he was supposed to be the future, to
lead Humanity forward. His vision self turns and sees a wave of Kryptonian
hybrids flying up from Earth and realizes that humanity chooses the aliens over
him. Hank starts crying as he realizes that they’re the future now and shuts
down before the bomb can go off. Jon tells him that they did it. Jon sees Kara
get up and rushes over to hug her. Jon’s watch starts beeping. He tells Kara
that it’s running out of power and that he needs to return to the future. But
he’s not ready to go yet. Kara tells him that he has to go, but she’s excited
to see him in the future. I’ve got a mental image of a very confused looking
baby Jon listening to Kara tell him all about all the stuff his variant did when
he went back in time.
Clark and Lois say goodbye to Jon,
hugging their boy and thanking him for all he did. Jon tells them that he loves
them both so much and prepares to go. Lois grabs his hand and asks how he
knows he can go back and that things
will be better? Jon just shrugs and says that it’ll be because they’ll be there
together before vanishing in a flash of light. Lois helps Clark to Pa’s truck,
he asks her how bad it is because he doesn’t have his glasses. Lois thinks he’s
making a joke and laughs, but tells him the truck is pretty banged up. Clark
says that Pa will be so disappointed, but Lois laughs again and says that he’ll
just be happy they saved the city. She kisses him and adds that they saved
Superman. Clark, clearly scared, tells Lois that he’s lost his powers. He can’t
‘feel’ them anymore. He thinks he pushed too hard during the fight and
something broke inside him. He says he can’t protect them or be Superman for
her anymore. Lois takes a moment to process that before hugging him, saying
that they didn’t save Superman, but they saved Clark, and changed the future.
Right? It starts raining.
We flash forward to the future.
Metropolis has gone full Cyberpunk Dystopia with, shocking no one, LexCorp
branding on all the buildings. The city is patrolled by an army of robotic
drones modeled after Superman but with bright yellow glasses for eyes. We join High
Commander Lex Luthor as Slade and some Eradicator drones bring a rebel to him. Lex has gone through a major makeover, adding
a lot of cybernetics to his body. Lex greets Jonathan Lane and gives his
regards to Jonathan’s mother. He goes over and crouches down next to Jonathan,
saying that he heard that the Superboy is trying to go back in time. That
doesn’t work for Lex, though, and he’d like to know where Jonathan got that
idea. We get a good look at Jonathan’s face, and this version has a scar over
his left eye.
Looks like the future took a
lateral move. From rampaging Cyborg apocalypse to evil corporate dystopia.
Shit.
Ya know, going into this episode, I
never considered that they were going to go with a metaphorical Death of
Superman. Which is weird. I’ve been watching Superman related media for going
on thirty years at this point, I’ve seen him on the big and small screen, in
live action and animation. In just about every version of the story that I’ve
seen, there is an episode or at most a short string of episodes that covers
what happens if Clark loses his powers and can’t be Superman anymore. It’s a
staple of the mythos of Superman, and I never once considered it. I assumed
Clark was going to die in this fight and the rest of the season was going to be
Jon trying to Mulligan a way to save his father. But, nope, Kryptonite
poisoning so bad and then Clark overworking his powers until they burn out. That’s
brutal. My only complaint about this Cyborg Superman arc is that it is
INCREDIBLY rushed. Hank Henshaw as Cyborg Superman is introduced in episode 2, has
maybe ten minutes of screen time across episodes 3 and 4, and then goes full
psycho by 5. That’s an entire SEASON of content in less than half the episodes.
My God, do I HATE the 10-episode season that is now industry standard. If we
just added five episodes to this season to bring it up to 15, that could have
included a few episodes to show us Jon’s future and the future of this new
Jonathan variant, included an episode just about Hank and showing how he’s
losing it as his metal body and new powers are socially isolating him to an
insane degree, and give us more set up on the villain that steps up next, no
spoilers beyond it’s not Hank. It makes me so angry because those extra
episodes could have added weight to everything that was happening. Jon’s desire
to save both his biological parents as well as his aunt who was the mom that
stepped up, Lois’ anxiety about the future, Hank’s deteriorating mental state
as the inhumanity of his existence makes him lose touch with reality, and Clark
just trying to save as many people as he can, all of that could have been
enhanced with more episodes. Despite this, Hank really does carry the episode.
His crazy lines and self-loathing even as he revel in the powers he’d been
given is all great. Some felt that giving him a heart of Kryptonite made him
too much like John Corbin aka Metallo… but come on, an anti-Superman cyborg
built by Lex is going to have Kryptonite powering it, it’s like Lex’s main
gimmick. And, Metallo and Cyborg Superman cover similar enough story beats that
merging them is probably the best call. And given the choice between the two,
I’ll go with Cyborg Superman as he’s just the more visually interesting
character. Metallo as he’s been presented in most media is a robot man, that’s
kind of it. He might have some fancy weapons but he’s mostly going to run up
and punch at Superman. With Cyborg Superman you get him using a corrupted
version of all of Superman’s gear. It’s so cool! Lois was great in this
episode, just for punching Lex in the face again. So ya, Clark’s powerless, Jon
is gone and the future has changed but not necessarily for the better. Bet
you’re wondering how they’ll fix this? We’ll find out next time. Have a
goodnight, everyone! And stay safe.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
Clark + Lois = Golden Retriever son
Last time on My Adventures With
Superman, everyone had an… interesting day. Jimmy spent the day at WORMS
(The World Organization for Romantic Matchmaking Science) as part of an
ill-thought-out plan to try to make Kara jealous. He seems to hit it off with
his date Dolores aka Gigi, that is until she exposes him to some chemicals that
turn him into a wolfman. Lois informs Kara what’s going on with Jimmy and they
put her on a dating app so Kara can beat Jimmy at this ‘contest.’ Upon learning
that Kara is still pretty much a blank slate, the two end up at the Mall. They
have a musical number that shows Kara is excited for the future while Lois is
anxious as hell. Clark tries to have a peaceful day at home with his miniature farm
but keeps getting called away to deal with emergencies. The first is to a dog
adopt-a-thon on a yacht, which he doesn’t mind, the other is to deal with a
LexCorp robbery. He ends up saving Intergang from Captain Hank, who tries to
take MAWS Team Rocket with extreme prejudice. Clark keeps him at bay until Hank
tries to laser slash everyone. At that point, Slade steps in and tells Hank the
boss wants to see him. Jimmy gets turned back to normal by the WORMS CEOs
Zazzala and Tazzala, but is then kidnapped by Gigi, who is the supervillain
Giganta. She grows fifty feet tall and pulls a King Kong with Jimmy, climbing
up the Daily Planet building. With the Zalas help, Clark frees Jimmy from Gigi
and brings him home. At the apartment, Lois tells Clark that she’s feeling
anxious for the future, and they agree to have breakfast tomorrow to talk about
their life plan. Lex rips Hank a new asshole for that PR fumble, reminding Hank
that Lex owns him. And finally, we cut to the future and a Superboy is
outfitted with some tech by a future Bald Lex before being sent back in time.
Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
The episode opens with Clark
arriving at Lois’ place to pick her up for their brunch date. She opens the
door and looks extremely harried and needs to take a moment to remember she
needs shoes to go outside. Clark starts to ask what’s up, but Lois cuts him
off, saying to keep quite as otherwise he’ll wake Kara. Kara, it seems, lives
with Lois now and is at the moment sleep flying just over their heads. A side
effective of Lois getting Kara onto the dating apps is that Kara has no idea
what she’s doing, so she’s asking Lois 10,000 questions about it. It’s leaving
her a little frazzled. Clark gently lets her know that it’ll be okay, they’re
going to go have breakfast at her favorite place (Poundcake Palace!) and
discuss their future and everything will be alright. It’ll be alright because
they have (“poundcake!” According to Lois) each other and there’s no Superman
business to get in their way. Lois affectionately tells Clark that she’ll
always have her Superman, but they both agree, no Super Business today. They
head out and leave Kara to her dreams of petting dogs.
They walk down the street arm in
arm when Jimmy calls Clark. He’s on a date with another WORMS scientist,
because Jimmy is both optimistic AND dumb. He says that the woman he’s seeing
is great, but she sprayed him with a mysterious chemical and he might need their
help. Lois forcibly hangs up Clark’s watch on Jimmy, because she’s not missing
her poundcake, dammit. Jimmy’s Flamebird watches come with a nifty holographic
chibi display, so Lois has to metaphorically crush Jimmy to hang up on him.
They make it to the restaurant and
start getting comfortable. They’re feeling pretty cocky at this point, having
dodged their respective roommates and made it to the restaurant without any
funny business. Clark loudly proclaims that they can handle anything the future
throws at them… right before a red-blue blur drops from the ceiling, grabs all
their cake and leaps back up again. They both look upwards and see a Korean boy
in a Superman suit hanging from the chandelier. He quickly eats the carbs
before happily saying, “Hi mom! Hi Dad!” and dropping down to sit with them,
asking if they’d ordered yet.
Superboy is very… high energy. He
quickly pages through the menu before deciding they should have one of
everything and races away to get it. Lois is freaking out as this teenager (that
is obviously their son due to his looks and superpowers) is basically all of
her stress dreams of late in human form and begs Clark to tell her what they
should do. Superboy rejoins them and finally introduces himself when they ask
what he meant by ‘mom and dad.’ This is Jonathan ‘Jon’ Kent, their son, from the
FUTURE! He says it like he thinks they should know who he is, despite the fact
he very obviously travelled back to a point before his own birth. Jon is so
excited to be here, he says it’s “Slamming!” He quickly zooms around his past
parents, asking them a lot of questions, like what books do they like, why does
Clark wear glasses and where do they hang out. He pulls out Lois’ compass she
got from her dad during the season premier, and when Lois asks how he did that
he says he saw it with X-ray vision and is a great pickpocket like his mama. He
hands the compass back to Lois. Her brain is kind of broken at seeing this
15–17-year-old son, but before she can ask him any questions, they’re joined by
Jimmy and Kara. Jimmy got covered in porcupine quills by his last date, and
Kara seems to have gotten so many matches on CrushRush that she broke the app.
Jimmy and Kara finally notice Jon, who introduces himself to his Uncle and
Aunt. They’re both excited to meet him, Kara telling Clark that he and Lois did
their bloodline proud, and Jimmy gets distracted by finally processing what
Kara said about breaking the app. He pokes Lois one too many times with his
quills, causing the extremely stressed-out Lois to scream in outrage. She
panics their server, who spills a bunch of bread, and Clark asks if they can
take it to go.
The group heads to STAR Labs. Jimmy
gets his quills pulled out by a scientist while Jon examines everything, he can
get his eyes on. The kid has got a huge amount of Golden Retriever energy. “Can
I touch this? I’m touching it! (Zap) Ow!” Clark, realizing that Jon might be
overstimulated here suggests they go outside. Jon zooms over and shouts “I love
outside!” There is a news report about unexplained tremors around the city.
Jimmy is convinced he knows what the tremors are about, but he’s distracted by
another quill being pulled out. And that, kids, is called ‘Foreshadowing.”
Outside, Jon apologizes if he’s been a bit
much, he’s just excited to be here. He says while scarfing down a huge load of
bread. Clark tells him not to worry. He calls Jon ‘Kiddo,’ but the pause is
just long enough that I’m convinced he was about to say ‘Son,’ but remembered
Lois is freaking out. Lois is still trying to find an explanation for this
besides that Jon is her son from the future. Clark points out that Jon is a
flying pickpocket. I’d have mentioned he’s a Kryptonian that looks Korean, but maybe
it’s better to focus on his skillset. She asks if they should really just take
his word on it, and shouldn’t Clark need more evidence? And in one of the
funniest moments of the season, Jon sees Lois standing with her arm
outstretched. He rips his loaf of bread in half and hands her a piece. And in
perfect sync, the two gobble up their bread in one big bite, then dust off
their hand on their shirts and lick their lips clean. Clark says, “Not Really,”
and Kara has a much blunter, “No.” Lois tries to escape the situation by saying
that she needs to write up a story for the Planet. Jon doesn’t want her to go,
so begs her to take him with her. Lois finally asks a question that I’m sure
has been eating at her all day, “Why are you here, Jon?” Kara tries to distract
Jon by offering to show him some Kryptonian wrestling moves, but he’s not super
into it. Clark suggests doing ‘normal’ stuff, and Kara is positive that she
knows of something normal to do. They head to the mall, much to Lois’
exasperation.
We cut to LexCorp tower. Hank is
laying in his repair pod getting his body calibrated. He’s watching a news
report about himself, as the man is a bit vain. Shocking, I know. The report
talks about how Hank used to be a well-respected and decorated Astronaut, with
an aspiration to lead humanity to a brighter tomorrow. Hank has a vision or
flashback of himself working on a satellite while watching the sun rise over
the distant Earth and looks hopeful as well as mesmerized. A stark difference
from the man with a metal jaw. He remembers Lex scolding him and saying that
he’s making people scared of him. Lois comes on the report, saying that Hank
isn’t a hero and she’s not sure he can go back to the ‘maverick’ he used to be.
In an extremely well-designed shot, we see Hank’s face in profile, his glowing
red eye blinking as he mentally winds back Lois’ clip to “Hank is not out
hero,” over and over again. I have no idea why famous print journalist
Lois Lane is on TV, but we’re moving past that. Furious, Hank activates his
laser palms and cuts up the place, including a photo of himself.
Back at the mall, we see a shopping
montage of Clark, Jimmy and Jon bonding. They’re all massive dorks that get
matching jackets and pose with them. Jon tries to give Lois a jacket too, but
she looks behind him, sees a ‘mommy and me’ display and panics again. Jon gets
distracted by roller shoes, which blows this flying boy’s mind, and Jimmy gets
him a pair. Kara tries to join in on the fun, but Jon seems to be deliberately
avoiding interacting with her. Jimmy also buys Jon a Superman plushy, and we
see with the Flamebird cash counter that Jimmy is in the red for about $1500.
The fun is interrupted by another tremor. The quake Is big enough to cause a
giant toy cat to fall from the ceiling. Lois screams for the folks to look out,
but Jon leaps into action, saving everyone by catching the cat mid fall. This
seems to make it click for Lois that this is her boy, as she mutters Jon is
‘Just like Clark.” Her smile suggests she’s happy to accept this info… but
she’s now even more concerned about why he’s here.
We shift back to LexCorp. Lex is
working on something, while Slade is angrily watching something on his phone.
Seems like his encounter with Hank last episode left him with a broken right
arm. He still tries to do his job and draws his left sword. Hank tries to be
playful, calling Slade “fido” for being a good attack dog. Lex reminds Hank
that they ‘agreed’ he’d stay in his quarters until further notice, and draws
attention to his control remote for emphasis. Hank glares for a moment, and
then apologizes. He tries to be humble with Lex, but Lex keeps verbally
stabbing him. Making Hank say that Lex is the one in charge, and that he’ll
never forget he owes Lex everything “again.” Lex accepts the apology and
dismisses Hank. Hank leaves, but stares at one of the robot drones. Once alone,
Slade tries to make Lex see that that was the most insincere apology ever. Lex
is blasé about the whole thing, thinking a ‘firm hand’ makes that ‘type’ fall
in line. Slade scoffs at that and says that he is of that type. Slade knows
that Hank isn’t going to stop after trying to kill Slade yesterday. Lex keeps
insisting that he’s got it under control. Unbeknownst to them, Hank uses his
thermal vision to see into the room and targets the remote.
At the mall, Jon wants to keep up
the shopping. Lois needs a break, though, and fakes a call from Perry to try to
get out of family time. She tries to ditch them, but Jon begs to see the Daily
Planet. Lois looks like she’s going to say no, but sees both her son and her
future husband’s hopeful looks and relents. They all pile into her cubical at
the Planet, which is stifling so Lois shouts she needs some air. They head to
the roof and eat ramen together. Jimmy talks about how nice it is to be five
best friends on the roof, but Kara cuts him off and asks Jimmy to take a photo
of her holding the Daily Planet’s Planet for her dating profile. Clark senses
the hostility here and offers to do the photo for her, but she insists Jimmy do
it as he takes the best pictures and the dating was his idea. She then lifts
the actual planet, which makes Clark panic and he yells at her to put it back.
Lois and Jon share a laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Lois notices that
Jon is also eating the spicy ramen, and Jon laughs and says he must get it from
her. He calls her mom, which makes something break in Lois’ brain again. Jon
looks disappointed, as he’s been paying attention and knows that Lois isn’t
processing this all super well. She tells him that he’s great, super even, it’s
just hard to wrap her mind around. Lois vents to Jon about her anxieties about
the future and the feeling that she’s locked into a future she can’t control.
Jon says he doesn’t believe in fate, and that the future is there’s to shape. A
bold thing for the boy whose entire existence is predicted by Lois Lane having
a child with Clark Kent, which hasn’t happened yet. Still, hearing that seems
to make Lois feel a bit better. She asks again why he’s there, but they’re
interrupted by an explosion downtown. Clark zooms away. Kara goes to follow,
but Jon asks if maybe she can sit this one out so he and Clark can have some
father-son time. Kara reluctantly agrees. Jon dives off the roof, giving Lois a
minor heart attack, and Kara zooms away. It’s only at that point that Lois and
Jimmy realize they’re locked on the roof with no way down since their ride flew
off. Jimmy posts a video on Flamebird asking for lockpicking tips.
We join Clark and Jon looking at a
construction site that is covered with dinosaur people. Jon laughs, saying that
he thought that the past was just wobbly. Clark is shocked by the dinosaur
people that live below the earth’s crust, and wonders what else is Jimmy right
about. Jon calls them the Subterranosauri. He says they’re all super cool,
super reasonable, and that he’ll have this wrapped up in five minutes. The
dinopeople are rampaging around the construction site, attacking people,
breaking machinery and throwing girders around. Clark is less than convinced,
but Jon insists. They fly down and Jon tries to introduce himself to a big red
rex. The rex roars at Jon, and he thinks that means the Rex’s English isn’t
very good. He tries to remember how to greet in Subterranosauri, but gets tail
whipped into some concrete for his trouble.
Jumping back to LexCorp, Hank goes
into Lex’s lab again. Lex tries to blow him off, but Hank insist he make time.
Hank threatens Lex, Lex tries to get him to back down with his remote, but Hank
mentally blows it up. Lex tries to run, but Hank activates two robots that grab
Lex. He screams for Slade, who comes in, but isn’t feeling super protective
after the last few days. Lex pleads for his life, offering Hank whatever he
wants. Hank admits that he wants his life back. Sensing an opening, Lex turns
Hank’s fury on Superman. Hank puts him down and Lex tries to weasel Hank into
an alliance, but Hank super flicks him into a wall, saying there is no “we,”
anymore.
Clark helps his son out of the
debris he was launched into. Jon is super confused by all of this as in his
time the Subterranosauri are humanities allies. Clark tells Jon to help the
civilians while Clark handles the dinosaurs. He super breaths a bunch of the
dinos back towards the hole they crawled out of. Jon tries to get people to
evacuate by just yelling, but Clark advises him that he needs to make everyone
feel safe if he wants to help them. He lands and grabs a little girl that was
cornered by the dinos. He tries to fly her away, but she’s afraid of heights,
so he instead super speed roller blades them away. Clark tries to fight the
dinos while not letting the building collapse. Big Red throws a crane cable at
him, but Clark freeze breaths him in place. Clark and Jon meet up and agree
that was slamming. The bonding is interrupted by the arrival of Tyrannko,
prince of the Subterranosauri. This one speaks English for some reason.
Tyrannko pontificates about the injustice that the surface dwellers have dealt
to the Subterranosauri. Jon, who is geeking out a little, steps in and
convinces Tyrannko that humans and dinos can live in peace. He’s got that Kent
verbal magic.
Tyrannko shakes hand with the mayor
and peace is forged between humans and Subterranosauri. Clark and Jon hang out
with Big Red Rex and Clark asks about the future with the Subterranosauri. Jon
says they’ve been allies for like twenty years, from his perspective, and then
realizes that he’s the one that made peace with the dinos. Some chicken and egg
time travel right there. Clark smiles at his son’s excitement about being a
hero and tells him that this is what Superman is all about, making a Brighter
Tomorrow. He then says he knows just the place to get patched up.
We jump to everyone hanging out at
the Kent family farm. In the most unrealistic moment of the series, Jonathan
and Martha walk away after getting their son and grandson checked out. Those
two would be glued to Jon until he left, you’d have to pry them off of
him. But whatever, Jon and Clark are patched up, Jimmy is exasperated that he
missed the subterranean dinosaur people, and Kara is just hanging out astride a
white horse. That’s a comic reference, by the way, in the Silver Age Kara
briefly dated a White horse that took human shape. The Silver Age was weird.
Clark offers to tell them everything over dinner. Clark offers to play catch
with Jon beforehand, and Kara very much wants to show her nephew Earth Catch,
but Jon says he wants to help Lois with her story.
Lois doesn’t look up from her
writing to ask her son how to spell Tyrannko’s name. She lets him have a look
and Jon speed reads the story, saying that it too is Slamming. He mentions that
Lois is just how he imagined her. Lois picks up on the word choice there and
asks why he’d have to ‘imagine’ his mom. Jon tries to back peddle on that
comment and searches his jacket for something. Lois had pickpocketed what he
was looking for, a picture. It shows Clark, Lois and an infant Jon. She smugly
mentions she’s a good pickpocket herself. Jon apologizes to her, saying that he
knows it must be weird to become a parent like this, but thanks her for the
day. He says he really needed it. Lois realizes that she did too.
Good news, Clark, she’s less
against having kids now! A step forward.
Jon helps raise the family truck so
Pa can do some work on it while Clark and Lois watch. Clark says that if Jon is
there future, its better than he’d hoped. Lois admits that maybe it won’t be so
bad. They’re then interrupted by Kara demanding their attention. We see a news
report of Metropolis being burned to the ground. Hank has completely lost his
mind. He calls out Superman, demanding that he face Hank or suffer the
consequences. He tells Clark to come and fight for the city. Clark and Kara
super speed away. Jon comes in, saying that he thought he had more time. Lois
demands to know what he means. Jon tells her that in his future, Lois and Clark
are dead and he was sent back in time to stop Cyborg Superman.
Well, that was a sweet episode that took a dark turn right at the 19-minute mark. I will note that my biggest complaint about this season is that the pacing is WAY too fast. From this point onwards we’re going to be racing between plot points to cover everything that the writers want to get to. But more on that later. I liked the introduction to Jon. He’s a fun character. His inquisitive nature and high energy make him almost like a Flash, he’s constantly moving from one thing or thought to the next. Design wise I think they found a nice balance between Clark and Lois for him. He’s like Clark drawn with Lois’ proportions. So, he’s smaller than his dad, but you still see Clark in his eye and face shape. Highlighting that he has some of Lois’ skills like pickpocketing along with Clark’s powers was a good way to drive home that he’s a bit of both of them. Seeing him hang out with his parents and just have a good time before the heavy stuff is just fun. Some folks question why he’d risk wasting time like this when Hank was out there. And the answer is the same as the question “so is Lois already pregnant with him if Hank is supposed to kill them both?” To which I say, ‘he thought he had more time.’ I wish we’d gotten some time in the future so we could have seen them set up their plan for how Jon is supposed to fix the future, and also how the timeline went without Jon’s intervention. I assume he was specifically sent back a significant amount of time before Hank snapped in his timeline. We’ll say 2 to 3 years at minimum to account for Clark and Lois to settle on their plans, get married, and have Jon as a honeymoon baby. A staple of time travel narrative is that the mere presence of a time traveler can radically alter events. Something about Jon being in the past caused a change that led to Hank snapping faster than he had in Jon’s timeline. Again, something that a little more time in the season would have helped. Also, come on, Lois was freaking out a lot just by the idea of settling down. If she had a positive pregnancy test or even a day late period right now she’d be in a panic death spiral. All of that said, Hank’s villain monologue there at the end was really good. Some folks questioned as to why Lex would build Hank’s body with the ability to hack tech, and I’m just like, guys, Lex’s key character trait is he is arrogant. Lex was fully capable of making a cyborg body that was incapable of raising a hand to him, just like he was capable of building an automatic failsafe into Hank that could have gone off if he tried to break away. But that wouldn’t work for Lex’s ego. He needs Hank to understand that Lex owns him. The remote device was more about letting Lex decide how and when Hank would be punished. It gave him an illusion of control over Hank that obviously Hank was happy to disabuse him of. If you want Lex to actually think about the consequences of his decisions, good luck with that. The man has gotten cancer multiple times because he carried a radioactive bit of rock in his pocket or on his hand and just assumed it’d never affect him. So, ya, Hank Henshaw is on a rampage, and it’ll be up to the Supers to stop him. It’s a tall order, but they’ve faced long odds before. We’ll see how they handle it next time. Have a good night, everyone and stay safe.
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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social