Superman Returns... but the story is good this time.
Last time on My Adventures With
Superman, Lois and the gang prepare for war while Clark goes on a quest. Lois
makes a deal to work with Waller in exchange for medical help for an injured
Kara and military backup against the Eradicator. She has friction with Jonathan,
who is still an edgy teen, but once Kara wakes up, she’s able to convince her
nephew to stop being a dick and work with them. Waller rallies her military assets,
and the Supers prepare to fight the Eradicator. Clark, meanwhile, is sent on a
vision quest by Chief Brainiac, the Brainiac AI system in charge of the Fortress
of Solitude. It shows Clark a vision of Krypton’s ancient past and tells Clark
to fight and conquer a group of invaders, like his ancestors did. He faces off
against the Coluans and ends up dropping into a ravine with the Coluan’s
leader. Clark, not wanting to go along with Chief Brainiac’s script, befriends the
alien and the two struggle to get back to camp. Once there, Clark realizes that
the Coluans weren’t invaders, but refugees. Chief Brainiac insists that Clark
attack and conquer the Coluans, but Clark refuses, saying that he earned their
trust, so that counts as passing the test. This drives Brainiac into a rage, as
it’s revealed that the simulation was based on HIS memories, as he used to be
the Coluan leader before being turned into an android. And the idea that his
people didn’t have to be conquered, enslaved, and turned into robots violates
his 10,000-year held belief that the weak are subservient to the strong. He
orders Clark to be executed, but B-1Z goes berserk and starts attacking the
Stewards for hurting Clark. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?
We open with B-1Z going berserk and
attacking the Stewards for threatening Clark. He rams a hand through the chest
of one and rips another into pieces. If they weren’t robots, these deaths would
be graphic as hell. Chief Brainiac starts to panic at the destruction, his
color swapping from angry red back to white. Clark gets in the way and ends up
calming his friend. Chief Brainiac asks why he’d save them, and Clark just kind
of shrugs and says they needed his help. Chief Brainiac finally realizes that
Clark’s strength is his heart/character and kneels to the Last Lord of Krypton.
Clark helps him back up, saying no one kneels. He once again asks the robot to
help him get his powers back. He asks who was sending him visions of Rao. Chief
Brainiac leads Clark into the bowels of the Fortress, saying that Rao was
Krypton’s living sun. He died with the planet, but many children of Rao remain,
such as the one that is powering the Fortress. Clark is awed to see the mini-but-still-giant
star in the heart of the Fortress. Clark asks if it can restore his powers. Chief
Brainiac says he can, but as a Star, he is an elemental force of nature that
cannot be controlled or predicted. It could just as easily kill him.
I think it’s funny that they cut
away from this scene as if this’ll deter Clark even a little bit.
We shift back to the fight with the
Eradicator. Turns out, the Kryptonian killing bio-android is too powerful for
even the combined forces of Waller’s combat teams and the Supers. Jonathan
wakes up to Damage and Heatwave knocked out beside him. He looks up in time to
see the Eradicator firing plasma blasts from his fingers, destroying more
weaponry. Lara tries to charge him, but one of the Hulking Clones gets in the
way and starts pummeling the youngest Kryptonian. Kara heat visions it to try
to get it off Lara, but it reflects her heat vision back with a black energy
wave. The clone slams Lara into the ground and then attacks Kara. Jonathan
helps his sister up, Lara explains what happened after the Eradicator knocked
him out last episode. Jonathan is pretty disheartened to realize that a post
apocalypse seems to be their inevitable future. Lara starts saying that they
just have to wait for their dad to get back, but Jonathan cuts her off, saying
he’s NOT coming back. It’s just them, but they aren’t enough. Kara breaks free
for being buried and says that they won’t know until they try. The whole time,
by the way, Waller’s soldiers are still firing on the thing. Waller tells her
men to stop, and the Eradicator retaliates. He unleashes a wave of plasma that
destroys robots, tanks, and other weapons before sending its Hulk Clone to
fight. It dives at Jimmy and Lois, but Kara dives in the way, telling the
creature that she told it to stay away from her family. The Eradicator rather
smugly says that she was never enough to beat him before, and he’s evolved.
Kara, Lara, and Jonathan team up and are able to destroy the Hulk Clone, all
getting to say something inspiring about how the Eradicator doesn’t understand
people and that’s why he’ll lose. The Eradicator asks if they can sacrifice their
allies for the sake of victory. Using his powers, he reactivates the Kryptonian
war bots buried at the site. He smugly states that he does understand people,
he knows what makes them weak.
Waller calls a retreat. Lois stops
her and asks if she’s just going to leave the Kryptonians behind. Waller tells
her that they can call their own retreat. Lois runs to her cousin and children
as Jimmy is forced to follow the soldiers. They reach a plane that takes off,
but Lex tries to listen to him, he thinks he’s finished his device, but Waller
isn’t interested. The plane takes off and Jimmy asks if he really has
something. Lex is wishy-washy about it, saying that it might be something but maybe
not. Before they can discuss it further, their plane is shot down.
Lois runs through the battlefield.
Gotta give her credit for bravery. She gets cornered by some drones, but she
grabs a rifle and shoots them into pieces, before a heavy robot tries to stomp her.
She runs off.
Jimmy helps Lex up, they survived
the crash relatively unscathed. Slade spots them, and is ordered to ‘recover’ them.
Lex says that he ha a chance at stopping Eradicator and says that Slade was
right about everything. Slade lets them go, but makes it clear that this is the
last favor he’s doing for Lex.
Kara tries to attack the Eradicator,
but he’s too fast for her to overcome. The siblings try their hand and are
swatted away. The Eradicator says that they are similar, they’re all motivated
by fear, but claims their fear makes them weak, while his fear is a weapon. He
makes five more Hulk Clones and orders them to kill the Supers. They trio are
overwhelmed by the monsters as Lex powers up his device, a headgear of some
kind. Lara and Jonathan are slammed not the dirt and Kara is almost sent to
join them, when Lex powers up his helmet. It lets him override the Eradicator’s
control and sends the Hulk Clones to fight him. It works for about a minute
before the Eradicator uses this connection to attack Lex’s mind. It grows multiple
arms and disables its clones via touch. Lois finds Jonathan and cradles her
injured son. He apologizes for not being enough. Lois tells him that he was
always enough and is sorry she failed him. Jonathan admits she was the best
thing about his future.
The Eradicator clones prepare to
execute everyone, when a huge wave of fire destroys the clones. A fireball
forms and Clark materializes out of it. The women in his life are all happy to
see him, Lois and Lara hug him and Kara marvels at his Kryptonian armor. Jonathan,
angsty boy that he is, comments that his Dad ‘finally’ showed up, just in time to
take all the credit. Clark walks up to him and apologizes for leaving
everything up to Jonathan up to this point. He doesn’t have to have the burden
of being Superman alone anymore. Jonathan tears up and hugs his father. The
Eradicator says they won’t live beyond today. Clark tries to talk him down, but
the Eradicator says that he will have no peace until they’re all dead. It
upgrades itself into… General Zod? Huh. Whatever. Clark shrugs in a ‘well I tried,’
motion and asks if everyone is ready. Jonathan, Kara, Lara, and a late arriving
B-1Z (whom Clark dubs Cousin) all agree. Eradi-Zod makes a bunch of clones and
they all face one. As they fight, the Eradicator asks why they’re fighting. He
was made to kill them by humans, they don’t belong on Earth, so why fight? They
all have a Super Saiyan moment of digging deep and saying that they won’t let
the Eradicator steal their world, lives, future or friends. The fun part is,
each of them flash a different color, representing a different part of the
emotional spectrum. Kara gets the Red Light of Rage, Lara the Violet Light of
Love, Jonathan the Indigo Light of Compassion, and B-1Z the White Light of Life.
They all hit their clone with a super bunch that shatters them. Unfortunately,
that display used up their strength, so it’s just Clark and Eradi-Zod.
Clark and Eradi-Zod clash, Clark’s
eyes flashing with the Blue Light of Hope as they fight. He takes off the Eradi-Zod’s
arm, and Eradi-Zod snarls that he’s grown tired of killing these people. He
reveals that he’s already played this out several times already. In every
timeline he defeats most of the Supers, but someone always escapes. One of the
Supers, Lois, Jimmy, someone always escapes and hides like a ‘rat in the wall.’
This time, he assures Clark, Eradi-Zod will kill them all. Eradi-Zod smugly
says that Clark put in all that effort to reclaim his power, but its still not
enough. Clark laughs at the android, asking if he really thinks that he spends
all his time thinking about who is strongest. He says that of the ten billion
people on Earth, most of them just want to live their lives, see their friends
and loved ones, that’s all he cares about. He asks Eradi-Zod what’s up with
him. Eradi-Zod repeats that he was built by Lex to destroy Superman, he cannot
rest until they’re all eradicated. Clark catches the android’ fist, and says that
that isn’t good enough. He slams a fist into Eradi-Zod’s stomach and launches
him into the sky. The Blue Light of Hope flashes in his system and turns Gold
as he continues to hit the android. Each punch regresses the Eradi-Zod to his
previous forms. Clark chastises it for causing all this destruction and pain to
try to feel strong. He says we’re done with that as he slams the Eradicator
into the ground, devolved back to it’s weird puppet body. Clark still offers
the Eradicator a hand, offering to help him up and show him what bravery is.
The Eradicator mumbles that it would rather die as it disintegrates. Clark
looks sadly at that spot and says, “I’m sorry no one taught you how to live.”
Clark quick-changes back to his normal
suit and hugs Lois. They get Jonathan back his time travel watch and say goodbye.
Jonathan asks how they know that the future is going to be okay. Lois hugs him
and says that it’ll be good because Lois and Clark and the rest will fight for
the future they deserve. The Kents get a group hug in just before the siblings
vanish. Once they’re gone, Lois hugs Clark tight, clearly fighting back tears.
We flashforward to Jimmy and Kara
getting ice cream from B-1Z. Jimmy is celebrating being rich again. The Jimmy Olsen
Comics are doing well, we get a cut away to Steve Lombard laughing really hard
to one so I guess he’s a fan, but the thing that really helped Jimmy was
investing in WORMS (worms-worms). Kara begins to scold Jimmy for using that app,
but Jimmy insists that he’s just an investor for them now. He wants to focus on
their- he says committed relationship, but she says ‘promising friendship.’ Jimmy
is stunned to hear this. Kara says that he wanted to be a ‘better friend’ so
she’s giving him the opportunity. Some folks were upset with this, but I
personally think she’s just teasing him a little.
Waller takes Lex into his Cell at
Supermax prison. She says that Slade sends his best, and asks why Lex did all
this. Lex says that he saw ‘something’ in the dark of space. He’s very vague
about it, but whatever was out there that he saw on a WayneTech satellite, scared
him real bad, and he says he’ll do anything to try to feel safe again. He
should be afraid of the lawsuit Bruce is going to slap on him, WayneTech doesn’t
take kindly to hackers.
Yes, this is probably foreshadowing
Darkseid and the New Gods if they get to make season 4.
At the Kent farm, Kara and Jimmy are
playing with Krypto, the white dog that Clark bonded with at the Adopt-on-a-Yacht
event back at episode 3. Clark thanks his girlfriend for adopting Krypto with
her government id. She playfully says that Krypto isn’t a whole farm, but he’s
pretty great. She asks her boyfriend what he did to get his powers back. Clark
thinks back to it, Rao basically set him on fire, most likely as a means of
cleaning out any lingering Kryptonite in his system and recharging the battery
cells we see whenever Clark digs deep to use his powers. He says that he made a
deal, and that it didn’t cost him nothing that he wasn’t willing to pay. Lois
then gets up and takes Clark’s hands. She says that she can’t control the future,
but she can choose who she’ll see it with. She holds up a pair of miniatures of
them holding hands, which excites Clark because he’s a dork, but he’s even more
excited when she gets down on one knee and proposes. He obviously says yes.
The closing credits end with a shot
of Clark’s miniature farm. They have Lois compass on the ground as a riser,
with Lois and Clark minis standing holding hands, and around them are Kara,
Jimmy, Krypto, Jon and Lara minis. It’s a cute image to end on.
Overall, I liked this season, but
it was extremely rushed. This really could have used five or ten more episodes
to flesh out the season. We hit the accelerator once Hank Henshaw snapped and we
really didn’t slow down again. We rushed through Clark learning to be okay with
being powerless, to the arrival of the super siblings, to the Eradicator’s
escape into the time stream, and finally this battle. It was just a lot to
cover in ten episodes. Heck, the build up to the fight with the Eradicator and
Clark’s vision could have been two full episodes each. And I would have liked
to see a little more of both futures, just to get an idea of what Jon and
Jonathan/Lara are dealing with. The Eradicator was a rushed villain, but he
works as the final boss. I personally would have had him travel to Jon’s
future, grab and merge with Cyborg Superman and then come back, so that the
final boss was an amalgam of both evil futures. But then the Cell parallels
would have been a lot more obvious, I suppose. It was really nice to see Clark
still offer a hand to the cyborg after he beat the snot out of him. Each member
of the House of El getting their own color of the Emotional Spectrum was neat.
The only colors missing were the Orange Light of Avarice and the Yellow Light
of Fear. And those two are kind of hard to rework into a heroic light. Clark’s
big speech about being afraid isn’t enough of an excuse to be evil and cause
pain was nice. And it was nice that they gave Lex a chance to redeem himself
just a little by fighting the Eradicator in his own way. He still absolutely
deserved to be arrested for this, but I’d be fine if his sentence was lightened
just a little. I liked that they hinted at the next season’s big bad but left
it vague enough to not get me too hyped. I wish the fourth season would be greenlit,
but corporate television is a mess right now. Screw you Ellisons, monopolizing
losers.
If this is the end, at least it
ended on a high moment like Clark and Lois getting engaged rather than on a
cliffhanger or something. It was a fun ride, I hope it continues, but if it
doesn’t I am satisfied. Next time, we’ll pick up with the Caped Crusader. See you
then. Have a good night, everyone.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/u2761062/posts/viewer-log-my-ep-170587092
Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social
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