My Adventures with Superman Season Two Premier
My Adventures with Superman is back for season two. Since my beloved Multiversity Comics is shutting down at the end of the week, I figured I’d continue my articles here. Like on Multiversity they will be a mix of recap and review. I won’t use their exact “Five Things” format, but it will inform the style. This week’s debut was two episodes More Things in Heaven and Earth and Adventures with My Girlfriend. Lots of Superman lore dropped in episode one. Let’s get into it.
Trailer Spoilers
I was pretty irritated when the trailer spoiled what felt like major reveals. I get they wanted to highlight some new villains (like Atomic Skull and Damage), but they also dropped Supergirl and the Lex Luthor reveal. Thankfully all of those are shown in the first two episodes so hopefully we have lots of surprises ahead of us.
I don’t have any affinity for Damage so his appearance here doesn’t move me, but I dig Atomic Skull. I have fond memories of the Man of Steel issue that introduced him Post-Crisis. One of the best issues of the triangle era. His design here is similar to modern takes on him (no yellow mask and costume). His mouth doesn’t quite move when he’s talking though. Not sure if that is an animation budget limitation or creative choice.
I look forward to seeing how the show adapts Supergirl. Lois is already mistrustful of other Kryptonians and when Clark tells her there is another Kryptonian she isn’t keen on finding Kara. Anj who writes the Supergirl Comic Box Commentary is really critical of different Supergirl takes. Until I started reading their commentary I never thought too much about different characterization and I hope the show doesn’t let them down!
There Are More Things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio
Nothing wrong with a little Shakespeare to get us started. Like Hamlet, Clark also learns there is more to his world than he initially realized. He starts with a dream or more likely a Jor-El induced vision. It starts with his identity struggles, but quickly shows a Kryptonian ship in the arctic.
Clark finally has a real conversation with Jor-El after finding his ship in the arctic. It took a while for the programming to learn English. Jor-El explains that Krypton had a large empire until it faced an enemy they could not defeat. I am going to assume this is a Darkseid and Apokolips tease. This space-faring Krypton reminded me a bit of Man of Steel. They had a large empire before retreating back to Krypton and harvesting the core until its destruction.
Jor-El confirms Krypton was destroyed and Clark is the last survivor. Well, Clark and his cousin Kara who was also sent away at the last minute by his brother Zor-El. Clark is stunned to learn he isn’t alone. Not only is there another Kryptonian, but she is family. Jor-El tells Clark to find the beacon that came with the Zero Day ship to find Kara.
Jor-El also explains that the Zero Day ship coming through the portal was an unmanned “ghost ship”. A drone without any Kryptonians. The ships are run by the Brainiac system. Brainiac on Clark’s ship is trying to wipe out the Kryptonite destroying the ship, but is using a bunch of power fighting off Lois, Jimmy, and the uninvited guests Task Force X.
We do see at the end of the episode there is more to these Kryptonian unmanned ships than Jor-El lets on.
First Big Surprise
Last season we left off with Clark putting Kryptonite into the core of his ship to close the portal and preventing a Kryptonian invasion. It’s Hank Henshaw that points us to Clark’s ship current location in the arctic!
The show’s villains have been mainly centered around Kryptonian tech; minus Mr. Mxyzptlk of course. Henshaw is a perfect candidate for some Kryptonian tech being the Cyborg Superman and all. I have read some complaints that all the villains are related, but most villains in four seasons of Smallville got their powers from Kryptonite. This is a different spin on that and it works for this interconnected narrative. It’s less of a freak-of-the-week scenario and more serialized.
Henshaw thinks the ship is a meteor and is tracking it at Star Labs. Clark recognizes it right away and makes the connection to the vision he had of his father.
Henshaw isn’t our only surprise in the first episode. We also get a nice Can You Read My Mind reference from Clark, which was a cute nod.
Jimmy spends it faster than he can earn it.
Jimmy ended the season super rich thanks to his Flamebird pivot to video. We get a fun little net worth chyron showing how fast he blows through those millions. He starts the season with $5,497,386 but after buying $163,378 in Valentine’s Day cards and $804,003 on a private plane he ends episode one with only $4,530,005. Starts episode two with $4,360,006 not sure where that $170K went, but he uses $605,924 to get a boat to get to Stryker’s. It only takes him two episodes to get down to $3,754,082.
Fortress of Solitude
Clark’s ship’s final act is to create his arctic Fortress of Solitude. It’s a cool way to end the first episode back and set up the show’s take on a major piece of Superman lore. The design is informed by the Kryptonian tech we’ve seen, but with a Superman ’78 ice castle vibe. I dig it.
Jor-El has a teary goodbye with his son as the last of his programming is wiped out by the Kryptonite. He’s proud of what Clark has become.
Newskid Legion as Daily Planet interns
I’m glad they’ve found a way to keep the Newskid Legion involved. They are now Jimmy’s Flamebird team! The more Flip the better. It also keeps the Jimmy Lombard pairing that was so successful last season. Giving Jimmy other things to do keeps him from being a third wheel or comic relief. Lois & Clark can have adventures and the show still has something for Jimmy to do.
General Lane is going to be a tough father-in-law for Clark
The main plot of episode two is Lois & Clark rescuing Sam Lane from Stryker’s Island prison. They are pointed in the right direction by a little boy named Billy who can’t find his father. His father was a volunteer librarian at the prison; when he noticed inmates going missing he went missing too.
Waller has been experimenting on inmates at the prison. When Lois breaks out her father and he realizes this, he is again put at odds against Waller. Waller isn’t the top of the food chain though because she is clearly working for someone at Checkmate. Waller admits sabotaging their mission last season to make Sam look weak to Checkmate.
Sam is not happy Lois came to rescue him and he’s even less happy that she brought the alien Superman along. Where is your weird boyfriend Clark? After the rescue Lois suggests Sam live with Jimmy and Clark in what I bet will be a great Odd Couple situation.
Lex Luthor
The show gets the pronunciation right, just like The Animated Series. Sorry, Rosenbaum, it’s not Luther.
As we speculated last season: Alex is really Lex Luthor. Diseased maniac to some, greatest criminal mind of our time to others. He gets some sage advice from newly minted millionaire Jimmy “Don’t wait for someone to give you a chance; make one. Carve your own path.” Lex takes this to heart and goes to work with Waller as Task Force X’s new chief scientist. After a Wilhelm Scream he easily takes down Parasite since he designed the tech in the first place. Ivo ain’t got nothing on Luthor.
Task Force X knows about Kryptonite
They see Superman struggling against it on the ship and how it affects the Kryptonian tech. Deathstroke ends up getting some in his sword somehow and this is going to cause some major problems for our Man of Steel.
Next week we get another episode titled after an anime “Fullmetal Scientist” which I hope will feature our favorite should-be-bald-but-isn’t nemesis.