Last week’s double premiere gave a lot to talk about with the reveal of Krypton’s demise, Supergirl’s first mention with Clark (Jack Quaid) now on the lookout for her, and Lex (Max Mittelman) now working alongside Waller (Debra Wilson), who has recently come across Kryptonite. With just those two episodes, there’s a lot that Superman/Clark has to deal with.
My Adventures With Superman Season 2 Episode 3 follows Clark as his life falls apart when General Lane (Joel De La Fuente) goes into hiding…in Clark’s apartment! Meanwhile, Jimmy (Ishmel Sahid) struggles with being a leader, and Lois goes toe-to-toe with Vicki Vale (Andromeda Dunker) as they track down missing scientists!
The synopsis for this episode is partially misleading. The episode focuses on Jimmy, who struggles to lead Flip as she decides to investigate without his permission. We also get to see Lois battle it against Vicki Vale as they fight to get an exclusive on the missing scientists from Amertek. The question is: do we get to see relationship growth between Clark and General Lane? The answer is simply no. There’s about a two-minute scene where General Lane tells Clark what he thinks about him, telling him that his behaviour is bound to hurt his daughter, but that’s about all we get when it comes to the interaction between those two characters, which is slightly disappointing as I was expecting a calmer episode of Clark trying to be Superman while also trying not to have General Lane suspicious, but unfortunately they only just play with the idea for a small moment and joke that doesn’t take off anywhere.
As mentioned previously, Lois Lane is the highlight of this episode for me, as we get to see more of her journalistic side and approach to the job. Putting her up against Vicki Vale in an attempt to get the scoop shows how far Lois will go to succeed, and we see this both in her relationship with Clark and her job. The one thing I know from watching Lois in this episode is that I’d love to see her eventually win a Pulitzer Prize in this show.
Jimmy Olsen also has some great moments in this episode as we watch him try to be a good boss and leader while also understanding to trust the people he works around. So far, this season has done an amazing job at giving time to all three of our main characters and developing them well and this episode succeeds at that by providing their growth through a journalistic lens.
This episode continues to introduce more DC characters to the world of My Adventures With Superman. I’m personally all here for it, as it seems to be opening the door to more possibilities and threats. The episode opens up with Superman rescuing Silas Stone (Byron Marc Newsome). He only gets a brief moment during the start of this episode where we seem him interact with Livewire (Zehra Fazal), but we also get to find out that his son Victor Stone, who is known as Cyborg, is only a kid in this universe, which helps gauge the age of other Teen Titans members. It’s not important for this episode, but it’s something nice to think about on the side.
During this moment, Superman seemingly gets a new power that he has never used before, and he uses it not only once but twice in this episode. It isn’t questioned much in the episode, so an answer is never given, explaining exactly what it is, but as a fan of the character, I can tell you that it’s Bioelectric Aura, and it explains why he can lift objects without them ripping apart under stress; it’s why his outfit doesn’t rip often during fights; and it’s also how he’s able to save people while flying and not ripping them to shreds. It’s something that’s not often mentioned and also rarely seen in animated or live-action media that represents the character, so to see it be adapted for My Adventures With Superman was shocking but also a relief because it continues to show how this show manages to create its own unique identity that sets itself apart from all the other adaptations of Superman.
My Adventures With Superman has put a lot of twists on its villains and just overall storytelling with characters that we all know and love. The twist that’s being put on them is a technological one, with there being more robots and tech involved in the creation of these villains instead of it all feeling supernatural. This third episode once again changes a villain in a way that I haven’t yet come to terms with and that villain is Metallo. Metallo isn’t the same as what you’d usually expect, instead, he’s this large robot created by Amertek and there’s dozens of them. While reinventing the Superman mythos is currently working for them, and it’s very clear from the end of the episode where the future of Metallo will be heading but I still can’t seem to wrap around the idea of changing a character and making them a robot. The best thing about Superman as a character is seeing how he makes an attempt to help his villains though they try to kill him everytime, this was actually seen recently in the latest run of Superman by Joshua Willaimson that has great moments with the character Metallo, that I can’t possibly see recreated in this show.
My Adventures With Superman Season 2 Episode 3 is another great episode, but unfortunately, it seems to lack in building the relationship between Superman and General Lane, which the synopsis hints at. The action was amazing, with animation that just continues to have you in awe of how pretty this show is overall. A bunch of new DC characters were introduced to the show that helped flesh out the world, but at the same time, they were still reinventing villains in ways that I think hindered the show’s storytelling and character development.
My Adventures With Superman Season 2 Episode 3 releases June 1 on Adult Swim.
