As the first episode of Superman & Lois starts to play, I start to wonder if the current keepers of the “S” shield are going to do it. Finally skip past the origin story that everyone on this planet knows, in as brief and poetic a fashion as Grant Morrison did in All Star Superman (“Doomed Planet, Desperate Scientists, Last Hope, Kindly Couple”), and just get on with the business of convincing me why I should bother with this latest take on the Superman mythos.
7 minutes later and Superman & Lois has leapt over any expectations I had in a single bound, setting up a fresh new take on the adventures of The Man of Steel and his family.
I’ve not been keeping up with the Arrow-verse/Flash-verse/Berlanti-verse in recent years, ever since it became nearly a full time job to keep up with every episode of The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman, and Stargirl before the next crossover event. I had seen Tyler Hoechlin don the spandex once or twice on Supergirl, but was pleasantly surprised when this first episode set-up everything I needed to know without referencing any of the others. That it achieved this while sneaking in nods to Superman’s first comic book appearance, Donner’s Superman (evoking memories of Glenn Ford as Pa Kent), and paid homage to the colour scheme and visuals from Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, left my jaw on the floor.
And it just kept going.
The New, New, NEW Adventures of Superman
I’ve been caught sleeping on the press for Superman & Lois but I had no idea the show would zoom right past Clark and Lois first meeting, falling in love, getting married, and having kids, setting up a brand new status quo where Clark is trying to balance his role as Earth’s protector, with his home life, and raising two teenaged sons.
Forget any memories of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, just as Mike Mignola did when he first introduced Hellboy, the showrunners skip over all the annoying stuff we’ve seen a thousand times before to get straight to the meat of the story they want to tell.
Clark’s been laid off from The Daily Planet, he’s having trouble living up to the example of parenthood set by Ma and Pa Kent, and his relationship with his (superpower free) sons is not going well. While he gets on okay with sporty Jonathan, he finds it particularly difficult connecting with Jordan, who’s also been recently. diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. Clark’s frequent absences saving the world don’t help either, especially considering he hasn’t told his sons that he is Superman.
This is not your dad’s Superman. It’s Superdad!
Which isn’t to say that the show is aiming for stripped down family melodrama.
You’ll still believe that a man can fly as Kal-el works with Lois’ father, General Sam Lane (Dylan Walsh), to save some nuclear power plants. The series also introduces a mysterious armoured super villain, whose ties to an existing character from Superman lore are only revealed at the end of the episode. It is unfortunate, however, that their design looks far too much like the Doomslayer.
A (Super)Man for All Seasons
Hoechlin is great as Clark/Superman, with a bit more of a serious tone to what I saw on Supergirl. He really brings out the “man” in the Superman through smaller moments, like when he dejectedly leans against a wall at home, exhausted from trying to connect to his sons.
I’ve not encountered Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois before, but she captures a similar energy to Margot Kidder in the role. She also gets to do much. A firm “I mean it Clark” just as he’s about to bail on a family crisis, speaks volumes about their relationship. I’m sure we’ll see much more of her as she investigates the unseen millionaire Morgan Edge, who not only bought The Daily Planet, only to downsize it, but seems to have an unhealthy interest in Smallville.
With the establishment of the Kent twins and Lana Lang’s daughter, Sarah (Inde Navarrette), you could be forgiven for thinking this is lining up to be “Smallville: The Next Generation,” but from what’s on display here, Alex Garfin and Jordan Elsass, as Jordan and Jonathan, have access to a far wider palette of emotions and situations to play with than Tom Welling and company ever did.
Superman Returns
Superman & Lois may be a very different, more conventional take on superheroes than Wandavision is, but honestly, at times I feel a similar thrill to what I got from Marvel’s weekly show.
This feels like the perspective of someone who deeply loves the material, who’s embraced all the different approaches that have come before, but doesn’t feel beholden to them. After remixing classic storylines with the Arrowverse shows, this feels like they want to build something new.
You can see it when Jordan, while playing what appears to be the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe videogame, tells his dad “Superman’s boring, I’m Raiden.” The criticism that Superman, the big blue boy scout, is “boring” has been levelled at the character for years by those with a distinct lack of imagination. Those who want Superman to kill to add “character,” instead of acting as a role model for all of us. The success of Chris Evan’s Captain America shows the character and plot riches that can be harvested from such a traditionally straight laced character, when handled by the right team.
With the confidence shown in this first episode, I dearly hope that this is a team that can really do Supes justice.
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