Superman & Lois S2: Spoilers, Discussion, & Speculation

[Frontier]

I feel like this episode also kind of highlighted the main issues of this season:

- The shows focus on Smallville means that a world-ending threat is somehow more relevant to a small-town to the point of Superman showing up at a town hall than to the world at large. What about all the other people panicking?

- Jon and Lois really have nothing to do or contribute to the plot at this point. They're reduced to nothing but bystanders whenever anything serious happens. How many times has Lois screamed at this point?

- Gone is Lois Lane, ace investigative reporter and strong wife, mother, and certified awesome lady...instead we get Lois as a supporting character to Lana and who constantly needs to be lectured on journalism by Chrissy, and gets judged by the other women in her life and just in general doesn't feel like the female lead any more.

- Somehow Kyle's cheating gets related to Lana having to deal with Clark's secret and what's going on with the Bizzaro!World.

- Ally is still a massively underdeveloped villain.

- Lana consistently gets praised like she's the actual world leader and the best person in Smallville. The show would rather gush about Lana than have Lois contribute anything meaningful.

- Has Clark had any character development this season? Other than not knowing what to do about Jon, but that still hasn't gone anyhwere.

Superman's powers have been taken away, is it serious or a joke. I see I was right to stop watching punching bagman and lois.

Don't you mean "...and Lana?" because she feels like more of a main character than Lois at this point.

[Vordan]

-Weird that Clark hasn’t tried to rebuild his old Fortress and has just been using Tal’s but hey guess there’s no point letting it go to waste. About time he finally invited Irons to come along

-Seeing the Bizarro Red Sun show up in the sky was cool

-Sam’s finally putting his foot down huh, too bad Lois still isn’t going to listen

-I thought the point of the last episode was to show Jordan was going to stop being fucking useless? Oh well I like Irons and Nat more than him anyway at this point.

-Lmao “let’s just nuke it” is certainly a plan Sam. This season has had problems but I’ve enjoyed how Clark/Irons broship has developed

-Lois so far has been a step up this episode, she’s gotten to do more than just apologize or always be on the backfoot

-You’d think Smallville would be more accepting of weird bullshit after everything that happened last season

-Irons is so goddamn cool I loved the way suit breaks into pieces and reassembles around him

-Haha holy shit Jordan finally stopped being useless! And Natalie with the save! That was cool!

-Ok so Sarah knows finally. I’m hoping this doesn’t mean Jordan goes back to her AGAIN but I’m expecting that to happen

Really curious how the finale is going to play out. Still think Tal will show up and help save the day. Apparently Diggle will show up and we’ll get clarification on this show’s relationship to the Arrowverse. Also apparently the S3 villain is going to get set up in the finale, I hope it’s Brainiac. After Ally this show really needs to bring in a major Superman Rogue to build around, enough OCs and Z-Listers.

[Vordan]

I feel like this episode also kind of highlighted the main issues of this season:

- The shows focus on Smallville means that a world-ending threat is somehow more relevant to a small-town to the point of Superman showing up at a town hall than to the world at large. What about all the other people panicking?

That was a concern I had from the start. When the show is set in a small town what exactly can be done to keep Lois involved? The show would have given her more to do if it was set in Metropolis because at least being set in a major metropolitan city means she could keep investigating city politics and how that intersects with the villains.

- Jon and Lois really have nothing to do or contribute to the plot at this point. They're reduced to nothing but bystanders whenever anything serious happens. How many times has Lois screamed at this point?

Ah the good ol’ “Team Flash” problem where nobody knows what to do with the civilian cast members. At this point they might as well just give Jon powers, there’s no point in keeping them from him anymore. I had hoped that Clark being powerless would mean we’d get a conversation between Clark and Jon where the two finally solve their differences but that still hasn’t happened and at this point it’s not going to. The writers have really dropped the ball this season in terms of how they’ve handled Clark/Jon and Jordan/Sarah.

[Frontier]

-Weird that Clark hasn’t tried to rebuild his old Fortress and has just been using Tal’s but hey guess there’s no point letting it go to waste. About time he finally invited Irons to come along

It's tough to find a good Fortress these days.

-Lois so far has been a step up this episode, she’s gotten to do more than just apologize or always be on the backfoot

I think the problem is she's still servicing Lana's storyline.

Really curious how the finale is going to play out. Still think Tal will show up and help save the day. Apparently Diggle will show up and we’ll get clarification on this show’s relationship to the Arrowverse. Also apparently the S3 villain is going to get set up in the finale, I hope it’s Brainiac. After Ally this show really needs to bring in a major Superman Rogue to build around, enough OCs and Z-Listers.

Maybe we could get the Luthor-Brainiac Team...

Ah the good ol’ “Team Flash” problem where nobody knows what to do with the civilian cast members. At this point they might as well just give Jon powers, there’s no point in keeping them from him anymore. I had hoped that Clark being powerless would mean we’d get a conversation between Clark and Jon where the two finally solve their differences but that still hasn’t happened and at this point it’s not going to. The writers have really dropped the ball this season in terms of how they’ve handled Clark/Jon and Jordan/Sarah.

I feel like they've really dropped the ball with both Jon and Lois this season.

[NaVi]

That the series is bad (at this point it seems that it is) is one thing, lack of talent, resource, whatever. what I don't understand is that a Superman series focuses more on the secondary than on Superman and his family, that a Superman series constantly seeks a way to make him look useless.

[Vordan]

It's tough to find a good Fortress these days.

I think the problem is she's still servicing Lana's storyline.

If they can’t figure out how to make her journalism relevant they should’ve made her Lana’s running mate, at least that would’ve tied the two together. I don’t really agree with the hyperbole surrounding Lana I’ve seen elsewhere but I do agree they should not be prioritizing her scenes over the Kents. Apparently it’s because the show runner is a big fan of Lana’s actress, it would be funny that once again we’ve got a Superman show set in Smallville where the show runners prefer Lana over Lois, but I am irritated that there’s so many obvious Chekov’s Guns that have been set up yet not fired for some reason.

Maybe we could get the Luthor-Brainiac Team...

I feel like they've really dropped the ball with both Jon and Lois this season.

If it’s the final season hell yeah they should absolutely do that. Bring in the two big guns, that would get peoples attention and at least Cryer would definitely play a villain with charisma.

They seem to know that people had problems with how they handled Jon judging by the whole X-K plot and how he keeps trying to talk to his dad, but they keep failing at actually resolving that problem. I think with Lois the problems with her have to deal with the nature of the show not really offering her character many opportunities to shine, and I’m not sure how to fix that.

[superduperman]

So I read the Earth Prime book and there's a lot of stuff in it that doesn't line up with the show. For instance, they suggest that Clark first started his career as a teenager. Is this a hint that S&L doesn't take place in the main Arrow-verse? This comic supposedly is "canon". So what does this mean?

[Vordan]

So I read the Earth Prime book and there's a lot of stuff in it that doesn't line up with the show. For instance, they suggest that Clark first started his career as a teenager. Is this a hint that S&L doesn't take place in the main Arrow-verse? This comic supposedly is "canon". So what does this mean?

Technically he did, if you’ll recall back during S1 he wore a mask and fought crime in Smallville during the flashbacks. The silver streaks in that Superman’s hair is more a sign that maybe our Clark is on a different Earth. We’ll find out next week per the show runner. Would be nice if Clark mentioning Brainiac in the comic was a tease for him showing up in S3 but I’m not holding my breath.

[The Frog Bros]

Episode highlights:

EVERYTHING with John Henry, Nat, Steelworks… f’n awesome. Loved Nat dropping, “the world needs Superman” line.

Also liked the visuals of all the worlds merging stuff. The scenes where Ally took over the monitors reminded me of Zod in the MoS movie.

Superman showing up at the town hall meeting was pretty hokey, but in a good way.

Lowlights:

Pretty much everything else.

The cynic in me would have to wonder which character is more pointless, Jon or Sophie. They’re both just kind of there in the background.

Really wondering how this season will wrap up, feel like the finale may be a bit rushed. Or somewhat open-ended leading to the next season.

[Mistah K88]

Is there is any reason why people get as mad as they do when learning about someone having superpowers? Granted we aren’t at the point of “eff you dad” that we got with Jordan in season 1, but I do think there is a bit of an overreaction whenever someone learns.

[superduperman]

Technically he did, if you’ll recall back during S1 he wore a mask and fought crime in Smallville during the flashbacks. The silver streaks in that Superman’s hair is more a sign that maybe our Clark is on a different Earth. We’ll find out next week per the show runner. Would be nice if Clark mentioning Brainiac in the comic was a tease for him showing up in S3 but I’m not holding my breath.

They also suggested he first fought Luthor as a teenager. And that he rescued Lois from a helicopter as the first time they met. It's been a while since I watched the first season but I don't remember that scene.

[chamber-music]

I would like to see more Superman villains we have not seen before show up like Riot, Conduit or the Puzzler. We got Thaddeus Killgrave in season 1 and Alexandra Allston version of Parasite in season 2.

[Frontier]

Is there is any reason why people get as mad as they do when learning about someone having superpowers? Granted we aren’t at the point of “eff you dad” that we got with Jordan in season 1, but I do think there is a bit of an overreaction whenever someone learns.

Every character in a CW show has to have a hard-on for people keeping secrets.

[9th.]

I feel so bad for Jon he's literally helpless and can't do much of anything.

[9th.]

Might be for the best if S3 ends up being the last one. They need to stop relying on OCs and Z-List Superman Rogues and actually use one of the proper big ones. Brainiac would be the best choice. Dial back on the drama with the Cushings, focus on the Kents, and stop stretching themselves so thin. I’m still enjoying the show, mainly for the moments where Hoechlin, Tulloch, and Park do get to shine, but the hiatuses and some of the creative choices have made this season a step down from S1.

I think the shows strength is NOT using a listers. They've been doing a good job with the "it's not who you think" villains. They can absolutely tone down the Cushing family drama though, it should not be taking up the screen time it has.