My Adventures With Superman S1: Spoilers & Discussion

[Vordan]

Was curious as to who was voicing Sam Lane. Well, assuming he's Sam Lane. Joel de la Fuente is credited as "The General" so I wonder if his (presumed) relation to Lois is supposed to be a surprise. Also, since his actor is Filipino, I wonder if The General is supposed to be Asian himself.

He definitely is Asian:



And it’s definitely Sam Lane, they’re just waiting to spring it on you for when Lois introduces her new boyfriend to her dad. Since we’ve talked ad nauseam about what the show has done wrong villain wise, I just want to praise this take on Sam as being exactly in line with my preferences. He’s morally gray, willing to kill Superman immediately for just the possibility that Supes is a threat, but he’s not fanatically evil to the point he’ll ignore civilian casualties. Morrison’s take on Sam Lane is the comic equivalent, willing to let Lex torture Superman for the purpose of figuring out how Supes’ powers work, but almost strangling Lex when Lex puts Lois and other civilians in harm’s way to incapacitate Superman so the military can imprison him.

[scribbleMind]

I like it. It isn't on par with STAS, but they're building towards something, and I suspect that will be the case every season. I'm seeing a lot of love for this show from people who generally don't care about Superman. It really hit a nail with the "tumblr" audience, for lack of a better description, resulting in a lot of quick fan art and a lot of conversation about the show in surprising places. That's THE most important thing to me. Also, I really like they're portrayal of Clark. It highlights that Superman isn't some perfect being pretending to be Clark Kent. A lot of people still don't understand that, a LOT of people. Here, the "difference" between Clark and Superman is portrayed in a way that's a lot clearer than some other depictions.

[NaVi]

a very good series, for me much higher than the 90s, we finally see a fun Clark that interests us and not just the boring part until Superman arrives, speaking of Superman I think he is the biggest problem in the series, there is nothing that makes him stand out, apart from being basically useless (he always needs help) the only saving grace is that he is new and I hope that in season 2 we will see a capable Superman.

[j9ac9k]

I still can't get over "Mandy"...

[Vakanai]

Quote tweets are nuts, a bunch of horny people saying “good for Lois because if she let go I would definitely steal him”. Who knew the secret to making Superman popular again was to make him hot and endearing

To be fair adorkable himbos are in right now, and Clark's been circling that for decades.

[Vakanai]

I agree it's doable, it's just so far their villain updates or depictions of them has been so underwhelming

I actually liked tech-mech suit Parasite. Think the problem with the villains isn't the tech vs metahuman thing, be honest if the episodes played out exactly the same except they were superpowered instead of tech powered would it really be better? I don't think so. I think the main problem with the villains is that story-wise they're the B-plot. We're superhero comic book junkies, and the hero vs villain stuff is always the A-plot. But here it's secondary. A-plot is mostly the character dynamics of Clark, Lois, and Jimmy. Villains have too little lead up, too little back story, and relatively speaking too little relevance. Giving them superpowers or more classic designs wouldn't change that.

Which you know what? I'm okay with that. Episodes are too short to give us all the Daily Planet trio awesomeness and better villain plots, and between the two I'll take Lois and Jimmy getting more love any time. Getting my Superman vs random villain fix is easy, getting some decent Superman supporting cast stuff is darn hard.

[Frontier]

He definitely is Asian:



And it’s definitely Sam Lane, they’re just waiting to spring it on you for when Lois introduces her new boyfriend to her dad. Since we’ve talked ad nauseam about what the show has done wrong villain wise, I just want to praise this take on Sam as being exactly in line with my preferences. He’s morally gray, willing to kill Superman immediately for just the possibility that Supes is a threat, but he’s not fanatically evil to the point he’ll ignore civilian casualties. Morrison’s take on Sam Lane is the comic equivalent, willing to let Lex torture Superman for the purpose of figuring out how Supes’ powers work, but almost strangling Lex when Lex puts Lois and other civilians in harm’s way to incapacitate Superman so the military can imprison him.

I think Lois will definitely be key to bringing Clark and her dad to the same side, and maybe Clark will be able to help repair the Lane fami'ys relationships.

I like it. It isn't on par with STAS, but they're building towards something, and I suspect that will be the case every season. I'm seeing a lot of love for this show from people who generally don't care about Superman. It really hit a nail with the "tumblr" audience, for lack of a better description, resulting in a lot of quick fan art and a lot of conversation about the show in surprising places. That's THE most important thing to me. Also, I really like they're portrayal of Clark. It highlights that Superman isn't some perfect being pretending to be Clark Kent. A lot of people still don't understand that, a LOT of people. Here, the "difference" between Clark and Superman is portrayed in a way that's a lot clearer than some other depictions.

I do feel like S:TAS was better when it came to the Rogues.

I actually liked tech-mech suit Parasite. Think the problem with the villains isn't the tech vs metahuman thing, be honest if the episodes played out exactly the same except they were superpowered instead of tech powered would it really be better? I don't think so. I think the main problem with the villains is that story-wise they're the B-plot. We're superhero comic book junkies, and the hero vs villain stuff is always the A-plot. But here it's secondary. A-plot is mostly the character dynamics of Clark, Lois, and Jimmy. Villains have too little lead up, too little back story, and relatively speaking too little relevance. Giving them superpowers or more classic designs wouldn't change that.

Which you know what? I'm okay with that. Episodes are too short to give us all the Daily Planet trio awesomeness and better villain plots, and between the two I'll take Lois and Jimmy getting more love any time. Getting my Superman vs random villain fix is easy, getting some decent Superman supporting cast stuff is darn hard.

I think it's a mix of the villains feeling underdeveloped, not really looking like (or acting) like themselves, and their designs just not being very memorable. Parasite was probably the best they've done in my opinion.

It's like a show like the Spectacular Spider-Man was able to balance out the human and personal drama while still delivering on establishing the villains as memorable and capturing what makes them iconic, but I don't feel this show has quite done that. And that's probably why it's consistently seen as the weakest aspect of the show.

[Vordan]

I actually liked tech-mech suit Parasite. Think the problem with the villains isn't the tech vs metahuman thing, be honest if the episodes played out exactly the same except they were superpowered instead of tech powered would it really be better? I don't think so. I think the main problem with the villains is that story-wise they're the B-plot. We're superhero comic book junkies, and the hero vs villain stuff is always the A-plot. But here it's secondary. A-plot is mostly the character dynamics of Clark, Lois, and Jimmy. Villains have too little lead up, too little back story, and relatively speaking too little relevance. Giving them superpowers or more classic designs wouldn't change that.

Which you know what? I'm okay with that. Episodes are too short to give us all the Daily Planet trio awesomeness and better villain plots, and between the two I'll take Lois and Jimmy getting more love any time. Getting my Superman vs random villain fix is easy, getting some decent Superman supporting cast stuff is darn hard.

I agree with you that main focus of the show is on the trio, which is why I greatly enjoyed the last episode testing the bonds between all three by putting serious strain on their connections to each other:



If this show has a legacy I think it will be recognition for how it cracked the code on making all three feel important. Jimmy in particular is better served here than he’s been in anything else, ditto for Perry, and the Daily Planet crew are excellent, freaking Steve Lombard has some depth to him! Wouldn’t be surprised if we get a similar exploration of Cat Grant with Lois in another episode. If nothing else this show needs to be looked at for how to approach Superman’s civilian cast because they’re fantastic here, far superior to the DCAU.

For the villains, I think it’s just that they’re too different design and characterization wise from what you’d expect, and the revamps aren’t really better than what came before. Can’t blame the show really, until the current PKJ/Williamson era, no one was doing anything with Superman’s Rogues outside of Lex. Livewire for example hadn’t been relevant to Superman in ages, and when she did appear they made no mention of her shock jockey background, she was just the angry electric girl… which is what she is in MAWS! No wonder MAWS felt comfortable doing radical redesigns. I mean hell, it’s never been particularly relevant who has been the Parasite, not like it’s crucial that it be Rudy Jones. Silver Banshee got her first good story in Christ knows how long with Williamson. I totally get why they’re taking big swings even if I wish they had been able to take inspiration from the current era. Least their Brainiac is probably going to be a traditional take, and I’m very excited/eager for their Mxy. Still, they should have prioritized using Superman Rogues over bringing in general DCU villains, it absolutely should be Bloodsport here instead of Deathstroke.

[Prime]

He definitely is Asian:



And it’s definitely Sam Lane, they’re just waiting to spring it on you for when Lois introduces her new boyfriend to her dad. Since we’ve talked ad nauseam about what the show has done wrong villain wise, I just want to praise this take on Sam as being exactly in line with my preferences. He’s morally gray, willing to kill Superman immediately for just the possibility that Supes is a threat, but he’s not fanatically evil to the point he’ll ignore civilian casualties. Morrison’s take on Sam Lane is the comic equivalent, willing to let Lex torture Superman for the purpose of figuring out how Supes’ powers work, but almost strangling Lex when Lex puts Lois and other civilians in harm’s way to incapacitate Superman so the military can imprison him.

Not sure why they simply couldn’t keep him as a white guy and have his wife be Asian though? That make Lois hapa which has happened in the comics before. In American Alien Lois is hapa.

[Mantis-Ray]

The orange is literally the only way to tell it's Deathstroke.

The color difference did give me an idea that maybe the Deathstroke suit is part of a series and if Bloodsport shows up he could his own blue version with a modified kit focused on guns.

We are missing a gun guy in the line-up. Though hopefully if we get a gun guy its Robert and not Deadshot.

I also realize Conduit would be perfect for this show.

[DochaDocha]

Not sure why they simply couldn’t keep him as a white guy and have his wife be Asian though? That make Lois hapa which has happened in the comics before. In American Alien Lois is hapa.

The can of worms here, hehe.

[Frontier]

I agree with you that main focus of the show is on the trio, which is why I greatly enjoyed the last episode testing the bonds between all three by putting serious strain on their connections to each other:



If this show has a legacy I think it will be recognition for how it cracked the code on making all three feel important. Jimmy in particular is better served here than he’s been in anything else, ditto for Perry, and the Daily Planet crew are excellent, freaking Steve Lombard has some depth to him! Wouldn’t be surprised if we get a similar exploration of Cat Grant with Lois in another episode. If nothing else this show needs to be looked at for how to approach Superman’s civilian cast because they’re fantastic here, far superior to the DCAU.

For the villains, I think it’s just that they’re too different design and characterization wise from what you’d expect, and the revamps aren’t really better than what came before. Can’t blame the show really, until the current PKJ/Williamson era, no one was doing anything with Superman’s Rogues outside of Lex. Livewire for example hadn’t been relevant to Superman in ages, and when she did appear they made no mention of her shock jockey background, she was just the angry electric girl… which is what she is in MAWS! No wonder MAWS felt comfortable doing radical redesigns. I mean hell, it’s never been particularly relevant who has been the Parasite, not like it’s crucial that it be Rudy Jones. Silver Banshee got her first good story in Christ knows how long with Williamson. I totally get why they’re taking big swings even if I wish they had been able to take inspiration from the current era. Least their Brainiac is probably going to be a traditional take, and I’m very excited/eager for their Mxy. Still, they should have prioritized using Superman Rogues over bringing in general DCU villains, it absolutely should be Bloodsport here instead of Deathstroke.

To be fair we haven't really had an animated work focus on the Planet and the cast since S:TAS. The closest would probably be the animated movies whenever they show the Planet but there's only so much you can do with that.

DCAU Lois is a peak Lois Lane in my opinion. I think this shows' version is a lot of fun but I feel like the best development for her is if she grows into more of that kind of Lois but maybe still carrying the sweeter side of this Lois. Clark might grow into being more confident like S:TAS Supes could be at times as well.

Honestly I just don't think it should be that hard. You look at Livewire in S:TAS or some of her comic appearances, Silver Banshee in her Bryne appearances, or even certain takes on Parasite and I feel like there's plenty of material to mine if they didn't treat them as just small scale threats of the week. And at least Livewire and Silver Banshee have very distinct appearances that I don't think the show has really topped.

[Immortal Weapon]

I actually liked tech-mech suit Parasite. Think the problem with the villains isn't the tech vs metahuman thing, be honest if the episodes played out exactly the same except they were superpowered instead of tech powered would it really be better? I don't think so. I think the main problem with the villains is that story-wise they're the B-plot. We're superhero comic book junkies, and the hero vs villain stuff is always the A-plot. But here it's secondary. A-plot is mostly the character dynamics of Clark, Lois, and Jimmy. Villains have too little lead up, too little back story, and relatively speaking too little relevance. Giving them superpowers or more classic designs wouldn't change that.

Which you know what? I'm okay with that. Episodes are too short to give us all the Daily Planet trio awesomeness and better villain plots, and between the two I'll take Lois and Jimmy getting more love any time. Getting my Superman vs random villain fix is easy, getting some decent Superman supporting cast stuff is darn hard.

Not for me. The villains being the b-plot is fine to me. These villains are underdeveloped, incompetent and cut from the same mold. They feel like MCU villains.

I agree with you that main focus of the show is on the trio, which is why I greatly enjoyed the last episode testing the bonds between all three by putting serious strain on their connections to each other:

If this show has a legacy I think it will be recognition for how it cracked the code on making all three feel important. Jimmy in particular is better served here than he’s been in anything else, ditto for Perry, and the Daily Planet crew are excellent, freaking Steve Lombard has some depth to him! Wouldn’t be surprised if we get a similar exploration of Cat Grant with Lois in another episode. If nothing else this show needs to be looked at for how to approach Superman’s civilian cast because they’re fantastic here, far superior to the DCAU.

For the villains, I think it’s just that they’re too different design and characterization wise from what you’d expect, and the revamps aren’t really better than what came before. Can’t blame the show really, until the current PKJ/Williamson era, no one was doing anything with Superman’s Rogues outside of Lex. Livewire for example hadn’t been relevant to Superman in ages, and when she did appear they made no mention of her shock jockey background, she was just the angry electric girl… which is what she is in MAWS! No wonder MAWS felt comfortable doing radical redesigns. I mean hell, it’s never been particularly relevant who has been the Parasite, not like it’s crucial that it be Rudy Jones. Silver Banshee got her first good story in Christ knows how long with Williamson. I totally get why they’re taking big swings even if I wish they had been able to take inspiration from the current era. Least their Brainiac is probably going to be a traditional take, and I’m very excited/eager for their Mxy. Still, they should have prioritized using Superman Rogues over bringing in general DCU villains, it absolutely should be Bloodsport here instead of Deathstroke.

Never watched DC Superhero girls? That show kept Livewire's persona but made her a social media influencer. She used her platform to criticize the heroes, downplay their good deeds and encouraged her audience to harass and bully them. She did all this for clout. A modern Livewire can easily be a metaphor to toxic internet culture but this show nah, make her a boring run of the mill merc. Make her look like Joe Erotic since Goth is out I guess.

[Vordan]

I wonder if Up, Up, and Away was an influence on MAWS Kryptonians at all? Be cool if it was but since they never name dropped it, I’m guessing no.

To be fair we haven't really had an animated work focus on the Planet and the cast since S:TAS. The closest would probably be the animated movies whenever they show the Planet but there's only so much you can do with that.

And whose fault is that? Not my problem that DC animation guys dropped the ball and didn’t want to do anything besides Batman. We should have gotten a Superman cartoon between MAWS and STAS, but we didn’t so I’m not inclined to be generous towards them. This show is here and its take on the civilian supporting cast is the best I’ve seen. Maybe they’ll bungle that but that’s where things stand currently.

DCAU Lois is a peak Lois Lane in my opinion. I think this shows' version is a lot of fun but I feel like the best development for her is if she grows into more of that kind of Lois but maybe still carrying the sweeter side of this Lois. Clark might grow into being more confident like S:TAS Supes could be at times as well.

Lois and Clark never got together in the DCAU, and her being used to prop up Batman means she’ll never be the best Lois to me. I plan on rewatching STAS soon and I expect it is not going to hold up well, particularly because the creatives involved didn’t even want to do it.

Honestly I just don't think it should be that hard. You look at Livewire in S:TAS or some of her comic appearances, Silver Banshee in her Bryne appearances, or even certain takes on Parasite and I feel like there's plenty of material to mine if they didn't treat them as just small scale threats of the week. And at least Livewire and Silver Banshee have very distinct appearances that I don't think the show has really topped.

The villains are the big weakness, but that holds true for the DCAU too. Timm didn’t even bother to include Silver Banshee at all, so it’s just a disappointing trend of Superman’s Rogues drawing the short straw. Their Sam Lane is great, I’m hopeful that Brainiac and Mxy will be too.

Never watched DC Superhero girls? That show kept Livewire's persona but made her a social media influencer. She used her platform to criticize the heroes, downplay their good deeds and encouraged her audience to harass and bully them. She did all this for clout. A modern Livewire can easily be a metaphor to toxic internet culture but this show nah, make her a boring run of the mill merc. Make her look like Joe Erotic since Goth is out I guess.

No I haven’t but I’m glad they used her there. Glad they used Volcana in Harley Quinn too.

[CosmeticSkull]

Not sure why they simply couldn’t keep him as a white guy and have his wife be Asian though? That make Lois hapa which has happened in the comics before. In American Alien Lois is hapa.

But what if it's an Asian guy with a white wife?