Superman & Lois S3 Ep. 1 Personal Highlights

"Closer"

Superman & Lois finally makes its grand return entering into its 3rd, and hopefully not final, season. My initial response once the episode ended was "Wow, I completely forgot how much I enjoyed this series". This is the golden child example of why I truly believe that the Arrowverse (or Arrowverse adjacent in this case) franchise isn’t a complete lost in regards to value as we slowly witness its ultimate obliteration. In just this one episode kicking off the new season, Superman & Lois does what 5 episodes of The Flash’s final season failed to do. It effectively builds up the new villain in a compelling fashion while also notably upping the production values and nicely establishing where everyone's hearts and minds are at. I’ll try not to turn this into a Flash rant comparison discussion (it wouldn't be fair), so let’s just dive into my personal highlights of the premiere. 

Establishing The Current Relationships

Honestly guys, I’ll try to make this one a little quick, but don’t think for one second that I probably found these particular segments of the episode to be boring or dull. As a matter of fact, I have to applaud the writers for doing a pretty solid job at checking off all of our central characters by giving us the essential details on everyone's current mindset and goals. You have Clark and Jordon continuing their father-son Superboy training which includes a couple of fun family bonding moments as well as its occasional dramatic clashes. Actually, I do wanna point out here how relieved I was to see that the entire episode didn't drag things down with an overly exhausted soap opera conflict with Jordon going off doing his own problematic super heroics against his father's wishes. 

Instead, in true Superman & Lois fashion which I've always appreciated, they find a way to iron things out at a nice enough pace with a family conversation that pushes our characters forward. In this case, we have Jordon's conversation with his brother about letting their parents' years of experience be an indicator as to why they need to trust their judgement. It's a nice little exchange that I feel conveys a sense of maturity amongst these teenagers even if they're likely to slip up in the future. It's one of the reasons why I've always favored this series over the other Arroverse shows. The character writing actually inspires gradual evolution with room for error as a three dimensional person would have. I prefer this as opposed to just showing people questionably lashing out until change is forced in with an overly dramatic monologue about life. Not calling any names.

Speaking of which, it took me a minute to get adjusted to the new actor playing Jonathan, but I think Michael Bishop will fit in just fine despite how awkward it initially felt. My hopes is that they don't sideline him for some other "cry out for individualism subplot again. Let's not do a whole season of him making poor decisions now that he has a driver's license while Superman is busy going up against new world ending threats. Priorities guys...priorities. Not knowing if this will be the final season of the show or not, and considering all of the cancellations that we've recently had, leads me to feel that the focus should be on its titular characters. 

With that said, we have to talk about the big elephant in the room being this supposed pregnancy being teed up only to dissipate at the end. Throughout the episode, we're given heavy implications of seeing another Kent in the family down the line with both Lois and Clark gradually coming to terms with the idea. By the way, it's probably a little small thing in the grand scheme of things, but I just enjoyed seeing these two have these giddy child-like mannerisms when speaking to close fiends about the possibility of a future child. What can I say? It's adorable and it re-establishes that inner family circle with characters like John Henry and Lana in a fun way. Only, and here's where the plot twist comes in, she's not actually pregnant? Hmmm. Are we setting up something more problematic with Lois's medical state? They certainly placed a huge spotlight on it towards the end. 

Is this a biological issue that is somehow cosmic related as a side effect of her literally shifting between universes in Season 2? Perhaps this can also be something more grounded in reality with a dramatic tie to the fact that she had a miscarriage in the past? I'm actually kinda curious as to where they're gonna go with this and whether or not they'll connect to the more "comic booky" aspects of the story. Keeping on the subject of family, we have general Lane struggling to bond with Natasha (poor guy always has a hard time with kids). It's a quick little side story but I did enjoy the idea of Lane being open about trying to be a great grandfather-like figure for Nat while the D.O.D. Academy door is left open for future potential. Maybe we can get a nice bit of closure for the character before the series ends where she ends up being her own well established hero for this universe.

And this is where I'll stop in this particular segment. Nothing against Kyle and Lana's divorce subplot or Jordon's young adult romantic-drama story with Sara but let's be honest; there's a much more interesting narrative to discuss.

The Scene That Sold The Season For Me

Three quarters of the way into the episode, I was starting to feel a little concerned that the season premiere would give us nothing more than just decent enough character drama with nothing particularly exciting. But then...we got our big action scene. During the Jordon's birthday party, Clark hears sirens and people screaming miles away and flies over to find Henry Miller causing citywide mayhem. Now, if you're a little confused as to who this masked Nazi symbol wearing baddie is, think back to Season 1's dreamscape flashback where Superman fought his very first villain. Henry was the guy donning a mask and equipped with a flamethrower threatening to kill Lois after her investigation regarding his assault on minority owned business. Only back then, Henry was just some crazed racist in a mask that could easily be tased, whereas here he's revealed to have powers now. 

This catches Superman off guard and we get a surprisingly extensive battle between the two with the show solidifying once again why it's the best looking CW DC Comics show to date. The production values during this fight scene is incredible from the beautiful sun set lit color palette shining through the transitioning settings, to the exceptionally executed environmental damage and CGI models used to depict these two super-powered brawlers. We're 2-3 seasons into this show and I still get consistently surprised by how drastically improved the VFX work and overall cinematic direction looks compared to its neighboring semi-shared franchise properties. Wait...I did promise that I wouldn't use this as a means to bash the current and final season of The Flash. Alright, moving on. 

Also, whereas many might complain about Superman being "weak" against some assumed low level criminal here, I think it can easily be implied that he's more focused on talking to Henry more so than beating him down. There was never a single moment during this entire fight that I felt Superman was being legitimately hurt and instead was just being pushed into things while verbally trying to reach his enemy.  Although, I think this is still problematic considering how much property damage is happening here and the fact that our hero is powerful enough to seemingly split two merging universes apart (Season 2 reference). So, why the delay? Well, that's typical Superman for ya. Powerful enough to beat the bad guy, but afraid of tearing them apart which sadly prolongs his battles. 

Where the real spotlight moment comes in for me isn't so much the spectacle of the fight (as cool as it was), but what happens immediately following. Superman tries to confront Henry about where his new powers came from only for the villain to ominously state that a group of people was "coming for him" and that he has to finish his mission first. Henry then gets apparently shot up by an offscreen gun right in front of Clark only for him to find no bullet wounds or a shooter in sight with his X-Ray vision. Out of nowhere comes a mysterious figure with an eerie looking pulsating mask leading to Superman hearing multiple sources of citywide pandemonium. As he quickly flies over the city to scan for the sources, he finds no visual evidence of cataclysmic activities happening resulting in the sounds just abruptly stopping. 

Superman immediately flies back down to find that the mysterious figure has vanished alongside Henry Miller's body as a “Suicide Slums” spray painted billboard comes into view. It's by far one of the most eeriest scenes in the Arrowerse (and Arrowverse adjacent) franchise as the exceptional sound design and score invokes a chilling sense of something dark lurking in the outskirts of Clark's knowledge. Who is this freakish faced individual and were they able to tap into Superman's very own senses to distract him? That's a very concerning thought if you consider what someone can do if they easily had full control over Superman's perspective of the world. Honestly, my mind immediately went to Spellbinder from Batman Beyond, but I could be wrong. 

Now, as for the "Suicide Slums" sign, this was a section of Metropolis in the comics where characters like Black Lightning (wouldn't that be a great character tease), the Guardian (we know Jimmy Olsen exists in this universe), and a few others hail from. It's also where this Earth's John Henry Irons might've been established in (which I apologize if they mentioned it in the show and I somehow missed it) as he does in the comics. This brings us to our connection with Intergang who also had a major presence there causing mayhem with their various operations. I think this single scene alone showcasing one villain being taken down by an elusive individual and vanishing as a chilling sign introduces a new setting masterfully incites curiosity. It certainly had me at the edge of my seat wondering what was about to happen next. Consider me sold. 

We Have To Talk About Bruno

During Season 2's absolutely insane reality bending finale, one of the bigger things that caught everyone's attention was the solidification of Superman & Lois not taking place in the Arrowverse. We finally got an answer, although with a slate of new questions, with General Lane stating that Superman is apparently "Earth's only hero". This of course completely disregards the idea of a Justice League team existing alongside every other hero that the Arrowverse introduced over the years. Now I won't go into questioning how exactly this fits into what Crisis established with Earth-Prime's merging of all Arrowverse doppelgängers with a new multiverse. Instead, I'd like to highlight a certain John Diggle who showed up to set things up for our new big bad by giving John Henry Irons the details about Bruno Mannheim.

It's revealed that this Earth's John Henry was killed by Bruno and, according to John's wife, was previously in a weapons dealing business with him via his military network. Now in the comics, Bruno is the leader of Intergang which I do believe that we got a name drop of in the past. Why is this such a big deal? Intergang isn't just any run of the mill group of street thugs that heroes can just effortlessly swat around like canon fodder. This is a faction that is specifically threatening due to being armed with tech from none other than Apokolips. Name sounds familiar? This is the name of the world in which Darkseid rules over and used the gang as a means for his grander agenda.

Now I don't want to get too ahead of myself here, but just the mere fact that Intergang exists in this world also implies that somewhere out there, there's a version of Darkseid who has yet to launch an attack on this universe. Just thinking about what a spectacle like that would behold with Superman & Lois's gradually improving and impressive cinematic (for TV) production is enough to have me grinning like a happy little child. Again...don't wanna get to ahead of myself here, but I can't help but imagine what this show can do if given the freedom to really "go all out". Fanboy dreams aside, the big highlight for this episode in particular comes at the end where Bruno actually shows up experimenting on Henry in an underground lab while our previous freaky faced person silently watches. 

The casting for Bruno is shown to be one Chad Coleman which is fascinating to me considering that he also played a gang leader on Arrow by the name of Tobias Church. So, is it safe to presume that Bruno is actually a doppelgänger of Tobias? With David Ramsey's Diggle appearing on the show alongside our titular characters being the same cast as their Earth-Prime counterparts, I think we can officially call this another example of the Post-Crisis multiverse in effect. This is actually kind of exciting considering that the floodgates have now opened up wider for more Arrowverse cast members to show up either as a new version of their character or a new individual altogether. The potential is there at the very least for fun opportunities. 

I look forward to seeing what this actor brings to this role and how Intergang plays into this season's overarching villain arc. It'd be refreshing for us to explore a threat that's more faction-based and street level with mysterious and wider cosmic implications versus just another invasion story like we've had twice in a row now. The question here is what exactly Bruno wants with Henry seemingly forcing him into some form of servitude. Is he building a group of super-powered assets for a full on takeover through twisted experiments? Is the fluids that he pressures his scientist to pump into Henry's body connected to Apokolips resources? Lois mentions that Henry got out of jail three months ago with a brain tumor related compassionate release, so has Bruno offered him a miracle cure (alien medicine) with the means to fight Superman on a more even scale? Consider me intrigued.

Wait a minute. A big bad promising other villains an upgrade of sorts to fight the titular hero? Where have I heard that recently? Ah yes, it sounds very much like what The Flash series just did with its Red Death season villain arc. Only, I'm sure Superman & Lois will deliver an exponentially better and far less cringe inducing end result with their villain story and presentation. Whoops...I guess I eventually did slip up with a Flash comparison rant after all. If it's any consolation, I enjoyed this episode overall and it just so happened to have been directed by none other than the Reverse Flash himself, Tom Cavanagh. How's that for irony?

Bonus Content

1. Fortress of Solitude DC Comics Villain Easter Eggs

After Clark flies over with Jordon at the new Fortress of Solitude, we can vaguely see him swapping through holograms of training enemies for his son to spar with. The first hologram model shown is that of Mechano-Man (a man with Alzheimer's disease and a giant robot who captured Lois and proclaimed to be the real "man of steel"). This is a character that can very briefly be seen in All Star Superman #10. There's also Titano who, in the comics, is essentially a gorilla test subject that got powers after being exposed with cosmic radiation. With the Flash evidently not existing in this universe, I supposed this is the show's parallel to Gorilla Grodd perhaps? 

Last but not least is Atomic Skull which is a name given to two super villains in the comics. Judging by the design of the hologram, I'd assume this to be Joseph Martin who was a meta human with radioactive powers tied to another villain named Monarch. It's interesting seeing how the show is inserting Superman's past villain confrontations building up a rogues gallery that we haven't really gotten to see in action. I actually like this approach in the same vein that shows like Stargirl, Doom Patrol, and Titans have where they get to establish a grand sense of geeky mythology without the need for spectacle. That being said, these are low level villains and I hope the series won't take this same approach with more substantial names like Brainiac or Doomsday. I'm still wondering who plays Lex Luthor in this universe (another namedrop in this episode). 

Episode Rating: 9/10