My Adventures With Superman: The Good, The Bad, & The…eh

This intro does not appear in the two episodes, the two part “Adventures Of A Normal Man”, that aired on Adult Swim last night. It might have been added in for HBO Max or the Adult Swim app, on demand, and on their website. but that’s not the version I watched. I’ll bring up again someday as part of the Many Intros Of Superman some time in the future. The show will air Thursdays at Midnight on Adult Swim, be on HBO Max, now just called Max, and repeated Saturdays on the Toonami block, so it may end up on Toonami’s site as well. Originally it was going to be on regular Cartoon Network, and it does look like a kid show (the word “murder” comes up a couple of times in episode two but nothing is objectionable for kids beyond that) but for some reason they changed their mind, and Williams Street, who handles the Adult Swim and Toonami blocks, saved it for at least one airing. Whether or not we get a second season depends on how well it does…and if it is worth having a second season.

Of course, despite my misgivings, I had to watch and review My Adventures With Superman. We’re talking about my number one favorite superhero since childhood, so I’m rather defensive of how he’s portrayed. I’ve seen many live-action and animated version over the years as well as the various main and side comic continuities…aka the source material. Superman means a lot to me and so far all of those sources are failing my favorite superhero. The comics have done some horrible things to him lately I don’t want to bring up, Zack Snyder gave us a dark, brooding Superman even Batman fans think is wrong, and I haven’t watched the direct-to-video movies due to lack of money so I haven’t see a decent Superman since Justice League Action…and that suffered from using the New 52 Superman.

To properly judge this show both on its own merits and as an adaptation of Superman and friends I’m going to format this in the form of the good, the bad, and the…eh. The good is everything I like about the show and obviously the bad is the opposite. I’ll look at both the adaptation and on its own. I did admit Man Of Steel was a good superhero movie but a terrible Superman movie, so this still has a chance to have positive things said about it. As for the eh, that’s the stuff I’m rather neutral on but are worth bringing up on both angles.

Adult Swim’s YouTube channel, at least as of this writing, only has part one but it should give you some idea what I’m talking about if you haven’t checked the show out yourself. Watch, and then read the review.

The Good

• Despite a few minor hiccups I’ll bring up later, I will give the show credit for nailing Clark/Superman’s personality. He doesn’t activate his powers for something like getting his kite but for saving people. That is something I can believe when it comes to Clark, that saving the lady and her baby or his new friends later would cause him to instinctually tap his powers. I do believe that this is a young Clark Kent. We know how he becomes Superman but we also see how he becomes the man before becoming the hero, something Snyder didn’t properly do by his changes to the Kents.
• Loving parents. While I could complain about Jonathan noping out in the next episode when Clark finally examines the spaceship, which seems to be moving the Fortress Of Solitude to the farm, it’s a bit understandable given what we saw here and better than the Snyder version to a point. Oh, I’ll still complain about it later, but his mom is all in on helping him become Superman and I’ll take one out of two over none out of two.
• While I hope eventually we get to see Jor-El translated, having him speak Kryptonian and Clark not understanding him isn’t a deal breaker. Presumably other versions were translating the recording after scanning Earth languages and guessing his but I’m curious to see where they go with it. Also, Jor-El and Lara die together rather than separately. Points to the show.
• I do like the commarade between our three interns. An early eh is how Clark and Lois seem to be into each other a bit early but it should be fun to follow their romance. Together with “Jimmy” (no, it’s not just the race swap) they make a fun trio to watch and you want to root them on.
• The villain, including the lady who shows up in the second part, is a good threat. From the robots to the suit she uses later she’s not really OP but is still clever and resourceful. The males in the mercenaries don’t look incompetent when they make the mistake of sicking the robots on our heroes, even though it was a bad move in hindsight.
• The action is really good. I do like the art style in general and the animation is better than most Adult Swim shows. Of course it wasn’t made for Adult Swim, it was originally made for Cartoon Network.

The Bad

• Let’s get it out of the way. ALL the race swaps. Oddly this includes our villainess if she’s supposed to be Livewire, a Brooklyn-accented Latina in her original DCAU appearance. She has darker skin but that’s about it. Of course there’s Jimmy, though as I’ll get to that’s not the only crime against our decades-long redhead. Perry White is not white. One of the Newsboy Legion, and we’ll get back to that in as well, has become a black girl so now they’re the NewsKID Legion. Lois is still Lutz from The Owl House all grown up, and I’m not bothered by the pants.
• I am bothered more by personality alterations. Perry at least felt like Perry despite the repaint, and Clark is mostly unscathed. I can’t say the same for the others. Lois mostly suffers from the anime influences on the show. Instead of the tough but feminine Army brat who will risk her neck for the sake of a story and finding the truth, she’s really excitable. She’s like sometimes Lois and sometimes not, as she is fearless and driven to report the story, plus since we’re seeing her as an intern reporter instead of the veteran reporter we usually start off with her as I can accept a few things. She’s not quite in the neutral category because parts of the real Lois does come through (I really don’t care about the pants vs skirt debate; she’s worn both) but only parts.
• Jimmy on the other hand has more wrong with him than altering another redhead, something I used to be able to count on with animated Jimmy Olsen and gave up on with live-action Jimmy. You can’t write that off as “the best actor for the job” because he and Perry are both cartoons, and thus you can draw them however you want. The art designers chose to make them black rather than promote Ron Troupe, an actual black character who only gets namedropped. What’s worse however is the changes to his personality. Make him Clark’s roommate and near the same age? I’d put that in the “eh” category because otherwise we’d have no Jimmy. Although really we don’t. This “Jimmy” is convinced the aliens are here and runs a vlog called Firebird to promote the conspiracy theory. He’s an equal mentally with the others and he isn’t a bad character. None of them are. He’s just not quite Jimmy Olsen.
• Okay, I just heard that the “black ops” guy working with “Livewire” is supposed to be Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke The Terminator. No. Slade is not a pretty boy.

The originally teased logo.

The…eh

• All that aforementioned namedropping. The Newsboy/kid Legion at least works into the story. When Lois and Jimmy get the story on Superman, the byline is given to Ron Troupe, Cat Grant, and I missed the third name. There’s a sign in part two’s battle for Amazo…Cola I think. It’s some kind of drink. There’s a lot of Easter Eggs like this but unlike seeing a Wayne Enterprises sign on a building it doesn’t quite work because except for the race/genderswapped Legion (it’s not just Flip they got wrong) it’s just there to “get that reference”. At least the Legion are fun kid characters who could be a benefit to the heroes.
• Task Force X is also mentioned but unless that’s why Amanda Waller is there…why is she there? At least they used her real design.
• There is way too much drama in the ship’s remains. Instead of just being a rocket it somehow formed a complex, which reminds me more of the Fortress and you’d think would leave too much of the farm incapable of supporting crops. I’ve seen notes of Clark’s “magical girl” transformation but that’s just putting on the suit, with Martha adding a few details like the shorts and belt to make it look better (and better hide his superbits I’d imagine). It does break up the blue. Part 2 shows more of the ship’s deal but until we get a translator in here it all seems a bit much for “let’s at least make sure our son doesn’t get blown up because our leaders wouldn’t listen”. There’s still potential, which is why it’s in the neutral section. I just don’t want Clark to be the vanguard of Kryptonian occupation or sent there to take over or something. That was bad enough in Smallville.
• I don’t know why they changed the show logo, or put the S that Jon Kent uses in the comics instead of the classic S shield. It matches the art style, which may actually be the answer, but call me a crazy traditionalist.
• As mentioned, the Lois/Clark romance is starting off a bit fast. One of the interesting things about their relationship is the slow start. Lois is into Superman because of his physical strength, not a surprise given her upbringing. She eventually realizes that Clark’s more gentile nature, something Superman does have but is usually harder to approach, does have appeal and he’s been there for her when Superman couldn’t because being Mrs. Superman comes with a big red “use me to get revenge” target. Here Clark and Lois are immediately hot for each other and Jimmy is playing matchmaker. It’s not a terrible dynamic in general. As I said I do like the trio’s friendship. It’s just an adaptation error, one of the flaws in the de-aged trio and how impatient the writers seem to be to get into the will they/won’t they stuff. Odd to see a Lois with no romantic interest in Superman and just seeing him as an awesome dude and her ticket to full reporter status.

Overall I’m not happy with the adaptation errors and this may end up driving me away. I am however just curious enough to see where it goes. I gave Smallville a few seasons so why not see what they do. It may end up being morbid curiosity and it’s not really the Superman adaptation I wanted but it was better than I originally expected. Whether or not it stays that way we’ll have to wait and see. It may end up being a good superhero show but a bad Superman adaptation. Let’s see how long it takes to find out.