I kind of don’t want to talk about this out of concern people aren’t going to understand where I’m coming from. I haven’t watched My Adventures With Superman since the pilot review. It’s not a very good adaptation of Superman’s world. Between numerous race (and in at least one case gender) swaps, de-aged Clark and Lois who become a couple way too soon in their lifespans, Deathstroke being a pretty boy looking character, Steel’s armor looking more like a mech suit, completely new motivations, and just all the other changes I saw in the pilot, in clips, and from reviews of people who liked it and didn’t like it, it just feels like a completely new concept, like Clark got hit by a Kryptonite truck and ended up isekaied into an animeish world of namesakes.
That’s not hate, that personal preference. Superman is my favorite superhero but the world around him also matters to me because it’s partly what makes Superman. The strange this is Superman himself and his Earth parents are the only things I think they got right. It’s an adaptation issue. Clark’s powers unlocking because he wanted to save someone, the Kents being supportive of what he chooses to do with his powers–the show clearly understands the Kents more than anything Zac Snyder and now James Gunn have shoved out into the world. Clark’s confidence dropped to fit in with the rest of the world, but that’s the only note I have about him. Plus it all seems well written with good characters and I like the art style in animation. I just don’t see this as Superman’s world any more than I do the later seasons of Smallville. Overall it just isn’t Superman to me.
However, I need a topic and I still have curiosity about the show because it is good on it’s own merits despite all the adaptation errors that make it not feel like the Metropolis I know and love. So today I see the trailer for season three of My Adventures With Superman. Previously only the first two seasons were made before Cartoon Network and HBO Max opted to shelve it. Williams Street Productions, who program the “Adult Swim” lineup, decided to save it and it developed a pretty healthy fanbase, enough to give the same treatment to Green Lantern and produce a new season. So I’m curious. Let’s see what they have.
See, I should be able to identify these characters. I can’t, except for Superboy and I’m guessing Hank Henshaw, the “Cyborg Superman”. Whose the Russian woman with the Kryptonite tentacle pack? (Also, tentacles and the anime style on Adult Swim. Now that they’re not making the show for Adult Swim directly, should I be concerned?) What’s with the cool giant samurai robot? Is the giant woman Giganta, whose one of Wonder Woman villains? Maybe the croc is Killer Crock, who is one of Batman’s? Are we getting anime-fied Batman and Wonder Woman? We’re getting anime-fied Green Lanterns, so it’s not that impossible. They also apparently decided Connor Kent is a spazmatic rather than the “too cool for you” 90s original or the angry clone boy who found some kind of peace we have now. It’s all the same problems I had with the first two seasons, Superman in name only.
And yet if I put my biases aside it also has the same strengths. The characters look good, the story looks fun and action packed, Superman still has his morals (I hope), and the animation is really good. It’s just not Superman’s world and that still bugs me. I don’t think we’re going to get a “Reign Of The Supermen” level story out of this. Steel already exists. I don’t see anything I can identify as The Eradicator. It’s too early to have a meaningful Superman dies and the world mourns story, but it’s also too early for Clark and Lois to be a couple and that didn’t stop the show. Again, I don’t hate this, but the negatives outweigh the positives for me. It could be good, but for me it just won’t be Superman. He could be Tomorrow Man, Last Son, Steelman, Action Ace, or any other name (those all being nicknames Superman has had) and I’d probably be more invested. There’s a part of my brain, the one that grew up with Superman in various continuities that still maintained the core concepts and designs of multiversal continuity, that can’t reconcile this to what I see as Superman.
So, good show, bad adaptation. If you’re not bother by this like I am, this might be a good show to watch. I do wonder if Adult Swim will be less kiddie than the previous seasons, designed as a kids show until it was shelved, and what direction Williams Street is going to take what’s becoming a My Adventures universe. I just don’t think I can bring myself to watch this, but I can’t trash the show or anyone who watches and enjoys it. At least it understands Superman himself more than anything else coming out besides the comics right now.
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