This is a DynaMic Network podcast.
Welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate
the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations.
I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother Marvelous Joe. And in this episode, we are doing a review
of season two of the HBO and Cartoon Network Adult Swim series, My Adventures with Superman.
It's a good show, people. If you're not watching it. Go watch My Adventures with Superman because
it's probably one of the best modern adaptations of the character that you can get, and I think
season 2 was a worthy successor to season 1. Yeah, absolutely, totally agree. We're going
to talk all about season 2 later on in this episode. Not too much later because there's
actually no news for this episode. This is sort of the calm after the storm that is Comic Con.
But as always, we list our segment times in our episode description. so feel free to check
out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. And guys, our artificially
intelligent duel simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up. Why
hello there, do you want even more from this podcast? Then become a part of the dynamic
duel community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic two-oh tier gives
you access to our Discord chat server. The fantastic four tier gives you two bonus episodes each
month, and the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly, The Diner Mike
podcast network tier lets you create your own podcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny
and Joe will help you develop your show, provide graphic support and consultation, and get you
simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas via email at dynamicduelpodcast at gmail.com.
Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamicduel. Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ9K and thanks to
everyone who supports the podcast. including our newest executive producer, Josh Leiner.
Welcome aboard, good sir. Be sure to join the rest of the executive producers on our Discord
chat server where we determine the content coming up on this podcast. Everyone else, be sure
to tune into the shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction,
which pits your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This
week, hosts Ken and Scotty are pitting the Power Rangers Megazord against Voltron. It's going
to be a great episode, an important episode, so make sure to tune into that. On the Senjou
World podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga
characters. The show is making its season 3 premiere this Thursday, and Zach's kicking
things off with a matchup between Hiei of Yu Hakusho and Yuta Okatsu of Jujutsu Kaisen.
And on the Console Combat podcast, hosts John and Dean find out who would win and fights
between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they determined who would win between
Dante from Devil May Cry versus Bayonetta. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our
show notes to listen to all the shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network. But with that out
of the way, quick to the No Prize! A No Prize is an award Marvel used to give out to fans.
Our version, the Dynamic duel No Prize, is a digital award we post on Instagram for the
person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week's question
we asked you guys, what the fuck? After we got the news that Robert Downey Jr. is returning
to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not as Iron Man, but as Dr. Doom, and we wanted to get
your guys' thoughts on it. We got a lot of answers actually, so let's go ahead and run down our
honorable mentions as well as the no prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Peter Troll.
Who said?
And that's actually a pretty interesting theory. Of course, if you haven't seen Deadpool and
Wolverine, I don't want to spoil anything, but they introduced the concept of anchor beings
to a timeline. And if that anchor being is somehow killed, then that timeline starts to deteriorate,
making Tony Stark the anchor being for the MCU sacred timeline would actually kind of explain
why the MCU has sucked as of recently. It's just deteriorating. Just shut your mouth, first
of all. But second of all, yeah, I mean, I guess that's a solid theory. If it turns out that
Tony Stark was the anchor being and the heroes learn that he was the anchor being and they
go and they try to find a new anchor being going into the Fantastic Four universe, pull that
Doctor Doom into the new world because in the Fantastic Four universe, Doctor Doom is a Tony
Stark variant. Sure, I mean, it could work. It's still not better than getting the actual
true Doctor Doom. But it would be one way to rationalize why. Robert Downey Jr. would be
the character of Dr. Doom in an alternate universe. Great answer, Peter. Our next honorable mention
goes to Travis Bailey, who said, Travis here, shout out to my good twin, Ben has been to
clubbing. Alright, everybody's hot, everybody's freaking out, I get it. But what y'all don't
understand is that Robert Downey Jr. is one of them. He ain't even a hacker, he's a best
man, alright? But what's the matter with him? This man got range. He is not gonna be stark
as Doom, he will be... Victor Vajil and it is going to break our hearts. He's gonna pull
this mostly personal mess out of the fire. All right, so basically what Travis said there
was that Robert Downey Jr. is too good of an actor for this not to be good, basically. And
if he can convince audiences that he is an entirely different person and he never takes off the
mask and he changes his voice completely, maybe I can see this working, but I don't wanna know
it's him. I don't wanna feel that it's him. I wish I could just scrub the idea that it's
him out of my brain. and then maybe go into it thinking it's just someone else. To me,
that's the only way this successfully works. I don't want to know it's Robert Downey Jr.
which kind of seems weird because he is such a big actor. You figure that he would want
to get his face out there and let people know it's him. And I mean, the guy just won an Oscar,
right? I don't want to equate Victor Von Doom with Tony Stark in any way, shape or form.
So yeah, hopefully he can pull that off. Hopefully that's his approach. Great answer Travis, our
next honorable mention goes to... Miggy Mattingian who said...
the true, um, like comic fans from the MCU stands. That's right! If you like Robert Downey Jr.
as Dr. Doom, you're not a true Marvel fan. Hashtag fake fan. Miggy telling it like it is, you
hate to hear it, but doesn't mean he's wrong. We won't hold the fact that he's a DC fan against
him. I think he's right in that the decision of Robert Downey Jr.'s casting as Dr. Doom
is really separating the comic book fans from your basic MCU fans who aren't familiar with
the source material. I think if you're a fan of Doctor Doom from the comic books, the idea
of Tony Stark being Doctor Doom is offensive and totally not in keeping with the character.
But if you're mostly a fan of the movies, then you're probably more excited to see Robert
Downey Jr. return more than anything else. Not really being aware of the characterization
of Doctor Doom from the comics, who is one of Marvel's greatest villains of all time. Who
we still have yet to see. portrayed in an accurate manner on the big screen. Is there a run from
the comics of Dr. Doom that you would recommend for people to read who aren't familiar? That
is a great question. There's a few that come to the top of my head including the Dr. Strange
and Dr. Doom Triumph and Torment miniseries. There was the Doom War miniseries. That's one
word Doom War. Books of Doom was pretty good. There was also the recent Dr. Doom run that
came out in 2019 or 2020, I think. It was about 10 issues and ended spectacularly. And basically
any Fantastic Four arc dealing with Dr. Doom, I would recommend, because they're all good.
Also, the first Secret Wars, they came out in the 80s. That was also a good showcase for
Dr. Doom. There's a lot of them. There's a lot of great books with him. And of course, anyone
not familiar with him can go back to one of our earliest episodes where we pit Superman
against Dr. Doom in a duel. Yeah, you could definitely find out a lot about his history
in that episode. Great answer, Miggy. We wanna give a quick shout out to Alex, Sarah Smorr,
Kat Stevenson, Cornelius Robinson, and Travis Bailey's twin, Travis Herndon, for taking the
time to visit our website and record an answer. Yeah, great answer, guys. No one gave a bad
answer for this question of the week. You guys all really gave compelling thoughts on this
divisive issue. But the winner of this week's Snow Prize goes to Waldo. Who said? Hey guys,
Waldo here. I am convinced and choosing to believe that it is some kind of a mislead, both in
our world and in the MCU. So maybe throughout the film it'll be RDJ has Doom, but then at
some point the real not yet known actor will come out and be the actual Doom and say this
is a Doom bot or just some kind of ploy. What do you think? To me, this is the best case
scenario. I think if Doctor Doom is so genius so as to make one of his Doom bots assume the
appearance of the 616 universe's greatest heroes just to cause confusion amongst everybody and
make them easier to defeat if they're really hesitant to fight against someone who resembles
their beloved Tony Stark, that sounds like a pretty sinister plan in my mind. And I would
not mind that at all. Have the Tony Stark looking Doctor Doom just be a ploy, a puppet controlled
by the real lurking in the shadows. I do think it's kind of dumb that Marvel would pull this
kind of trick on the fans that Robert Downey Jr. is Dr. Doom. Psych! No he's not! But also,
that may just be the most acceptable way for this casting to work. It's just all part of
Doom's plan, because that's what Doom does. He plans. He's like Marvel's Batman, but like,
way better. Like way fucking better. Because he uses magic. Why Batman doesn't use magic?
Even though he knows the occult exists? We don't know, he only studies science like a dum dum.
Dr. Doom knows science and magic. And he can fucking fly. Get outta here with your Batman
DC fans. Dr. Doom. Yeah, he's the guy who got beat by Squirrel Girl. God damn it. Great answer
Waldo, you win this week's No Prize. If you the listener want a shot at winning your own
No Prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the
week. And now that that's done. Onto the not news, obviously, onto the question of the week.
This is a DynamiC Network question guys, other than DynamiC duel, what is your favorite podcast
in the DynamiC Network and why? You choose between Max Destruction, Senjou World, or Console Combat?
Just let us know, we'd love to hear your answers. Record your answer at DynamiCduel.com by clicking
on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt
you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long. And don't forget
to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer
and award that person a dynamic duel note prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer
before August 10th.
So now let's move on to the main event of this episode where we review Season 2 of the animated
series My Adventures with Superman.
My Adventures with Superman is an animated anime style series that debuts on the Cartoon Network's
Adult Swim programming block alongside Warner Brothers' Max streaming platform. It just wrapped
its second season and it continues to be a charming, fun and unique adaptation of the Superman mythos.
As we mentioned in our 4.5 out of 5 review of season one, we were surprised by how good the
show turned out to be. And those surprises continue into season two. as the writers take alternative
approaches with characters and story elements that make the show just a joy to watch. Now,
Season 2 is not as good as Season 1, I'll just say, but barely. I highly recommend this show
to anyone, comic fan or not, especially anyone who claims to not like Superman or find him
boring, because this show proves just how storytellers can continue to make an 80-s character feel
special. If you haven't seen season 2 yet, make sure you're caught up before listening to this
spoiler review. I agree that season 2 is not as good as season 1, but only barely. You know,
season 1 was special because it introduced a lot of the power discovery elements, as well
as the secret identity stuff involving his best friend and the girl that he likes discovering
who he really is. You didn't have any of that going into season 2, which was a big part of
the charm of season 1, I think. But season 2 still had a lot going for it. Right, yeah.
I mean, that's a big part of its charm. But I would say the biggest appeal of My Adventures
with Superman as a show, as a concept, is the shounen anime approach to its storytelling.
Shounen is a genre of anime that's essentially action-packed coming-of-age stories that often
focus on themes of friendship and perseverance. Shows like Dragon Ball, Naruto, My Hero Academia,
Pokemon, One Piece. These are all examples of shounen anime. And it's not a style I would
have thought worked for Superman until I saw season one of this show. Because it seems like
Superman was tailor-made for the genre. That shouldn't have been surprising maybe in hindsight
because, you know, as many anime fans have noticed, there's not all too much difference between
characters like Superman and Goku. Now, we don't watch a lot of anime. But my hands down favorites
like My Hero Academia, Sword Art Online, or Neon Genesis Evangelion, all fall into the
shounen genre. And it's always surprising how well shows like those seem to effortlessly
transition between subgenres. Like, they tend to be very action-packed, but the characters
are also waxing poetic in this very dramatic way as they're fighting. Just adding layers
of drama and heart and character to the ordeal. Shonen could be comedic one episode, adventure
focused the next, horrifying the episode after that, which is something you don't often see
in Western media. My Adventures with Superman is no different, as it feels like a near perfect
balance of comedy, action, romance, and even a sprinkling of horror this season. And it
does it while managing to remain pretty family friendly. Unlike other anime, This show is
devoid of gore and blood or even over sexuality, which sounds lame, but I actually love having
an anime show that I could watch with my kids, particularly if it's DC. But it's not overly
kiddy. I mean, like maybe the first few episodes of season one, I kind of thought that the show
was overly kid oriented. But ever since then, I think it's definitely a show that's complex
enough to appeal to older audiences as well. Absolutely. Like a lot of good animes, the
show knows to take its themes and its characters and the drama behind the characters very seriously.
Its characters are very complex, which to me is a sign of a really good anime. Now it helps
that the show has a lead character as wholesome as Clark Kent. The show revolves around him,
specifically his relationships as he's starting out in the city and his job and meeting all
these new people. And that's another thing unique to this series that I'm sure Superman fans
will notice. Clark is the main character here, not Superman. Superman in this show is essentially
the mask that Clark wears, and this is something we talked about in our season one review. It's
like the opposite of Christopher Reeve Superman, or you could argue even Henry Cavill's. And
somehow they find ways to make his supporting cast of Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen more relevant
than I think they've felt in decades, in that they're not just there for Superman to rescue,
but they are often... active participants in defeating bad guys, and sometimes they're the
ones that outright save Superman himself. I feel like it shouldn't work on paper, but in
this show it does. If you told me that they were releasing a Superman animated television
series in which Superman's not only the only main character, but that Lois and Jimmy would
often be involved in his adventures in saving his life, I tell you to go fuck yourself, because
that sounds like shit. No, it's actually for some reason, you're right, it does work. And
I think it has to do with the idea of the relationships established between the main characters. They
are, you know, very close. They have a very tight friendship and working together is just
one of the primary themes of the show. And it works really well. Yeah, you know, part of
the joy of watching the show as a longtime fan of the Superman comics is seeing how they adapt
the saga that is Superman. Like in the past. Lois and Jimmy were always clueless as to Superman's
secret identity. So you weren't really able to tell stories like this in Superman's early
days, because in this show, Jimmy and Lois from season one know that Clark Kent is Superman.
So that's an interesting adaptation or reinvention, but it's also cool to see how they change things
like Krypton, or how Superman's powers manifest, or even how his villains come about. You know,
in season one, all of his villains utilized Kryptonian technology. We got a little bit
of that this season, but primarily in season two, his main antagonists were straight up
Kryptonian, namely Supergirl and Brainiac. And I loved some of the choices they made for those
characters and adapting them for this show. Like Supergirl, starting off as a foe who's
been brainwashed by Brainiac, I thought was genius. And it was a great way to introduce
the threat that is Brainiac, which... You know, and this show is kind of like Superman the
animated series in that he's a Kryptonian AI construct, though here he was programmed specifically
to aid in war and conquest. Yeah, I thought the way they adapted Supergirl and Brainiac
for the show was fantastic. I think that's actually when this season started getting good, because
I was not thrilled with the first half of the season. Like, I liked the stuff with Steel.
That episode was pretty good. But once Supergirl came into the picture, it was a lot more invested
in where the story was going, as opposed to just dealing with the Sam Lane and Amanda Waller
stuff from the previous season. Yeah, for me, it really picked up during the Star Labs symposium,
where Lex Luthor kind of starts to turn public opinion against Superman. I thought that was
really interesting. And I think Supergirl appeared the episode after that. So yeah, I would agree
with you. Second half is much better than the first half. And of course, the second half
is where we got Brainiac, And admittedly, I didn't like every adaptation they made for
Brainiac. You know, this series made him into an amalgamation, really, of three different
Superman villains. You, of course, have Brainiac, but also Mongol, and that he'd conquer civilizations
and then force their champions to fight. And like Mongol, Brainiac also had a psychic weapon
known as the Black Mercy, but instead of an alien plant, it was Kryptonian technology.
That's right, I remember seeing the show and hearing the reference to Black Mercy, but I
forgot what it was a reference to. And you just reminded me that it's a weaponized plant used
by Mongol. Right, yeah. Two like trapped beings in this false reality from which they would
never want to escape from. That's exactly what Brainiac did to Superman this season. But also,
you know, Brainiac had shades of dark side in how they depicted his missiles and lasers zigzagging
across the sky. It's a very little nitpick, but it does make me question how they're planning
to differentiate someone like Darkseid if they ever decide to introduce him to the show in
the future. And also, I think it would be hard to springboard characters like Zod or like
the Eradicator or people like that. Yeah, totally. They even mentioned Eradicator in this season.
Like, Eradicator was a protocol that Brainiac used to brainwash Kara, apparently. I think
that's what it was. But you're absolutely right. They totally... pulled a red herring at the
end of season one when we thought the villain was going to be Zod, but it turns out the character
who was talking about his enemies kneeling was Kara. Right. That was an interesting twist.
I like Brainiac as a Superman villain though, so I'm glad that they went with him. They just
weren't very comic book accurate in his depiction. Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. Brainiac,
in my opinion, is the best Superman villain. Like he is the Joker to Superman's Batman.
and I'm totally fine with them making him like this ultimate Superman villain for this show.
In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they bring him back next season. You know, I think he'll
come back. I think the show does a decent job of actually building up Lex Luthor as also
a big bad for season three, which has already been greenlit. And they've even introduced
the potential this season for the death of Superman's storyline with the introductions of characters
like Steel and Hank Henshaw, the future cyborg Superman, so... I'm excited for what we have
upcoming with this series. There's a ton of potential. The death of Superman storyline
would be pretty dark for this show in particular to adapt. But if they were to do it, I know
they would do a great job. Just because they have a solid approach to most of the story
arcs in this series. Yeah, and again the relationships they have established, you know how devastating
that would be to Lois Lane. Like more so in this show than maybe other adaptations of Superman.
Right. Like I said, the show does a great job of adapting the source material. Not all of
the adaptations worked, but the thing that actually bothered me more than some of those adaptations
was the numerous unanswered questions that were left by the end of this season. Like, how did
Clark have those visions of his ship at the beginning of this season? He didn't know how
he had them, and they never followed up on that. You know, Clark had new powers that manifested,
but how was he able to do that? And why him? You know, Brainiac seemed interested in that,
so I thought we'd get some kind of answer, but we didn't. And then there's small things like
why were the Kryptonian suits able to adapt to space if they didn't need to? Seemed pointless.
And why was the Kryptonian space station candor falling apart? And why was it a space station
instead of a shrunken city? Yeah, I remember scratching my head in some moments, like when
Supergirl realized that she had been destroying these planets. There was kind of like a weird
time. jump there that I didn't quite follow. Yeah, for sure. So again, not a perfect season.
There are a lot of little things that bothered me, but ultimately I feel like the characters
made up for a lot of that. So let's talk about the characters in our character breakdown starting
with Clark Kent slash Superman voiced by Jack Quaid of the boys fame. He does a fantastic
job doing the voice of Clark so much so that I don't even recognize him as Jack. It just
comes across as this natural performance of a really young, really earnest Superman. Superman's
arc this season revolved around alienation, isolation, and rejection. As he learns more
about himself, he feels the sense that he's different from everyone. And it's not really
something he feels that others, even those closest to him like Lois, can relate to. Not realizing
that actually Lois and Supergirl have arcs dealing with alienation as well this season. particularly
when it comes to their fathers. Now Superman loses his father in episode one, and with him
any hope for more answers unless he can find his cousin. Because Superman seeks someone
to relate to, he reaches out to Supergirl, knowing Lois would probably disapprove. And later when
Lex Luthor successfully turns public opinion against him, and even Jimmy and Lois seemingly
reject him, He discovers when he meets Kara that his Kryptonian heritage isn't exactly
honorable and that perhaps some things were better off left unknown. Ultimately though,
Superman is Superman and despite Kara's attacks, he shows her grace in the end and essentially
kills her with kindness, helping her be reborn in this new identity as a protector of Earth
rather than a conqueror. And in that, he finds someone that he can teach and help grow and
find someone who's Kryptonian to relate to in that way. Yeah, it was a much more, I guess,
mature arc than he had in the first one, which is really about discovery. The first season
was really about discovery of himself, of love, and things like that. And after he learns who
he is, he discovers a little bit more about how that affects those around him. It makes
me think that he and Lois have a terrible communication problem because they went multiple episodes
just trying to tell each other something very important. Clark in regards to his cousin and
Lois in regards to her father. And they never quite got around to it or they never really
made the time for it until it was too late. And you have kind of like a Romeo and Juliet
situation where tragedy strikes before they can actually speak with each other. Yeah, communication
is a tricky thing. Even, you know, for me, someone who's been married 16 years, it's a delicate
balance. And even here, you know, They're not communicating because they're putting the other
person's needs ahead of their own, which is something that you think is probably a good
thing to do. But again, it needs to be a balance. Right, you need to prioritize your own needs,
of course, as well as your partners. And if they had done that, you know, maybe Clark would
have been less insecure about his relationship with Lois and maybe wouldn't have been as susceptible
to brainwashing by Brainiac and stuff like that. Who knows? Maybe. But even Jimmy had a communication
problem and like they could have found out about Supergirl long before they actually did. Yeah,
for sure. Absolutely. Now one of the things I really like about this show is the character
designs. They're of course, you know, very different from what we see in the comics. But I do just
have to say that I hated the costume design of Superman's end of season suit with like
the pointy shoulders and the lack of trunks. It was awful. It was really bad. Yeah, the
belt looked stupid. At least, you know, they still have the same emblem, which is a solid
Superman emblem. One of my favorite adaptations of that logo of all time. But you're right,
pointy shoulders were doing nothing for me. He already has broad shoulders. Why are you
making him pointy? I guess it's to make it look more like armor. But Superman shouldn't look
like he's wearing armor. I don't know. I think an armor look is fine. Just as long as the
shoulders are not padded so heavily. I feel like they were trying to make the design look
more similar to the design they gave for Supergirl, which I actually thought was a really cool
design, both when it was bright blue and when it was black. I loved her costumes, but yeah,
it just didn't work. They should have kept him at what he was in my opinion. But moving on
to Lois Lane, who's voiced by Alice Lee. She gives the most endearing voice performance
of Lois Lane. to date and that's saying a lot because you know Dana Delaney was iconic as
Lois Lane in Superman the Animated Series. Alice Lee has all of that spunk but I feel also gives
a little bit more depth emotionally to the character as well. Now like Superman's arc alienation
was something Lois derived from both Superman and her father this season as she felt ignored
and abandoned by both and that isolation, inferiority, and inadequacy was something her father unintentionally
instilled in her since she was a young girl in an attempt to make her more capable and
independent. In a way, it helped her become the hot shot she is today, but it also resulted
in pent-up resentment of her father and a general distrust of perhaps male figures in general.
that distrust combined with her feelings of inadequacy combined with her survival instinct
resulted in her breaking up with Superman. Which, who does that? What a dumbass. Lois pissed
me off a lot of times this season. Like, there was a time where she just volunteered Clark
and Jimmy to house her father, knowing full well that he could possibly learn Clark's secret
identity. You know, she didn't even consult with them on that. She just was being a selfish
dickhead, just not being very considerate, you know? There was also the time when she like
heavily pushed Clark to act single in the most eligible bachelor thing that they had going
on. And then when he did, she got like super fucking upset and then broke up with him. Like
what the hell was that all about? What a dumbass. Yeah, that was bullshit. That was not right.
Regarding her father staying with Jimmy and Clark, I think she wanted to keep her father
close of course, because those are her best friends. and figured that if he was going to
be safe with anyone, it was going to be Clark. Now after the breakup, she of course realized
how foolish she was when Superman was kidnapped by Supergirl and she realized that her feelings
for him were more important than her perceived assumptions about his feelings toward her.
By the end, the love that Lois and Superman had for each other saved Superman by pulling
him out of the false reality he was in, a paradise of sorts. because he realized that life with
her was greater than a potential life on Krypton. And that's just relationship goals. Yeah, I
want to punch through a force field with my wife too. Looks like so much fun. Our love
can break through any barrier. Pow! It's sweet. And moving on to Jimmy Olsen, he's voiced by
Ishmael Saheed. Jimmy's an important character to the show in that he's so incredibly loyal
and helpful to both Lois and Clark, so much so that he's often a major catalyst in resolving
conflicts, especially this season since he started off as a multi-millionaire. I wish everyone
had a friend like Jimmy, you know, someone who's just ready to drop literally millions of dollars
to help a pal out without them even asking for it. I don't think I could be as good a friend
to anyone as Jimmy is to Lois and Clark. In fact, if I ever make millions of dollars, there's
a good chance that I'm going to be suspicious of anyone who still wants to be my friend.
I wouldn't tell anybody. Right. Exactly. Yeah. You ever win the Powerball? You keep that shit
to yourself, because if I know about it, I'm going to be like, bro, help a brother out.
It was heartbreaking to see just how fast he was going through his bank account. Oh, dude,
for real. I was like, no, you gotta invest. Anyway, during this season, Jimmy causes some
conflicts as well though, inspiring not only Lex Luthor's rise to power, but also failing
to refute Lex's ideological opposition to Superman as a savior of humanity. Jimmy knows Superman
is selfless, but convincing others is a challenge because it requires a considerable degree of
faith. Jimmy definitely had a crisis of faith here when he wasn't able to refute Lex Luther
in that symposium debate and of course that was compounded later on in the season when
Superman actually turned bad because he was possessed by Brainiac. But ultimately, Jimmy
knew that Clark was possessed and he maintained that Clark would overcome and help humanity
and he was proven right at the end. I will absolutely miss, you know, leader of the daily planet,
Jimmy. and I wonder what they're gonna do with the character next season. Well, I think he'll
continue to be a romantic interest for Supergirl, but yeah, he won't be as rich as he used to
be. Moving on to Kara Zor-El, she was voiced by Kiana Madeira. I thought it was interesting
that they made her a baby on Krypton, because usually in depictions of Supergirl, she was
at least a teenager on Krypton. and part of her arc has always revolved in coping with
the loss of her life that she had on Krypton and that her baby cousin was now this older
champion of a foreign world whose shadow she has to live under. By making her a baby in
this series, she's made much more susceptible to manipulation by someone like Brainiac who
convinces her that he's her father and raises her under his nationalistic ideology that Krypton
is superior to all and is doing other worlds a favor by conquering them. When Kara gets
Superman's beacon call, she betrays her father in her excitement that she would have a partner
to spread the Kryptonian Empire with. But when she deems Superman as weak, she fights and
kidnaps him in an effort to reprogram his supposed brainwashing, only to later learn that she
was the one actually being brainwashed and hypnotized by the being she considered her father. But
like I said earlier, Superman's grace and showing of kindness causes her to realize the error
of Brainiac's ways as she becomes Superman's ally and a fellow protector. You know, it was
nice that despite the fact that she was this world conquering warrior, she had this soft
spot that was highly sentimental down deep inside of her who cared about people like Jimmy Olsen
and, you know, she kept all these trinkets from the worlds that she had explored. not really
knowing that she had actually destroyed most of them. Which is wild! That's crazy. Yeah.
It's a great take on the character, I think. Absolutely. I loved it. I loved everything
about Supergirl in this series. Lastly, let's move on to Brainiac Primus, the Prime Brainiac
who was voiced in this series by Michael Emerson, who you may recognize from shows like Lost
or Person of Interest or Saw. I didn't like his voice for Brainiac. What? I loved it! It
was too dweeby. No, that's perfect for Brainiac, though. It was dweeby and sinister. It wasn't
that sinister, though. He was super sinister this season. He was like angry and evil. It
was perfect. It wasn't menacing at all to me. I don't get how that was not menacing. He sounded
like Mandark from Dexter's laboratory. No. That's exactly the take that I got from his performance.
And I never got over it, even in the last episode. I kept wishing that they had gone for a more
imposing voice for this destructive robot. I completely disagree with you. I think the voice
performance was fantastic. This actor has actually done other voice performances for DC Comics.
He was the Joker voice in Batman The Dark Knight Returns two-part animated series. I don't think
Brainiac should sound anything like Joker. And this Brainiac kinda did. Well that's interesting.
Should Brainiac sound like Joker? What do you want Brainiac to sound like? I want him to
sound more like how he did in Superman the animated series. I thought that was a great voice. I
liked that this one had more character. Yes, Brainiac should sound robotic, which he did
in this show, but also had real emotion, like anger like I mentioned. He was just dripping
with that. I think he comes across as scarier when he's void of emotion, kind of in a hell-9000
kind of way. No. I loved the performance here. You don't know what the hell you're talking
about. You don't know Brainiac. He's too logical to be that emotional. Well, no, like you can't
be full of malice when you're devoid of emotion. Sure you can look at sociopaths. Well, you're
not going to fucking sound like it, at least. OK. And that's the thing here is that this
version of Brainiac was full of passion. He was full of emotion because he was willing
to murder an entire planet just to survive and not be taken offline. when the prospect of
peace was being put forth by Jor-El. Like Hell 9000, the guy just wanted to survive because
he considered himself to be alive as, you know, a robotic intelligent life form. And I think
that takes emotion. No, it just takes a need for survival. You're on the wrong side of history.
He acted more like Ultron in this one, like Ultron is often characterized as being very
emotional despite the fact that he is an artificial being. Whereas Brainiac I always pictured as
more, you know, logical. Like his depiction in Superman Red's son, I think was one of the
more recent depictions of him. I thought that was pretty good. That's fair. He probably was
more like Ultron than Brainiac. But again, I liked the adaptation for this series. What
did you think of the look of Brainiac? Didn't like it either. The weird like hammerhead shark
face kind of thing. It was weird. Didn't look like the character from the comics. You're
such a fucking purist. It disgusts me. You just want some green alien looking guy. Come on.
No, I just wanted something a little bit more recognizable, I guess. All you need is those
three dots. You slap that on anything. It's fucking brainiac. Yeah, but it's like they
shaped his whole head around that three dot motif. And I don't know, it just seems easy.
Good. I'm glad they did that. All right.
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Let's move on, Passybrainiac. Let's move on to the story highlights. Episode 1 was titled,
More Things in Heaven and Earth. As Clark struggles to plan the perfect Valentine's date with Lois,
the two of them head to Star Labs along with Jimmy to interview Hank Henshaw about a strange
meteoroid that disappeared over Antarctica. While there, Jimmy convinces Alex to carve
his own path after being rejected from a Star Labs scientist position due to his involvement
with Ivo and Mazotech. Realizing that the meteoroid is actually Clark's missing spaceship, the
trio use Jimmy's recent fortune to fly to Antarctica to locate it. After being separated by malfunctioning
Kryptonian technology, Clark encounters a hologram of his biological father Jor-El, whose translation
program finished learning English. Zor-El reveals more of Clark's origins and that he has a cousin,
Kara, who was also sent away from Krypton by her father, Zor-El. Meanwhile, Lois and Jimmy
discover Amanda Waller along with agents Deathstroke and Damage who are there to commandeer the
alien tech, revealing that they've also taken General Sam Lane prisoner. With the ship malfunctioning
from Kryptonite and shifting out of dimensional space, Superman fights Damage and Deathstroke.
until Jor-El uses the spaceship's power to purify the kryptonite and convert it into a fortress,
teleporting it seemingly to the other side of the planet at the North Pole. Before shutting
down, Jor-El tells Superman to find a beacon to locate Kara. Afterward, Lois asks Clark
to help her rescue her father while Task Force X leaves with the tech they acquired and kryptonite
samples. What did you think of this show's take on the Fortress of Solitude? It's always interesting
and unique how each Superman adaptation approaches it, right? Yeah, they kind of borrowed a little
bit of Man of Steel here in that it was his spaceship, but the look of the spaceship after
it was purified from the kryptonite, how it was like still crystalline, I thought was super
cool. I loved the way it levitated. I loved the stairs. It was one of the coolest depictions
of the Forges of Solitude that we've ever seen. Now, one of the prominent henchmen of the series
was Damage, who I'm not too familiar with. He kind of looked like the Hulk here or like a
version of Bane. I don't know if he was like all roided up with Kryptonian tech or something
like that. But what is his power set from the comics? Well, there's actually two different
versions of a character named damage in the comics. The one in this series is actually
based off of a more recent version of the character that was introduced during the early New 52
days. DC for a time had this thing where they were letting artists create characters and
write stories about them. Damage was one of those characters. I think sideways was another
and I forget who the others were But yeah damage is a lot like the Hulk interesting. Okay, he
and atomic skull were pretty cool in this season I thought yeah I mean when we watched the trailers
for this season you and I both thought that Atomic skull was an interpretation of metallo.
I was actually kind of disappointed that wasn't the case Although I should have known better
because yeah, the guys obviously fucking atomic skull Moving on to episode 2, which was titled
Adventures with My Girlfriend. While Waller interrogates General Lane, who's imprisoned
in the secret Task Force X headquarters beneath Stryker Island Prison in Metropolis, Clark
and Lois agree to help a boy named Billy find his father, who was a volunteer librarian at
Stryker's that went missing while investigating other missing persons cases. With Jimmy busy
wrangling fellow reporter Steve Lombard and the News Kid Legion, who were made a part of
his journalistic video crew, Clark and Lois infiltrate the prison themselves and stumble
into its secret basement. While rescuing Sam, they discover Billy's father and other inmates
that Waller had been kidnapping to use as test subjects for the alien tech, turning people
into weapons such as atomic skull, who attacks Superman. As Lois and her father evacuate the
inmates, Superman manages to overpower Atomic Skull while also conveniently stumbling upon
the beacon Jor-El asked him to find. After a standoff between Superman and the escaping
prisoners and Amanda Waller and her task force, Jimmy and his team rescue the escapees via
a chartered yacht while press helicopters prevent Waller from stopping or pursuing them. On the
yacht, General Lane agrees to stay with Clark and Jimmy, while Alex, now referring to himself
as Lex Luthor, joins Waller's team as its chief scientist. The idea of Waller combining humans
with Kryptonian tech in illegal experiments was pretty solid. It was like she was creating
a bunch of cyborgs, like the character cyborg. Yeah, yeah exactly. And she was creating soldiers
to go up against a potential alien threat should the Kryptonians ever decide to invade Earth.
I hate Amanda Waller in the show. She comes across as surprisingly less competent than
she typically does in other media, I think. She never accomplishes anything and her superiors
are always pissed off at her and she acts like a badass even though she really just kind of
sucks. I mean, she accomplished creating Atomic Skull and Deathstroke and all the other people
that she outfitted with Kryptonian tech. What do you mean? Like at the end she was like,
I'm going to save my planet and she takes the gun and like nothing fucking happens. She couldn't
even like kill the Metallo robots and then Sam Lane had to save her ass and She's all talk
in this show. I mean, I guess it didn't bother me that much. The only thing she was successful
at was declaring martial law and then totally botching Earth's defense. So congrats, Amanda
Waller. She tried, she tried. Give her some credit for trying. No, you're having the cojones
to stand and fight even with a pistol, even if it does nothing. At the very least, Amanda
Waller should have the biggest balls out of anyone. And I thought she did. Biggest balls,
biggest mouth. All right. Anyway, moving on to episode three, Full Metal Scientist. While
rescuing Amertec scientist Silas Stone from a burning building, Clark unlocks another new
power, a super aura tactile force field. After Clark leaves, however, the villain Livewire
threatened Silas into remotely deleting all records of a project he was working on. The
next day, as Clark struggles to prevent General Lane from learning he's Superman, Lois, Jimmy,
and Gotham Gazette Lead Reporter Vicki Vale separately uncover a mystery surrounding missing
scientists Silas and John Henry Irons, Amartex CEO Thomas Weston, and his line of defense
robots codenamed Metallos. As Lois and Vicki compete to out-scoop each other, Superman and
Jimmy manage to locate Irons, who reveals Weston forced him and Silas to rush production on
the Metallos and create an unstable Amr Fusion energy reactor to power Amr Tech's Metropolis
facility before firing them. When Livewire attacks Irons, he and Superman join forces to stop
Weston before his reactor destroys Metropolis, with Irons using his steel mech suit to fend
off the metallos. After their team up proves successful, Weston is arrested.
and Luther's new company LexCorp buys out Amertec, confiscating the Steel suit and metallos for
Task Force X. I wasn't expecting to see Steel this season, but I thought he was pretty damn
awesome. Yeah, the suit was pretty different, but pretty hardcore from what we're used to
seeing from Steel. I do wish they would have given him a helmet, but I'm not complaining
about how cool the mech suit was. Well, I think this is just like his first iteration, his
Mark I as it were. I think if we see him in the next season, maybe he'll have a helmet,
maybe he'll have the S insignia on his chest. I think it would look badass. I like the idea
of Steel being a mech as opposed to the more standard Iron Man type suit. Yeah, I also like
that a lot. One interesting thing about this episode is not only did you introduce Steel,
but you also introduced something that could potentially set up Reign of the Superman for
next season in that Superman got his tactile telekinesis of sorts in his force field. which
is this thing they introduced in the comics during the Dan Jurgens era post-crisis in that
Superman has like a very small force field which he could also project around things to lift
them. It's one of the sources of his strength and durability. It's kind of been retconned
out of existence, but that was the rationalization for Superboy's powers in that when he was cloned,
from Superman, he developed that tactile telekinesis, though his cloning process was stopped before
he developed more of Superman's powers. So introducing that in this episode, I think is kind of a
setup for Superboy potentially in the next season. Well, the way that Superman used it in this
episode was a lot like how Superboy uses it in the comics. I don't like Superman having
this level of tactile telekinesis to the point where he can stop a bomb just by simply touching
it and, you know, encasing it in this energy Yeah, to me that's much more of a superboy
thing than a superman thing, absolutely. But again, I think they did that intentionally,
just to set up. Moving on to episode 4, which was titled Two Lanes Diverged. In flashbacks,
Lois is trained in the woods as a young girl by her father in survival techniques, though
the two graduelly become estranged due to his military work. In the present, The paranoid
General Lane fears that Waller has found him and leaves for a safe house to prepare, with
Lois following him, only to end up in the middle of Task Force X's agents and their attacks
against her father. Meanwhile, Jimmy learns he has been invited to serve as a keynote speaker
at a Star Labs symposium on aliens and he invites Clark. While Jimmy debates against Lex Luthor
on stage regarding Superman's trustworthiness, Task Force X's attack on Lois and her father
spills into the symposium, resulting in a destructive battle with Superman. As Task Force X retreats,
Lex uses the aftermath to turn the attendees against Superman. Later that night, while Clark
uses the beacon to send a message to Kara, General Lane disappears, Luther and Waller gain support
from Star Labs and the Pentagon, and a Kryptonian warrior approaches Earth. Now, the timing of
this episode was a little weird, I thought, because we never see Superman leave the keynote
speech to go help the others. Like, I'm really surprised that Lex and Jimmy and the audience
don't even realize that a battle is going on outside until they see the aftermath. Right.
Well, it was strange that Sam and Lois escaped the safe house, which I guess happened to be
across the street from the conference center where the keynote speech was given. It was
just like coincidental in that regard. Yeah, I didn't love this episode, to be honest. It
was probably my least favorite, although it did give really good backstory as to why Lois
Lane's relationship with her father was so contentious. Moving on to episode 5, titled Most Eligible
Superman. Daily Planet editor Perry White assigns Lois and Clark to interview Superman upon learning
he was named a finalist in Metropolis's Most Eligible Singles contest. Ignoring Perry's
orders, Gossip columnist Kat Grant forces Lois into letting her join her so she can uncover
Superman's secret identity. During the contest, Superman's fellow finalist Silver St. Cloud
develops an obvious interest in him, causing Lois to doubt her relationship with Clark.
Meanwhile, as Jimmy struggles to determine how to apologize to Clark after his poor debate
performance at the symposium, he encounters Kara Zor-El, who has come to Metropolis to
search for her cousin. After Jimmy offers to help her, they bond over touring Metropolis
before eventually heading to the contest, where Jimmy learns that Kara was searching for Superman,
who was named the winner. Seeing Lois leave angrily, Superman tries to reconcile with her,
but she reveals her stress over her father's disappearance, Vicky's job offer, and their
frank relationship. Kara, humiliated by Superman's adoration from the public, attacks Superman.
deeming him weak and believing he's unfit to join the Kryptonian Empire. Despite Superman
unlocking the power of Ice Breath in their ensuing fight, Kara defeats and captures him on Brainiac's
orders. I'm pretty sure Superman had the power of Ice Breath prior to this. He used Freeze
Breath in season 1. It just manifested much more powerfully here, like an ice laser from
his mouth. There was an ice cannon, that's when he developed his heat vision. Oh, that's right,
that's what I'm thinking of then. Yeah, but yeah, it was like a laser. I actually was very
surprised. I thought for a while he had like Godzilla's atomic breath or something like
that. I was like, what is this? They're just making up powers for Superman now. But you
know, once the cold started to form on his face, I was like, OK, I got you. I loved how Kara
confused Jimmy for being the leader of the planet because he kept telling everyone how he was
a leader at the daily planet. Episode six was titled The Machine Who Would Be Empire. Superman
attempts to escape Kara's spaceship until he misunderstands that Kara is taking him to see
his Uncle Jor-El instead of Brainiac. Using a thought projector device, Kara explains that
before Krypton fell, it was the most advanced society in the galaxy, and invited less fortunate
planets to share in their utopia. While debating back and forth whether they should conquer
Earth, Clark stumbles upon Kara's secret collection of alien memorabilia. and he asks her to show
her a planet the Kryptonian Empire conquered. She takes him to Thanagar, but they find it
in ruins, briefly causing Kara to question Brainiac's intentions before his robots bring her and
Superman to a space-based satellite headquarters, Kandor. Sending Kara away, Brainiac reveals
he is a warmonger willing to kill those who refuse Kryptonian rule before detaining Superman
and brainwashing Kara for disobeying him. However... Kara's mara-abilia helps her remember her doubt
towards Brainiac and the destruction the Kryptonian Empire left behind. While trying to determine
what to do next, she encounters a spaceship piloted by Jimmy Lois, a gorilla named Mala,
and his robot lover, the Brain. Do you think this episode means that we'll never get to
see a cameo from Hawkman or Hawk Girl? Uh, I don't think so. I think the potential is there
for survivors. I mean, that's also saying like maybe we'll never see Green Lantern just because
he showed up here. I don't think it was the specific heroes that we're familiar with. I
think there are other champions from those worlds. That said, it was cool to see a Thanagarin
Hawk Girl character and a Green Lantern. The show doesn't have enough greater DC Universe
tie-ins. These little like mini cameos, if you could even call them cameos here and there.
just aren't sufficient. I think it would be really cool to see the greater Justice League
actually have a presence within the universe that this show sets up for Superman. I would
love to see that. Like I would love to see this show's versions of Wonder Woman and Batman.
That'd be really cool. I mean we got Vicky Vail. We saw Silver St. Cloud in the last episode.
And there are a lot of allusions to Gotham City. And at the end of this season, I actually thought
that Lois Lane should have taken Vicky up on her offer to work under her for at least a
time at the Gotham Gazette. Clark was like, it only takes me five minutes to fly there.
If you're willing to go, I'd be fine with it. And then Lois was like, no, I'm going to stay
at the planet. I'm like, you idiot. That was the perfect potential for a crossover. I know
I'm skipping ahead to the last episode there. But the Thanagar situation kind of makes me
think of the greater DC universe. And the great thing about her taking the job at the Gotham
Gazette is that could have all happened off screen. Like by the time we return for season
three, she's like, oh, I'm back from my brief stint at the Gotham Gazette. She could have
established relationships there that would carry over, including maybe something with Bruce
Wayne. I think that'd be really cool. It would introduce some interesting conflict to the
relationship between Clark and Lois if you were to introduce another potential love interest
like Rooswain. That'd be awesome. Moving on to episode 7 which was titled Olsen's 11 which
takes place concurrently with the previous episode in which Waller announces the formation of
the Human Defense Corps and places Metropolis under martial law in response to the battle
between Superman and Cara and in preparation for an impending alien invasion. Jimmy and
Lois meanwhile plan to break into Star Labs and steal an experimental spaceship so they
can find Superman by hiring the professional thief Livewire to help them, and recruiting
Malaw and The Brain, who were capable of creating black hole portals. After secretly debating
whether they should use Kryptonite on Kara, Jimmy and Lois and their crew discover heightened
security at Star Labs. due to Waller and Deathstroke's presence, as they're overseeing Lex's upgrades
of the Metello robots with Kryptonite power cores. Waller discovers the intruder's presence
and sends Deathstroke to capture Lois and Jimmy's group. While evading Task Force X and Deathstroke,
Livewire seemingly abandons Lois and Jimmy, while Malaw and The Brain successfully prep
the ship for launch and reconfigure it to generate portals. After Lex's Metello robots nearly
prevent the ship from launching, Livewire returns with her intergang allies, now outfitted with
alien tech that they stole from Waller while she was distracted, and intergang manages to
fend off the Metellos and ensure the group's escape in the spaceship. As Waller deems Lex's
work successful and allocates more resources for him, Malaw and the Brain generate a portal
to send them, Lois and Jimmy, deep into space where they encounter Kara. I have to say I'm
not a big fan of Livewire and Intergang, that whole crew, becoming good guys, or at least
helping the good guys. Yeah, that felt really out of character. Maybe not later on in the
season when they're like helping defend Earth itself, but I guess in helping Lois and Jimmy
they were able to steal a lot of shit from Task Force X. But even then I'm still not 100% sure
why that tech and even Lex Luthor's Metello robots were at Star Labs. Like they didn't
own it. Granted everything was under martial law, but I didn't understand why that put Waller
in control of Star Labs. Yeah, I have no idea. Episode 8 was titled The Death of Clark Kent.
Brainiac uses a psychic device known as a Black Mercy to invade and manipulate Superman's memories,
intending to transfer his AI mind into Superman's body before Kandor falls apart. Superman fails
to stop Brainiac from learning of Lois and Jimmy, and Brainiac uses his connection to them against
Superman, eventually trapping his mind in a simulation where he's with his biological family
on a restored Krypton. Meanwhile, Kara, Jimmy, and Lois devise a plan to save Superman, while
Malah and the Brain stay behind to repair the spaceship. Jimmy and Lois infiltrate Kandor
while Kara attempts to reason with Brainiac. Frustrated with her perceived rebelliousness,
Brainiac confirms that he brainwashed her to serve his interests, and though Kara damages
Brainiac's robotic body in response, Brainiac successfully possesses Superman's body in time.
Jimmy tries to use the kryptonite on Brainiac, but he is ejected along with Lois and Kara
into space before Brainiac teleports Kandor away. After Malah and the Brain rescue the
trio, Lois reveals she stole the Black Mercy and uses it on herself in an attempt to save
Superman. Again, I didn't love this interpretation of the Black Mercy. Not everything has to be
Kryptonian tech. I don't understand why they couldn't go a more traditional route of making
the Black Mercy a plant. I mean, why not? Kryptonians don't use plants. Come on. What? Yeah, I can't
think of a single one. I have no argument. Moving on to episode 9, which was titled... Here's
the Heavens Superman, which is a horrible title. Actually, all of the titles in this season
I didn't love. They don't always make sense. Well, I'm not usually aware of them. I just
click next episode. So a lot of them I'm hearing for the first time as you say them, and I agree,
they're not all winners. In this episode, Kara, Jimmy, and the Komatos Lois return to Earth,
which they find under the control of Amanda Waller, who kidnaps them. They're rescued by
the Daily Planet staff, however, before Super Brainiac launches his invasion of Earth. Kara
tries to stop him, but he overpowers her and Task Force X, while Lois mentally continues
to attempt to reach Clark within the Black Mercy's virtual reality, while avoiding simulations
of Jor-El and his wife Lara, who continually attempt to delete Lois due to the Black Mercy
being unable to support multiple minds at once. After repeated resets of the simulation due
to Lois's interference, she graduelly succeeds in getting through to Clark, and the two join
forces to destroy the simulation, forcing Brainiac out of Superman's body. Brainiac retaliates
by hacking the Metellos to defeat Kara and a restored Superman while attempting to use Kandor
to destroy Metropolis. This episode had a neat little Groundhog Day element to it, where every
time Lois Lane would get deleted, she'd be reset within the simulation and she kept reliving
the same experience trying to convince Clark to come out of the mind control. And I thought
it was used to great effect when he eventually did. They remembered each other, they remembered
their love, and used that as a means of escape. Yeah, that was cool. I also thought it was
cool that Lois had superpowers in this virtual reality. There's been instances in the comics
where she's had superpowers, and I felt like this was sort of like an homage to that. It
was cool seeing the two fight side by side in cooperation with each other. Yeah, it was a
great moment, I thought, for sure. I don't know if the justification of Superman saying, I
see you as so much more than human was sound, but the end result was fun to watch, I guess.
Moving on to the final episode, which was titled My Adventures with Supergirl. as the Human
Defense Corps fails to protect Metropolis while it reunites with General Lane, who recruited
Irons along with Livewire and her intergang allies to help Superman. With the group's aid,
Superman and Kara overcome the Metallos Kryptonite attacks and reach Kandor, where they confront
Brainiac, who reveals he destroyed Krypton in the face of peace talks led by Jor-El that
would have led to his shutdown. As Brainiac attempts to brainwash Kara once more, Superman,
Lois, and Jimmy help her break Brainiac's control over her. As she and Superman push Kandor away
from the Earth toward the Sun, they use the Sun's energy to strengthen themselves and destroy
Kandor before Kara destroys Brainiac's body, though she salvages his core. Big mistake!
Afterward, Clark, Lois, and Jimmy bring Kara to Smallville to recover and meet Jonathan
and Martha Kent, Clark's adoptive parents. Over the next week, Malah and the Brain rebuild
Cadmus Labs with Kara and Jimmy's help. Vicky dubs Kara a Supergirl. Waller becomes a fugitive.
Luther establishes Lex Corps' headquarters and hires Wilson. Lois turns down Vicky's offer.
And Kara joins Clark, Lois, and Jimmy in protecting Metropolis. Now I thought one of the coolest
scenes out of the entire series, both seasons 1 and 2, happened when Superman and Kara were
near the sun. Yeah, that was pretty cool. Yeah, of course, Kryptonians get their powers from
the sun, and it hasn't really been clear that that's been the case in this series, but it
looks like it is. And I just love the way that they depicted their super-sane energy modes,
as it were. Yeah, the parts that were infected by the kryptonite were then glowing with sun
radiation as opposed to kryptonite radiation. I was wondering at first why Brainiac was insusceptible
to kryptonite poisoning himself considering he is kryptonite technology. and we saw people
like Livewire and Heatwave be susceptible to kryptonite poisoning as well. But then I remembered
the throwaway line where Brainiac activated his kryptonite shielding, which somehow made
him invulnerable to that. It was probably just lead, you know? Right, yeah. His lead body
form. That could be perfect rationale. I did feel like they ran out of time on this episode.
The way they recapped everything towards the end with like the voiceover. You just had to
kind of infer... everything that was going on screen as Lois and Clark were talking. Well,
it was over the end credits. Right. Exactly. I feel like they could have added like another
15 minutes to this episode. Just in the wrap up, the episodes were pretty short. Like each
one was only a little bit over 20 minutes. So all in all, with 10 episodes, you're looking
at 200 minutes of screen time. And that's essentially, you know, just like the length of a feature
film with a decent runtime. Yeah. Feature film like Return of the King, maybe. Zack Sanders
Justice League. Hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about. More minute for the dollar. That brings
us to the end of season two. I really enjoyed watching it. It went by pretty quick, I thought.
I got to watch it with my girls, which was a lot of fun. I don't know if that added to my
enjoyment of it, but it probably did. Again, it wasn't a perfect season, but I think it's
definitely in keeping with how good season one was in that I would definitely recommend it
to basically anyone. It's an endearing and romantic continuation of the shounen anime adaptation
of Superman's Mythos, showcasing strong character relationships and themes, and I'm giving it
4 out of 5 stars, a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I would agree with that rating. Yeah, it's
one half-star less than what we gave season one. But there was a lot to enjoy this season
despite its few shortcomings. I think the absolute best thing that season two did was introduce
the character of Supergirl in the manner that they did. I thought it was a great adaptation
and I'm really excited to see where they take the character in season three. Yeah, I cannot
wait for season three. Again, it has been greenlit. We will be getting it next summer. So something
to look forward to. But that does it for this review. AJ9K help close us out. Thanks for
listening to Dynamic duel. Visit the show's website at dynamicduel.com and follow us on
Instagram at dynamicduelpodcast. You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamicduel
and joining a tier that works for you, or by rating and reviewing Dynamic duel on Apple
Podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on our website. Don't forget to listen to the other shows in
the DynaMic Podcast Network, including Max Destruction, Senjou World and Console Combat.
In our next episode, we are going to do another review. Just all these shows are just coming
out at exactly the same time. Marvel has released season two of Hit Monkey. Now, if you haven't
seen Hit Monkey, you fucked up. You got to see season one of Hit Monkey because it's fantastic.
And he's one of Marvel's more interesting characters, I think. So look forward to our review of Hit
Monkey season two coming out next week. I'm looking forward to watching it. I can't wait.
I loved season one. So this is. gonna be good I hope. I imagine it will be. That's a wrap
for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, John
Strosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Balcom, Miggy Mathengian, Brandon Essergard, Nathaniel Wagner,
Levi Yeaton, Austin Wazilowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew
Schunk, Dean Molesky, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, and Josh Leiner for helping make this podcast
possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up, up, and away, true believers. I'm more
than a bird, I'm more than a plane, I'm more than some pretty face beside a train, and it's
not easy to be me.