Superman & Lois, A Review

Saving the world starts at home.

Superman & Lois follows Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin, Palm Springs) AKA Superman and his wife Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch), as they decide to return to Clark’s hometown of Smallville with their teenage sons Jonathan (Jordan Elsass, Little Fires Everywhere) and Jordan (Alex Garfin). After the death of Clark’s Mother Martha (Michele Scarabelli), the family realise they have grown apart in the big city and need Smallville to come together again. Returning home Clark is reunited with former flame Lana Lang (Emmanuelle Chriqui, The Knight Before Christmas) and her husband Kyle (Erik Valdez) as well as their daughter Sarah (Inde Navarrette, 13RW) who Jordan strikes up a friendship with. In the time they’ve been gone Smallville has fallen on hard times but Morgan Edge (Adam Rayner), Lois’ former employer, seems to have big plans for the town.

Convinced Edge is up to something Lois joins the local paper where she and reporter Chrissy Beppo (Sofia Hasmik) start up an investigation. Meanwhile Jordan is revealed to also have super powers, something he massively struggles with. Clark attempts to help him through it however he struggles to connect to his son, causing several family rifts. Lois’ investigation into Edge hits off when she discovers several residents have been going missing and later turning up with super powers. On top of this a mysterious stranger (Wolé Parks) shows up in town, seemingly hellbent on revenge. How does he connect to it all? What is Edge really up to? And can the family come together to convince Smallville before it’s too late.

I think its hard to comapre Superman & Lois to the other arrowverse shows because it has a very different kind of vibe. Supergirl, The Flash and Batwoman all see their respective heroes at the very start of their journeys but here we see a Clark who has been Superman for a very long time. There was no discovery of powers or building up of strength because Clark had already done all that. Instead we saw him and Lois relocating to Smallville and starting again, dealing with teenage boys who are discovering their own powers, it was almost like a sequel show? Now I’m not saying this is a bad thing, I did like this change in perspective but at the same time it’s hard to consider this show a part of the arrowverse because of how different it is.

There were a few issues I had with the plot and continuity of Superman & Lois that weren’t massive per say, but they still nagged at me throughout. For one thing I found it hard to believe that nobody outside of Lois and Sam (Dylan Walsh) knew about Superman’s identity, not even his own sons. You’re telling me that these two boys have lived with Clark fof fifteen years and never once saw him do anything super? Maybe it’s just because on the other arrowverse shows everybody seems to know who everybody is but for absolutely no one to know, it was weird.

On top of this I didn’t get why the show kept suggesting Clark had zero time for a social life and for him to be Superman he always had to leave his family behind. On every other superhero show the characters have always had time to balance work and social life but here it seemed like Clark had to be Superman 24/7 or the world would end? It’s not even like he’s the only Kryptonian on Earth, although you wouldn’t know that from watching, I don’t think Supergirl was mentioned once which I found odd considering the two characters are related.

I really liked the character of John Henry Irons and what he brought to the series. It was interesting to have this character from another world, a world were Superman was conpletely evil. Coming to this new Earth and meeting a Superman who stood for all things good must have been conflicting, especially with that fear that Clark could turn at any moment. Irons had such a tragic backstory and I’m interested to see where his storyline goes from here, especially with the arrival of his daughter Natalie (Tayler Buck). I think one of the things I’m looking forward to most in season 2 is how Natalie and John can adapt to this conpletely different Earth, especially with the doppleganger of their Mother/Wife now married to their worst enemy.

I really liked the Morgan Edge storyline this season and thought it was a great way to launch the series and incorporate Smallville into the plot. It was obvious from the start that Edge was up to something but I did not expect that Kryptonian twist and I liked how it paired up with the John Henry storyline. Using the Smallville residents to create his own army was definitely impressive in terms of villianous plans and I liked Clark’s inner conflict at choosing between his two families. The powers working best on Smallville residents also added to the small town charm because it was people’s friends and families that were being targeted, adding a much more personal stake.

I think the one thing that annoyed me the most about Superman & Lois was all of the teen drama surrounding Jonathan and Jordan. Obviously the two were teenagers going through a lot of changes (both super and personal) but if I wanted to watch a teen drama I’d watch a teen drama (eg Sex Education, Never Have I Ever). Superman & Lous is a superhero show and part of the arrowverse and I watch it because I want to see massive battles or evil villians, not two teenagers playing football and talking about girls. Like I said before, I think that Superman & Lois is to different to other DC shows because it’s more family based but I just really wasn’t a fan of the high school drama storylines, they just didn’t interest me.

Overall I did enjoy Superman & Lois but at the same time I feel like I haven’t liked it as much as everybody else has seemed to? The show was different to the CW’s other superhero shows and I think this had its pros and cons, I liked seeing the Clark family at this later stage in their lives but I felt like the show sometimes leaned too much into family and teen drama over actual super stuff. When we got to see Clark fighting the bad guys and facing off against Morgan Edge I loved it but when we were watching yet another football game, I just wasn’t a fan. I’m still going to watch season 2 and look forward to it but at the same time this hasn’t been a major hit for me like it has been fir everyone else.