The CW continues their near decade-long run of their “Arrow-Verse” which began way back in 2021 with Arrow. While the TV universe has gone through its ups and down, and by downs I mean major nosedives that have caused fans to stop watching most of the shows, Superman & Lois starts off just right. When it was announced in October of 2019 that there’d be yet another spinoff show, fans were generally excited to get one for Tyler Hoechlin’s Man of Steel.
Since debuting on the lackluster Supergirl in 2015 fans have loved his portrayal of Superman. Its one that I would put up their with Henry Cavill has my favorite and is definitely one of the bests. While it’s not certain what Earth this show takes on, let alone if it’s the same Superman as seen on Supergirl, I think it’s okay if we don’t have a definitive answer. Shows being connected, especially directly, doesn’t need to be the case for every show. Especially with Superman. Him in his own setting is something that I believe to be much needed. Not every story involving that character needs to be world ending, or used to set up a greater narrative. A contained Superman story is one that fans can quickly get behind, particularly one as potent as Superman & Lois’.
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The show sees Clark Kent and Lois Lane as parents where they have two sons who are freshman in high school. Jonathan is a popular jock whose the youngest quarterback for his school in the school’s history. Jordan on the other hand is a shy, depressed kid who was just recently diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. Jonathan doesn’t seem to be bothered by his dad being away for business… and by business I mean him being Superman without his kids somehow knowing for 14-years. Jordan seems to struggle by not having his dad around, and is really hurt when Clark comes clean to the boys on his secret identity.
The pilot episode seemed to wrap up the idea of the twins being angry at their father way too quickly. After the boys were nearly killed when multiple heavy pipes fell on them in a barn, the twins came out with mild concussions. They were really confused by that and went sleuthing where Clark had told them to never go while they were at Kent Farm. Underneath the barn where Kal-El Kryptonian pod had been residing for years.
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The boys find the space ship and flip out on their mother and father for lying all these years. After the two ran off in a rage, and Jordan is upset when his dad assumed all along that Jonathan, the perfect son, had powers, it’s quickly revealed that Jordan had powers all along. Jordan was in fact the one who saved his brother after Jonathan seemingly jumped on Jordan to save him.
One one hand it seems like wrapping this up in one episode was a missed opportunity to have his be an overarching plot point. On the other hand, not having the classic CW family-dram, will be a good thing. Disgruntled families with marital/parenting drama can only be done so much. Having Superman do, well, Superman things, and Lois do Lois things is what fans and myself want to see. If the pilot were to show anything, it’s that The CW means business. The show’s visual effects budget seems like it’s close to a movie budget, and the writing has really stepped it up a notch from recent DC shows, on the cable network that is.
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We also get our first look at the villain, and it’s revealed in the closing moments of the pilot to be Captain Luthor. In the recent comic book series Forever Evil which takes place on Earth-3, there are no superheroes. Justice League members like Batman, the Flash ad Cyborg are the villains Owlman, Johnny Quick and Grid. Then there’s Superman’s doppelgänger who happens to be the nefarious Ultrman. The Lex Luthor of this world is the only superhero. Fans of the early 2000s Cartoon Network show, Justice League: The Animated Series, might remember this from the classic 2-part “A Better World” storyline. In that story the alternate realty version of Lex comes to Earth-1 to warn the Justice League of the impending threat, which is the evil Justice League trying to destroy all of mankind.
This Luthor mentions that Superman “destroyed his world,” and, “took everything from him.” Considering that in the 2020 CW-DC TV crossover event “Crisis on Infinite Earths” the multiverse is destroyed and there is only one Earth now, Earth-Prime, I see this going one of two ways. Luthor wants to kill Superman for taking part in destroying his world and 50 others, or he wants Superman to be put in check. He doesn’t seem all that evil so far, and I believe him and Superman will resolve their differences to stop a greater threat by season’s end.
That fact that we seemingly already know the villain, and what drives him, leads me to believe that he isn’t the actual threat. Especially since there are 14-episodes remaining. I just don’t want to believe that this is going to last the entirety of the season.