My Adventures With Superman S3 Ep 3 Review
Jimmy Olsen, my brother in nerdom, why must you disappoint me like this?
So, if you saw the last episode of MAWS, then you know that Jimmy managed to have a fumble of near-biblical proportions. Kara straight-up asked him to date her, and he turns her down. He says that she needs to expand her horizons and experience more before finding that special someone. And then he gets jealous when every man, woman, and child is lining up to date her! And it only gets worse in this episode as Jimmy shows he’s jealous by trying not to look jealous by going to a matchmaking company. Meanwhile, Lois is having a panic about the future, and it looks like Hank Henshaw is set on his path to becoming the show’s version of Homelander.
Really, Dating Apps?
So, after Jimmy dropped the ball with Kara by convincing her to date everyone that isn’t him (half of Metropolis), he’s not taking it well. He’s determined to make Kara just as jealous as he feels by going to this new, scientifically backed matchmaking service, W.O.R.M.S., that just started. And Lois just spoke for me with how disappointed she was in him! And frustrated!
This is one of the goofier episodes of the series, no doubt about it. Which, knowing what this series is like, can only mean one thing: something bad is coming. I’m not just being paranoid, either. The first season had Lois figure out that Clark was Superman at the end of episode 4. Last season had Kara arrive on Earth in episode 5. I’m telling you, there is going to be some kind of drama or threat that’s going to take place in the next episode or two. And the ending of the episode only seems to make that more obvious, but more on that. We first need to talk about Lois and Kara’s day out.
So, after telling Kara about what Jimmy is doing, Lois learns firsthand that his attempts to make Kara jealous are doomed to failure. Kara openly shows her self-confidence by calling herself “as strong as she is beautiful.” I have to respect that level of self-esteem! But Lois manages to find an opening when Kara sees it as a competition and decides to “win” and make Jimmy her boyfriend. Which also means that Kara was only taking Jimmy’s advice because she still wants him.
I dont know if I should take this seriously or not, but I like seeing this kind of romantic drama unfold for the laughs! This show really knows how to lean into the absurd comedy, and I thank it for wearing its anime influences on its sleeves like it is.
Lois Would be a Great Mom
So, Lois spends the day helping Kara set up a dating profile by going out into the city, and it somehow leads to them having a musical duet about their thoughts on the future. Admittedly, I skipped it, but I got the gist: Kara is excited about the promise of the future now that she can decide it. But Lois? She has spent the last three episodes listening to Clark come up with plans for their future. He even has a model of the farm he wants to buy for the two of them, with a baby crib to boot! And Lois is freaking out about it!
I totally understand why Lois is reacting this way. She’s still a young adult in her twenties, she’s finally feeling successful in her life. She doesn’t want this stage of her life with the adventures to end. And she’s worried that settling down and having a family will change that. That, and while it doesn’t say it, I think she’s worried that she might be a good parent or wife since she didn’t have a stable life growing up.
I wholeheartedly disagree. I’ve seen many variants of Lois, and even after getting married, she is still every bit as badass as ever. If anything, she’d be the super cool mom that every kid would want to have. I just really hope that she sees that for herself by the end of the season, because I don’t want to wait.
Jimmy, Why do you think like this?
Meanwhile, Jimmy’s time at W.O.R.M.S. is a disaster. It turns out that his date is the supervillainess Giganta. And she’s been using this chemical perfume to transform people in a quest to find love, and kidnaps Jimmy. So Superman has to save him with help of the girls who run the company. It’s all incredibly silly and it ends on an equally silly note as Superman doesn’t want anything to do with the dating app. Jimmy, on the other hand, doesn’t learn his lesson.
It looks like it will be a while before Jimmy finally sees sense and accepts that he’s good enough for Kara. The problem is that this might end up interfering with a new threat on the horizon.
Cyborg Superman is Really Channeling Homelander
So, amidst everything that’s happening, Hank Henshaw is trying to show he can be a superhero like Superman. However, I think the showwriters must have asked Jack Quaid about his time on The Boys, because Henshaw was really channeling Homelander this episode. Firstly, when he stops a thief from stealing a purse, he slams them into a metal pole, and from the looks of things, he might have broken their spine. For stealing a purse. It’s enough to make people afraid of him, which is the opposite of what Lex wants.
It gets worse. When Intergang robs Lexcorp, Hank zeroes in on Siobhan and starts brutalizing her trying to get what she stole back. And keep in mind that the Intergang in this series is pretty harmless in terms of being supervillains. Heck, Superman is on a first-name basis with Silver Banshee and gets her to return everything like a parent scolding a kid. But Hank? He tries to kill her because she knocked off part of his outer shell, revealing the cyborg he really is underneath. It takes Deathstroke intervening to get him to stand down.
If Cyborg Superman wasn’t already channeling Homelander at this point, then the next scene cements it when Lex reveals he has the man’s cybernetics under his control. And if The Boys taught me anything, it’s that you can’t keep someone like Hank Henshaw under control forever. He’s going to break free and likely become the monster we see in the comics. Actually, he might even be worse if the final moments of the episode reveal anything.
Superboy is Basically Trunks here!
So, let us make sure that we got this correct: the future is in ruins. Superboy is getting sent back into the past to stop this future from happebing. And we also saw Jimmy and Lex Luthor die as this happens. This is pretty much the story of Future Trunks from Dragon Ball, and I absolutely love it. At the same time, though, my mind is already trying to come up with an idea about how this could happen. My current theory is that Brainiac and Cyborg Superman either team up or one gains control over the other, and it leads to this apocalyptic figure. And now Superboy has to stop that from happening.
On the plus side, this version of Superboy is Lois and Clark’s son. Which means that, like it or not, Lois will be forced to come to terms with her potential motherhood.
