Adult Swim/DC’s latest animated venture, My Adventures With Superman, builds on the momentum gained by the amazing first couple of episodes in the third one, too, and explores the interesting dynamic between the Man of Steel and Lois Lane during their earliest interactions. In the previous episode, the alien origin of Clark Kent was explored. As he approached the spaceship that brought him to Earth, Clark received a vision of him being possibly the last survivor of a doomed planet and also received a costume, which, along with his adoptive mother Martha’s modifications, created the iconic costume of the titular hero.
Clark appears in public as one of the first superheroes, Superman, as Lois endearingly names him, and spoils the schemes of the villainous Leslie Willis, aka Livewire. By the end of the last episode, viewers are also introduced to a number of other characters, like Slade Wilson and Amanda Waller, the secretive government agents who try to force Leslie into sharing information about certain covert events, particularly about what she knows about Superman. In the third episode, My Interview With Superman, the relationship between the lead trio of journo friends is explored further, and a familiar team of supervillains gets introduced in a new way.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Is Lois Desperate To Interview Superman?
As seen previously, Lois’ big story on Superman’s first public appearance, along with Jimmy’s remarkable cover photo, which Lois thought was supposed to change the team’s status from novice interns to full-fledged journalists, ends up being credited to “Daily Planet’s” established journos. Quite naturally, Lois is patiently waiting to get her next feature on Superman-related content, and in a way that no one gets to take the credit this time around.
As the episode begins, we see the Man of Steel valiantly rescuing an operator from a crashing blimp, and Lois rushes to the spot at the right time to request Supes for an interview. However, Clark is obviously too nervous to let Lois interrogate him, as he fears she might deduce the real identity behind his superheroic appearance, and as a result, he shyly flies away. Lois’ quest to become an ace reporter just gets tougher and tougher.
Metahuman Breakout: A New Version Of Intergang?
The scene shifts to a place that looks a lot like the supermax prison of Stryker’s Island, where two small-time crooks, Kyle McDougal, aka Mist, and Roughhouse, break out with their compatriot, Kyle’s sister, Silver Banshee, aka Siobhan McDougal. The trio possesses superpowers thanks to specifically enhanced gadgets given to them: Mist can turn himself and other objects invisible through his touch; Roughhouse is a run-of-the-mill dumb powerhouse; and Silver Banshee, the classic underutilized Superman villain, can emit devastating sonic waves using a helmet that’s very similar to the one from Chainsawman. (Minus the Chainsaw)
In comics, the three villains have these aforementioned specific powersets, as a result of their metahuman genes rather than gadget enhancements. The episode reveals the trio here constitute a team named Intergang by themselves, which is a reference to the iconic supervillain organization of the same name, which is basically a crime syndicate that deals with the illegal trafficking of extra-terrestrial weaponry. The organization is often linked with Darkseid; however, in this series adaptation, they apparently seem like a pretty low-stakes trio of thieves. After the successful breakout, Kyle brings the team to a safe house, where they come across a cryo-powered gadget that emits a freeze ray, given to them by a certain ‘crazy lady.’ Siobhan plans to use it to execute her one big plan, which she’d conceptualized during her time in prison.
Did Lois And Co. Manage To Defeat Intergang?
As Clark goes to the Daily Planet, his vision starts acting up in a peculiar way. In this iteration of Superman, he is not yet fully in sync with his powers, which are just emerging as he goes through his daily life. He meets Lois, who is disgruntled about the whole matter of Superman’s unwillingness to get interviewed, and she asks Clark to play the role of the Supes while she pretends to interview him. Already head over heels for Lois, Clark makes the scene funnier by stating his feelings while pretending.
However, Lois’ misery is far from over, as her investigation of Superman is basically sabotaged by the three Daily Planet reporters who were given credit for her previous article as well: Cat Grant, Steve Lombard, and Ronnie Troupe, under Perry’s orders. The anime influence is always on point during the hilarious Team Rocket reference in the trio’s introduction. However, to console Lois, Clark suggests she take up a different case, and at the same time, they get to know about the prison break conducted by the Intergang. To Clark’s surprise, Lois easily agrees to investigate the case, but Jimmy knows it will tie up with her Superman scoop sooner or later.
Lois has managed to secretly take the ids of the aforementioned reporters to get access to Stryker’s Island penitentiary, and although Goody Two Shoes Clark doesn’t approve of this, we can hardly blame her due to the way her honest efforts were credited to the reporters in the first place. Meeting the prison warden, Jimmy, Clark and Lois get to know details about the Intergang, and just as their ruse is about to get exposed, they rush towards the exit. They spot the crime scene in the meantime, and once again, Lois has managed to steal the warden’s keycard to enter the area. Clark is not even mad; he is just amused, which doesn’t escape Lois’ attention.
At the crime scene, Lois finds out specific times written on a leaflet, which, relating to the layout of a bank found by Jimmy, the team deduces the exact timing when Siobhan’s big score is going to be a heist at Metropolis’ biggest bank. As the trio reaches there, Lois states her reason for pursuing this case, which is to get to meet Superman once again, who will inevitably arrive during the bank heist. Clark is a bit surprised, but he doesn’t get to ponder about that much as Intergang start their attack and use the cryo machine to freeze the security and customers of the bank. Clark vanishes in the ruckus to reappear as Superman, and he asks Jimmy and Lois to get to safety.
Did Lois Finally Get To Interview Superman?
Superman jumps into action, and despite him matching with Roughhouse’s strength and Banshee’s sonic blasts, the cryo-machine gets destroyed during the fight, and the strange core of the machine freezes the Intergang along with half of Metropolis. Superman’s vision-related powers start emerging as, while stuck, he sees through the buildings that Jimmy and Lois are evacuating the pedestrians. Again faced with a desperate situation, Clark taps into his powers as the heat vision manifests in him, allowing him to save everyone by destroying the core. The emergency workers and security arrive at the scene to handle the rest of the matters, and among them is agent Slade Wilson, whom we previously saw in the covert group with Amanda Waller.
After doing a basic survey of the situation, Superman approaches Lois and, seeing the Daily Planet reporters already rushing to get his byte, decides to fly off, this time taking Lois along with him. For the first time, Lois sees the world as Superman sees it, and it’s a beautifully animated moment. As they land on a building nearby, Superman agrees to allow Lois to take an interview with him. Lois asks what changed his decision, to which he acknowledges the bravery of Lois and Jimmy. However, the interview is fairly brief, as Lois’ question about his identity is something Superman is still figuring out, and the only reason he does whatever he does is to help the people of Metropolis. Superman takes his leave, and Clark appears in front of Lois soon after. Lois apologizes to Clark for using the case once again to get to Superman, but Clark ignores that, stating he is willing to help Lois get that interview. Learning that Lois already got it, Clark tries to act all surprised, but he gets really surprised when he gets to know her first impression from the interview is that Supes is a liar. This makes for a fun scenario in hindsight, as Clark, the boy scout who is so preoccupied with keeping things simple and honest, has to really lie to Lois to keep his identity a secret. Nevertheless, the audio-recorded interview that he provided to Lois will irrefutably prove Lois’ claim to the Superman story, which will be one of the key highlights of the next episode.
