With a journalist like Lois Lane by his side most of the time, it was never going to be easy for Clark to keep his identity as Superman a secret. Having been obsessed over Superman’s origins since his first appearance, Lois wanted to take an interview with the Man of Steel, and she got a brief version of that, too, in the previous episode of My Adventures With Superman. As Clark took on the Intergang in the previous episode as Superman, his vision-related powers kicked in, and he saved Metropolis from being frozen completely by destroying an advanced machine core. So far in the series, the presence of a covert organization is shown, of which Slade Wilson and Amanda Waller are members, and their investigations, along with various Kryptonian weapons, might reveal the secret behind Clark’s Kryptonian origin. In this episode, “Let’s Go To Ivo Tower, You Say,” Lois, Clark, and Jimmy face a different sort of problem—one concerning an eccentric, egotistical billionaire inventor, and no, it’s not Lex Luthor.
Spoilers Ahead
New Assignment: What Duty Does Perry Entrust The Team With?
As Episode 4 of My Adventures With Superman begins in the team’s office in the Daily Planet, Lois expresses her disappointment at the fact that the interview Superman gave her previously didn’t have anything substantial to put it down as an article; as a result, she is still in the dark regarding the Superman updates, and her aspiration to become a journalist remains halted all the same. Clark cheekily suggests that Superman might just be a nice guy who is trying to do some good by helping people, but ironically, Lois at once refutes that, saying that it sounds more like if Clark were Superman. Meanwhile, Jimmy arrives with a bunch of tabloids to help Lois in her investigation, as no information about Superman has been found in newspapers or the internet, which leaves local tabloids as the only option to search for obscure similarities about incidents regarding any individuals with powers matching Superman. Perry, all of a sudden, pays a visit and calls the trio into his office.
Perry informs them that Dr. Ivo, the young, billionaire scientist who is also the most eligible bachelor of Metropolis and the owner of Amazo Tech, is hosting an exhibition gala for investors that night, and reporter Cat Grant is writing a piece on him and has asked Perry to let Lois and her team get the three pages of photos required of the event. Clark interferes, stating all the shady dealings and corrupt connections Ivo is generally associated with, but Perry isn’t interested in assumptions without substantial proof and hence wants the team to stick to their primary assignment. Before they depart, Perry states that success in this assignment might earn them the job of regular reporters.
What Secrets Did the Team Find Out at Ivo’s Party?
Dressed to the nines, as Clark and Jimmy meet at the office in the evening, the former spots a tabloid in Kansas, the front page of which has a report of his superheroic exploits during his boyhood in his hometown, Smallville. To keep it away from Jimmy and Lois, Clark rips the page out and puts it in his suit pocket. Moments later, Lois arrives gorgeously dressed in a hanbok, and the trio sets off to reach the exhibition gala.
Reaching the venue and ignoring their assignment, Lois at once starts asking uncomfortable questions to corrupt politicians and aristocrats, most of whom naturally prefer to avoid her. Clark, realizing that they won’t get their scoop at this rate, asks Lois to stick to Cat’s plans instead, to which Lois seems unwilling to listen. In the meantime, the cocky, flamboyant owner of Amazo Tech, Dr. Ivo, makes a dramatic entrance to the event, introduces his assistant Alex, and hints about revealing a new project that will take the attendees by surprise. Soon, Ivo is confronted by Curtis, a board member of his company, who reveals other executives’ opinions to cast him out of his company due to low profits. As Ivo starts threatening Curtis as his response, he is startled by the presence of Clark and tries to distract him to make him forget the scenario he witnessed. However, a loose comment from Ivo about Lois sends Clark into a fit of rage, and he starts loudly interrogating him about the allegations of his corruption, which leads Ivo to instruct his security to throw Clark out.
Lois sneaks Clark back inside, and as she sews his torn blazer, the two get closer. They get interrupted by a call from Lois’ father, with whom, as Clark gets to know, she shares a bitter relationship. Lois feels increasingly despondent about her family relations and career, both of which are on a low ebb due to her estrangement from her father and her not being able to be promoted to reporter despite one year of internship. Clark cheers her up by reinstating his faith in her, acknowledging that if it weren’t for her guidance, he would have never gotten a chance to work at the Daily Planet. Jimmy soon accompanies them after finally getting free from gala-related shenanigans, and the trio sees a lady running out of a lab room. As the team enters the lab, they see bionic armors along with gadgets and equipment that seem similar in technology to Livewire and Silver Banshee’s enhancements.
What Is Prototype Parasite Armor?
Still hidden inside the lab, the trio sees Ivo wearing the armor and chiding his assistant Alex about the preparation of the demonstration. Alex warns him about it being a mere prototype and the unstable, aggressive nature of the armor, which Ivo ignores due to his urgency to show a demonstration to the investors. Ivo returns to the exhibition wearing the armor and makes a sales pitch about the utilization of the exo-armor named Parasite as a deterrent to the recent wave of superhuman conflicts across Metropolis, along with the appearance of Superman, whose simpleton motives Ivo doesn’t trust.
As Lois and Co. return to the exhibition arena, they, along with the audience, witness Ivo in his bionic exo-armor throwing Curtis out of the window as a part of his demonstration. This prompts the audience to go into panic mode, and Clark sneaks out to return as Superman moments before the arena goes into lockdown mode. As Clark rescues Curtis and asks Ivo to stop his madness, the villainous scientist attacks him. Clark discovers that any effort to counter Ivo’s attacks or retaliate only energizes the suit even more, depleting his own energy in the process. On Ivo’s orders, Alex traps Clark and Ivo inside an energy barrier, due to which Clark cannot retreat, and the Parasite weakens him even more. Lois and Jimmy notice Alex’s activity, and rushing to the control room, they knock him out. This allows Clark to get out of the barrier and simply evade Parasite’s attacks, and after a point, the suit gets depleted of its energy and starts feeding on Ivo’s life essence. Clark rescues Ivo from the armor but finds out he is too late as Ivo has turned into a shrunken, extremely frail, old version of himself. As Clark takes him to the emergency responders, Ivo blames him for ruining his life and asks what his MO is, as the mere simplicity of an altruistic act baffles him. Clark asks him to look around; instances of such are not rare.
Like most other anime references My Adventures With Superman has used as inspiration to appeal to a new generation, the fourth episode also showcases a reinvention of the classic Superman villain, Parasite, in the veins of Guyver’s bionic armor from the same anime. In comics, Parasite is a villain who can absorb a near limitless amount of energy, and showcasing that through a symbiote-like suit was a clever move on the part of the makers of the animated series. The appearance of the armor totally resembles a Guyver unit, along with the host energy-depleting mechanism.
Did Lois Discover Clark’s Secret Identity?
Clark, Lois, and Jimmy return to the lab where the gadgets and armor are kept, hoping that they can take pictures to finally prove Ivo’s corrupt dealings and get their scoop, but unfortunately, they find the place to be empty. Later, as they exit the building, Clark ponders who or what could be a common factor in these occurrences, and seeing Lois shivering in the cold, he wraps up his suit around her. Lois states that aside from being an assignment, like Clark previously suggested, it was their date, and to officialize it, she pecks at Clark’s cheek. Jimmy feels left alone as he sees Clark walking Lois back to the office.
Later, Lois writes up her exclusive piece on Amazo Tech’s collapse and finishes up her assignment. As she is about to leave, Lois sees the tabloid with a torn page, and casually rummaging through Clark’s suit, which she is still wearing, she finds out the report about Smallville’s savior boy. Connecting the dots and recalling previous occurrences, Lois realizes Clark Kent is Superman, and fourth episode of My Adventures With Superman ends with this rhetorical question of hers. Someone like Clark, whom Lois considered the epitome of goody two shoes, could hide a secret this massive, which is surely going to be shocking news to her. The next episode will majorly revolve around this confrontation, and the budding romance between Clark and Lois might get an abrupt derailment.
