My Adventures With Superman Season 3 Episode 1 Review

It takes only the first establishing shot of My Adventures With Superman Season 3 Episode 1 to realize that the series, created by Jake Wyatt, has been scaled up. While “Into the New World” maintains the Season 1 and 2 mentality of blending larger-than-life threats with small-scale personal dilemmas, the premiere is also clearly setting the tone for what’s to come. Because, not for nothing, it’s no longer just Clark Kent (Jack Quaid) in his costume taking hesitant refuge in the Fortress of Solitude. Now, he has Kara/Supergirl (Kiana Madeira) by his side, similarly suited up (in pants and the signature skirt, no less).

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and animated by Studio Mir, the series has never looked better. As Clark and Kara arrive to let the latter say goodbye to Brainiac (Michael Emerson), her adopted and abusive father, who brainwashed her in Season 2. My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 1 is awash with soft backgrounds that use pastel color palettes and delicate brush strokes, in contrast with the vibrancy of their costumes and expressive character designs. 

This contrast has always been such a vital part of the series and gains greater potency as Kara now faces the journey Clark himself has already faced. In a world alien to her, she must grapple with the fact that she’s been a force of destruction in Brainiac’s hands while suiting up to save the day by Clark’s side. She’s facing down humanity’s realities and awkwardness at breakneck speed, something the series’ writing has handled beautifully with Clark up until now. He’s now there to offer support as Kara takes to the skies, asking, “Who am I?”

My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 1 finds new depth in Kara’s journey. 

It’s one of those moments when the show continues to demonstrate its ability to give even the more familiar beats a greater-than-expected sense of grandeur. The direction of the moment where Kara takes flight stuns, pivoting to pinwheel in midair, as if readjusting to her trajectory. It might not be the most original moment, but it works because of the foundation the series has laid and the strong narrative throughout, anchored by episode writer Serena Wu. The series is such a formidable piece of work that people are undeniably sleeping on it because it’s animated, and it reaffirms that in just the opening five minutes. 

Because it also only takes a few moments to let us know that something dangerous is on the horizon, even if we don’t know what. One of the robotic stewards of the Fortress is ominous as the two heroes fly away, saying that soon, Superman will have to listen, will have to “follow our way.” 

Most of My Adventures With Superman Season 3 Episode 1 operates as a means to reintroduce our core four characters while setting up their personal hurdles. Jimmy and Kara are obviously smitten with each other. They’re wearing a couple of costumes (in a hilarious X-Files nod) for Halloween, and Kara likes spending time with him. And, as Jimmy (Ishmel Sahid) tells a nosy Lois (Alice Lee), of course, he likes her: “She’s fun and beautiful and watches my television.” 

Jimmy likes Kara but, in typical TV fashion, is being weird about it. 

However, despite their clear mutual interest, Jimmy is wary of admitting it. He worries because Kara is so new to Earth, and there’s so much she hasn’t yet experienced. And, more telling, he believes she’s wildly out of his league and could – should – do better. It’s a frustrating, typical plot development that so many shows use to draw out relationships, though it makes sense here. Sahid’s performance helps sell the moment, too, his usual exuberance dulled by insecurity. 

And while Lois would love to force the issue, Clark tells her not to get involved, given that neither Kara nor Jimmy has any real romantic experience. The follow-up line, where Lois remarks that it suddenly makes sense that Jimmy and Clark have bunk beds, is a hilarious, throwaway line that winks at the audience without being too overtly funny. 

Meanwhile, Lois and Clark’s main disconnect in My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 1 is the future. Or, rather, their willingness to look ahead. Following the battle with Brainiac, Clark is thinking about what comes next, planning out a future that involves a ranch house, a dog, and a good school district. Lois is thinking of it all as hypothetical, more concerned and more comfortable with being in the present because change is scary. Not that she’s saying as much. 

It’s an interesting place to put both characters, both of whom fall in line with what we expect from them, without creating a forced crisis. It’s an adult issue to address where they are in their lives and how they’d like to move forward. 

The introduction of Bizarro Superman brings the ideas of legacy and fatherhood to the forefront. 

The story fully takes off with the arrival of Lois’s dad, who gives her intel about a project called Caliban involving Kryptonian biotech. It’s always fun to see how gung-ho the entire group, minus Clark, is when approaching dangerous situations, and “Into the New World” is no different, as they all quickly investigate an abandoned laboratory. It’s there that they realize experiments were being conducted using Kryptonian DNA to create clones. 

While many are deformed or robotic creatures that attack, one, Bizarro, appears more human. He was raised by Dr. George Otto Binder (a fun lore nod, since Otto Binder is the writer who created the character Bizarro), whose remains they find in a section of the laboratory overrun with alien wildlife. In a video, he recorded himself speaking to Bizarro, offering him advice and insight into a world he won’t be in. He tells him to “choose to be kind.” 

So much of My Adventures with Superman has involved legacies passed on and the fluctuating flaws of fathers. From Clark grappling with his lineage to Kara dealing with the fallout of Brainiac’s manipulations to Lois confronting her own imperfect origins as an imperfect man who still tries to do better, the writing has always sought to show how to become a hero in the face of disrupted origins.

The message from Binder to Bizarro follows in these footsteps. It’s a sweet, tender moment amidst the fighting as Superman fights the other clones. And it makes Bizarro’s rescue of Superman in the end, bringing him to safety and calling him a friend, all the more impactful. 

My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 1 is a knockout of a premiere. 

It’s just another example of My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 1 upping the stakes and expanding the world in a way that feels natural. Because with the arrival of Supergirl, the world is bearing the weight now of two superpowered beings with incredible might.

And while the premiere ends with our core four in a moment of shared domesticity (and a hilarious “it’s a bird, it’s a plane” nod), it also hints at greater darkness as those with money and power seek to develop their own bid for the power Superman harnesses. Because Superman’s greatest strength isn’t the powers but that, in possessing them, he chooses kindness. So, of course, the inverse are those who would want to assert dominance and control. 

Lex Luthor (Max Mittelman), flanked by Deathstroke/Slade Wilson (Chris Parnell), closes the episode by watching footage of Clark destroying the clones and already has another idea in mind. He’s going to bring in Hank Henshaw (also Mittelman), essentially a corpse on life support, and use him for his plans next. Those familiar with the comics might know what’s coming, but the premiere does a good job leaving both casual fans and diehards in limbo with Henshaw’s decimated introduction. 

My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 1 is both a fantastic reminder of what makes this series a standout in the DC Universe and a setup for what’s coming. The performances across the board remain fantastic, and the animation, drawing on clear anime influences in the character designs, is fluid and bursting with energy. It does exactly what a season premiere should: remind us why we care while promising great things to come. Ready yourselves, because Season 3 is the best the show has ever been. 

My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 1 is now available on HBO Max.

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