Review: My Adventures with Superman “Zero Day: Part One”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Clark has adjusted to being Superman basically full time, and by that I mean he is completely overwhelmed by being able to hear everyone calling for help every single minute. If that wasn’t enough, Vicki Vale from the Gotham Gazette is in town and looking to write a story about how Superman is a menace. Lois tries telling Clark to maybe tone things down, but he ignores her, instead searching for the escaped Mist, who tells Clark that his sister and friend (part of the bank robbery in Episode 3) were captured by Task Force X, led by The General. Clark tracks them to an airfield but is ambushed by Mist’s friends and the other villains he’s fought so far, almost being killed by Ivo in an improved Parasite suit. Clark is captured and imprisoned, with Jimmy and Lois arriving only to see him taken away.

OUR TAKE

Third to last episode and we’re finally seeing everything come together, with the machinations of Waller, Slade, and The General cornering Clark and giving him his greatest challenge yet. Well…really it’s just the General, as Waller and Slade (the two more recognizable characters) seem to be taking a backseat to his direction. Which I suppose is fine as long as we have a clear antagonist with understandable motivations and goals. Unlike others, I don’t necessarily mind the design changes they’ve made to characters like Slade, I just want them to be interesting in their own right here. And while we may need to wait until next week or even the finale to understand them fully, The General (are we supposed to know he’s Lois’s dad yet?) is using some intriguing tactics by playing into Clark’s known concern and care for others around him. It’s not just about throwing superpowered bad guys at him (that is definitely a major component though), it’s also about trapping Clark through his capacity for empathy, which is probably the most clever villain plotting we’ve seen in this show thus far. Could we see better planning in the remaining two episodes? I guess we’ll find out!

And yet, I can’t help but feel tepid about all of this. Part of that is my previous non distinct issues with the show this far in, with the character designs and the odd swings at drama. This at least I can acknowledge is pretty clever and is doing something neat conceptually, even if the end result doesn’t have the amount of narrative punch to it as I would have liked. Then again they may be saving a lot of that for the next batch of episodes they’re already working on. It’s also nice to see that the focus isn’t solely on Superman but also Lois and Jimmy having their own plot regarding how they’ve interacted with him and have kind of lost objectivity as reporters, but still understand Clark is doing his best. Like I said before, while it might be neat to see them still playing catch up on Clark’s identity like in other versions, them knowing this early on can have a major impact on things moving forward in the story, including Lois’s doubts on whether Clark can maintain a good heart when he has so much power. Come back for Zero Day part 2 to see if she can keep that faith!