Review: My Adventures with Superman “Two Lanes Diverged”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Sam Lane flees Clark and Jimmy’s apartment when he gets signs he’s been followed, so Lois tries helping him. Meanwhile, Clark and Jimmy are invited to a STAR Labs event, with Lex as a speaker who begins to turn the public against Superman.

OUR TAKE

Huh, I honestly thought Sam would be hanging around at Clark and Jimmy’s apartment a bit longer, or at least until a little closer to the finale. But hey, we got some more bonding time between him and Lois, which sheds a bit more light on how their relationship got so muddled and complicated, something that was hinted at very early on last season. The use of flashbacks was pretty economical, using the same dark forest (that could technically be taking place in different locations) to highlight how his “training” that gave her better survival and investigation skills also ended up driving them apart when he couldn’t be emotionally open to her about what was going on. What happened to her mother is kinda vague, although we can probably assume she got some form of cancer and died, which drove a further wedge between them. And now, even after finally being on the same page about what he’s been fighting for and now against this whole time, Sam still deserts her, which is not going to make their next meeting a very fun family reunion. That said, the focus their relationship gets, coupled with the actually pretty clever episode title, really helps.

The other plot going on, Clark and Jimmy at STAR Labs with Lex, also further highlights that, if nothing else, this series truly does get these characters down to the letter, and that is further shown now that Lex Luthor is a more involved part of the cast. As the idea of Superman has grown, changed, and evolved or his nearly century long existence, he can still be ultimately boiled down to the concept of “what if someone with great power was truly good?”, while Lex Luthor’s character, across the many adaptations he’s been involved in, exists to be all of the arguments and cynical thoughts people might have about that kind of person. For some, there is simply no way for them to imagine that someone with as much power as Superman could ever be using it for altruistic purposes, which only reveals that THEY can’t imagine using power altruistically. So, we have a classic case where Lex’s fear mongering starts to bring people to his side and turn the tide of public opinion against Superman, and among those people who join him is Hank Henshaw, who…let’s just say is not in for a great Superman-related fate. But hopefully we’ll see more of that later this season.