Hey guys! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's time to talk about Superman & Lois season 1, episode 2 "Heritage". There will be some minor spoilers for the episode, so if you haven't watched it yet, just be aware of that going into the review. Also, I'm going to be talking about the fact that the show has been renewed for a second season. So let's get into it.
As I noted in my review of last week's episode, Superman & Lois is the perfect blend of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Smallville. And it continues to be in this week's episode. However, it keeps you invested in the regular, everyday stuff when the cool Superman stuff isn't happening. I think that's because unlike with the previous two Superman shows, Lois and Clark aren't in that awkward will they/won't they stage, and Clark doesn't have to come up with excuses for why he has to leave every time Superman is needed. I mean they dispensed of that pretty quickly with Jonathan and Jordan in the pilot and everybody who needs to know that Clark Kent and Superman are the same person, namely Lois, the boys, and General Lane already know the truth. So there isn't any of that stupidity to deal with either.
To be honest I found the non-Superman Lois and Clark stuff, and Jordan's powers stuff, more interesting than the high school stuff that Jonathan was going through in this episode. And that's just because we've seen the new kid doing something stupid, namely Jordan kissing Sarah when she has a boyfriend already, and becoming an outcast for it in every teen drama going as far back as Degrassi Junior High, so it's not new at this point, and the way it was done here, didn't make it fresh either. But it is better than how it would've been handled on Riverdale or any of the other comic book based shows.
The Smallville stuff with Morgan Edge is also something that's been done in a hundred movies and TV shows. However, the person opposing it is Lois Lane, which makes it a bit more interesting. I'm not overly familiar with Morgan Edge in any medium as he isn't shown in any Superman comic that I own and I haven't seen any of the episodes or seasons of the other shows he's been in over the years, so I don't know how accurate he is to the comics, though from what I read about the character on Wikipedia, this version seems to be an amalgamation of the pre-Crisis and post-Crisis versions of the character, which is interesting.
While Lana and Kyle aren't in the episode as much as they were in last week's episode, I have a feeling that Kyle is the type of person I would not get along with if I were to meet someone like him in real life. At this point he's pretty harmless, though that could change later on in the season, but he's meant to be the jerk character you love to hate. Also, there's still doesn't seem to be any indication that Lana knows Clark is Superman. But, again, it's only been two episodes, so there could be a piece of information that we just don't have yet.
This is where the spoilers come in because the part that was the most interesting to me in this episode is the information we find out about Captain Luthor. We find out that this is indeed Lex Luthor of another Earth. However the Earth that this Lex is from is one where Superman is evil, and is wearing the same black uniform that Deegan wore as Superman in the final episode of the 2018 Arrowverse crossover, Elseworlds, and the one he wears in the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3/Wii U game Injustice: Gods Among Us. It sounds like this world was destroyed by Superman for some unknown reason. However, we don't know whether this Earth was destroyed prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths or sometime after as it's been about a year since Oliver rebooted the Universe. Maybe a little bit more than that. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
Oh and we're introduced to the holographic representation of Jor-El in this episode too. Definitely not a floating head in this incarnation like in Superman: The Movie. Actually, now that I think about it, this version reminds me a little bit of the Russell Crowe version from Man of Steel, which was also a holographic representation. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing alot more of him as well as this version of the Fortress of Solitude. Speaking of which, it's been a while since I've seen any episodes of Supergirl that had the Fortress in it, so I don't remember if it's exactly the same one here as it is in that show. Either way it's much smaller than we've seen it in previous shows and movies.
Overall, this was another great episode. I am thrilled that after a decade, we have Superman in his own TV show again. I'm also happy that it's an actual Superman show this time and not another show like Smallville. I guess the executives at WB and The CW agreed, because even though only one episode had aired when this decision was made, Superman & Lois was renewed for a second season. Which brings me to a bit of a rant.
I'm glad that the show has already been renewed, but I am a little tired of networks and streaming services renewing shows either before they've even aired, or when it's only been on for an episode or two. Like wait until the season is either completely over, or close to ending before you renew the show. I mean the first season of any show is rough and sometimes shows that start out great at the beginning of the first season end up taking a turn for the worst by the end of the first season, and if you've already renewed it before you know for sure people are going to keep watching it you could end up losing money. Especially if the show is expensive to make, like I'm assuming Superman & Lois is. And oddly enough this is something I've only seen happen in the last year or so, whereas before that, most shows didn't even get considered for renewal until mid-season, with the end of the season being the latest a show gets renewed. Like I said, I'm glad that Superman & Lois has been renewed, it's just I wish networks and streaming platforms wouldn't jump the gun when these first seasons can be so rough.
Alright guys that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back on Friday with a comic book review and then on Saturday will be my review of the first episode of The Hardy Boys. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you later. Take care.
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