Thanks to a suit and some training from the DOD, Jordan Kent is Superboy, but he remains the same dumb kid. His brother Jon continues to be the more mature one (comparatively speaking). The Kent family needs his stabilizing influence when Lex Luthor declares war on them. Beyond the obvious supervillain reasons, he created Doomsday to take on Superman, to get to Lois Lane, Luthor’s real nemesis. The disgraced mogul still blames the former Daily Planet reporter for his incarceration and his estrangement from his daughter Elizabeth.
Luthor is not too happy with Lois’s father, General Sam Lane, either. In addition to serving as Superman’s handler, he also helped secure protective relocation for Luxor’s daughter. Striking while the iron is hot, Luthor has his thugs kidnap the General. Although the Kents remain in crisis mode, Superboy can focus his super-hearing on finding his grandfather’s location.
At least it gives him something structured to do. When Superboy flies off on his own initiative in the following episode, “A World Without,” it leads to trouble. Frankly, they already have plenty of that. In addition to the embargoed stuff, Smallville Mayor (and Clark Kent’s old sweetheart) Lana Lang Cushing undercovers evidence of Luthorcorp’s plans to buy up considerable parts of the town, presumably for nefarious purposes.
Things look pretty bad in the next episode, “Always My Hero,” so the DOD must call in reinforcements. There is no Justice League in this world (and not much time left to create it), but there are John Henry Irons, a.k.a. Steel (Shaquille O’Neal played a very different version of him in a movie best forgotten) and his daughter (no longer his niece) Nathalie, a.k.a. Starlight, who happens to be Gen. Lane’s granddaughter, in a weird multiversal kind of way. They will see their share of action in an episode rife with tragedy, but driven by hope.
Indeed, these three episodes show why Superman & Lois is better suited to take on this storyline than the live action films. Despite the spandex and superpowers, this show always put family drama front and center. It is about the Kents rather than cosmic spectacle. (That said, the big extended super-slugfest is rendered surprisingly well.) Despite some changes to fit the show’s pre-existing mythology, it really gets to the essence of the classic storyline.
It is also just as much about Smallville as was Smallville. Indeed, Emmanuelle Chriqui supplies some of the most memorable quiet moments as Mayor Cushing, who comes to support her friends, the Kents. However, Michael Kudlitz is definitely the star of these three episodes, as Luthor, who is undeniably on the march. He certainly has the swagger and the snarl for the super-villain.
Dylan Walsh also delivers some standout scenes as Gen. Lane. While his character is imperfectly human (as we see during flashbacks), he is a refreshingly sympathetic military figure. Indeed, the way the series developed his relationships with the Ironses, nicely played by Wole Parks and Taylor Buck, has been quite an intriguing wrinkle. Parks and Buck also deserve credit for rehabilitating the Steel character after the Shaq debacle.
Regardless, the first three episodes of season four really play to the strengths of the series, particularly the way it handles themes of family, military, and hope. This time around, the stakes are way higher than any previous Superman series, which writers Brent Fletcher and Todd Helbing, convincingly establish and maintain. Highly recommended for Superman and DC fans, “The End & the Beginning” and “A World Without” premiere back-to-back tomorrow (10/7) and “Always My Hero” airs next week (10/14), as the start of Superman & Lois’s fourth and final season, on the CW.
