Review: My Adventures with Superman “Guess Who’s Slammin’ to Dinner?”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Clark and Lois get a surprise visit from their future son, Jon-El, while Hank Henshaw gets restless with Lex and goes rogue.
OUR TAKE
Alright, this is at least an improvement over the last couple of episodes, with the proper introduction of Jon-El, here to prevent a robot apocalypse caused by Hank Henshaw apparently. I could probably write at least a couple thousand words on how they could have handled his debut better than this, but it’s probably better for my mental health to just talk about how what we got was executed. And it is…okay. Kinda feel like everyone is way too quick to just accept that he’s Clark and Lois’s son from the future, though I guess when the first season threw the reveal of the multiverse at them, time travel is not a hard idea to swallow. Some people will no doubt be miffed at this version of Jon wearing a look similar to Kon-El, the Superboy clone from the 90’s who made his debut alongside Hank Henshaw’s Cyborg Superman (though Hank Henshaw himself debuted earlier) during the time Superman was “dead”, but we already have Bizarro as a Superman clone so it’s for the best we didn’t have a second. Really weird that John Henry Irons isn’t here or that the “Eradicator” isn’t here in some form, but adaptations gonna adapt. I will say that Jon’s attempt at a catchphrase with “Slammin” just makes me think of Roger from American Dad when he was botching that salmon commercial. I’m not saying Jon had to go with “Shway” or “Crash the Mode” like with previous DC Cartoon future slang, but this doesn’t really sound all that…“slammin.”
Jon’s intro plot does ultimately even out when he helps to pacify a group of invading dinosaur people who he apparently knew were coming but was unaware he would be personally involved with, showing he has inherited Clark’s diplomatic traits as a hero. Unfortunately, we also have the Lex and Hank subplot to deal with, wherein Lex succumbs to the strange bout of becoming a total moron for plot convenience like this show’s version of Amanda Waller and Sam Lane before him. He’s only had Hank doing this fake Superman thing for a couple episodes now and when Hank confronts him with threats, he seems content to let it go until Hank comes back again with total control over all of his technology, then only avoids being killed himself by pushing Hank to put the whole city in danger by calling out Superman to fight, thus making this exercise in “replacing Superman” an utter failure and making Lex himself completely liable for promoting this whole mess while Hank wears HIS company logo while committing terrorism. Not that Lex is by any means the only character whose been out of their mind this season so far, but this has to take the cake. Uuuuuugh. Anyway, next week marks the halfway point of the season and is titled “The Death of Superman”. I’ll bet you a cool ten thou what’s NOT gonna happen in that episode, and here’s a hint: It’s in the title.
