Review: My Adventures with Superman “The Ex Games”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
Clark, Lois, Jimmy, and Kara are roped into a competition between Mxyzptlk against his soon to be ex-wife and alternate versions of Lois, Jimmy, Kara, and Lex.
OUR TAKE
After last week gave us a wacky comedy episode to offset the intense drama of the fifth episode, you know what we really REALLY need? That’s right, ANOTHER, EVEN WACKIER COMEDY EPISODE! Who gives a fuck about keeping the tone consistent when we can have more silly shenanigans?! Assuming that many people read these reviews, I’d probably be getting people assuming that I don’t know that an episode involving Mxyzptlk, the Fifth Dimensional Imp, would naturally be more comedy focused. In fact, it would be weirder if an episode with him in it WASN’T full of yucks. But there’s such a thing as time and place for these things, and this is neither the time nor place. If this series had longer seasons, even a thirteen episode one like numerous DC animated shows before it, you might be able to find a better place for it as the last calm before the storm that starts at the end of this episode, but unfortunately that’s not the case. And what’s worse is that the wayss it TRIES to inject some sort of character growth just ends up highlighting how undercooked the planned character arcs have been. We’ve discussed Lois’ anxiety about the future that popped up, then seemingly got dealt with after meeting her future son, only for it to pop up here and then be resolved…again.
Oh yeah, I haven’t even mentioned how that happens. See, Mxysptlk recruits our leads to fight multiverse counterparts of themselves against his wife who he is apparently divorcing, only for it to turn out to be a scheme for them to obtain something yadda yadda yadda, it’s not important. What IS important is that the opposing team are made up of a Lois, a Jimmy, a Kara, and a Lex, all apparently from a universe where Clark lost his powers and then died later. Lois embraced her dad’s detached militaristic views, Lex became a good guy (making this the second good guy Lex we’ve met THIS SEASON before the main Lex goes bald), Kara is more ardently Kryptonian now, and Jimmy…got a Kamen Rider transformation, so he’s fine I guess. Seeing this many good alternate Lexs is ironically undercutting any possible development the main Lex might have, but what’s most frustrating for me here is I don’t buy, for a second, that either Lois or Kara could ever possibly become these versions. Apparently meeting them like this is meant to give them a warning they might turn out like their dads (in Kara’s case being Brainiac because that was very briefly hinted at early this season), but…no, I am not convinced that is going to be a real issue to contend with, partly because this Clark isn’t going to die. So that felt like a waste of an episode, now let’s move into the endgame with the return (or debut) of a DIFFERENT Jonathan Kent from a somehow worse alternate future.
