Review: My Adventures with Superman “Vae Victis”
OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
At the Fortress, Clark is forced by Brainiac to face a test of character set among Krypton’s past. Meanwhile, Lois, Jimmy, Kara, Jonathan, Lara, and Luthor prepare for the eventual return of an evolved Eradicator.
OUR TAKE
Time for the penultimate episode of the season, and it’s a real mixed bag. I’ll start with the negatives, which means basically the entirety of whatever is happening with Lois and the Future Kents. I already mentioned how much this new Jonathan utterly sucks, but somehow they made him MORE annoying than last week. Just looking for any opportunity to complain about anything. Lara continues to be a bit more sensible and try to see the situation more clearly, but oddly enough gives Lois more chances to be kinda dumb, both not understanding how someone from the future can have the same object that she currently has in the present, and feeling guilty about a version of her that she is not being the one who helped mess up these kids. Aside from that, everyone in this group is getting ready for the Eradicator, who jumped into the timestream with Jon’s device last episode, to return. It’s a bit of an assumption that he even would return, but they turn out to be right. Kara trains the kids into shape, Jimmy gives Lex a speech to get his shit together, and then the day comes when Big E comes back. And when he does come back, he looks almost completely different, until Jon slices him in half and creates another one that kinda looks like the one that left, so now there are two.
But considering this character(s) was only introduced last episode and has now completely changed, I can’t help but care very little about him, or several of the combatants fighting him, partly due to the fact that Clark will likely be taking him out next week in the finale. Which leads us to Clark’s plot of dealing with Brainiac, specifically a version from within the Fortress that is closer to what the Kryptonians worked with at the height of their empire. Not too different than the one last season, but the point is that Clark has to prove to it that he deserves his powers restored. Except since this Brainiac subscribed to the idea that Kryptonians were best as unrepentant conquerors, he has to make Clark see that might makes right by having him play the part of an ancient Kryptonian during the time they conquered the Coluan race (incidentally the race that comic Brainiac comes from). And because Clark is just that good a guy, he resists the program and makes friends with the simulated Coluans, which foils Brainiac’s plans…even though he could just force the programs he made to force Clark to fight and kill, but whatever. I don’t mind that the thing that wins the day here is Superman’s preference for peace and understanding as proof he can wield his powers responsibly, I just think the scenario to make that point is distractingly flawed. But that just leaves us with the finale next week, which may just be the series finale, so let’s see how it does cleaning this mess of a season up.
