Review: My Adventures with Superman “Fullmetal Scientist” - Bubbleblabber (2024)

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Clark continues trying to maintain his secret identity around General Lane, who is in hiding at his and Jimmy’s apartment, while also investigating with Lois and Jimmy about the disappearances of Drs Silas Stone and John Henry Irons.

OUR TAKE

Ya know, there’s a lot about this episode I should like. The introduction of this show’s version of Steel (John Henry Irons) and Silas Stone, father of Victor Stone/Cyborg. The increased focus on Clark, Lois, and Jimmy being journalists. A bunch of giant flying mech suits! But there’s something…missing, and I think I know what it is. The character designs are just so…uninspired and it’s very distracting. Worse, they’re sometimes kinda confusing, as in the case of minor antagonist Thomas Weston, who has PINK HAIR for some reason? Yeah, yeah, anime aesthetic, but everyone else in the show has natural hair colors, so what the heck is this? Then there’s the Dr. Irons’ mechs, which besides being done in rather distracting CGI, are even less distinct than the Evangelion and Gurren Lagann callbacks we saw last season. Having John Henry Irons design mech suits is by no means a bad or even new idea in adapting the man who was so inspired by Superman that he made his own super suit, but I really feel like there could’ve been more put into this idea than simply the surface level. If the suits are called Metallo, why not have them be people being experimented with robotic skeletons, as more of a reference to the comic Metallo?

I actually find myself liking the development of recurring storylines than the newer stuff. Clark obtains a new power, using his bioelectric field to protect people, in this case used to save Silas. It’s definitely been one of his more abstract abilities, but it’s neat that this show is willing to do deep cuts and get into the weirder side of Clark’s powers that other adaptations overlook. Lois gets to put her reporting and investigation skills to the test against Vicki Vale, who outdid her last season, but this time showing Vale the benefits of modern journalism techniques. And while I’m not really loving the stuff going on with the Flamebird team subplot (why the hell is Perry White hiring children?) it’s nice to see Jimmy taking on a leadership position instead of simply being a third wheel to the Clark and Lois stuff. Functionally, this is a solid episode, but I just keep finding myself wishing more often than not that they would dig a little deeper into an idea or a character design or a subplot or even a performance, and so end up feeling kinda unimpressed by the end of each episode. Maybe that will change as this season goes on, considering Lex Luthor is continuing to have his rise while working with Waller and especially with next week following up with the exiled Sam Lane, but for now I gotta mull this over. Up up and away…? I guess…?

Score

6/10

Green Lynx (David Kaldor): Aimless 20-something given a paid outlet for his thoughts on cartoons. Fears being boring slightly more than being outright disliked.