I wasn’t always a big fan of Superman. While I liked watching Superfriends or the CBS animated Ruby-Spears series in the late 80s, along with just watching the movies when on TV, I got to a certain age that Superman and the whole concept was just too outlandish for me. Seeing him reverse the earth’s rotation to turn back time just broke my elementary school-aged brain. Like many others in the 80s, I started liking Batman more because of the old TV show, the toys, the groundbreaking comics (I read Dark Knight Returns way too early), and then the Burton films. I didn’t care much about the whole The Death of Superman storyline that led into Funeral for a Friend, and Reign of the Supermen piqued my interest thanks to Steel and New Jack Swing era Superboy. Yet still, this was when I was becoming a comic book collector. I was a die-hard X-Men, and that is what I bought. Again, Superman was around, but I read about what was going on in Wizard magazine; in 1996, two things happened that completely changed my ideas and feelings about the character and made me interested again in Superman.
First was the miniseries Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross started, and I’d never seen an older Superman, and the story it told had me rethink Superman’s place. Then in September, Superman: The Animated Series by Paul Dini & Bruce Timm (with many others) premiered on The WB with a primetime 90-minute premiere. Much like their previous show Batman: The Animated Series, this show perfectly encapsulated a modern Superman; for me, it’s a better version of the post-crisis Superman than what John Byrne created in 1986. Unlike BTAS, this show was bright, used art deco stylings for the future, and opened things up to a larger DC universe world in animation. Now they added other shows but to this universe, and all great. While Superman has been on TV and in film since then, he hasn’t had a solo animated series since STAS ended in 2000, but now as we enter a new era in DC Heroes in many areas, we have a brand new series – My Adventures with Superman.
My Adventures with Superman is a very back-to-basic approach to Superman, and we start with Clark Kent first moving to Metropolis and getting a job at the Daily Planet. He’s not Superman yet – so yes, it’s an origin story, but the origin of Superman is more than just exploded planet, rocketship, and kindly couple. Here he’s an intern with his best friend and photographer Jimmy Olsen, where they both meet Lois Lane, also an intern who’s been there longer and is a bit of a pain in Perry White’s neck. She’s very ambitious and has been tasked with showing Clark and Jimmy the ropes, and that goes way over what they expected. The primary dynamics going on here is Clark figuring out how to use his powers to help the world and his new feelings for Lois. From here, you get new takes on these early parts of Superman’s adventures in Metropolis with the right amount of expanding more and more into characters you know from Superman stories and the DC Universe as a whole.
For some, the most significant thing about this show is its apparent Japanese Anime influence on the visual aesthetic. Now it’s not anime, but the animation company Studio Mir, who worked on amazing shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Legend of Korra, Thundercats (2012), and Young Justice, handles animation on this series. The Korean studio has their own style that has that anime influence but also is something their own. I think another big thing about this show and why it’s more of a general audience show than a kids’ cartoon is there is a strong romantic element to this show. It has that Pixar style of connecting to a wide range of audiences. The growing relationship between Clark and Lois is just as important to this animated series as the action is, and this also reminds me of what you’d see in some Shojo anime and in some Shonen. Each episode I’ve seen is perfectly paced with the right amount of comedy and action and feels perfectly like a DC Universe-style superhero show. Now I know I’ve made a big deal about Clark and Lois, but a lot must be said about Jimmy Olsen; they deal with his feelings of being the third wheel but also his history of getting into some weird adventures himself. The voice acting in this show by Jack Quaid as Clark, Alice Lee as Lois, and Ishmel Sahid as Jimmy brings some great life to these new takes on these classic characters. They feel natural together, and nothing feels like they don’t feel like these characters. There are other characters in this, and they all are done very well, but I’d rather you watch this series to find out yourselves than tell you. The first season is built around a mystery that recontextualizes some classic concepts and characters, making this show very interesting for those who know the oh-so-many takes on this character. What I do love the most about this show is that it’s also a great starting point for plenty of people who’ve never really been into the Superman mythos or haven’t liked the ones they’ve experienced.
I’ve wondered about how the 21st century needs a real reimagining of Superman for this newer audience. The audience that has grown up with American Superheroes, mostly being Movie characters and shonen anime heroes, not only filling that void but honestly reexamining and updating some of these core concepts for now. The slow evolution of Son Goku to be more like Superman back in the 80s (and in Super) to My Hero Academia‘s All-Might’s rise as this Hero ideal in that series’ mythos thematic core. Along with my fav Saitama in One Punch Man doing the perfect action comedy update of silver age Superman along with Anpanman tropes. I feel the show’s creators are aware and influenced by this, along with all the Superman and DC comics that exist, and have been able to add to this meta-conversation about Superman within the world, to continue. While Superman is working on changing for the films and on TV has been moved into a new phase (started in the comics) as a father. My Adventures with Superman moves to show the beginning again. And in a world where now almost two generations have been influenced by an entirely different country and culture’s idea on what being a hero, a superhero, and how to tell those stories is what they expect in them. My Adventures with Superman nails it in this first season that’s also full of surprises. It also doesn’t care and is beholden to the older generations that refused to let Superman (and many others) move into the future. I want to see more and see this sentiment continue for DC Universe in Animation overall.
Score: A
RIOTUS 